First of all I should point out the physical state of the child. He was very active, curious, and reacted adequately to his age group in various life situations during the observation. The child was in a good mood, he smiled; there were no signs of probable illness which could be noticed in such a short period of time. The boy was in a good mood, didn’t behave capriciously. So, we may conclude that the child is healthy.
Taking into account the location of observation it was impossible to see all the skills and achievements of the child in movements and manipulations with objects. He walked primarily by himself, was able to turn with one leg lifted, although in cases of possible danger (ex. of falling down on the ground), the mother supported him with her hand. Also she prevented the child’s various attempts of taking some objects in the street into his mouth, including dirty leaves and branches, as well as toys in the sandpit. Nevertheless it was concluded that the boy was developed up to his age: easily took steps, in cases of danger of falling down onto the ground tried to hold something stable for support, swayed and wiggled and even clapped hands to the music, pushed his pram to move forward either for fun or reaching the objects he was interested in.
Also the child easily coped with throwing a ball towards free direction and rolling it imitating the movements of the adult. If to compare the gross motor skills observed with the information given in the text book we may conclude that the child is developed up to his age group. If refer to the text book the typical one-year-old should: sit and reach the sitting position without support, walk, bend, and pull to stand. The child’s skills correspond to all of them.
As for the fine motor skills, I can mention such as holding the bottle with juice and the child’s ability to drink it by himself, picking up numerous small objects from the ground (the child can use the pincer grasp – thumb and one finger), transferring toys from one hand into another, biting and chewing objects, banging two objects together, pointing with his finger or waving with his hand to the object he is interested in at the moment, turning pages of a book.
Comparing with the information from the text book I should mention that there are some things pointed out there (apart of those already mentioned) which the child can’t do yet, for example: holding a spoon, putting objects out of containers, building a tower of two blocks. Anyhow we can make a conclusion that the fine motor skills of the child are age-typical, on the reason that every child has his own tempo of development and the information given in the text book is based on average data.
At about 10AM, at the very beginning of our acquaintance with the child, he gave me a suspicious look and after that started crying and hid behind his mother’s back. This example shows us that the boy realizes that I am a stranger to him and his mother is a person who is supposed to protect him. Anyhow in some period of time the child got curious and he came up to me to play.
At about 11AM a car stopped in a short distance from us and sounds of music could be well heard from it. On hearing it the child got very excited, and began clapping his hands and wiggling to the music. Also I noticed that the boy is extremely interested in banging two objects together. On hearing a loud sound made by himself a happy smile appears on his face. Most one-year-olds do this and it is supposed to be a useful time for them to develop their sensory perception.
In about half an hour after that the child got nervous, so his mother understood that as a sign of getting hungry and she gave him a bottle of juice. When the boy tasted it, he got very glad and then came a word”yum-yum”, meaning that the juice came to his liking. Then his mother asked him to give her the bottle back without any gesture. The boy did exactly what she wanted.
Also I would like to mention that the boy knows some of parts of his body (such as eyes and nose) and can show them on his face.
These examples let us conclude that sensory perception is well-developed. The child fulfils simple requests, reacts to the music, recognizes his close people, and expresses his attitude to the situation. These are the things a typical one-year-old should do.
Moreover I would like to point out that the boy starts standing his line showing his character to the adults. When the boy saw some child riding a bicycle, he purposefully made his way to it, but suddenly was stopped by his mother. At first the child was about to cry, but then his attention was distracted by some other object. So he understands the meaning of the word “no”. Here also we may see how quickly the attention of the child may be distracted.
The child starts improving his speech activity: he babbles a lot and also there come some rather coherent words like “mommy”, “dada”, “boo”,” no”.
Also he moves his lips imitating his mother when on reading a book she utters some onomatopoeic words as though he wants to repeat that. Most children of this age can utter several simple words and use them in different situations. So the child’s speech activity absolutely corresponds to the information given in the text book; we may say that the boy’s speech skills are developed accordingly to his age.
During the walk with the child I had an opportunity of observing his eating habits. At about 11:30AM the child had a light snack of a banana and a bottle of apple juice. Nevertheless he already has enough teeth to bite and chew properly; he constantly tried to suckle it with his lips. May be it was a kind of a game for him or his suckling reflex hadn’t been fulfilled yet. Anyway after hearing his mother’s strict voice he began eating it as it should be. He didn’t hold it by himself, instead his mother helped him. While eating the child tried to spit his food, probably finding it funny. As it was already mentioned the child was drinking his juice by himself holding the bottle with both hands. Such eating behavior is quite appropriate for the children of this age group. The child starts eating tough food and it is age-typical for him to experiment with everything that appears within his reach. Unfortunately there were no opportunity to see the child’s manipulations with a spoon, but if we refer to the text book most children learn how to use it properly only during their second year.
Conclusion
The child is developed according to his age group: likes to communicate with adults and other children, he is emotional, active and curious; he imitates simple actions of adults, and understands the speech inquired to him.
His fine and gross motor skills are well developed too: the child can walk, bend, turn over with one leg lifted, throw a ball, transfer toys from one hand to another, grasp objects( including using the pincer grasp), point to the objects he is interested in with his finger.
The child starts eating tough food, can hold a bottle by himself, and shows his preferences to some kinds of food to the adults. So his eating habits are normal to his age group too.
10:20AM. The boy comes up to me and sees the sparkling watch on my wrist. First he touches it with his palm and then takes my hand and tries to take the watch into his mouth. His mother protests with the word “no” and the boy steps back.
11AM. The child takes two toys out of his pram: a plastic cube with little balls inside of it and little wooden pony. Then he starts banging them together. The sound is not so pleasant, but the child goes on doing that for about 5 minutes.
11:30AM. The boy tries to spit his banana on the ground, the mother says “no” with a strict tone of hers. The child gets disappointed at first and doesn’t want to eat the banana any more, but when his mother to takes it away he starts crying for her to give it back.
12AM. The boy is pushing his pram right towards my feet. I step aside, but the child continues following me. I step aside again, and the boy starts laughing.
He is playing with me and the actions I am doing are absolutely what he wants.
12:30AM. The mother starts gathering all the toys and putting them into the pram. On seeing that the child comes up to the pram with his hands up for the mother to take him into it too. He understands that they are going home.
