HDFS 421 Lab Report 1

Introduction
The purpose of this observation was to assess a single childs abilities in the motor domain in
order to develop an activity plan to support his continued growth in this domain. Additionally,
this observation allowed us to practice using anecdotal notes as an assessment tool. We used
anecdotal notes because they are a classroom based, qualitative form of informal assessment.
They allow the observer to quickly capture and record an image of the childs abilities. (Losardo
& Syverson, 2011, pp. 18-19). Losardo and Syverson further explain the importance of
conducting assessments in a natural context which authentically describes the abilities of the
child. Anecdotal notes provide a simple means to assess the child in their natural environment as
they can easily be done in the classroom or at home. Additionally, anecdotes provide an analysis
of meaningful, everyday activities performed by the child rather than a checklist of specific skills
that are simply easy to measure. This further adds to the meaningfulness and authenticity of this
type of assessment (pp. 28-30). We used anecdotal notes as we observed Ms. Diazs infant room
where the children are between 0 and 18 months of age. We focused our observations on Child J,
a 10 month old male.
Data
Observer: Agnieszka Felczak
9/18/15 8:30- 9:30am Free Choice
Anecdote 1
Child J and a caregiver were by the water table. Child J propped himself up with one hand,
grabbed the edge of the table with the other and stood up. He reached in with one hand, pulled
out a toy and began to chew it. Holding on to the table with one hand, he began to rock from side
to side. He held onto the table with two hands again, bent his legs and sat down. He reached for
the table and pulled himself up again. He reached his hand to the bottom of the table and began
to splash, waving his hand from side to side. Holding onto the table with one hand, he turned to
look around at the whole classroom.
Anecdote 2
Child J crawled away from the water table to a low shelf with a puzzle on top. He stood by the
table, holding on with one hand, playing with the locks on the puzzle using his other hand. He
pulled on the puzzle and it fell off the shelf. He bent his legs and sat down. He played with the
puzzle on the ground, grasping the locks in his hands and opening the doors using his fingers.
Still standing by the puzzle, the child lifted his arms and waved them in the air, free standing for
10 sec before grabbing onto the shelf again.

Anecdote 3
Child J crawled across the classroom to a bookshelf. He reached out for a small board book,
dropped it and sat down (Bending his legs and lowering himself to the ground). As a caregiver
approached he began to clap his hands together. He then reached for the book again and began to
manipulate it in his hands, turning it from side to side, feeling the edges and eventually flipping
the pages with the teachers help (the teacher held his hand in hers and flipped a page with him).
Observer: Caitlin Maag
09/18/15 2-3pm after nap time
Anecdote 1
Child J was leaning over a bin of blocks and was crying. The teacher was talking to Child J about
getting his diaper changed. This caused Child J to cry and start to reach into the bin to grab a
block and start to take them out individually. While doing this he was holding onto the bin for
balance as he bent down to grab another block.
Anecdote 2
The teacher asked if Child J wanted to look at a book together. Child J walked over to grab a
book off the shelf. He knelt down to grab a book with his hands and then stood back up to give it
to the teacher. As the teacher reads the book out loud and says, Three hats, she tapped the top
of her head three times to sign the word hats. Seeing this Child J stood up and walked over to
the teacher and tapped her head three times.
Anecdote 3
One of the teachers was feeding a bottle to one of the children in the classroom and left a baby
bottle top on the floor. Child J saw this and crawled over to it. He grabbed it with his fingers. He
brought the top to his mouth and then pulled it back out of his mouth. Once it was out of his
mouth he used both of his hands to turn it over in his grasp. As he was doing this, he dropped it
and then picked it back up. As he dropped it on the floor again he slid the top across the floor.
Seeing the top fly across the floor he crawled after it and repeated the action.
Observer: Ashley Beyer
9/22/2015 2:00 pm-3:00 pm Outdoor time on playground
Anecdote 1
Child J was sitting on the sidewalk on the playground. The teacher asked if he wanted a scooter.
She walked to the other side of the playground to grab one and J watched her walk away. As she
was coming back a smile appeared on his face and he suddenly leaned forward and started
crawling towards her getting about 3 feet away from where he originally sat. When she reached
him she put the scooter on the ground and helped him stand up and grab onto the handle on the
back of the scooter. She then let go of him once he steadied himself on both of his feet and he

began to take steps forward while using the scooter for balance in front of him and walked about
6 feet forward before sitting down.
Anecdote 2
Child J was sitting in the middle of the sandbox surrounded by other children. He turned his head
to the left and moved his body to the side and began crawling in that direction. He crawled to the
edge of the sandbox and grabbed onto the wooden frame with both hands. Using his hands to
steady himself he pulled his legs up from underneath him and stood up facing the outside of the
sandbox. His head looked left slightly and he took one step sideways in that direction. He then
reached out his left hand and grabbed a large green tarp that was laying outside of the sandbox
and felt the material with his fingers for about 10 seconds.
Anecdote 3
Child J was inside the sandbox holding onto the wooden edge with both hands. He let and stood
straighter free standing in the sand. A teacher was sitting about 6 feet away from him outside of
the sandbox on the ground and began singing, If youre happy and you know it clap your
hands! and then clapped her own hands while showing J. J began to smile upon hearing the
song and clapped his hands repeatedly after seeing her clap her hands. This continued as she sang
this verse of the song two more times.
Interpretation
From our observations Child J showed many skills from the developmental milestones indicated
on the CDC Milestones checklist. He was able to pull himself up to a standing position and stand
while holding onto the edges of shelves or the sandbox and even walk forward while supporting
his weight pushing a scooter. He was even able to stand alone and take steps by himself as a 10
month old, which isnt expected to be a developmental milestone until 1 year of age. Child J also
is able to crawl, sit down on his own, and sit without the support of an adult or boppy pillow.
Based on the information we have gathered from the 9 anecdotes Child J shows promising and
strong skills in all areas of motor development for a 10 month old child according to the CDC
Milestones Checklist. It was also apparent that he may even be developing faster than is expected
based on his abilities to free stand and take steps without assistance as well as copy the gestures
of his teachers.
FollowUp: Learning Opportunity Plan
Since Child J already shows many of the skills expected of a child his own age, as well as a child
at 1 year of age; we are going to focus more on motor development skills of children at about 18
months of age. One of the main things we would like to focus on is assisting Child J with his
ability to walk freely and confidently without the assistance of an adult or object. This skill
usually comes after the age of 1, but the child is already showing signs that he may reach this

milestone before this age. Providing more materials such as scooters, which he can push, or
push-cart toys will assist him in learning to gain and keep his balance and hopefully be able to
walk without using these materials for assistance. We would also like teachers and other adults in
the room to encourage him to walk as much as possible. This could be setting him onto his feet
after a diaper change and helping him balance before he takes a few steps away from the
changing table or even helping him walk to a chair to eat. As he begins to use the muscles in his
legs more they will strengthen and eventually lead to Child J walking unassisted. We would also
like to focus on strengthening skills regarding putting and pulling objects out of containers.
There were some materials in the classroom, such as wooden shape sorters, that could be
beneficial to developing these skills. Providing more materials similar to these throughout the
classroom will be more noticeable to the child and increase the likelihood of being used to
further develop the skill of pulling and putting materials back into a container. (DEG follows).

Developmental Experiences Guide

Experience Title: Shape Sorting
Classroom Age Range: Infants 0-18 months of age
Primary Targeted Developmental Area:
___ aesthetic ____emotional ____social _____cognitive ____language __X__gross motor
__X__fine motor
1. Based on your observations and anecdotes, what objectives are addressed in the childs
explorations? (You may list 1 or 2 objectives to target.)
Physical Development:
2. Demonstrate fine motor coordination.
3. Demonstrate muscular strength in all parts of the body.
2. Rationale for experience provided:
We focused heavily on gross motor skills with some areas of fine motor also described through
anecdotal notes. We observed the child pulling a few toys out of the sensory table and ball bin,
but did not see him do this frequently. We would like to expand on this skill, by having the child
purposefully pull objects out of and put objects back into a single bin, as we believe this would
be the next step in his developmental plan. This would allow the child to practice a greater level
of fine motor coordination and demonstrate his strength in all parts of his body (particularly the
hands and arms).
3. Environment and materials:
Shape sorting containers (circle, square, triangle)
3 shapes (circle, square, triangle)
4. Interactions: Describe examples of responsive interactions that would support this
experience:
These are shape sorters. Match the shapes to their container.
You found the bin where the square belongs.
Where does that circle go?
Youre taking the shapes out of their containers.
5. Assessment of the experience:

Checklist
Childs Name

# of objects the child

took out

# of objects the child

was able to sort
correctly

Comments

Anecdotes
Sample anecdote: Child J sat by the shape sorting activity. He picked up the circle.
Turned it around in his hand and brought it closer to the containers. He tried it in the triangle
hole. Picked it back up and put it in the circular container. When it went in, he clapped his
hands.
6. Describe a potential simplification and extension of the activity.
Simplification:
A simplification of the activity may be incorporating copying gestures into these interactions
with the child. A teacher or other adult in the room could take a shape place it in the container
through the matching hole or opening at the top and then take it out. Following this they could
offer the piece to the child and say, now you try.
Extension:
After the development of taking materials out of a container and placing them back inside has
been improved the teachers could use containers with more complex shapes to practice to these
skills further. For example, if a container that only had a circle, square, and triangle was
introduced originally a new container with three more shapes such as a hexagon, octagon, and
star could be introduced.

Reflection:
By using anecdotal notes for this assessment we learned the importance of being objective in our
observations. It is important that observers do not project their perceptions of the childs
thoughts/feelings/moods onto the child. We also learned the importance of adding detail into
anecdotes so that even a person who was not there can picture exactly what happened. A well
written and detailed anecdote can also provide important information needed to accurately assess
the stages of a childs development and what skills they may already possess. We were able to
use our anecdotes to decide where on the CDC milestones checklist the child was and where we
felt his development was headed from there.