Project Assignment
For this project you will be conducting an observation and interview with a child between the ages of 3 and 10. In preparation for this you need to start thinking about who you will want to observe/interview and make contact with their parent or caregiver to gain permission and schedule at least 2 to 3 hours for the observation/interview.
You will create an informed consent form for the parent/caregiver to sign giving you permission to observe and interview the child and explaining the purpose of the observation and interview and what the information will be used for as well as identifying that you are not qualified to, nor will you be diagnosing any disorder or recommending any interventions for this child.
The parent/caregiver must sign and date the form as well as the child if the child is school age and above and able to understand the process.
Part 1: Describe the Observation
Recommendations: Prior to the interview/observation thoroughly read the sections in the text and other resources that relate to the age range of the child you are observing.
Observe for a minimum of 1 hour how the child interacts with others, how they play, any social, cognitive, emotional/psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, and/or motor characteristics or qualities. Take detailed notes of his or her behavior so you can analyze the behaviors and functioning in terms of developmental stages and theories related to these areas.
You maywrite this section up in paragraph form describing your observational time with the child.
Part 2: Interview of the Primary Caretaker
After observing the child, you will interview the parent or guardian about how this particular child functions. You should design a questionnaire that will help you to better understand your earlier observations of the child. You will also want to ask questions that will help you further understand the child's social, cognitive, emotional/ psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, and/or motor functioning.
Examples of questions:
o Tell me about your child's (ex: physical, social, emotional) development.
o What incidents come to mind?
o How has it changed from a year ago or six months ago?
o What have you noticed about her/his (ex: physical) abilities that you think may be unique to your child?
Part 3: Interview of the Child
The step in the observation/interview is to interview the child as long as they are old enough to answer your set of questions. You should prepare ahead of time a list of questions to help you further determine his or her social, cognitive, emotional/psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, and/or motor functioning.
You should also come prepared with a series of tasks in the form of games, puzzles, physical activities, etc. to further determine the stage of his or her social, cognitive, emotional/psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, and/or motor achievement.
Part 4: Write your analysis of the observation
As you prepare to write your paper try to identify this child's functioning as it compares to normative information found in the text (e.g., Piaget's stages of cognitive development, standard physical characteristics such as height and weight categories, Brown's stages of language development, Kohlberg's moral development stages, etc.) and/or your other readings (be sure to include appropriate citations).
Write a well integrated paper that includes an analysis of this child's functioning as it compares to at least three of the theories of child development presented in the book over the areas of functioning mentioned above (social, cognitive, emotional/psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, and motor). In other words, you will use at least three different theories of development to explain the child's social, cognitive, emotional/psychological, sensory/perceptual, moral, physical, or motor functioning. Discuss any discrepancies you discover or other influences that may explain functioning unique to the child you observed. Conclude your paper with a thorough and comprehensive conclusion paragraph.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
o The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
o The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
o Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.