Observation Paper
Observation Paper
Alyssa Bosco
St. Josephs College
Running Head: OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENT ! 1
A very important young girl and boy in my life, had let me into their lives in order to complete this assignment, allowing me to understand the small and major differences between a healthy child and an autistic child. This observation assignment concerns the physical domain, but more specifically the development of gross motor skills. The purpose of this observation is to determine the differences in gross motor skills between a special needs child of age two, versus the healthy child of age three, while comparing these results to the descriptions of gross motor skills as found in Infants and Children by Laura Berk (2008) and the consistency between them.
Of course there is an enormous gap of differences mentally, however the development between the two children physically concerning gross motor skills was somewhat slim and surprised me with how much the special needs child almost excelled in specific parts of the observation assignment. To come to a conclusion for this purpose with valid answers and results, I used the table in Berk’s Infants and Children (2008) to base my assignment on. I asked both of the children to perform each of the skills Berk discusses on the chart and then compared the kid’s results to each other and then the healthy child’s results to Berk’s results.
The domain I am observing specifically is physical development. My subjects were tested on gross motor skills and specifically performed certain tasks to see if Berk’s descriptions of motor skills are similar to theirs. The physical gross motor skills include flexibility, balance, agility, and force. To break down each of these components of gross motor skills more specifically can be found in Laura Berk’s Infants and Children (2008). “Flexibility progresses from the two year old to three year old kids by being more pliable and elastic, a difference that is evident as they executed routines
Alyssa Bosco
St. Josephs College
Running Head: OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENT ! 1
A very important young girl and boy in my life, had let me into their lives in order to complete this assignment, allowing me to understand the small and major differences between a healthy child and an autistic child. This observation assignment concerns the physical domain, but more specifically the development of gross motor skills. The purpose of this observation is to determine the differences in gross motor skills between a special needs child of age two, versus the healthy child of age three, while comparing these results to the descriptions of gross motor skills as found in Infants and Children by Laura Berk (2008) and the consistency between them.
Of course there is an enormous gap of differences mentally, however the development between the two children physically concerning gross motor skills was somewhat slim and surprised me with how much the special needs child almost excelled in specific parts of the observation assignment. To come to a conclusion for this purpose with valid answers and results, I used the table in Berk’s Infants and Children (2008) to base my assignment on. I asked both of the children to perform each of the skills Berk discusses on the chart and then compared the kid’s results to each other and then the healthy child’s results to Berk’s results.
The domain I am observing specifically is physical development. My subjects were tested on gross motor skills and specifically performed certain tasks to see if Berk’s descriptions of motor skills are similar to theirs. The physical gross motor skills include flexibility, balance, agility, and force. To break down each of these components of gross motor skills more specifically can be found in Laura Berk’s Infants and Children (2008). “Flexibility progresses from the two year old to three year old kids by being more pliable and elastic, a difference that is evident as they executed routines
Bibliography: Berk, L. (2008). Infants and Children. Boston, MA: Pearson Edelson, S. (2012, March.)Advice for Parents of Young Autistic Children.Autism.Retrieved October 31, 2012, from http://www.autism.com/index.php/understanding_advice Running Head: OBSERVATION ASSIGNMENT ! 9