Home Assignment/Empirical Social Research (0)

Home Assignment nr.3
Social Empirical Research (1)
Observing a child
Name: Karl
Age: 1 year and 8 months
Place : Home
Time: 9.30- 10.30
Goal / purpose: Assessment of the child´s development .
There are many toys on the living rooms floor , pencils on the table and white paper for drawing . Mother is sitting on the couch and reading newspaper, at the same time television is playing. Karl is playing with stacking blocks and composes them next to each other by creating a circle with an empty hole in the centre . Now he starts to fulfill the hole with different toys: furry animals, cars. During the play he is babbling and telling some single words to himself . After ten minutes of playing alone , he decides to stand up and run to mummy´s, in the meanwhile shouting with high voice :”Mummy, mummy, mummy!” He takes the mother´s hand and takes her to the stacking blocks place. Mother starts to build a tower with eight blocks in the meanwhile telling “Now we are building a big, big tower and for that we need to put the blocks on top of each other . Karl is observing couple of minutes what mother is doing and then starts to put the blocks on top of each other and saying: “Me too, me too!“. Mother is leaving the child and returning to the couch. Karl first directs his sight on mother, but remains to build the tower very carefully.
Mother is leaving to the toilet and Karl is running right after her. While he stands behind the door , he is trying to open it and cries until mum comes out. He doesn´t stop crying immediately, mother is taking him and they are going together to wash their hands . Karl is saying at the same time: “ Sulla , sulla, sulla!” (that means in Estonian baby language “to take bath”). Coming out from the bathroom , Karl has almost calmed down, and gives his hand to mum. They are going back to the living room . Karl sits on the floor and starts to watch a television (comes advertisement). Mother is leaving from behind of Karl to the kitchen . Karl notices this right after the advertisement is over and turns his face to see mother. Now he starts to pout again , stands up and runs to the kitchen. Because of mother heard his cry she starts to shout: “ Come here son!” When Karl arrives to the kitchen, he calms down. He is watching up to mum and tells: “ Drink , drink!” Mother passes her glass of water. Karl drinks and afterwards puts the glass on the floor. Mother is asking “Thank you?” and extends her hand in the direction of the glass.
Karl raises the glass from the floor and gives it to mum. Mother says again thank you. Then Karl sits on the floor and plays with a cat and dog. Mother is doing some stuff in kitchen. Karl tries to pull the tail of the cat, but the kitty hits him with its paw. Fortunately it wasn´t strong hit and Karl does not cry.
Now mother invites Karl to the living room. Karl doesn´t start to cry and runs in front of mum, mother is coming behind him. Karl runs and jumps on the couch, goes closer to the table, takes a pencil and starts to draw stripes, in the meanwhile saying: “ Figure , figure. Mum too!” Karl draw around 7-8 minutes, at the same time being totally quiet . Suddenly he jumped up and ran to the bedroom. He opens the closet doors and pulls out the clothes until he finds his jacket and hat (mother is not disturbing him). On his way to the living room with the founded stuff, he falls down, but doesn´t start to cry. He stands up, crabs the things and keeps on running. He throws the things to mum by saying: “Let´s go out!” Mother: “We must dress ourselves and then we can go out! But first we need to go to pee. Karl come to pee!!” Mum puts Karl on the toilet bowl, he sits there around 4-5 minutes, but doesn´t pee. Mother puts a diaper back on. Karl runs back to the couch in the middle of the clothes. Karl tries to dress himself on his own. Firstly, he puts his hand through the sleeve and a hat on in a crooked way. Karl is sure, that he is ready to go. Mother went back to the bedroom to took some additional clothes and to put back the clothes from the floor. Karl was following her continuously during the whole process . Mother dressed him up and Karl was acting very calmly. Mother said to Karl: “Go and get the shoes as well!” Karl ran fastly right away to get the shoes. He took them from the corridor and ran back to the living room. Mother put on the shoes and Karl ran close to the outdoor to wait the mother until she also dresses herself up. While Karl is leaving home, he is waving to the cat and dog and saying:” By, by!”
Outcome of the observation :
Child is saying some, two-three word short sentences . He plays alone, but sometimes when he doesn´t find the solution he needs /wants others help. He doesn´t like to be alone in the room, he needs to be close to somebody. He tries to dress himself. He is drinking without any help from the glass. He doesn´t ask to go to the toilet and he is wearing diapers. He is physically active and eager to achieve the goals .
Liisa Karu