Teresa Escalante

11/ 01/2015
1

Cognitive Development Observation

Part A - (15 points)

For this section, observe a child between the ages of 4 12 months.

1. a. Using objective observation, state at least 2 examples of behaviors that

might help you to determine the childs cognitive development.

The infant is placed on his back. He begins to kick and make coo noises as he
tries to flip onto his stomach.
The infant is found in his mothers arms as she reads a book about farm
animals. She points to the pictures of the animal and makes the noise the
animal makes after reading the page. The baby smiles and kicks his feet.

b. Which of Piagets sensorimotor substages do you think this child is in?

The sub-stage that the infant is found within is stage 2 of Piagets

sensorimotor. I believe that the infant is found within this category because
he is developing hand-eye coordination and tends to grasps for objects that
grasp his attention.

2. What toys or materials do you see that would assist the child in moving to the
next sensorimotor substage and why?

A floor mobile gym that has an arc that contains various toys that can be
played with: It can help a child with their sensorimotor stage because they
are learning cause and effect by twisting an object, or hitting it and having
the result of it making noise.
A baby saucer that contains a mirror teaches the child about reflections. The
toys found within the saucer can help with eye sight, hearing, and touch to
explore and see the textures.

3. How is the teacher fostering cognitive growth in this child? (Give examples of
available toys/personal interactions, etc.)

The mother is interacting with the child as she reads books to the child.
The mother motivates the child and begins to talk with the child when he is
on his back.

Part B (15 points)

For this section, observe a child between the ages of 13 19 months.

1. a. Using objective observation, state at least 2 examples of behaviors that

might help you to determine the childs cognitive development.
 Teresa Escalante
11/ 01/2015
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When the mother is trying to feed the baby, she looks away and says no
meanwhile her mother tries to convince her to eat.
The baby is sitting on the floor while holding a remote. The mother tells the
baby to bring her the remote. She holds the remote and somewhat waves it
around.

b. Which of Piagets sensorimotor substages do you think this child is in?

The stage that she is found in the third stage of Piaget. The reason that I
believe she is in the third stage is according to the schemas presented within
the third stage. Some examples of my findings is that she waves objects in
the air and tends to show the objects that she is attracted to people in her
surrounding even though she eventually likes the object with the person
when she gives it to them. Her attention is then drawn onto another object
but continues the same routine of getting a object, bring it to a person, and
leaving it there.

2. What toys or materials do you see that would assist the child in moving to the
next sensorimotor substage and how would they help?

A shape sorter box: allows the child to learn what each shape looks like and
solve problems when the shape does not want to enter the box due to it not
being in the correct location.
An Easel: Giving them a marker or crayon will allow them to explore the
usage and see the cause and effect of using it.
A doll that sings the abcs and 4 other common child songs. This will allow the
child to hear the tone as well as expand their vocabulary.

3. How is the teacher fostering cognitive growth in this child? (Examples of

available toys/personal interactions, etc.)

The mother is speaking to the baby by using her personal name by doing so
she will know that the name belongs to her.
The mother is sits down with the baby and counts the objects that are alike.
An example of this is counting the balls. She gathers the ball and counts
maximum of five. As shes doing this the baby is looking at her as she
continues.

Part C (35 points)

For this section, you will be utilizing a child between the age of 20 27 months
(include exact age of child observed).

1. Using the one of the Piagetian scales (scale 7 is NOT to be used) listed as a file in
the Content Module (week 8). Assess what step the child is at currently by
 Teresa Escalante
11/ 01/2015
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administering each step and writing how the child responded, whether they
successfully completed the step, etc.

The 25 month baby is found within stage 6 of the Piagetian scale which is
based on imitation. Focusing on the vocal imitation. The baby acts as if he is
crying when another child takes away his toy that he was play with calmly.
Instead of just pouting, he goes to someone whether he feels comfortable
with them or not and tells them the issue. The words that he would say
commonly is rrrrrrr when play with his dinosaurs, te-te when he wanted to
drink milk from his mothers breast, and to call his mother he would say ma
ma ma ma which follow some of the sound patterns that he does. Most of
the sounds he makes occur when he is playing with his toys.
The new words that are being taught are doggie, shoes, grandma, and
drinks. When the word doggie was discussed he would look around to see if
he saw a dog move. He would bend down to look at a lower elevation. When
shoes were mentions his eyes were drawn to the floor due to the fact that is
where his shoes are found. When his mother mentioned grandma, he would
look for his grandma, although he is still trying to figure out that not every
female is his grandma. As for drinks he knows the difference between the
options that are given such as milk, water, and juice. Therefore rather than
tasting it, he knows already what he is being offered.
The gesture that he tends to imitate is when his mother does in certain
situations to get his attention. When his mother takes off his shoes she tends
to wave her hand infront of her noise and say ewwww. Now when someone
takes off his shoes he imitates the gesture. Another gesture is making the
mmmmm sound after eating something he likes. As he does the sound he
shakes his head gently as he forms a smile on his face. An unfamiliar gesture
that he does is closing and opening his eyes when someone does it first.

2. What toys might you offer to the child to facilitate her/him to the next level and
why? (Next step on scale or next cognitive level)

Jenga: This object will allow the baby to discover the cause and effect of
stacking too many of the pieces and having the result of it falling over.
A small cart that has a roof top: By allowing the child on the cart, he will
notice that he can explore while being inside. He may begin to imitate the
beep beep noise as well as use his vocabulary to show his daddy.