Introduction

Now that you have observed in an infant classroom, you are going to share some of your thoughts and reflections on what you have learned in both Modules 2 and 3 about the Five R’s and about observation and assessment. You must maintain confidentiality at all times. You will NOT divulge the name of the center/program in which you observed. These are your thoughts on what you have learned from your observation.

The Assignment

For each of your responses to the prompts that follow, you will need to be specific about what you observed, giving examples while ensuring the confidentiality of the teachers and children.What you share here must be objective in nature. This will give you practice in writing objective statements of your observations in these classrooms. Respond to the following questions in your initial post:

1. In what ways did you see relationship-building occur between infants and teachers?
2. How did the environment support learning?
3. How did the infants access the materials and toys?
4. What kinds of conversation did you hear, and between whom? (teacher/child, teacher/teacher, teacher/parent)

You will post a second response that will be more reflective in nature.
Respond to the following questions:

1. What did you learn about caring for infants? (This will be your opinion and can be more subjective in nature.)
2. Did you see evidence of teacher observation and assessment of the children during your observation? If so, how and what did the teacher do to document children’s learning?
3. One of your reading assignments was to read NAEYC’s position statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice. Based on your reading, what aspects of DAP did you see during your observation of the infant classroom? Provide at least 3 examples of DAP or developmentally inappropriate practices from your observation. Your examples should be written objectively. Once you provide your examples, explain why each one is or is not developmentally appropriate.

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Click this link to access the lecture for this module.

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Running Head: BUILDING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES 1

BUILDING PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES 3

Building Professional Competencies

Students’ Name

Institutional Affiliation

Building Professional Competencies

Focus. Teachers need to understand their roles well to create an impact on children. The article used concentrates on childhood education. It gives teachers more knowledge in childhood education, thus helping them grow their momentum through competent ideas. These ideas include being knowledgeable, self-awareness, accountability, equitability, mentorship, and passion. This paper aims to discuss the main strategies discussed in the article.

Strategies The major strategies discussed in the article are how a teacher in early childhood education should have the passion and mentor his/her learners. According to Meghann (2020), this is a situation where the teacher should understand his/her children’s behaviors to avoid wrongful judgments.

Resources. Being accountable and equitable are other important factors to consider when dealing with children. Despite having a degree as a high-quality teacher, a teacher also needs to know issues relating to child development.

Ideas. The teacher should be ethical, which means that the teacher should develop ethical guidelines in his/her practices as an early childhood educator. More so, the teacher should have the self-awareness to create an impact on his/her learners.

`In conclusion, to implement the above strategy, resources, and ideas for a teacher to be equitable, the teacher should create nap time for his/her learners. This helps in relieving the learner from being exhausted and improves the attention of the learner. Also, the teacher should learn about the learners’ behaviors other than the coursework learned during child development programs in college. Finally, the teacher should develop a clear relationship with the families where the children come from on being ethical. This helps in supporting all children in the class.

References

Meghann, H. (2020, December). Becoming your best: Building professional competencies. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/dec2019/building-professional-competencies

1

Observing Development

Student’s Name

Institution Name

Course Name

Instructor’s Name

Assignment Due Date

Observing Development

Narrative Observation Sheet

NOTE: To be documented in Narrative Observation Sheets and scanned.

1

Observing Development

Student’s Name

Institution Name

Course Name

Instructor’s Name

Assignment Due Date

Observing Development

Summary of children’s developmental characteristics

Child 1

The child depicted traits that met the different milestones for the age. She shows significant eye-hand coordination as evident when she reached for the toy. Her sensory milestones were massively evident during the observation period. She not only used both her hands to explore the teddy bear, but she also moved it to her mouth. She is able to seek attention by making babbling sounds, an indication that the child is progressing well in her communication milestones. The child also illustrated both play and social skills when she raised her hands to be picked up and enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with her mother. She is also able to feed well.

The child’s growth and development are promising. However, she indicates strengths in certain milestones unlike in others. The child’s strengths are evident in the sensory, communication, and feeding milestones (Pathways.org, n.d.). She also indicates strengths in coordination abilities as well as play and social skills. However, the child’s motor milestones were lacking but the period the child was observed could have skewed the results.

Based on the child’s age, growth and development, she is progressing well. She has marked most of her milestones and exceeded some (Pathways.org, n.d.). Her parent indicated that the child enjoys bath time. She also established that the child is always playful and tolerates diaper and clothes change unless she is hungry or unwell. The parent’s response and the observed development of the child ascertain that she is likely to perform more functions at a significant rate (Pathways.org, n.d.). Therefore, no much effort is needed for the child’s developmental improvement.

Child 2

This child walks alone without much support. He is able to remove items obstructing his way, including toys and pulls them behind him. In addition to this, he is able to move up and down the stairs with little support. The child can feed himself despite being playful with food. He can turn doorknobs and open the door. He is also able to drink from an open cup even though he makes messes. His communication was impressive as he could easily form a sentence. However, his inability to climb up the coach was questionable yet he performed much more difficult tasks.

The child’s developmental milestones are appropriate for his age. One major strength is that the child is independent and does most things alone. He is able to walk alone without tripping or falling, establishing that his motor milestones are his strengths despite lagging in some of these milestones (Pathways.org, n.d.). The social and communication skills are also strong suits for the child (The Early Childhood Direction Center, 2012). An aspect of cognitive skills was lacking. The major weakness of this child is attributed to the fact that he always kept to himself and only identifies with his caregiver (The Early Childhood Direction Center, 2012).

A 22-month-old child is expected to do so much. Language development is considered to be among the most essential milestones in this age group and this child’s communication is significant. While some expectations are often beyond the children’s ability, their rapid growth entails much-needed development (The Early Childhood Direction Center, 2012). As indicated by the caregiver, the child often enjoys his own company, yet it is not healthy for him to be a loner at this age. The child is able to do much better but needs to be around children his age and more people in his daily vicinity (Pathways.org, n.d.).

Child 3

The 30-month-old boy surpassed the milestones defining his age. He was able to identify items in drawings and color pictures. He is able to flip to the next page and color the pictures as well. He identifies the different times set aside for different activities as evident when he ran from and to the classroom. The boy is able to pedal a tricycle and is willing to share it with other kids in the playground. He is always happy and arranges his words well when asking questions.

A primary strength for this child is his developed balance and coordination. He comfortably and smoothly pedals a tricycle and runs without tripping or falling (The Early Childhood Direction Center, 2012). His motor development illustrates that his development is beyond his age. The clarity of his speech also indicates his strengths. His response to the bell is a clear indication that the child’s understanding is on a significantly higher level in comparison to his peers (The Early Childhood Direction Center, 2012). However, the child indicated little interest in other children in the field. Besides, he seemed to ignore children of the opposite gender.

The child’s abilities and milestones could be compared to that of a 36-month-old child as his performance levels are suggestively higher (Pathways.org, n.d.). In addition to the observed developments, the teacher indicated that the child is fast in completing puzzles with four pieces and comfortably serves himself during meal times. It was also established that he enjoys storytimes and likes to color. His growth and development are promising as he has accomplished most of the milestones for a 30-month-old child and will most likely achieve more by the time he clocks three years.

References

Pathways.org. (n.d.). 4-6 Months Milestones. Retrieved from

4-6 Months Milestones

Pathways.org. (n.d.). Milestones Checklist. Retrieved from

http://vlc.nccommunitycolleges.edu/storyline/EDU234-May2019/M2-documents/milestoneschecklist_updated

The Early Childhood Direction Center. (2012). Developmental Checklists Birth to Five. Retrieved from

http://vlc.nccommunitycolleges.edu/storyline/EDU234-May2019/M2-documents/Developmental_checklists_Updated2012