Children were grouped together ND placed In a room specifically designed for them depending on their age and learning level. There were about two infant rooms, two toddler rooms, one preschool age room, and one school age room. In the rooms, there were books, toys, art supplies, and music Instruments that are age appropriate for the children assigned. There were many staff members in the center, who each play an important role to the children. There were teachers, caretakers, a cook, a supervisor or director, a front desk clerk and volunteers.
There were no specific preparation required In order to are for the children other than hand hygiene and appropriate manner. I will discuss the area of growth and development observed in each age group. The growth and development I observed In the toddlers ages 1-3 were quite surprising. Each child has their own unique personality, have different point of views, likes to engage in parallel play, and are easily frustrated. There were many incident where one child might hurt another, purposely or accidental. Tantrums are prominent in this age group, but the children observed seemed to recover from what had upset them in short period of time.
Discipline from teachers were made to the child that did wrongfully In a manner that TLD shame them. Most of them were not toilet trained yet, so they were still in diapers. The physical and motor development in this age group varies from child to child. Skills with their hands such as to be able to manipulate small toys, turn pages of a book. Build a tower, take of shoes, zip up a bag, open the door, unscrew a jar, use a cup, hand washing and other basic skills were observed. They were able to sit on a ball and bounce, go up small stairs and slide, climb up to sit on a bench, pop bubbles, and pull a wagon.
Although their physical and motor ability, and height seems to be at the same level, their cognitive level varies. The cognitive function in some of the children seems to be at the same level, but others at the same age were beyond. Example, a two year old child who speaks English and Chinese had more difficulty with verbalizing the correct word he sees in a picture. However, another child of the same age who also speaks two different language, English and Indian, seems to function at a higher level when asked what he sees in the picture.
The Chinese child was able to describe about five strictures compared to the Indian child who was able to describe more than fifteen. The observation in pre-school age children, ages 4-5 was quite a deterrent experience, as they are a lot more social, independent, and exhibit a higher level of physical and cognitive development. This age group can perform many activities such as play board games, sing a song, build a train track, a tower, read a book, play hide and seek, tag, swings, hops, climbs and follows teacher’s direction.
When it comes to their physical development (height, weight, and mother skills) they seem to be at the same bevel, however, with cognitive, each child varies as with the toddlers. When it comes to language and cognitive skills, most of the children I interacted with, were able to speak sentences of more than five words, use past and future tense, such as “l will and I did”. They can say their own name, their siblings, name and even their address. They can dress, and undress without assistance and usually cares for own toilet needs.
Cognitively, they can count to ten or more objects, recognize numbers, do simple math, understands concept of time such as lunch- time, and distinguish reality from fantasy. They are more social, so they usually try to please their friends, and engage in associative play. I had observed two complications and one nursing intervention during this experience. There was a complication where a child was seeking attention by randomly hitting his peers in the face as they walked by. As a consequence, he was placed on time out away from his peers.
The tantrum then started and the teacher in charge knew Just what to do. She had told the group to ignore the child’s scream and cries until he calms down. After his tantrum has resided, the teacher took him aside ND spoke to him softly about how his behavior was not acceptable and for him to apologize to the child that he had hurt. This child then followed through and managed to say he was sorry. I ended up using similar intervention on a pre-school girl that had purposely pulled a chair from her friend while she was about to sit in which resulted in the friend hurting her self.
Another complication I observed was a child who had trouble with separation anxiety where no intervention from a staff member was applied. I find it very interesting, how a child’s growth and development is unique to his or ere own capacities, how they grow at their own pace, and how the environment, language, and family influence them. The aim of this observation is to establish an understanding of the child’s development level as a whole in his or her own world. Although it was only a five hour observation, I had learned a great deal about child growth and development.
Reading books about child development alone can help with specific data and literature concept, but it is not as helpful as being able to observe and interact with the children in real life. My experience today at the child placement center was wonderful, and I am glad I had a chance to observe them as well as had fun playing with them. Two nursing diagnoses that apply to my child development observations are anxiety related to separation from significant others manifested by crying, clinging, and refusal to interact with staff and readiness for enhanced self control related to inappropriate violent behavior with peers.
The goal for the nursing diagnosis anxiety is: child will experience decreased anxiety by the third day in the center. The outcome criterion’s are: reduced anxiety expressed by the child and family, child is to crying or clinging to the parent during drop off, child is interacting with staff and peers in an acceptable manner, child participate in activities Witt peers during play, and parents verbalize understanding of procedures and plan of care.
Interventions for this diagnosis are to assess the parent’s level of anxiety during drop off because if the parents are anxious, the child notices and he or she will also embrace that anxiety within them selves; allow parents some time to comfort the child during drop off and encourage the child with positive re-enforcement such as for them to look award to doing activities and spending time with friends; provide a calm environment and avoid rushing through interaction during drop off; allow the child to bring comfort measures from home such as a favorite toy.
The focal stimulus for this diagnosis is anxiety, the contextual stimulus is absent of parents and comfort zone, and the residual stimulus is lack of exposure to different environment and people. As for the diagnosis readiness for enhanced self-control, the goal is: child will exhibit appropriate play with peers, child will not use violent behavior to seek attention. The outcome includes; reduced violent and inappropriate behavior by child during play, child exhibit proper associative plays with peers, child uses words to express his/her self rather than physical expression.
Interventions; wait for the child to calm down and speak to him/her privately without shaming them, discuss appropriate and inappropriate behavior examples to the child, ask the child he/she would feel if this situation was experienced, discuss good and bad behavior with parents, reinforce them to teach the child without shaming them, encourage and reward good behaviors.
