7-12 Years Old Observation, Childhood and Adolescence

OBSERVATION OF 7-12 YEAR OLD
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OBSERVATION OF 7-12 YEAR OLD CHILD
1.0 BACKGROUND
Permission was sought form the child before the observation exercise. The parents were requested to sign a consent form to allow the researcher conduct the observation. The child that was observed was a girl aged 10 years old. She too was given a consent form to sign. After the researcher explained the purpose of the observation, the child was asked to either agree or disagree with the observation exercise. She accepted and signed the observation consent form in the presence of her parents. The purpose of the observation was simplified and explained to the girl. It was made clear that the researcher was going to spent time with the girl in an agreed upon familiar environment to learn about what she likes or doesn’t like. It was also made clear to the girl that the information collected was confidential and wasn’t going to be divulged to any third party without her consent. However the child was informed that there were chances that the parents could be informed of anything that would be deemed risky or harmful to the girl. Any information relating to her behavior that could be considered as dangerous to her wellbeing and safety would possibly be shared with her parents. Since the girl was in 6TH Grade and could read, the consent form was provided to her. After reading the signing the consent letter, the researcher begun the observation.
After discussion with the parents, it was agreed the girl be observed within a safe and familiar environment. Thus her home and school were selected as the best environments to help the researcher learn about the child’s biosocial, psychosocial and cognitive behavioral traits. The observation time was divided into two sessions each lasting an hour. The observation and interview duration was agreed upon between the girl and her parents. Next, permission was sought from the girl’s school administration to be able to conduct the observation. The school teacher was very cooperative as she gladly agreed and signed our consent and ethics letter. The researcher felt that observing the child in these two settings would help capture essential psychosocial and cognitive development related data. This is because there are certain behavioral attribute that the child will not exhibit while at home in the presence of her parents and siblings. These behavioral traits were deemed critical in evaluating the developmental stages of the child. After consent was received from both the teacher and the parents, the researcher selected Saturday to be the appropriate day to study the child in the home setting while Wednesday was preferred for the school observation session.The school observation took place on Wednesday 29th, November 2017 while the home observation happened on Saturday, 1st December 2017.
I: BIOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The subject was healthy and did not exhibit any signs of brain damage or abnormality. She was in good health and engaged in a lot of physical activities as is required of her age. She was strong and often engaged in neighborhood play with other children of her age. Berger (2016) suggests that exerc...