Student Help - Infant/Toddler Observation

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Help!

I have a paper due next week on the subject of Human Development. I am to observe an infant/toddler for a period of one hour, documentment all activities, and report behavior as related to the particular stage of development...blah, blah, blah.

I have no children...the professor recommended going to a mall or a daycare center to perform the observation. The local daycare was not receptive at all to my request to observe a toddler...hmmm wonder why. :rolleyes: And I can't see myself stalking a toddler in the mall for an hour!

Can anyone provide a one hour video of their child involved in some kind of activity?

Thanks! Sal (Student)

Specializes in Med-Surg, ED.

Sal I don't imagine you will get many videos.

Try other places. Try the YMCA, try other day cares in your area. Call your church, call your neighbors to see if they have any kids...that sort of thing.

Good luck.

Thank you! I tried you tube however the videos are under 5 minutes. I may have to recruit local female help for this. I keep getting weird looks...I was hoping to find someone with an extensive video collection of their family. Hope fo the best! :icon_roll

Thanks!

Mia's right. In this day and age, no one is going to email a complete stranger a video of their child. As I typed that I realized there are going to be some who would do just that... and that scares me.

The above is a good idea; you need to find someone you know for this. This is for your OWN protection as well. If (God forbid) something happened to a child you were observing, you'd find yourself in some hot water.

I may have to recruit local female help for this. I keep getting weird looks...
No offense, but as you're a 37 year old male, I can understand why. (not that women can't be dangerous to children as well... but I think you know what I mean)

I simply can't believe that your professor would be so clueless. Obviously he/she is someone who hasn't been paying attention to the news over the last few decades.

If nothing else, find one of those baby/toddler shows on Discovery and pretend.

This is the point I am trying to get across...

I live in a rural area...I have shown up at the local day care with a driver's license, student ID and syllabus which did little more then raise the question "Is this a well prepared pedophile?" I can't begin to describe the "looks".

My wife told me "If I saw you sitting in a park by yourself watching children I'd call the police myself."

My paper is due next week... I am the oldest student in this class...most are 20 year old females. My professor is a 50 year old Ph.D...she doesn't see the problem here.:angryfire

I know everyone on the site has taken Human Growth & Development and had to perform observational studies...thought I might find help here.

Thanks for the wake up call here...

I thought this was my solution. :thankya: I knew from the moment I received this assignment that I was going to experience resistence!

So before I receive an email from Chris Hansen I am going to use my Italian Greyhound as my observation subject and substitute doggie stats with information from The National Center for Health Statistics...

Let me know if anyone wants a copy of the paper. :lol2:

I can see why they were thinking hmmm whats up with this guy. However they should perhaps go take a ride with a few deputies and they would find out most pedophiles are charming people with kids of their own. Non pedophiles don't tend to show any id, dls, or a syllabus. However society percieves things the way they want too and thats that.

What exactly do you have to observe about these toddlers? Is there anyway you can watch youtube videos since people on there don't seem to have a problem plastering their kids all over the net, mix that up with some kids you know in real life and just pretend like another poster suggested.

I had an experiment in sociology where he wanted us to get very close to perfect strangers and watch their reaction. Ummmmm I made up the observation, I live in an area that has very nice people and we also have MS 13 and Latin King gang members as well. No way am I rolling up and invading anyone's space like that. I was very likely to get shot by the nice people with that experiment and I'm a woman and wasn't willing to risk that. I love school but I won't get killed, or maimed for any teacher's experiment.

In fact our entire class admitted to each other we all made up observations because we all knew better then to go out and do that.

Correction I meant a pedophile is not going to show a drivers license, school id, or a syllabus, they're perverted and way beyond demented but they aren't stupid. Anyone breaking out that many paper trails like you did probably is not going to hurt a child but daycares don't always think this stuff all the way through.

They probably thought you were from the state or some accreditation thing coming to snatch their license away.

Cut and paste -->

You will make 4 (four) DIFFERENT OBSERVATIONS OF CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS (infant/toddlers (birth - 3, elementary aged (6 - 11), early adolescents (12 - 15, and late adolescents 16 - 18). Do not use the child's actual name in the papers. You may not observe your own children. Make your observations at the mall, church, restaurants, athletic events, schools, etc.

Introduction: demographic details of child and environment.

Biological: a physical description regarding weight, height, activity level, fine motor and gross motor skills

Cognitive/Language: examples of thinking ability (logic), attention span, and used of language development and as appropriate.

Psychosocial: describe interactions with others, social skills, level of moral development

I started writting my paper -- Science Fiction:w00t:

I know a 6 year old that strongly beleives he is Annikan SkyWalker.......he fits into both topics except that he is not a toddler, however he can behave like one since he is the oldest of 4 kids and the other 3 are girls. A 4 year old, an 22 month old, and a 2 month old. Oh yeah you read that right. If you would ever like to do a paper on parents who cry when their kids come back home or smile in relief when they go can somewhere without them....let me know. Hahahah

I really feel you can pull off the paper on toddlers just from regular life experience or observations from the past.

I love Sci Fi how do you think you might develop this, Sci Fi with a moral or observation...like "Parable of the Sower."? or.....meeting hot green girls on some planet like that old Star Trek episode?

I know a 6 year old that strongly beleives he is Annikan SkyWalker.......he fits into both topics except that he is not a toddler, however he can behave like one since he is the oldest of 4 kids and the other 3 are girls. A 4 year old, an 22 month old, and a 2 month old. Oh yeah you read that right. If you would ever like to do a paper on parents who cry when their kids come back home or smile in relief when they go can somewhere without them....let me know. Hahahah

I really feel you can pull off the paper on toddlers just from regular life experience or observations from the past.

I love Sci Fi how do you think you might develop this, Sci Fi with a moral or observation...like "Parable of the Sower."? or.....meeting hot green girls on some planet like that old Star Trek episode?

LOL!

:rcgtku:

+ Add a Comment