Observation of a child

For this , I observed two cousins , Julia and William . Julia is an 8-month old girl and William is a 22-month-old boy . For the purposes of understanding the different development levels of these children , I chose first to observe them independently and then to watch them interact . I observed William first , then Julia and the Julia and William together

April 20 , 1

.m . Meeting with William

I observed William at his grandmother 's home . William has been living with his grandmother since June , 2007 , and in Febraruy , 2008 , when his mother

was deployed to Iraq , his grandparents became his primary caregivers . When I arrived , William was in the family room watching Ratatouille ' on DVD . William stood about three feet away from the television , holding a sip cup of juicer . Before he noticed my presence he would look at the screen for several moments and then turn and babble something at his grandmother . To me , these words seemed unintelligible except for the occasional Nana ' He calls his grandmother Nana

I tried to avoid directly interacting with William , but after about three minutes , he noticed me sitting at the table in the dining room and came into the room . He smiled and waved and then pulled out the chair next to me and began looking at my notebook . Again , he spoke , saying things I didn 't understand and then tried to take my pen . When his grandmother told him no , he stuck his thumb in his mouth and bowed his head , until she reached down , kissed his head and then lead him to another part of the table where his crayons were . While taking him to the other side of the table , his grandmother explained that he could not have my pen , but that he could color . Once she pointed out the crayons he smiled again and looked up at me , with his head still bowed . When I smiled back , he reached for his crayons and said , Mine ' Then , he began coloring . He continued to color until I decided to leave . When I said , Bye , Will , he looked up from his coloring , smiled and blew me a kiss . Then , he jumped down from the chair , ran to the front door and opened and said , Bye , Bye ' as he waved

I observed Julia at her home with her mother Katie present . Julia was sitting in her playpen and smiling when I arrived . Katie was on the telephone . Next to Julia were a soft stuffed animal , some colorful blocks and a teething ring . For the first few minutes that I was there Julia waved her arms in a sort of flailing manner and babbled . When Katie got off the phone and began interacting with Julia , Julia half-crawled or scooted on her knees to where her mother was standing and then tried to pull herself up on the edge of the playpen . She did this three times trying to stand up on her own , each time falling on her butt . After the third time...