FHS 1500 – Observation #1

 Toddler – 18 months to 2 years

  OBSERVATION GUIDELINES  

 You are to conduct an observation of a toddler (18 months – 35 months) that you do not know.  Toddlers can be observed in one of several settings such as a child care facility, a playgroup, a nursery class (church or other volunteer organization) or another location in which the toddler has the opportunity to interact with other non-related children and non-parental adults.  Observing your own children, siblings, cousins or nieces and nephews is not acceptable. 

 Note: If you choose to complete your observation at the Redwood Campus’ Eccles Lab School, the best times for observations of children are from 9:00 – 11:00 and 2:30 – 4:30, Monday through Friday.  Tell the person at the front desk that you are there to observe the two-year-old class.

 When entering any child care facility, report to the office and identify yourself as an FHS 1500 student needing to do an observation.  The office personnel will explain their policies and procedures regarding the observation of children in their facility.  Please be aware that some child care programs may not allow observations in their facilities.

 Each observation should be at least 1 ½ to 2 typed pages in length.  Check all spelling, grammar etc. Please, do a complete, professional job.  The observation should include some basic demographic information such as the date, time and location of the observation, approximate age of the child and a general description of the environment in which the observation took place. Expect to spend at least 25 – 30 minutes observing.

 For each observation, please include a brief description of the child as it relates to his/her:

 Physical Development – Gender, approximate height and weight (Is the child taller or shorter than the other children in the group?  Is the child skinny, average, and overweight?)  How does the child move?  Arms?  Legs?  Coordination?  How does the child compare to others in the class?  How does it compare to the descriptions in our text?

 Intellectual Development – How do you assess the child’s intellectual development?  What about the child’s language development? How does the child’s cognitive development compare to the description of normal development for that age in our textbook?

 Social/Emotional Development – How does the child react to stress?  Happiness?  Frustration?  Anger?  How does the child relate to the other children?   The teacher?  Does the child spend most of the time alone or with others?  Does the child seem happy?  If not, can you find a reason?

 If you make comments such as, “This is the most wonderful child in the world” or “This is the biggest brat I’ve ever seen”, please be sure to document the events that led you to your conclusion and justify from the text why you consider this behavior to be abnormal.

Answer the following questions for each study described below. (1) Is the study primarily an observational study, a correlation study, or an experiment? Why do you give the answer you did? (2) What are the variables involved in the study? For experiments, specify the independent and dependent variables. (3) What might be the hypothesis that the researchers are trying to test?

1.       A researcher is interested in the relationship between caffeine consumption and level of stress. She has participants keep a diary for one week during which they count the number of cups of coffee, tea, and cola-based soft drinks they consume, as well as recording consumption of chocolate and medications that have caffeine as an ingredient. In addition, participants complete a measure of “daily hassles” experienced during the week.

2.       A pair of psychologists are interested in the effects of mood on helping (based on Isen & Levin, 1972). They go to shopping malls and set up observation near telephone booths. Their participants are individuals who use the phone booths when the vicinity is otherwise unoccupied. For half of the participants, the researchers leave a dime to be found in the coin slot of the pay-phone. For all of the participants, when the phone call is completed and the person leaves the telephone booth, a confederate walks by the booth, and drops a file folder full of papers. The researchers watch to see if the participants help pick up the dropped papers.

3.       Researchers (Reifman, Larrick, and Fein, 1988) were interested in the factors causing aggression. They looked at an entire baseball season’s worth of news reports. For each game, they recorded the temperature of the locale, and the number of batters who were hit by pitched balls.

4.       Researchers are interested in influences on self-esteem. Half of the participants used in this study are male, and half are female. Participants are given a set of anagram problems to solve in a five minute time limit. Half are randomly assigned to receive very easy anagrams, and half are given difficult ones. After completing as many of the anagrams as they can, participants are given a questionnaire labeled “Thoughts and Feelings Questionnaire” that is really a measure of self-esteem.

5.       Researchers are interested in what determines how easily people are persuaded. Half of the participants used in this study are male, and half are female. During the session, participants rate their attitude towards an increase in fees that has been proposed at their school. Following this, they listen to a persuasive message providing strong arguments in favor of the fee increase. Finally, they re-rate their attitude towards the proposed fee.

It is globally acknowledged that a link between the environment and public health exists. This topic has grown to be so important that various world organizations hold annual, international meetings for scientists to gather and discuss the latest research findings, breakthroughs, issues, and technology. Some of these organizations are as follows:

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• The Paris Appeal International Congress
• The International Federation of Environmental Health’s Congress

In this assignment, you will gain a better idea of where scientific research is headed by reviewing the published abstracts presented at such meetings.

Begin this assignment by searching the Internet for the most recent gathering of one of the organizations listed above. You may also search for another major organization that is currently focused on global health and the environment.

Once you locate your organization and the meeting (often called a Congress) of interest, find the published program for that meeting. Do note that this may take a few clicks. However, every organization always publishes a list of talks presented at the meeting somewhere on its Web site.

Find a topic that interests you and address the following questions based on this selected example:

• Cite the example you have selected and describe it. Include the title of the presentation, the authors, and a synopsis of their research and what they found.
• Explain how the example you found relates to the environment and public health—both directly and indirectly.
• Identify the geographical areas or countries where you see this particular environmental issue as a threat to public health and support your findings with evidence-based research.
• State whether or not you think some countries are more affected by this issue than others. If so, provide at least one example and support this finding with evidence-based research.
• Identify the processes that are currently in place that aim to address these issues affecting public health. State whether these processes focus on the environmental issue or the resulting public health issues.
• Consider how you would approach the issue if you were given the task to improve or mitigate it—whether it is related to the environment or public health. Briefly describe your short- and long-term improvement or mitigation plans.

Write your initial response in approximately 350 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

By Saturday, February 16, 2013, post your response to the appropriate Discussion Area. Through Wednesday, February 20, 2013, review and comment on at least two peers’ responses. Consider the following:

• How important do you feel their topic is to where you live?
• Is this a problem that will affect your family’s health? If so, how?
• Would you consider your peers’ solutions to be feasible and practical? Explain why or why not.

Grading Criteria and Rubric

All discussion assignments in this course will be graded using a rubric. Download the discussion rubric and carefully read it to understand the expectations.