Guest Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 This I am sure to all of you experts on here is a really silly question - but it has been a topic of debate at our setting this week, becuase of conflicting definintions from LEAS. Here are the two definitions: A planned time to observe 'the' child, at any activity they may go to....... or A specifc activity to assess the childs ability at the chosen activity... What do you think???? Thanks
aliamch Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 I'm no expert but, I would say it's an observation to assess the childs ability or developmental stage of a specific area of development, or maybe to help identify an additional/special need etc. So possibly your second definition would be closest to my understanding of it. The first would be true if it was about time specifically planned into the daily routine to make observations. But I might be wrong! Karrie
Susan Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 You could plan an activity for both scenarios and depending on what you wanted to observe/ find out about the child would determine the context of the observation so either 1 or 2 would be appropriate.
Upsy Daisy Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 I agree with Susan. It depends on the aim of the observation. If you would like to observe a child's fine motor skills for example you could set up a specific cutting and glueing activity and then observe him or her when they do it. If you feel that you need to find out about a child's social skills or interests it would be more relevant to sit back and watch as the child moves around the setting. A tracker observation would need to be planned because you need to have a plan of the resources before you start but the whole point of that ob is that the child is choosing activities freely.
Inge Posted November 7, 2009 Posted November 7, 2009 for me both are appropriate... depending on the need for the observation 1 - to observe where the child may go could lead to 2- a planned activity to observe the child further. or equally other way round.. cannot work out why the need to define it.. for our setting it was planned according to the circumstances and need at the time Inge
Recommended Posts