Observing Development of the Young Child

Description

• Learn how to become an avid observer of children in early learning environments. The text will prepare pre-service teachers with the necessary steps to successfully observe and critically analyze, including: how to get started, the best times to observe their students, an adequate length of observation, what to look for in children, and the best modes of recording observations.
• Investigate alternative approaches to child assessment—for both children and overall early childhood programs—such as visual documentations (art, photos, videos), and using documentation panels.
• Gain a deeper understanding of the importance of self-esteem in young children, and the reasons why a child should develop a secure attachment relationship with a teacher to set the stage for a child’s success in and out of the classroom environment.
• In support of new research, discover how to promote physical exercise for children to not only improve their physical development, but for an increase in brain synapses that are shown to improve permanent memory development, even by clapping hands!
• Delve into the importance of oral storytelling for children, for the promotion of high-level thinking such as planning and reminiscing, and setting the foundation for children’s school achievement.
• To foster the first writing opportunities that promotes the first level of reading moments, learn how to encourage “drawing stories” with young children and setting the stage for the earliest of literacy skills.
• Learn to be attuned to children’s knowledge, feelings, and abilities by the importance of observing children’s dramatic play. Keen observations in these precious moments will make visible children’s way of thinking in a way no other observations do.

Chapter 1 Observing to Assess Children’s Development

Chapter 2 Recording and Collecting Observational Data

Chapter 3 Self-Esteem

Chapter 4 Emotional Competence

Chapter 5 Social Competence

Chapter 6 Physical Development

Chapter 7 Cognitive Development

Chapter 8 Spoken Language

Chapter 9 Emergent Writing and Reading Skills

Chapter 10 Art, Music, and Dance Skills

Chapter 11 Dramatic Play Skills

Chapter 12 Sharing Observational Data with Families

Used successfully in early childhood programs all over the country since its inception, this unique and mainstay text looks at children’s development in every domain, preparing students to become skilled observers, with concrete detail about how to record what is observed, how to interpret the data, and to become adept at using the observations to plan for learning.

 

The new edition of Jan Beaty’s best-selling book has undergone an extensive revision. The book’s original features and organization remain, while new research, issues, and more extensive coverage of observation is included in the new edition. Chapters 1 and 2 were reorganized and expanded to include the basics of observation. The text itself has become more streamlined, more reader-friendly, with fewer chapters (12 instead of 14), yet with many more boxed ideas. Other examples of observation tools that have been added include running records, rubrics, rating scales, portfolios, documentation panels, and other forms of visual documentation. Strategies for working with dual language learners are included throughout the book. The reorganization and restructuring of the text improves on its past success; the simplification and improvements will appeal to students and instructors alike. What emerges is the most current observation text on the market, modernized to reach today’s population of early childhood education students.

Janice J. Beaty is a professor emerita, Elmira College, Elmira, New York. Dr. Beaty is not only a writer of many college texts for early childhood educators, but also a traveler. Her books for Pearson include Skills for Preschool Teachers, 9th ed., 2012, Early Literacy in Preschool and Kindergarten with L. Pratt, 3rd ed., 2011; 50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies, 3rd ed., 2013;and 50 Early Childhood Guidance Strategies, 2006. She developed a training program for CDA trainers and led training workshops at Elmira College, Elmira, NY, in Columbia, SC, and Orlando, Fl. She has visited early childhood programs in China, Russia, Poland, Bermuda, and pueblos in New Mexico, Arizona, and many in central Missouri where she does training of Foster Grandparents who work in the classrooms. She has been a keynote speaker at early childhood conferences in Montreal, Chicago, Oshkosh, WI, San Antonio, and New Orleans. When she is not at her computer in her office on a Cape Coral canal, you might find her “out west” in one of the National Parks creating another “Jarod and the Mystery of….” juvenile books for middle school children.

Janice J. Beaty’s best-selling Observing Development of the Young Child teaches its audience how to observe, record, and interpret the development of children ages three through five by utilizing a unique checklist to document each aspect of development. This proven resource discusses what these young children are like, and how to support them in their early development with exciting hands-on activities. Even though the new edition has undergone quite an extensive revision, long-time adoptees and fans of the book in its previous editions can rest assured that the author has preserved many of the original features while adapting them to new circumstances of today’s early childhood education environment, the key issues, and new research. Streamlined from previous editions, with 12 chapters instead of 14, this practical, easy-to-use system is based on a progression of children’s skill development in six major areas: emotional, social, physical, cognitive, language, and creative. Used successfully in early childhood programs all over the country since its inception, this unique and mainstay text looks at child development versus child behaviors, preparing its readers to become avid observers, recording what he/she sees, mastering how to interpret the data, and becoming adept at how to use the observations to plan for the young individuals they will encounter.

The most current observation text on the market, modernized to teach today’s population of early childhood teachers, Janice J. Beaty’s Observing Development of the Young Child, 8/e, remains keenly focused on child development using a unique checklist to document each domain of development. This textbook teaches students how to observe, record, and interpret development of children ages 3 through 5; discusses what these children are like; and how to support them in their development with exciting hands-on activities. Used successfully in early childhood programs all over the country since its inception, this unique and classic text looks at aspects of child development, preparing its readers to become avid observers and recorders of data, mastering how to interpret the data, and to become adept at how to use the observations for planning learning activities.

 

Also from Janice J. Beaty:

          0130388408 – Skills for Preschool Teachers, 9/e – ©2012 

          0135025893 – Observing Development of the Young Child, 7/e – ©2010

          0131700146 – 50 Early Childhood Guidance Strategies, 1/e – ©2006 

          0136335128 – Prosocial Guidance for the Preschool Child, 1/e – ©1999

Streamlined from previous editions, with fewer chapters (12 instead of 14) and more boxed strategies and ideas, this best-selling text on observing the young child has preserved many of its original features while adapting them to new circumstances.. Its unique core feature, an observation tool, the Child Development Checklist, remains but has been updated and restructured for this edition with six instead of eight indicators under each of the 11 child development domains. What emerges is the most current observation text on the market, modernized to reach today’s early childhood students.

• Learn about the potential problems related to some standardized tests used as tools for child assessment, and how they compare with observational tools. See Chapter 1, Observing to Assess Children’s Development.
• Gain a deeper understanding of children’s “emotional competence,” its several aspects, and how children can develop it. The importance of learning how to observe children and how to help young children cope with their emotional outbursts is explored in Chapter 4, Emotional Competence.
• Readers will discover new information on brain scan evidence, its linkages between brain development and children’s play, and how careful observation can reveal information about children’s development. Find this information in Chapter 5, Social Competence.
• Learn to observe levels of physical development in children by using a rating scale and setting-up developmentally appropriate activities for them. See Chapter 6, Physical Development.
• Become “brain-imaging literate” with new information in Chapter 7 on Cognitive Development, getting everyone involved for the betterment of every child, and emphasizing the importance for students and children to understand how the more high quality experiences children have, the more potential there is for dendrite growth.
• Gather new knowledge on dual language learners being comfortable in using both their home language and English, and learn how to best apply this knowledge in the early childhood classroom. See Chapter 8, Spoken Language.
• Understand the importance of observing and assessing children’s writing skills with a new checklist and rubric in Chapter 9, Emergent Writing and Reading Skills.
• Acquire skills necessary for observing children’s varied levels of creativity and how to apply this knowledge in the classroom. Seek out this new information in Chapter 10, Art, Music, and Dance Skills.
• Gather new avenues for dramatic play skills in Chapter 11, such as ideas on using books with character cut-outs to promote dramatic play, and observing the different types of pretending with paper dolls that emerges when young children engage in this type of imaginative play.