Name
Lecturer
Course
Date
Nathan Pust
Introduction
Nathan Pust is a ten-month old infant born on 1/2/2012. During his birth time, he was having a weight of 11 pounds 4 ounces with a height of 19 inches. This was a very good record indicating that he was in a right condition and would be assured of a healthy growth if provided with the entire medical and any other necessary attention. Because of this, he has now been taken to a kindergarten centre where he is expected to interact with fellow infants, caretakers, strangers and the new environment. However, his current observation found out that his body weight has increased to 21 pounds while his height increasing to 27 inches since he was born.
Reaction to People
During the observation carried out at the kindergarten, Nathan, just like any other infant, should a lot of mixed reactions to the people he was exposed to. First, he interacted well with other infants who were brought next to her. He felt attracted to them and could be seen communicating with them using smiles. The same reaction was observed between him and the caregivers. He did not show any form of fear whenever he was introduced to these people. I think this must have been so, because of the rapport they had established. They had become familiar to him.
However, Nathan did not feel attracted to the adults he was exposed to. He was so afraid of them and could attempt shy away from them if they attempted to move closer to him. This was worsened when he was brought closer to strangers whom he had never met before. Here, he was so frightened, avoided them and openly cried. This indicates that he has not fully developed and has narrowed his environment to the small number of people he frequently interacts with.
Exploration
Nathan was so adventurous. Despite spending a long time next to his caregivers, he kept on crawling from place to place. This includes places where he would see attractive objects and other infants whom he would interact with. According to this observation, he was fond of an object which looked so attractive for him. It is here where he would get nice toys and dolls to play with. This is why it not only remained attractive for her, but for many other children who are cared for in this institution.
Body Movements
Nathan had an ability to move from place to place. This could happen by moving his body parts and the whole body whenever he wanted to change position. For instance, he would move his face when looking for an object which was carried by one of caregivers. He would move his face to catch up with the movement of the object which seemed attractive for him.
At the same time, Nathan could move the whole of his body whenever he wanted to change position to another location so as to do whatever thing he felt would please him. He was crawling with his limbs as the most active parts of his body.
Affordance
Nathan is an active child. He showed a lot of affordance in the way he conducted himself. In other words, he looked a very light headed toddler who did not find it difficult to cope up with the prevailing conditions in the kindergarten. He could autonomously use his efforts to improve his walking abilities by moving his feet step by step. This proved that he had high cognitive skills and could suit his immediate environment.
Habituation
Nathan indicated habituation to certain objects which were more pleasing to her. When presented with attractive objects such as food, toys and conspicuous flowers, he would identify with them. As a result, he took quite a long time while still looking at them. However, this would even continue when such objects were taken away from him. Meaning, he had developed a schemata for such objects making it easy for him to identify them at all the times. This showed that he is a very active infant who can identify with his immediate environment.
Nathan did this selectively because he could not just look at everything in the same way. According to the observations made, he would only spend a long time starring at the attractive objects. However, anything which could not please him could not be treated in the same way. For instance, when she had been frightened by a stranger, he would dissociate himself with them. He would not even admire an object given to him by such scaring faces.
Hidden Objects
The way Nathan looked at the hidden objects indicated that he was progressively developing his cognitive skills. The habituation skills extended beyond just looking at objects for a considerably long time to looking at the hidden objects. He was doing this because he believed that the objects were still there.
This justifies the cognitive theory of human development which states that human mind and intelligence undergo a series of progressive stages. It determines the development of intelligence in that it enables people at certain chronological age to show certain cognitive behaviors. According to Nathan, his cognitive abilities could not convey to hi the information that the hidden object could not b seen unless placed behind a transparent object. This is abstract reasoning popular with infants of Nathan’s age.
Temperament
Nathan’s temperament was used as a very important tool in determining his interactions with his fellow toddlers, caregivers, strangers and the world at large. He showed a complex of traits including anger, emotion, hyper-activity and fear. Because of his excessive energy, he could uncontrollably move from place to place trying to touch and taste anything he came across. He could wander form the bed to the kitchen and to the play ground to use anything valuable to him.
At the same time, his emotions were extremely hot. He would cry profusely whenever offended by anybody or denied to do something which would be detrimental to him. When taken next to strange people, he would be so afraid. In fact, he mostly responded by crying. This means that he had a great fear against these people.
Language
Nathan must be a first learner. At this stage of growth, he was mastering language skills and could communicate by bubbling. Hence, he often found it easier to utter vowel sounds such as oooo, aaaa, iiii, eeee and uuuu. More surprisingly, he went ahead to pronounce single common words such as mama. This must be the most common word he was using at home when interacting with his parents.
Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to communicate to him. In most case, when shouted at, he would burst into wailing. However, he could read lips and interpret certain gestures especially when being given food and anything interesting to him.
