Essay Instructions: Topic : Case Study (essay format)
Your case study has 5 major parts and an introduction:
Introduction:
? Include the following ?
o Age
o Gender
o Background information you think is important such as family status, English language status, etc.
? Do not include ?
o Personal opinion about the child
o Other?s opinions about the child
o Details about their development / behavior
Part One: Physical Development Description
? Include the following ?
o Detailed observation of physical behavior that you observed directly
o Fine and large motor actions
o Actions describing: Coordination, balance, body awareness, agility and strength.
? Do not include ?
o Description of behavior other than physical
o Opinions about behavior
o Behavior you did not directly observe
o Generalizations about physical behavior
Analysis:
? Include ?
o How their behavior relates to principles of physical development as described in the text and in class
o Conclusions about large and fine motor abilities: Are they typical of the child?s age?
Part Two: Cognitive Development
? Observe your child engaged in an activity alone or with peers
? Record what they say and do
? Describe how they figure out solutions to problems; trial and error, systematic testing of options, how they decide what to do next.
? How long they pay attention to things and with what degree of focus / concentration.
? Describe any information / facts they mention or how they remember things / try to commit things to memory.
? Describe how they make connections between different things that are related
? Describe how they use language to help themselves think through a problem or expand on an idea
? Describe how they use language in relation to thinking
? Describe how they use resources for problem solving, i.e.: books, papers, measurement tools
? Mention if they show the ability to see things from more than one perspective or if they do not
? Describe any sign of logical thought such as: Generalizing, i.e.: ?I need two legs to balance, so my structure needs two sides to stand up,? or ?in order to make both sides even, I have to take away or add the same amount to both sides.?
? Describe their preferred learning style, whether they excel in a certain area
Analysis:
Relate your observations to: Piaget?s ego-centrism, concrete operations, schemas, disequilibration, assimilation, accommodation, Vygotsky?s self talk, zone of proximal development, internalization, scaffolding, reciprocal teaching, selective attention, effortful control, elaboration, mneu7monic strategy, problem solving strategies, long term / short term memory, memory retrieval strategies, Gardner?s intelligences
Part Three: Language Development
? Record exact conversations between your case study child and their peers as well as adults.
o Analyze their speech for the sentence structure; syntax, vocabulary; semantics, morphemes; grammar, articulation of words and sounds of words, and social use of language; pragmatics, i.e.: Conversation skills, polite speech, also note any code switching between different people / situations. Do not analyze the social skills of the child.
o Get a sample of their writing and analyze for phonemic awareness, morphemes / grammar descriptive ability and literary quality.
o Either observe them reading aloud or ask hem about reading, analyze reading strategies and fluency.
? Based on what you noticed answer:
o Does their oral language seem typical of their age, why, why not?
o Does their literacy seem to be developing typically?
Part Four: Social / Emotional Development
? Observe your child interacting with peers. Describe:
o How they enter interaction with others,
o How they engage others during interactions,
o How they respond to and handle conflict with others.
o How they handle frustration or disappointment
o How they react to change.
o How they respond to adult authority.
? Notice the types of friendships
? You might also want to ask older children 9-12:
o How they see themselves in certain areas, i.e.: ?What are you good at?? ?Where would you like to improve?? what they think makes a good friend / how they choose their friends.
? Relate these details to:
o Attachment security ? Temperament ?Emotion regulation, -Self concept, -Self-esteem, -Identity development, -Social-cognitive skills, -Empathy and sympathy, -Perspective taking ability, -Friendship quality, -Interpersonal skills, -Aggression, -Person perception.
? Do not make up your own ideas about their social / emotional development without referencing something from the course.
? Do not make generalizations about their personality / future that are not clearly and directly tied to what you observed.
Conclusion:
? Summarize your case study child?s overall development.
? Describe what areas you consider strengths and weaknesses and why.
? Note if you observed any delays or signs of giftedness and why you think they represent a difference from typical development.
? Based on what you just discussed about the strengths and weaknesses, make three recommendations for parents and teachers to improve their development in the four major domains.