Child Study Observation To begin, I observed two children, one boy and one girl, at the Lakeview child study center. I observed substantial differences in how the two children interacted with other children, as well as adults. First, I observed the boy. He went through periods of verbal and non-verbal interaction.
For example, he would speak to a teacher by asking her to watch him hoola-hoop. Then, a few moments later he would ignore the teacher when she asked him a question. This verbal-non-verbal behavior continued through out the observation and when he moved from one area to another. On comparison, the girl that I observed was extremely vocal and stayed in one area during the entire observation. She enjoyed the company around her because she was vocally and physically active in a positive manner. The girl seemed to be quite comfortable in a tightly knitted group, slightly brushing against the teacher and other children she was playing with.
On the other hand, the boy was distant and on the move. He was active and enjoyed keeping to himself. He would approach a group and keep his distance as the watched the other children participate, seemingly, as if he were conducting his own observation study. Moreover, the interactions with adults were distinctly different. With the exception of hoola-hoop, the boy mainly used non-verbal communication. At times where he was asked a question that he could not answer with a head movement, he would just avoid the question by waling away.
The Essay on Non verbal Observations
NON-VERBAL OBSERVATIONS 1. Location, date and time of observation. I took more than an hour observing people at a restaurant where I went to. It was an ordinary fast food restaurant at around 12 noontime on a Sunday. I seated myself at a corner where I am able to observe a wide variety of people coming in and seated on chairs right across me. My corner would afford me a good eyes view of the ...
In comparison, the girl was very vocal and enjoyed speaking to adults. Along with her extreme talkativeness, she was not bothered by physical contact at all. In fact, when she spoke to someone, she walked right up to him or her and touched him or her somehow, either by hand contact or brushing against him or her. More importantly, the girl seemed to appear capable of successful social interaction, where as, the boy seemed capable, but preferred not to socialize.
He was not ignored by others, but rather chose to ignore others himself. Furthermore, overall, there are significant differences of social interaction behaviors between boys and girls based on the data I obtained from this observation. Undoubtedly, I cannot generalize these differences to all boys and girls solely on the data from this observation; nevertheless, the data obtained is interesting enough!
