INTRODUCTION:

Ricky is a male, 5 year old that lives in a house with his Mother, brothers and sisters. His father is not in the picture, Heather, stay at home mom, is a single mother. Also living in the low income housing. With on extended family within 10 miles, he is looked at by the neighbor when. Rick’s likes are his blanket, dancing, and getting into everything. His dislikes are beets and peas. Rick’s development will be observed at home as a part of a Child Development course at Angelo State College.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:

Rick was born on May 8, 2007, weighing 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 18 ½ inches tall. At three months, he started sitting up and eating cereal. He slept through the night at 5 month. He got his first tooth at 7 months. He sat up by himself at 8 months and at 10 months he held his bottle, crawled and started walking. According to Woolfolk (2013), crawling and walking does not normally happen in the same month. Crawling usually happens at 8 to 10 months, which he did, but walking usually around 11 to 12 months. He could dance and run at 11 months. Ricky is now 5 years old, he is 30 lbs and 36 inches tall which means that he is in about the 75 percentile in both on the growth chart (National Center for Health Statistics, 2000). According to the Developmental Checklist, Ricky shows all of the physical/motor developmental appropriate skills. Ricky started kicking during the summer when his brother was playing soccer. He can also throw balls short distances. He does things with both hands, but most of the time he shows signs

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of being right handed. He can do the puzzles that require putting pieces on the board, but he can not to the puzzles that create a picture yet. When he draws he mostly scribbles which is not normal for his age because he is not in the Scribbling Stage (Woolfolk, 2013). But when you asked him what he drew, he does not answer he only points at it and says his universal word, “That”.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:

Ricky responds to two different sounds and voices. But he did not always respond to them. Ricky could follow things with his eyes; one thing he would always follow was his mother. He would also imitate others; one person I have noticed that he imitates regularly is his brother. He also learned how to put objects in and out of containers. He looks at thing for a reasonably long amount of time when he is curious. Ricky talks with words and gestures. Sometime the words are not clear especially when he is excited. He does not like to sit still enough for stories time, but he will watch “Finding Nemo” over and over. To him, it is called, “fishy”. He also likes Sesame
Street, more specifically he likes Elmo and he knows his name. If you hide an object he will look for it, but he will not just go and look for an object if told, unless it is his shoes or coat. Ricky has started to show signs of memory and assimilation. One example of this is pots and pans because his mom cooks with them and they are hot, he told me that the frying pan I was making something to eat on the stove. He pointed and said “hot, hot”. Ricky will respond to simple directions. If you tell him to pick up the trash, like a wrapper or gummy bag, he will throw it 3

away. He would pick up his toys if told too, most of the time. He has also started to use problem solving to figure things out. They shut doors to keep him out of things and he figured out how to open them so that he can still get to the things he wants and they will not let him have.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

She believes that nature had a role in his personality because Ricky has her temper. Ricky seems to be pretty open about his emotions. When he is mad, he screams. When he is hurt, he cries. When he has done something wrong and has gotten in trouble he simply looks down and gets sad. He has grown up with Angie being home with him all the time; Heather does cook sometimes so that may have an effect too. Ricky is known as the tornado, not because of temper but because he is very energetic and he gets into things a lot. He enjoys playing with everything from anyone’s shoes to Little People toys. When he came in for the observation he actually showed his love of taking people’s shoes because he took Jess’s shoes and did not want to give them back. He does have a security blanket. As long as he has it he is usually okay. It have been a window to his caring side. When he is around his cousin and she is crying he will give her his blanket to try to calm her down. He has not done the crying though. When asked Heather cannot remember him doing any social referencing, but does notice that when Ricky is doing something that Josh knows is wrong Josh will look at them to find out whether or not to stop him (Rice, 4

personal communication, April 15, 2007). He has started a new phase of being really shy. He is not only shy around new people he has started to be shy around people that he has always known including Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. He is not shy however, towards his mother, brothers and sisters.
REFLECTION:
This case study was done on a 5 years old named Ricky. I believe that he is developing normally for his age. One thing that I have learned is that his artwork is in a stage. Although it just looks like scribbles those lines that he has learned to draw will be the foundation of his later art skills. I also learned that I made some mistake when I first seen his drawing. The first thing that crossed my mind was to ask, “What is that Ricky?” That can actually be a hindering factor for him. If he has to explain everything he draws and tell you what it is that may prevent him from being creative in the future. I should have just told him what a great job he did on it. One thing that I have noted Ricky is incredibly active as a 5 year old. He has already started going outside by himself and if Heather is not looking for a minute and the door is unlocked, he will go outside no matter how the weather. Since he does not have a fear of anything yet, he will just keep on walking down the sidewalk too. Luckily, he has never gotten farther than the sidewalk. That may change as he gets older and braver. This case study has given me a hand on for understanding the material cover in class about this age group. I had the opportunity to experience Ricky using his scheme that pans are hot and that to a frying pan. I also got the change so see how some of his emotions are developing. When he is with his cousin and she is crying, he is upset too. He tries to make her happy by giving her his blanket to calm her down. He will take it upon himself to 5

make sure people are paying attention to her and picked her up to stop her from crying. That is showing his empathy. That was very interesting to me to observe something like that because I would have not given further thought to it without this case study.