Baby Pansley’s language development can be described as normal from the observations made between 7 th months up to one year. Developmentally, if she could utter the words ‘mama’ between the 7 th and 8 th month, she must have been on the right track mastering the common words that are expected of a baby her age. It is also worth noting during the same period that she was bubbling with inflection and could respond positively to certain questions. For instance, she responded with a ‘yeah’ when asked if the food was tasted good for her. She could notice the difference between her mother and the teacher and was also able to stop doing her activities when she noticed an adult in the room. She was also able to respond to simple requests, for example, when the teacher requested for an object that she had in her hands, she instinctively stared back at the teacher. The baby also responded well to exclamations by murmuring some words after the teacher in addition to shaking her head to mean that she did not like something.
Cognitively, the baby seemed to recognize most things that she was subjected to. She could, for example, shake the teacher when she got close but dropped to the ground afterward . That signifies her intuition to explore objects in many different ways like shaking, banging, dropping, and even throwing. When the teacher beat a drum in the room, she repeated the same action signifying that she is able to imitate gestures between nine and twelve months of age. Her ability to play simple games or to find hidden objects was not observed.
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Socially, baby Pansley is not shy. She could be observed smiling at the teacher and even crawled towards the teacher indicating that she does not shy away from strangers. She also seemed not to want to go to strangers in the company of her parents and cried when the mother tried to hand her over to the teacher. Generally, she showed a preference for her mother over the teacher and by extension to strangers. In addition, that indicated that she preferred to be in the company of her mother or the usual caregiver to the company of total strangers though she did not seek attention when stressed. The parent had also observed that the baby did not easily fall asleep when they went to bed as she would be awake for almost thirty minutes while in bed before she would finally fall asleep.
Observations on her fine motor development did not give the expected results for a child of her age according to the checklist. At seven months, the baby could not grasp anything with the thumb and her index finger. She could not also bang two cubes together nor poke things with her index finger on her own from the observations report. Additionally, she could not be seen putting objects into a container but was seen attempting to remove a tether from a container which she eventually threw to the floor. Moreover, the baby did not attempt to copy the teacher while scribbling things but instead waved bye to her. Generally, her writing development had not picked up as her age suggested.
The baby’s gross motor development as observed had her crawl in instances and for some stages also walked on her feet. She could actually assume both her hand and knee positions with ease. She could get herself to sitting positions without assistance and easily got herself to standing positions near furniture without help from anyone. Moreover, the baby easily crept on her hands and knees with ease and also shifted easily from her sitting position to crawling and sometimes on her stomach. She could also be seen getting up using a walker and moved for a few steps with the walker. Sometimes, she was seen putting her hands on the ground and shortly pushed herself up in an attempt to stand up on her own without support. She could also make a few steps without support by walking halfway on the floor but fell down on her butts after that short walk.
During the observation process, the report indicated certain areas that raised a red flag in the development of the baby holistically. For instance, the report did not indicate whether the baby was able to search for hidden objects. According to the normal development progress of a baby, by about 10 -12 months, a baby should be able to search for objects that have been hidden from her/him in a playroom. The report did also not indicate the baby’s ability to engage in simple games like Peek-a-Boo, which significantly raised a red flag in her cognitive development. In addition to that, the baby’s writing development did not register many positive results in the checklist. She could not grasp anything with her index finger and her thumb nor poke at things with her index finger alone. Emotionally, the report did not indicate if the baby cried out seeking attention when stressed, another red flag in the social development of a child.
For a child to continue with a normal development pattern there is a need to help her to develop her cognitive skills to the fullest. Logically, the brain needs to develop such skills to help a baby think, remember, read, pay attention, and remember certain things. These cognitive skills will help the baby to learn more and keep such information in the brain for their daily activities and development.
The baby seems to be having a positive development in her cognitive, language and gross motor aspects. It can only be healthy if she continues to be monitored on these areas to help her capitalize on these areas so that she does not slump in her growth or reverse the gains made so far. The parent or the caregiver needs to take note of those strengths and to continue helping her develop further.
On her fine motor development and to some extent her emotional development, the child seems to have weaknesses in developing her skills, and I consider these as areas of interest. In addition to regular monitoring, the parent and the caregiver need to pay special attention to the factors that could have led to her slow development in those areas. For example, they need to start training her in her writing skills by teaching her how to hold objects with her fingers. They can also introduce her to playing simple games and hiding things for her and let her find them.
To help the baby reach her milestones, further opportunities should be explored to make her a holistic child capable of challenging everything that comes her way. To achieve this, the parents or the caregiver needs to maximize the strengths highlighted above in as far as her development goes. In addition, they also need to look at the areas where her normal growth is disturbed and work harder in those fields in order to develop them alongside the other good areas. All these tackled together with regular checks will propel the baby to greater heights.
