Communication 2

A Guide for Educators: How to enhance observation skills for supporting and documenting development

USE DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE:

Observation is Key

Another way to enhance the way you conduct your observation is to become comfprtable and professional in using descriptive language to capture the milestone of children's behaviors and interactions, and area of development. A strength to gain is to avoid using generalizations or judgments, and instead, provide clear and detailed descriptions of what you are observing

Take time throughtout the day to observe children in specific durations of the day such as play time, small and large group activities, individual activities, Keep in mind to keep observations objective meanwhile focuing on the behaviors, social interations, and skills demonstrated by the children. Take note of the context and environments in which observations happen. Such as time of day, activities being that are engaged in, and interactions with peers and caregivers are highly important observations to make.

Source: Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC). (n.d.). Writing Objective and Accurate Observation Notes. Child Observation: The Heart of Individualizing Responsive Care for Infants and Toddlers. Retrieved from https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/child-screening-assessment/child-observation-heart-individualizing-responsive-care-infants-toddlers/writing-objective-accurate-observation-notes

BE SURE TO DESCRIBE CONTEXT:

Another huge tool to utilize is describing the context and environment of the observation being made to ensure acuracy, and to know the factors of the time of day the observation occured, activities being engaged in, and the interactions with peers that are being made. All of these factors of the educator and child can have an influence on the childs development as a whole.

OBJECTIVE OBSERVATION:

It is highly imortant for educators making observations to remain focused on the actual behavior being observed rather than making assumptions and interpretations of what you may be observing. This is important because assumptions can lead to falsly percived observations and future educations may build connations based off of your assumption observation