Observation

Observation is a very valuable tool. It's an excellent way to track children's progress, measure their growth and development, and it should be embedded into every child care program.

Observation should always be followed by documentation. You should take anecdotal notes free of opinions to record behavior and activities. For example, "At 2:50 pm, child was observed holding doll in right hand and pointing it's head down into the toilet." This is a simple, straight forward recording of facts. These notes should be taken on each child to measure their progress so that they can be reported to parents.

Child Care providers can also do checklists that guide them to look for predetermined behaviors and activities. You can find published checklists, or the child care provider can create their own. Observation enables child care providers to understand more about the factors that cause certain behaviors. If you observe a problem over and over again, these patterns should be noted so that parents can be informed about their child.

Observations can also help providers get to know each child's strengths and weaknesses and help them adjust their programs and child care environments to better facilitate the children's learning and behavior.

For example if you have your dramatic play area set up next to your quiet reading area, you'll notice conflicts arising from this setup in the way that kids interact with each other. This can help you rearrange your area to avoid problems and facilitate learning.

When you practice regular observation and documenting, you will begin to see the kids as unique individual people. You will learn their strengths and also areas to focus on to help them progress. It will help you structure your program to better suit all the children in your care.

Being consistent is important to document patterns and also necessary for assessment. Remember to do the observations at different times of the day for each child. For example, if you observe a child only during drop-off time and he has a hard time every day during drop-off,