Infant Observation

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Infant Observation On Wednesday, April 3rd, 2002, Lauren an African American, dark brown hair, brown eyed girl was one of the infants that our class observed. Lauren was born on November 7th 2000 and was a full term baby. Right now Lauren is about 1-½ years old and weighs approximately 32 lbs. Lauren lives with her Mother, Father, and 2 older brothers. Lauren's parents take her to a daycare center almost every day with some exceptions.

1. Lauren focused most of her time on different objects such as toys, food, and people. Berger (pg. 158) says that by the 12 months of an infant's life he or she should have a vision of 20/20. During the hour we observed Lauren she played with different objects. Mostly the three-dimensional objects she enjoyed more. For example she brought a Barbie with her and played with it for a sufficient amount of time and allowed the other infants to enjoy it as well.

Berger (pg. 159) mentions that infants enjoy 3-dimensional object rather than 2-dimensional, which confirms Lauren delight in playing with her Barbie, but Lauren was not habituated with that Barbie or with any other toy that was there. Habituation occurs when an object or stimulus becomes familiar and does not unfold the same physiological responses when it was first introduced to it (Berger, pg. 156). Lauren was stimulated with an object for a few seconds then really didn't care much for it.

2. Lauren at times would constantly be moving around the room where the other infants would be at and at times sit there by herself and draw or watch for a few seconds. Lauren uses her gross motor skills, which are described as large body movements such as running, jumping, walking, and arm movements (Berger pg. 150). She...