Henry Mason Observation

For the purpose of gathering data to link human development to several of the developmental theories we are learning about in this course I chose to observe a three-year-old child named Henry Mason. I am changing names to protect privacy. I meet Henry’s mother, Susan, at their modest three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Saint Augustine, Florida to observe the “context and environment” of Henry’s home life, (AOTA, 2014, p. S28). Susan, 34, greets me with Henry, chasing quickly behind her with their pet border collie, Cordie. Her other two children are an eight and a ten-year-old girl. “Susan and her husband, Sam, bought their home six years ago. She tells me to excuse the disorganized mess and ushers me to a large, fenced backyard with a few

Henry will be having his afternoon playtime before dinner. Henry carefully walks down three cinder block steps with no railing to the brick patio before running off screaming, “Wait for me!” into the grassy area of the yard. He is visibly excited to be in the company of his two sisters, his teenaged babysitter, and a neighborhood child. Susan supervises from the patio and asks Henry to show her how well he can roll his truck. He runs back to show her how he can roll his dump truck by using a hook grip to grasp the narrow edges of the truck and carry it to the far side of the patio. He then puts it down and bends over and then rushes it forward while on his tiptoes. The distance he goes on “his tiptoes shows he has a firm grasp on his gross motor control skills and seems to be on point with his age being that he just now 3 years of age.” (Cronin, 2016, p. 252). This is the only time he runs on tip toes. Henry’s mom uses positive reinforcement by telling him he is doing a great job and they high

(Cronin, 2016, p. 42).” In the preconventional level of Kohlberg’s theory, Henry gaining positive reinforcement by way of encouragement and a high five in the second stage of the level shows “pragmatic reciprocity,” (Cronin, 2016, p. 42). Henry was a little distracted at first but he listened to his mother quickly, avoiding the first level. In the second level, Henry wanted to please Susan so he followed her directions by grasping his truck and eagerly complied thus benefitting from her praise and