Naturalistic Observation In Early Childhood

According to developmental psychology a person at any age is at a certain stage of cognitive, moral, psychosocial, and physical development. This development is measured by different types of thinking, mental capacity for tasks, physical strength, and reasoning for following rules. Development is easily seen in children. Naturalistic observation is the one of the easiest method to see these developments in children. This is the observation technique I used, while watching a five year old male at Kindercare Daycare at 3:30 on a Friday. I did my observation after the children had a recess period and came inside for a snack and play time. While observing the male child it was obvious to see where he was in cognitive, moral, psychosocial, and physical development.
In the first ten minute of observation, the children had just come back from recess to have a snack. The five year old male child proceeded to the sink and washed his hands. The child who refused to follow the directions when asked was not given a snack and not allowed to participate in free time after snack. The learned behavior of washing his hands in order to receive a snack and participate in playtime can be connected morality. He followed the rules(washed hands) to avoid punishment and gain a reward(snack/playtime). This aligns to Kohlberg's preconventional morality,

Around fifteen minutes, the child I was observing got out legos,took them to the carpeted area and then started to play with them. He also invited others play to with them. This behavior shows initiative. He wants to be friendly and show he can do things. This behavior is congruent with Erikson's, initiative v guilt stage of development. His theory states while in this stage, a child will try make plans by themselves, try to do things with others, or else they feel a sense of guilt for not doing these things. The stage matches with his age, this stage is usually seen in three to five year