Observations are a quintessential part of an early childhood educator’s day. The book by Heidemann and Hewitt, Play the Pathway from Theory to Practice created a checklist to help educators with observations; “The Play Checklist has been developed to help adults understand children’s sociodramatic play skills” (Heidemann and Hewitt, 2010, p. 81). There are ten different criteria to observe as a child is playing. As an educator, I used the play checklist to observe a girl in my classroom to help see how the child develops. Description of the setting and child I currently work in a NAEYC accredited child care center. The child I observed is in my toddler classroom and all of the observations were done inside the classroom, not in any other part of the center. I had …show more content…
89). By encouraging her to be more verbal in play, it will expand the play, be more creative, and help make play last longer. 4: Verbal Communication during a Play Episode L.S. doesn’t care to talk to anyone but adults or to herself during play. She may some say something to her friends, but it may not be directed at any one child. Like she is just talking out loud to herself. My last time observing her, she asked a friend if they wanted a phone. However, she is very chatty with other teachers and adults during play, when they are nearby. Help aid L.S. with more verbal communication during play would be to try to get her to talk to her friends. Either, with some encouragement from teachers and/or to give her some examples of how she could talk to her friends to have an engaging interaction. “Unless this verbal interaction occurs, children play their roles alone, with little communication between them” (Heidemann and Hewitt, 2010, p. 90). L.S. is very social and likes to be in the middle of things, so I would not like to see her play alone. 5: Persistence in