First Observation of a Child: An Example of a Narrative Report

I was observing her from a distance while her aunt was talking to her. Anastasia was telling her about everything around them and pointed her little finger at all objects: "there is rain outside, and there is a ball by the window and there is a flower in the vase" she was saying without making a break in the sentences, "Really?", her aunt answered, "what else is there?". Anastasia kept showing her hew toys in the room and got really excited when she was asked to tell about her toys and their names and what they were for. "This is a cat and it has fur and paws" she said about a toy that looked like cat, "his name is Stacy", her aunt looked like she was very interested in everything that she was shown and Anastasia kept busy with taking out all of her toys from the box on the floor. After about 15 minutes of playing with her aunt Anastasia started telling everyone in the room including her parents to go home. "Stacy, said her mom, but we are already home and you are home too! Where do you want us to go?" "Home, home", she kept saying. Her mother told us that she probably means going upstairs because that’s where her babysitter is, although she was resting at the time and would not be working for another couple of hours. Anastasia was getting louder and demanded everyone to go home even after her mother told her to stop. We had to go upstairs and put her favorite cartoon on it was “The Lion King”. She seemed to be totally immersed in the cartoon, although she was leaning on her dad and did not allow him to move a bit. When he did she showed her disapproval by starting to cry. While watching the cartoon her mother managed to give her a bit of mineral water and she was not rejecting it although when she tried to do it downstairs Stacy said she did not want any. She willingly drank water from her bottle and watched the cartoon until the end. After the DVD was finished her father turned it off and put regular TV on, Anastasia started crying loudly demanding "where is the lion?", her mom was explaining that "we are going to watch a different kind of lion now, the one daddy wants to watch". First Stacy was shaking her head (her cheeks turned bright pink from crying) and was repeating the same thing all over again, but than her mother started signing her favorite song from the movie and dancing to get Stacy involved. The girl reacted to that very quickly and started repeating the moves after her mother and smiling, than she asked for some more water. She was watching her mom taking water out of the refrigerator and pouring it into a special bottle. Her mother asked her to help screw the top of the bottle on which took Stacy some time and effort. Stacy looked impatient but she would not let it go until she almost did it herself, although with some help from her mom. When they were finished with water, Stacy started drinking with more interest than when she was watching cartoon, it looked like, from her bottle holding it tightly with both of her hands. While she was drinking she was standing near her mom who was washing something in the sink. "Common Anastasia", her mom said when she was finished and Stacy followed her into the living room where everyone was seated on the couches. Among all the people she went up to her dad and climbed on the couch and set right next to him. Her mom tried to sit next to her so that she would be in the middle between the two parents. When the mother put her hand over her to hug her husband (Stacy’s dad), Stacy pushed her arm away and said "It’s my daddy". Her mom said "No daddy is mine", and grabbed him by the arm and tried hugging him, Stacy cried “no daddy is mine” and pushed the mom farther again. She later explained that it’s a sort of game that they play sometimes, when both of them fight over whose daddy is. Although the mother was not serious about it, when she was hugging her husband, Stacy looked confused and her cheeks turned red immediately as if she was going to cry. The mother allowed Stacy "to win" the game which made her look absolutely happy, she kept hugging her dad and smiling. When they finished "the game" Anastasia started backing up from the couch, she put one leg on the floor first and then the second one, that’s how she got down from the coach facing all people sitting on it, and went to the kitchen. From there she said "water, water, water" in a way that one could barely guess what she wanted, but her mother got up and went to get her more water from the refrigerator. She got her water and on the way to the living room from the kitchen that are almost connected to one another, so it was seen very well, she stopped by another box of toys and took out a couple of them. She put her water bottle on the kitchen table and started squeezing her toys like the first time and whispering something to them, once in a while she looked up and showed us what she was holding in her hands and smiled. NotesStacy standing by the sliding door, looking outside and pointing her finger in the direction of the neighbor’s house. She keeps describing everything around her, what she sees and she smiles when tells her aunt what all those things are called. Stacy is on the couch looking at everyone and banging her feet on the couch and laughing loudly. No one is looking at her directly, after she starts laughing her mother wants to know why she is laughing. Everyone is upstairs because Anastasia kept asking everyone to go "home" which meant upstairs according to her mother’s explanation. Stacy asked to watch her favorite cartoon, she was sitting on the couch completely busy with the picture on the screen, she was very quite. Stacy’s mom gave her some water and she drank it all while watching, she didn’t pay any attention to the adults in the room although they were talking. She was watching the cartoon. After the cartoon was finished she got upset and started crying, he father switched regular TV on. Her mom got her involved with a little dance in the kitchen and a song from the cartoon. She climbed on the couch near her father when she came back from the kitchen and started arguing with the mother whom her daddy belonged to. Stacy looked upset a few times when her mom hugged daddy and got excited when she herself hugged him. Anastasia went to the kitchen and said loudly a few times that she wanted water. Her mother gave her some. She was taking her toys out of the box, looking at them first and then showing them to us. When she saw someone looking at her, she smiled.