Five Reasons to Observe Children

Here are some of the reasons that teachers offer when asked about the value of watching and listening to children:

• If I watch the children play, I can discover their interests.
• By observing children, I can assess their developmental levels.
• I look to see what strategies children use to attain their goals.
• Observing children helps me know what skills the children need to practice.
• When I observe children at play, I learn a lot about their personalities.

We want to use these reasons again, so we will provide an example that illustrates the general meaning of each:

• Interests—He loves to play with trucks.
• Developmental level—She throws the ball either very hard or not at all, but she does not vary the throw along a continuum of very hard, hard, and soft.
• Strategies—She tries to influence her friend’s actions by controlling all of the crayons.
• Skills—She has trouble stringing beads onto a knotted shoestring.
• Personality—She is reserved and does not like to take risks.

In essence, we can learn at least five attributes of our children when we observe them closely:

• Their interests and preferences
• Their levels of cognitive and social development
• Their strategies for creating desired effects
• Their skills and accomplishments
• Their personalities and temperaments