Background

Andrew Frazier is the infant that I observed. Andrew is a male born to a single mother who has never married. Andrew’s mother resides in West Palm Beach, Florida. Andrew turned one year old in December of 2018. I decided to watch and observe Andrew at his first year of birth to identify developmental milestones of a child with the mother as the only parent. In the first few weeks, Andrew spent most of his time sleeping. He slept for averagely 17 hours per day. The sleeping hours reduced as weeks elapsed. This is normal for infants. From the lessons learned in chapter three of the course, newborns should sleep for between 15 and 17 hours daily. There were continuous and consistent waking interruptions to Andrew’s sleeping pattern. His average sleeping time by December 2018 was about 12 hours. Andrew’s infants’ bed was placed in his mothers’ bedroom. The mother argued that this simplified his monitoring. Andrew continuously twitched his limbs during his waking moments in the first 12 weeks.

Physical

Andrew is now one year old and weighs 20 pounds. This is approximately thrice his birth weight that stated as 7 pounds. Andrew does not have baby fat even though he added weight. He is in control of his motor skills. Andrew plays around the house with several toys. His collection of toys include movable toys such as cars. The mother told me that the movable toys help him to move around the house. She believes that the toys will walk him walk faster. He crawls around the house but would support himself on the couch to stand and make few steps around the sofa before he eventually sits down. During this time, he gazes at the mother as she encourages him to keep moving. Andrew is healthy and carries his toys around the house without much help from the mother. Andrews’s main concern at the moment is to balance and stand on his own. He occasionally stands up without support but can barely make a step. According to chapter four of the “first two years,” a child should be able to walk at 12 months. This was not the case with Andrew. It was evident that he needed a few more months to develop stability and balance to be able to walk freely.

Cognitive

Andrew can identify his mother’s in a crowd of four adults. When the mother talks you would see him turn towards the mother and leave the toys for a moment. However, when another person or I talk, he does not seem bothered. Besides, he recognizes his name. When one mentions the name “Andrew,” he turns towards the person. This means that Andrew’s auditory cortex is developing correctly. His response when a familiar sound such as his name is called involves reflexes such as smiling and opening his eyes while gazing at the person who called the name. Besides, he may bubble some meaningless sounds in response. Andrew was able to pick his toys and place them where he wanted them to be a success. Besides, he could move his toys on the floor when crawling without difficulty. The coordination between sense and motor skills shows that Andrew has a healthy cognitive growth. This could partly be because of the toys the mother bought him. Environment plays an essential role in the cognitive development of infants (chapter 3).

Andrew smiles and shakes his hands in happiness when the mother gives him sweet and sugary foodstuff. However, the protests and spits bitter or tasteless food. He moves his head away when he served a second spoon and tried to get away from the mother.

Language

Andrew was able to say several words at the age of one year. Some of the words were audible, and one could easily understand what he was saying. However, some of the words were a slur and required one to think hard to derive meaning out of them. To my surprise, the mother was able to understand all the words Andrew could utter.

Similarly, Andrew understood everything that the mother told him. He could reply to his mother’s, but his attention would be diverted by little destruction like the sound of a falling object. Some of the words that Andrew spelled correctly included bye, no, mum, and car. He could also spell some words “bubah” and “thom” whose meanings were challenging to understand.

Attachment

Andrew’s behavior towards his mother was an indication of the affection he has formed towards her. For instance, he could hardly play for more than five minutes before looking towards his mother’s direction. This is normal behavior in infants who have developed attachment towards their caregivers (Chapter 4). Besides, he could leave his toys, move towards the mother, touch and hold her for a while when we were talking then go back to his toys.

Another thing I noted was that Andrew was happy and seemingly secure when the mother was around. However, when the mother left the leaving room to pick something from the bedroom, I sensed anxiety in his eyes. He began to cry and crawled towards the bedroom after a few minutes. Andrew is undergoing classic secure attachment stage that is experienced by infants between eight months and two years of age. The mother stated that she took him with her to most of the places including bedroom because he grew insecure in her absence. She said that the situation was worse when there are strangers. His close attachment can be attributed to the fact that the mother is the only giver in his life.

Temperament

Andrew’s emotions changed according to his needs. For example, he could cry and throw when toys in any direction of the house when hungry. Besides, he grew anxiety and anger when the mother was not around him. He could cry and throw tantrums when the mother left the leaving room to the bedroom and closed the door behind her. This is a regular occurrence in toddlers because they are famous for fury (Chapter 4). Infants engage in crying, screaming, and throwing themselves on the flow because they lack the logic to express themselves (Chapter 4). On the positive side, Andrew was healthy and happy when his needs were satisfied such as the presence of the mother.

Limitations of the Observations

My observation is limited because it focused on Andrew’s behavior in the presence of his mother. This hindered observing his developmental milestones such as independence. Besides, my observation was periodic and may not represent the actual behavior of the child at his age.Moreover, the observation did not take into account the times when Andrew’s mother was busy with other chores and was not able to give him full attention.

Lessons about infants

One of the lessons I learned about infants is that they grow fonder of their caregivers. The feel secure when the caregiver is around them. Besides, they learn from their surrounding environment (Chapter 4). The first words infants learn to utter depend on the objects they see regularly. For instance, Andrew was able to pronounce the word “mother” correctly because she was always around him. Besides, infants show their needs through emotions such as crying and throwing tantrums. Andrew cried to prove that he was hungry and needed to be with her mother.

References

The First Two Years (Chapter 4). The Social World.

The First Two Years (Chapter 3). Body and Mind.

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