[Crystal R]

Ongoing and systematic observation of the children will provide you with the information you need in order to offer quality care and comply with the WAC requirements to:

• Provide a variety of easily accessible learning and play materials of sufficient quantity to implement the center’s program and meet the developmental needs of children in care.
• Have a current daily schedule of activities and lesson plans that are designed to meet the children’s developmental, cultural and individual needs.
• Ensure the lesson plan, daily schedule of events, available toys and equipment contain a range of learning experiences to allow each child the opportunity to:
• Gain self-esteem, self-awareness, self-control, and decision-making abilities,
• Develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically,
• Learn about nutrition, health and personal safety, and
• Experiment, create and explore.

[Christian Pflager]

Observing a child helps you better understand them as individual people, with specific wants and needs to be catered to in order to help them develop to the best of their ability. Documenting their behavior can help illuminate patterns or measure progress.

[Jayden Ellis]

It helps you know how they learn and it can point out things that don’t really work for that child and things that do so after observing you know how to better help that child

[Roseli Santos]

It helps better understand the child and their unique needs. You can always go back a re-read anything you document to help yourself plan or to look at your own progress.

[Brenna]

By observing and documenting a child’s development, you can understand the child and their learning paths far better and with much more patience.

[Awo Mah]

Observing and documenting a child’s develop helps early learning providers because observation can be connected to the planning you will do for children’s activities. In order to create individualized activities you have to be great at both observing and documenting, all children have different temperaments so this helps identify what they are great at and what they can work on.

[abby kolbeck]

How does observing and documenting a child’s development help early learning providers?

It helps us get a better understanding of each individual child, for each of them are unique and so is their learning style. This helps us see how we can best help them learn and grow to their full potential. It also can help us grow as teachers, to be better teachers. By documenting these things we can create a strong and effective learning center.

[Sailaja]

As each child is a unique person with individual patterns and timing of growth and also have their own temperaments, learning styles, experiences, and family and cultural backgrounds. A developmentally appropriate program adapts for these variations among children. This is done by learning about each child’s developmental strengths and challenges through careful and intentional observation.

Through observation and documenting a child’s development, early learning providers will be better prepared to provide a variety of materials and activities that support children’s individuality and meet their developmental needs.

[Veronica]

Observation helps as it lets you know how a child is doing. It lets you know how their doing developmentally and it lets you know about the child like their interests and how they feel about lessons and/or activities.

[Casidy Giles]

Observing/documenting can help providers understand child better, strengthen relationship, and interpret finding to know what guidance is necessary to have child stay on learning continuum.

[Zorayda]

El cuidado, el afecto y el aprendizaje
temprano ayudan a los niños y niñas a iniciar el camino que les permita alcanzar el máximo potencial en su
desarrollo.

[Shannon Blancas]

Observing and documenting helps a child’s development in an early learning because then we can see what they need to learn and develop. If they need extra help, or if I am giving them the right material for that child. Not all children learn in the same way. It is important to observe and make sure its the right material for that child.

[Molly Carden]

Observation enables a provider to interact with a child in an appropriate way according to their development and support them in the specific ways that they need. It provides a closer look at where they are on the development continuum and allows for the teacher to become more specific in their planning for meeting that child’s needs

[Kenya Abney]

observing and documenting may help early learning providers pinpoint areas certain children need help and maybe one on one time to progress and gain confidence in that area, or it may help them to see something that the general class is struggling with, succeeding at, interested in. etc. which may allow them to add certain curriculum, add toys or books that they think would help the classroom, etc.

[Rey Fairburn]

Observing and documenting a child’s development helps early learning providers by allowing us to customize the curriculum to fit each child’s needs, and to make sure we are actively helping each child grow.