Behavioral observations offer invaluable insights into problematic students’ behaviors by facilitating psychological assessment. This paper aims to present a hypothetical observation of Erica, a school-age child who manifests mood irregularities and meltdowns, which implies the girl’s insufficient stress resilience. To model real-life behavioral observation procedures, the report specifies the key details pertaining to the behavioral issue’s nature, contexts, and temporality and explains the involved sampling/documentation methods.
Who: Erica, a Caucasian girl aged six, has meltdowns and stress, probably due to some underlying conditions the observer should seek to identify. Erica is a first-grade student at an elementary school in Maryland. She has mood swings, recurring fears, anxiety attacks, and decreased concentration, and the girl overreacts to minor incidents. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many behavioral changes to school-going children, thus subjecting them to more stress. A feeling of emotional tension is an everyday issue for school-going children and teenagers, especially when they experience school closure, changes in routines and schedules, social distancing, and cancellation of events (Angon et al., 2021). Such uncertainties lead to increased stress and affect this population group’s general well-being. Therefore, parents, guardians, and mentors are called on board to observe behavioral changes and assist students with developing coping skills.
What: In this context, the frequency of Erica’s meltdowns in the form of withdrawal or aggression during school activities represents a target behavior. As a girl in her development stage, Erica is severely affected by the meltdowns and stressful conditions. Aside from the emotional symptoms, one also recognizes physical signs, such as bed-wetting, head/chest pain, reduced appetite, increased heartbeats, insomnia/nightmares, and upper abdominal discomfort. It is a critical condition that requires immediate care and attention to improve Erica’s life and overall well-being.
When: In most cases, stress and meltdowns occur between the ages of four and seven, especially when children struggle to concentrate. Some circumstances that might increase meltdowns likelihood include children’s feelings of being unwanted or unwelcome, school activities that students find monotonous and boring, physical discomfort, and the inability to get the desired object/consequence immediately. In the case of underlying developmental conditions, such as ADHD or ASD, rapid changes in schedules or routines, sensory overloads from active interactions, or exposure to new environments can also trigger meltdowns.
Where: Behavioral changes can be observed when Erica is at school. In this context, the teacher can help assess the child’s performance in class and her interactions with other children and staff. For instance, observers can notice separation and isolation-related behaviors or lack of appetite at school. Secondly, the child can be observed at home when she is with other family members. A parent can check on the child’s attitude and sleeping and eating habits. In Erica’s case, covert observation would be effective by shedding light on her natural and spontaneous reactions to stimuli pertaining to school activities (Whiston, 2016).
Why: One should observe children’s behaviors to have a clear guideline on how to assist them during different developmental stages. Due to observations, Erica’s teachers will develop a clearer picture of what causes the meltdowns and stress and will be capable of assisting her accordingly. Behavioral observations can also help Erica’s family if she develops conditions that require mental health professionals’ involvement.
How: One can assess the frequency of meltdowns by asking children to engage in particular activities that require their physical and emotional responses. Concluding on how they behave and documenting each incidence of meltdown-like symptoms during the activity will be necessary. Observers can also use simple pulse surveying tools on a specific population to understand the behavior.
Observational Recording Method: Time and Event Sampling
Since children tend to behave differently at different times, time is a critical consideration in covert observation endeavors. Additionally, the observer must include a child’s social circle, which will give them a clear picture of the observed subject’s behavioral changes and possible reasons for misbehaviors (Whiston, 2016). The time and event sampling method used in Erica’s situation requires observations conducted during periods of increased engagement and involvement in school activities.
In time and event sampling, observers must select the information of interest from the stream of various events and closely examine each short period of behavior in question. In most cases, a parent or a guardian is the most suitable person to observe a child using this method since they can connect how they behave at home and outdoors and effectively track different responses from children’s interactions with relatives and peers (Otte et al., 2022). It is also effective since they can picture children’s interests and development from different angles. Caregivers can also engage teachers to help relate the child’s behaviors at home and during classes and eventually develop the best strategies to solve any underlying issues.
Additionally, the time and event sampling should involve narrative and interactive activities. In this context, the observer must engage children in narration and interactive activities to determine how well they can express their feelings to their peers, which can also work as a healing measure. In most cases, children who have bad meltdowns and stress find it hard to interact with others or even narrate an incident. Lack of openness makes them more stressed, leading to adverse mental effects (Bocheliuk & Turubarova, 2021). The observer should record narration and compare it with those of behaviorally typical children. For instance, involving children in a debate and recording and observing their expressiveness and how they give opinions and ideas is valuable.
Learning stories forms the basis of the time and event sampling method. In such cases, observers must ensure they give stories to different children according to their interests, persistence, involvement levels, communication patterns, and responsibilities. A child then will have to read and explain what they learned and then give personal reflections on the stories’ underlying messages (Whiston, 2016). As the form in the Appendix illustrates, the teacher can then record instances where they fail or act in a stressful manner. In event sampling, they can be taken to various events according to their preferences and have a chance of explaining different activities they enjoyed during the event.
Children can also be asked to paint a picture from the event, for instance, a self-portrait, and explain it. At this point, they can encourage children to improve specific behaviors or help them overcome some signs of stress, such as fear (Stockdale et al., 2018). This observation method also creates room for tracking behaviors and helps the observer record when such behaviors start, which provides insight into hypothetical triggers. In most cases, observers who have experience training children in physical development activities have motor skills that are effective in observing behavioral change.
References
Angon, P. B., Mondal, S., Das, C. R., & Bishnu, M. K. (2021). Behavioral changes of children intelligence for the extreme affection of parents. International Journal of Education and Management Engineering, 11(6), 20-28. Web.
Bocheliuk, V., & Turubarova, A. (2021). Socio-psychological features of emotional and behavioral changes in children during the pandemic. In E. Pluzhnik et al. (Eds.), II international science conference on science and practical technologies: Abstracts of II international scientific and practical conference (pp. 455-457). International Science Group.
Otte, R. A., Long, X., & Westerink, J. (2022). A behavioral approach to annotating sleep in infants: Building on the classic framework. Physiological Reports, 10(3), 1-17. Web.
Stockdale, L. A., Coyne, S. M., & Padilla-Walker, L. M. (2018). Parent and child technoference and socioemotional behavioral outcomes: A nationally representative study of 10-to 20-year-old adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 88, 219-226. Web.
Whiston, S. C. (2016). Principles and applications of assessment in counseling (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Appendix
Event Recording (Frequency/ Behavior Count) Form
Child’s Name: Erica
Observer: _________
Location: Clemens Crossing Elementary School, MD Date: March 20, 2022
Procedure:
- Write possible behaviors.
- Timing and events involved.
- Include the date.
- Make a comment on every behavior.
- Mark on the best performance and the worst.
- At the end of the recording form, give remarks on the child’s behavior and strategies to improve.
Behavior Definition: Constant meltdowns if under stress. It was also observed that the child had low self-esteem, which led to fear, as was observed during narration and event analysis activities.