5.5: Factors that Affect Observation

Learning Objectives

1. Identify personal and environmental factors (e.g., fatigue, bias, setting) that may influence the accuracy of child observations.
2. Explain how sensitivity, self-awareness, and professional reflection impact observational objectivity.
3. Describe the three common observation errors: transmission, omission, and commission.

Factors that Affect Observation

Observation is not an easy task. It would be best if you considered personal and environmental factors that can affect your ability to observe young children effectively. These factors can be temporary, like not feeling well, or more long-term, like a bias. Bentzen (2009) lists five areas that can affect your ability to observe in a learning environment:

1. Sensitivity and Awareness- certain things will interfere with how you "see" the child. Some of us are more sensitive to certain things than others. Being aware of your sensitivity is essential to ensure accurate observations are being recorded.
2. Fatigue, Illness, and Discomfort- These factors can affect your ability to stay on task. You can become distracted and lose focus on what you are observing.
3. Influence of Self or Personality- Sorting out "you" from what you view. Individual attitudes, experiences, needs, desires, and fears act as filters that affect how you observe and what you notice when observing.
4. Controlling Our Biases - Be aware of your biases. We all have them, so being aware of your biases can help you manage them. Be mindful of your favorite children and children who display behaviors that challenge you. These children can cause us to lose our objectivity when recording observations.
5. Setting and Situation - These are factors that you generally have little control over. A particular situation occurs in a setting. The setting is both the physical space and the social and psychological influences in a specific location. The size of the room can make it difficult to hear a child across the room. If there are drums in the music area, it can also be difficult to hear conversations. There is also a difference in children on a rainy day versus a windy Santa Ana day or a substitute teacher.

Errors in the Observation Process

There are three common errors in the observation process: transmission, omission, and commission (Bentzen, 2009). It is crucial that you know and understand these errors to record objective observations of the children. These errors occur in the recording process.

Transmission

The first and most common error is an error of transmission. This is when you record behaviors out of sequence. For instance, you observe a child in the block area pick up a block and hit another child. What happened is that the other child called the child who hit a "big bad guy." This happened just before the child picked up the block and hit the child who called them the name. In your observation, you record the following: "__ picked up a block and hit __ in the block area. __ called ___ 'big bad guy,' and the teacher came over to tend to the hurt child."

The name-calling should have been stated before the block hitting. This is an example of the error of transmission.

Omission

The second error in the recording process is the error of omission. This is when you leave out important information. This can happen when you are not carefully observing, coming onto the scene halfway through, or looking down as you are writing out the first part of the observation.

This error often occurs due to weak note-taking. It is difficult to observe and record at the same time. The more you observe and record, the more your skills will improve.

If you don't have enough information, you may not want to record the observation. If we go back to the example above with the child who hit with a block and the child who called the other a name, an error of omission can be recorded like this: "___ said something to ___, and ___ picked up a block and hit them with it." The word "something" is omitting exactly what the child called the one who was hit.

Leaving out "big bad guy" could prompt the reader to think the child who was hit was the instigator when, in reality, the name-caller is the one who provoked the child who hit.

Comission

The third error in the recording process is the error of commission. This is when the observer adds more to the observation. The observer may "think" something happened in one way and record "their version" instead of what actually happened. Another instance might occur when an inexperienced observer adds more to the observation because they think the director or parent will want more information. Using the same example, the observer will make the error of commission by recording the following observation, "___ was sitting in the block area playing with the blocks. __ was playing with a car and driving it all around the block area. At one point, ___ said to ___, "You are a big bully, and I don't like you. You are a big, bad guy." ___ picked up a block and hit ___ with it. If the child didn't say all of this, as the observer, you do not record what you think the child said. You only record what you heard and observed.

These three errors often occur, especially for the person just learning how to observe. It's important to remember to record only the facts, nothing but the facts! The more accurate you are in recording your observations, the more it will benefit the child.

References, Contributors and Attributions

This section is a derivative from:

Peterson, G., Elam, E. & Studinka, D. (2020). Observation, assessment, and participation in early childhood. College of the Canyons, CA. https://www.palomar.edu/childdevelop...rly-childhood/ CC BY 4.0.

Bentzen, W. R. (6th ed.). (2009). Seeing young children: a guide to observing and recording behavior. Thomson Delmar Learning.