This case study examines the physical, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development of a 6-year-old boy named Joachim. Observations showed that Joachim has age-appropriate gross motor skills like walking and running, can think logically about concrete concepts, is forming more complex sentences, experiences pride in his work but also feelings of shyness or shame, and interacts well with his classmates while seeking their approval. The researchers concluded that Joachim is developing normally across all domains studied for his age. They recommend John Dewey School for future case studies due to its supportive environment.

1. Case Study

2. This case study compares Joachim’s
development to what developmentalist say is
normal. The paper is focused primarily on the
physical, cognitive, language, emotional, and
social developments of Joachim. This paper
gives examples of how Joachim is
successfully developing normally for his age.

3. 6 years old
Grade 2
Joachim John Dewey School for Children

4. Background of the Child
This case study is on a 6 year old boy named Joachim Angelo D.
Banlao. He is a grade 2 student at John Dewey School for Children. He
lives at home with his parents. He said that his mom will be going to
America so he usually spends his time with her. He admires his sister
because his sister is the smartest in their family. While being observed
he rather play with boys than the girls. He always watches T.V at home
so he doesn’t have time to do his assignments and that his parents are
too busy to help him do it. During weekends, he does skateboarding
and biking.

5. Physical Development
 Joachim's Fine Motor Skills and Gross Motor Skills are observed for his
Physical Development.
Gross Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills
 observe the large muscles in
the arms and legs.
 factors that experts look at
include strength, muscle tone,
movement quality and the
range of movement.
 Walking, running, balance and
coordination
 Drawing, writing, grasping
objects, throwing, waving and
catching

6. Cognitive Development
 In Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory, Joachim is at the concrete operational
stage, between seven to eleven, wherein the child gains a better
understanding of mental operations, children should be able to think
logically about concrete events, but has problem and difficulty in
understanding hypothetical or abstract concepts (Cherry).
 Joachim, has shown signs of being sociocentric, in the part where he is
asking his fellow classmates about a view on this particular topic.
 He has good thinking abilities and working patience, though he has trouble
with spelling.
sociocentric (as opposed to
egocentric) being who is
aware that others have
their own perspectives on
the world and that those
perspectives are different
from the child's own.

7. Language Development
• He can be able to pronounce all vowels,
consonants, and diphthongs.
• experience trouble pronouncing s, z, th, and ch.
• He can be able to provide stories, descriptions or
explanations relating to a specific topic.
• Although he can’t be able to form grammatically
correct sentences, he can put together simple and
complex sentences.
• According to Chomsky’s theory in language, Every
child has a ‘language acquisition device’ or LAD
which encodes the major principles of a language
and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain.
This ability makes the task of learning a first
language easier than it would be.
 In Joachim’s case, his first language is Filipino so he tends to learn it easier
than other languages.

8. Emotional Development
 He is happy at times, but there are times when he is shy and looks away
from the researcher when he is being talked to.
 There was the time when he was asked to spell in front of class, and he
was feeling ashamed at that point.
 School-aged children begin to take pride in their ability to exert self-control,
and enjoy the feedback that they receive from being responsible
and cooperative.

9. Social Development
 Joachim is a good friend to his classmates, and gets along them just well
enough.
 He likes to play with others and likes to go around the room talking to other
children.
 According to Parten’s stages of play, Joachim is at the stage of Associative play
wherein the child is interested in people playing, but not interested in
coordinating his activity to what the others are doing, in other words, not being
in sync with them.
 He imitates the teacher as he was showing everyone the step- by-step process
of how to draw a cat.
 According to Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, Joachim is at the school age,
6 – 11 which has the basic conflict of Industry V.S. Inferiority. Children need to
cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of
competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority (Psychology.com).
Joachim showed signs of this stage of development, in the part
where he was seeking my approval and the approval of his fellow
classmates, he was working hard so that he could be praised.

10. Conclusion
The researchers have concluded that the child Joachim has been
developing very well and is at the normal milestones of the physical,
cognitive, language, emotional and social developments. The
researchers have conducted the observation of each skills and the
results are the following: For Physical Development, Joachim showed
the signs of walking, running, balance and coordination. For Cognitive
Development, Joachim showed signs of being sociocentric, and being
more realistic as well as logically thinking. For Language
Development, J oachim showed signs of putting together simple and
complex sentences. For Emotional Development, Joachim showed
signs of feeling pride from his work and getting happy or sad about
positive and negative feedbacks that are directed at him. For Social
Development, Joachim showed signs of being competent and seeking
approval from the researcher and from Joachim’s peers.

11. Recommendation
The researchers recommend that for future researchers
and future case studies that they use John Dewey School
for children that is owned by the school directress,
Rochelle M. Razo. This is so because John Dewey has
excellent students, staff, and teachers that will help guide
future researchers in their studies. The students of John
Dewey are bright, cooperative, and very well mannered.
The researchers of this case study suffered very little
hassle when involving the students.

12. References
[1] http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhood-
development_3.htm , K. Cherry
[2] Case Study Child Development, K. Heisler, 2009
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_development_stages
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parten's_stages_of_play
[5] http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html
[6] http://www.kidsdevelopment.co.uk/emotionaldevelopmentchildren.html,
Emotional Development in Children, E. Grace, 2012
[7] http://www.livestrong.com/article/155646-the-language-development-of-a-
6-year-old/
[8] http://www.slideshare.net/ottymcruz/chomskys-theories
oflanguageacquisition112254800109047428
[9] http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/chomsky/