Developmental Differences in Children

As I've started my field work for my Introduction to Education class, I have noticed some developmental differences in the children I've come into contact with.  I have been working with 1st graders and helping their teacher Mrs. "N".  I've been helping to assess how well they do one to one counting.  Some children are very confident about their counting while others get the "deer in the headlights" look. 

The counters I used are small, red hippo's in a basket.  I've been intrigued to see the different ways the children count them.  Some take a handful and count from that, others take one at a time out of the basket.  Some kids put the counted hippo's in a big pile, others line them up.  Even the way the hippo's are lined up are different.  Some face them forward, some face them sideways.  One child even lined them up in groups of ten.

How high the children counted varied drastically.  I noticed that many used prior knowledge of numbers to help them count the higher numbers.  They knew that 2 comes after 1 and they used this knowledge to conclude that  22 comes after 21 or that 42 came after 41.  They were using Constructivism to achieve this.  Other children showed signs of Behaviorism.  They looked to me for my response to their counting.  They seemed to need my approval or a reward of some sort to help validate what they were doing before they could continue on.  I'm excited to see what other things I observe as I continue on this exciting journey.