Kalia is a four year old child who has blond hair and blue eyes. She is short in stature when compared to other children her age and appears to be of average weight. Kalia initially presents herself to be a confident child who has a solid grasp on the world around her, but upon closer observation I realized that she has several insecurities when it comes to how she relates to the world. .

             I had not met Kalia except briefly before doing this observation assignment. She lives in my apartment complex and her mother has been an acquaintance of mine for the past few months. .

             One of the first things that I noted was that Kalia has an extensive vocabulary that is far more advanced than the vocabularies of other children her age. When I spoke with her she commonly used multi syllable words to make her point or to get her needs met. The adults who came into contact with her in my presence commonly commented on her intelligence and her ability to speak like an adult but I noted through the observations that Kalia related to adults much more easily than she related to peers. .

             On the first day Kalia was at preschool. She started the day playing in the kitchen area with two other girls about her age. I noted that Kalia seemed to get along well with the girls as they prepared a pretend dinner and served it to their friends. Kalia was able to interact positively with her peers at this time. One of the girls became upset and started to cry and Kalia immediately reasoned with her to discover why she was upset and helped the girl problem solve until a solution was reached. .

             Later the class went outside to play. Kalia was not as self assured on the playground as she had been in the classroom. Her motor skills appeared to be less developed than those of her peers. While classmates played tag or climbed on the bars Kalia preferred to sit with the teacher and talk about what she was going to do that weekend. .

             When her friends asked her to join them on the playground Kalia looked proud and ran off to play but was soon back with the teacher.