Child psychology class takes field trip

Photo by Theodore Scott [CC-by-2.0]

By Celine Hoang, Staff Writer

On April 28th and 29th, child psychology went on a field trip to the child care center at OCC and the preschool at Christ Presbyterian Church.

The purpose of the field trip was to connect the material of child development to real life observing children.  The field trip has been going on for twenty years.

At the OCC Lab School, they learned about early childhood program at OCC, about their curriculum how their program works, learn how to take care of children with special needs,  allergies, and special eating.

They also took a tour of the facility and got to go into observation rooms.

In Christ Presbyterian Church, they were able to interact in the classrooms and children.  The students were also allowed to be apart of the class and observe all the teaching going on.  They got to work in depth with the children.

The field trip was organized by Cori Brooks.  The child psychology teacher had some connections with the preschools.  She contacted the directors and work out times and dates.  However, they expected the class about this time of the year.

“From the field trip, I think they benefit by seeing what preschool teachers do and the work involved as well as the fun, and um, seen a lot of theory that we taught in class and action and I mean that’s one of the biggest benefits um not being able to access children in our capacity, so they’re able to see the theories that they learned about and how teachers use them and apply them,” Brooks stated.

Through the course of the year, students learned how to connect with children by being observant.  They learned how to observe based on an individual’s needs.  They observed what the specific child needs, and what they want to learn.

“One of the big things we learn in here is paying attention to what the child needs.  One of the big principals in a preschool is ‘What does a child need? What does a child want to learn?’ And that’s kind of one of the big things we learn is what do children really need,” Brooks commented.