Observation of Child Growth Essay Example

Observation of Child Growth Essay Example Observation of Child Growth Essay Observation of Child Growth Essay Introduction red Development blue – Conclusion orange Individualism– Giving priority to one’s own goals over group          goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes          rather than group identification. For the first time in my life I am being an individualist. I am giving greater priority to my own personal goals. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking changing careers at the age of 42 but I am determined to get my nursing degree. For the next 2 years it will be about me and my own personal achievements. Aggression – Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt          someone. I was married for 11 years to a very physically and verbally abusive man. Daily he told me what a piece of crap I was and belittled me every chance he got. He broke my nose, burnt my car to the ground and just about anything you could imagine. His aggression nearly destroyed me as a person. I am so thankful today to be out of that relationship. Human Growth and Development The child that is being observed is a little girl named Aliyah. She is 6 years of age and she is of African-American decent. She has curly black hair that comes down her back. She is somewhat larger than your average 6-year-old child. She is about 4 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 80 pounds. I am observing her while she is doing her homework. She is studying for the state testing which will be taking place in April. She truly demonstrates her cognitive skills by her studying methods and by how well her memory is able to quickly retain the information that she is studying. Due to her early education she is able to learn new words, which depicts the finer motor skills in child development that is more often found in girls. Aliyah is excited that she only has 4 pages of homework to do; she smiles gently at her mother who is helping her. Aliyah demonstrates the child functions that relate to the theories of middle childhood that are listed below. Middle Childhood These years are very important during ones development. During this time, children learn to read and calculate, develop social skills to interact with other children and significant adults, and, more generally, acquire the wider cultural and social values of citizenship. Understanding how this time affects later development should help policymakers better allocate resources across childhood (and the life course) to enhance childrens development and minimize their risk of negative adult outcomes. Physical Growth Growth slow in middle childhood, and wide differences in Child development that occurs from birth to adulthood was largely ignored throughout much of history. Children were often viewed simply as small versions of adults and little attention was paid to the many advances in cognitive abilities, language usage, and physical growth. Interest in the field of child development began early in the 20th-century and tended to focus on abnormal behavior. The following are just a few of the many child development theories that have been proposed by theorists and researchers. More recent theories outline the developmental stages of children and identify the typical ages at which these growth milestones occur. Sigmund Freud The theories proposed by Sigmund Freud stressed the importance of childhood events and experiences, but almost exclusively focused on mental disorders rather that normal functioning. According to Freud, child development is described as a series of psychosexual stages. In Three Essays on Sexuality (1915), Freud outlined these stages as oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Each stage involves the satisfaction of a libidinal desire and can later play a role in adult personality. Learn more in this article on Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. Erik Erikson Theorist Erik Erikson also proposed a stage theory of development, but his theory encompassed development throughout the human lifespan. Erikson believed that each stage of development was focused on overcoming a conflict. Success or failure in dealing with conflicts can impact overall functioning. Learn more about this theory in this article on Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Cognitive Child Development Theories Theorist Jean Piaget suggested that children think differently than adults and proposed a stage theory of cognitive development. He was the first to note that children play an active role in gaining knowledge of the world. Learn more in this article on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Behavioral Child Development Theories Behavioral theories of child development focus on how environmental interaction influences behavior and are based upon the theories of theorists such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov and B. F. Skinner. These theories deal only with observable behaviors. Development is considered a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli and reinforcement. Learn more about these behavioral theories in these articles on classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Social Child Development Theories There is a great deal of research on the social development of children. John Bowbly proposed one of the earliest theories of social development. Bowlby believed that early relationships with caregivers play a major role in child development and continue to influence social relationships throughout life. Learn more in this overview of attachment theory. Did You Know? She claims that psychological research and political culture is highly influenced by, or should I say contaminated with, the myth of motherhood. Up to 19th century motherhood was not a full time job and an essential component for a healthy child development. This approach started to change at the end of the 19th century, when under the influence of politics, clergy and psychology, the weight of childs development was shifted from the society and father almost exclusively onto mother. It was believed at that time that what happens to the child is largely a product of who the mother is and what she does or does not do (Silverstein, 1026). The theory of heavy influence of mothers behavior on the child has been the subject of the research by Bowlby and Spitz on child care. It has led them both to similar conclusions. The research has shown that emotional disorders and intellectual retardation observed in institutionalized infants were the result of the deprivation of a continuous relationship with mother (Silverstein, 1026). This conclusion would seem completely logical if it was not for the fact that mothers actions, or their lack, were the only factor taken under consideration in the study. That problem was noticed by Rutter, who after analyzing his studies, came to a very challenging conclusion. He concluded that emotional disorders and intellectual retardation (? ) were the consequence of a wide range of factors (Silverstein, Early Child Development Early Child Development There are many key factors that play up to the role of early child development, starting from before the child is nonexistent, until the child is a full grown baby. Bodily Processes of Reproduction There are numerous hormones in the human body that play key factors in allowing a human being to reproduce successfully When infants are born they want to be loved and cared in what ever relationships they are with their caregivers, so that they could survive and could feel sense of    security and warmth , which without a caregiver is impossible ,talking about caregivers ,mother would be the primary source of forming an infants first relationship by whom the baby would take his first leap towards his growth and development and would keep continuing making his advances further in many domains of psychological development , whether social or cognitive. Some key features which play an important role in his early psychological development are meshing, imitation, and scaffolding . But which theoretical approach of    development would imply in infants early psychological development    , will it be behaviorism, nativism, constructivism or social constructivism or will they over lap with one another in their implication thus it would be    analyzed and explored during the mother and infant interaction and behaviour in different processes like imitation, scaffolding etc but what are these processes? And how they influence and play an important role in types of psychological development (social, cognitive, and in language development) KEY FEATURES OF INFANT FIRST RELATIONSHIP Meshing is one of the key features of relationship in mother ? infant interaction. Behaviour of both an infant and mother are meshed together. The common situation of meshing is witnessed when a smooth conversation between two people is going on and each person waits for his turn taking either to speak or to listen, this indicates mutual action happening simultaneously. Trevarthen(1993) called it as co-regulation the aspects of turn taking and synchronizing, furthermore he described them through speech and non verbal behaviour, such as nods, eye contacts