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Final Child Study Paper


The Child
1. Cecilia Josephine, who also goes by the nickname Cici, is a six-year-old female. She attends Columbian Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska where she is in the first grade. As for Cecilias physical development she is rather small for her age. Both of her parents are short in stature and her mother is a very petite woman. She is part Bolivian from her father and Italian/English from her mother; therefore Cici has dark brown hair, dark eyes, and an olive skin tone. 2a. Cecilias temperament varies by whom she is with. Ive seen this in numerous settings such as when in an unfamiliar setting Cecilia is slow to warm up. She starts off shy and doesn't typically become social until she feels comfortable with her surroundings. Around people that Cecilia is comfortable with and has relationships with, she is an extravert. According to the book based on three dimensions of temperament I would say that Cecilia would score high in the category of extraversion/surgency. I predict this because she shows high levels of optimistic anticipation, impulsivity, activity, curiosity, and she laughs and smiles often (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 443). The book explains that temperamental dimensions are very influenced by genetic factors. I would say this is accurate because Cecilias parents are both very sociable people and she was raised in an environment where socializing is encouraged. Cecilia appears to lack emotional control. She is not yet aware of how to hide emotions or hide feelings. An example of this is when her brother steals a toy from her she is going to retaliate and get the toy back and express

Meisinger 2 her anger while doing so instead of remaining calm and understanding such as an older child may. 2b. When it comes to peer acceptance Cecilia appears to be popular among her first grade peers. Cecilia seems to be seen positively by her peers. She gets along with almost everyone in her class and has many friends. The day I observed Cecilia in a classroom setting I noticed that Cecilia was frequently asked to be line leader for her peers and when the teacher stepped out of the room for a minute she asked Cecilia and one other student to watch over the classroom briefly. This shows that Cecilia is trusted and well favored among her peers. 2c. Cecilia appears to be incredibly well behaved around adults. Her teacher told me that she is incredibly shy and innocent when she is in the classroom and rarely ever misbehaves at school. Since I have a more laidback relationship with Cecilia as her babysitter she is definitely more outspoken in front of me and never shy. Cecilia is more likely to behave well for me and other adults then she is for her mother. 3. In order to establish which stage of Piagets theory that Cecilia falls under, I chose to do an activity from the book that reflects reasoning. I set up three cups and labeled them A-C. A and B were identical in size and shape and they had the same amount of water. The third cup, cup C, was an empty, smaller, and wider cup that was not identical to A or B. I asked Cecilia if cups A and B had the same amount of water, she observed them closely and responded confidently that they did. Then I poured the water from cup B into cup C. Then I asked Cecilia if cups A and C still had the same amount of water. After looking at all the cups Cecilia responded that yes there is still the same amount of water

Meisinger 3 even though the cups are different sizes. This activity proved that Cici is capable of a logical thought process called conservation (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 202). She is capable of conservation of liquid, therefore her thought process can be considered as at the Concrete Operational Stage. The Concrete Operational Stage fits Cecilia because she is starting to realize that other people may have perceptions and feelings different from her own. She knows that she might need to view situations from another persons perspective, such as when her little brother steals her toy she considers that her brother is only four and may not understand sharing. Another example of this is when we chose to play a game of hide and go seek, she knows that she needs to make sure that everyone knows what rules to play by so everyones playing according to the same rules. Before starting the game she explains to everyone where the base is and the rules if you get tagged.

4a. The more Cecilia appears to develop cognitively the more she seems to develop socially. I saw this once when in order to help Cecilia perfect her front handsprings her oldest sister Isabelle wrote down the steps and made Cici read them in order. Next, Isabelle had Cecilia preform the steps in order in slow motion while also saying the steps out loud. This method of self-talk helped her to guide herself through the different steps of the front handspring. Eventually after a while Cecilia was able to do the front handspring without verbally citing the steps. When I asked Cecilia how she remembered how to do the cartwheel she told me that she said it in her head while she did it. This process of cognitive development represents Vygotsky's belief of internalization with Cecilias gradual progression from self-talk to inner speech. Social interactions and support, such as this example, positively affect Cicis cognitive development.

Meisinger 4 4b. An example of Cecilias cognitive development affecting her social interactions is one day when Cecilia was sick it affected her behavior. Cecilias brother kept pinching her in an attempt to get a rise out of her, but instead Cecilia sat in my lap with her head down and shrugged it off and continued to be unresponsive despite her brothers teasing. If Cecilia had felt better she would have responded to her brothers behavior by retaliation. Cecilias mental state influenced her social information processing. This emotional state of being sick affected Cecilias process of responding to social events. 5. As for Cecilias self esteem I believe it is appropriately high. Cecilia knows that she is well liked by her peers and she preforms well in school and most other activities. This gives Cecilia a positive self-concept of herself. When I asked Cecilia what she is she told me that she is a dancer. She also described herself as a friend and a first grader. I asked her how she felt about being a dancer, a friend, and a first grader. She responded with Good because Im good at it. Despite the improper grammar this signifies her high self-esteem and self-efficacy as to how she views herself and her capabilities. Cecilias home and school environment influence her sense of self very positively. Her teacher and parents are always encouraging Cecilia to do whatever she does the best that she can; this is a huge motivator for Cecilia because she strives to make people she cares about happy. Cecilia has yet to develop internalized motivation, she is instead motivated by external consequences. Cecilias older sister preforms poorly in school and Cecilia has seen the consequences of doing such, therefore, instead she completes schoolwork in order to earn praise from her teacher and to avoid angering her mother with bad grades.

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The Family
6. Cecilias mothers parenting style is a mix between authoritative and authoritarian. Cecilias mom, Kerri, displays high control, high warmth, and high responsiveness such as an authoritative parent, but on the other hand Kerri establishes rules without regards to the children and expects them to be obeyed without question. Kerri also lacks consistent enforcement of rules, which is unlike that of an authoritative parent (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 80). Kerri uses power assertive discipline where she uses commands that rarely point out to Cecilia the reason as to why some behaviors are acceptable and why others are not. This wavering parenting style leaves Cecilia confused as to why some things are not appropriate and why other things are. An example of this is one day Cecilia was eating a pop tart in the living room; her mom saw her and proceeded to yell at her saying that Cecilia never follows the rules and never listens to her. She never once explained to Cecilia that the reason she was angry was because she shouldn't be eating food anywhere but in the kitchen. 7. Due to Cecilias fathers Spanish background she has a strong sense of biculturalism. Through her fathers family and mothers family she maintains ties to both her Spanish and Italian cultures. Her parents have made it a priority that all the kids learn the Spanish language along with English. Cecilia isnt able to speak in sentences in Spanish yet but she is very good at Spanish vocabulary and simple commands. Since Cecilia has frequent exposure to both languages and she has started learning both languages at a young age, I feel as though she will strive in her bilingual education. Culture has been an important influence on Cecilias development because she is aware and proud of her cultural background as well as encouraged by her family to embrace it. Also, research has shown

Meisinger 6 that children who learn a second language during their elementary school years are more apt to preform better in intelligence tests and on tasks that require creativity, therefore late down the road Cecilia will thrive due to her culture (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 355). Cecilias family is also Catholic. Her family prays before every meal and also before they go to sleep. Cecilias religious background has aided in teaching her basic life lessons and example is that she has learned lessons such as right from wrong, from attending bible school at her church.

The Teachers (Parents)


8. In order to address challenging areas with Cecilia, her mother uses extrinsic motivation and rewards. An example of one challenging issue Cecilia faces is bedwetting. Sometimes if Cecilia makes it a day without wetting her pants or a night without wetting her bed then her mom gives her candy. Although this method is effective at helping Cici with toilet training I find that she expects rewards for everything she does now. I think a more effective way to address Cecilias potty training issue would be to encourage Cecilia to shoot for specific goals, instead of occasionally giving Cecilia candy for not wetting the bed, her mom could set up a chart that outlines explicit goals. The goals could be to make Cecilia go five nights without wetting her bed in order for her to receive a candy reward, this way Cecilia will be forced to strive for this goal in order to be rewarded. Also, instead of becoming angry with Cecilia after she wets the bed I think it would be more effective to enhance her self-efficacy by explaining to her that accidents happen and that effort will help her overcome the difficulty. I think that if her parents dedicated more attention to Cecilia and the issue at hand by encouraging her to be

Meisinger 7 successful while downplaying her failure, then it would help Cecilia defeat her bed wetting concern.

9. I would say that Cecilias mothers theoretical orientation is behavioral. When Cecilia is promised small immediate rewards such as candy, she is more likely to do things, such as pick up her toys, or clean up her room. Therefore, her mother uses this reward method to encourage Cecilia to maintain a good behavior while completing tasks. This behaviorism perspective of development has led Cecilia to modify her actions based on whether actions will lead to a desirable or undesirable consequence. When Cecilia acts she expects the environment to respond with rewards or punishments. Cecilias behavioral and emotional responses change as a direct result of particular environmental stimuli (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 13).

Reflection
Before I began this study of Cecilia I thought that she was just a spoiled and outspoken ball of energy; but after completing this observation I have learned there is much more to this little girl than meets the eye. By taking concepts from what Ive learned in EDPS 250 I have learned numerous possibilities as to why Cecilia acts the way she does. Before this study I had never understood how big of an impact Cecilias parents divorce had on her at such a young age. I had never thought to attribute this big transition as to why Cecilia sometimes struggles with emotional control and acceptable behavior. Completing the twelve journals and this paper has been a fascinating way to dissect the processes and reasoning behind Cecilias development and the outside factors that affect her growth. Considering areas such as parenting, peer acceptance, and cognitive and

Meisinger 8 social development is a helpful way for people who work with children to understand what a child is going through and how they can help them overcome challenges or improve strengths. From this project I have attained helpful knowledge about children that will help me be a better nanny to Cecilia and her siblings and also give me a leg up in my future career path. As Ive discussed in this paper and in earlier journals, Cecilia is raised primarily in a single-parent household with three other siblings. This huge workload on Cecilias mother has affected her ability to be an understanding and reasonable parent at times, which the book has expressed as being normal for single parents (McDevitt & Ormrod pg. 74). Although I cannot change their circumstances, I have learned throughout this process that there are numerous ways that I can help fill this void by being patient and warm towards the children. I can help them transition from their parents divorce by being supportive and helpful throughout their adjustments. As well as learning many things about child development Ive learned a lot about my career goals and myself. Early on during this observation I discovered that elementary education might not be the right path for me. Originally I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but after realizing the amount of patience and understanding it involves I figured that a career that still involves children, but not as full on, may be a better choice for me. After this realization I changed my major to Pre-Language and Speech Pathology and decided I would like to be a speech pathologist in elementary schools.

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