Case study of a child

age, eight
Tiffany Dukes
EDU 220
 Background of Maddix, eight years old

Maddix is an eight year old boy, in the second grade at Imagine

Charter School. He is a very sociable and intelligent child. Maddix
expressed a love for animals and states he has two dogs, two geckos,
and ten fish. His favorite animal is a gecko But portraits and animals are
what he draws most of the time. Maddix has a sketchbook that he
created in his art class. Typical drawings are of people and Auggie from
the book Wonder.
Maddix teacher expresses no concerns for either social or
educational set backs. She states he is at a fourth grade reading level
and has no issues with other peers. I observed Maddix actively playing
on the playground with the majority of female students.
Physical Development

School-age children most often have smooth and strong motor skills. However, their coordination (especially eye-hand),
endurance, balance, and physical abilities vary.

Fine motor skills may also vary widely. These skills can affect a child's ability to write neatly, dress appropriately, and perform
certain chores, such as making beds or doing dishes.

There will be big differences in height, weight, and build among children of this age range. It is important to remember that
genetic background, as well as nutrition and exercise, may affect a child's growth.

There can also be a big difference in the age at which children begin to develop secondary sexual characteristics. For girls,
secondary sex characteristics include:

Breast development

Underarm and pubic hair growth

For boys, they include:

Growth of underarm, chest, and pubic hair

Growth of testicles and penis

(Medline 2017)
Physical Development by Snowman

Experience slower growth of about 2 inches and eight pounds per year

Grow longer legs relative to their total height and begin resembling adults in the proportion of legs to
body

Develop less fat and grow more muscle than in earlier years

Increase in strength

Lose their baby teeth and begin to grow adult teeth which may appear too big for their face

Use small and large motor skills in sports and other activities

(Snowman, J. & McCown, R., 2013)

Physical Development Recommendations

Encourage children to participate in constructive activities such as

sports, clubs, arts, music, and scouts. Being inactive at this age
increases the risk of lifetime obesity. However, it is important not to
over-schedule your child. Try to find a balance between family time,
school work, free play, and structured activities (Medline, 2017)
School-age children should participate in family chores, such as
setting the table and cleaning up.(Medline, 2017)
Encourage children to express themselves openly and talk about
concerns without fear of punishment.(Medline, 2017)
Emotional Behaviors

Prefers organization and planning such as planning a party or a social play date. They may want
to keep track of their own schedule of activities.
Impatient they have a hard time waiting for anticipated events and they like immediate rewards
Thrives on predictable routines, schedule, and one-on-one time with parents
Desires to be with peers
Friendships are extremely important as is what their peers think about them
Recognizes and uses appropriate social behavior
Has private thoughts about curiosity and interest in the opposite sex
Can show empathy as they consider others circumstances and feelings
Can use positive coping skills to manage strong feelings such as anger
(Behavior Corner, 2017)
Emotional Development by Snowman

Self-esteem based on ability to perform and produce

Alternative strategies for dealing with frustration and
expressing emotion
Sensitive to others opinions about themselves
(Snowman & McGowan, 2013)
Emotional Development Recommendation

Frequent physical complaints (such as sore throats, tummy aches, or arm or leg pain) may simply be due to a child's
increased body awareness. Although there is often no physical evidence for such complaints, the complaints should be
investigated to rule out possible health conditions. This will also assure the child that the parent is concerned about
their well-being.

Peer acceptance becomes more important during the school-age years. Children may take part in certain behaviors to
be part of "the group." Talking about these behaviors with your child will allow the child to feel accepted in the group,
without crossing the boundaries of the family's behavior standards.

Friendships at this age tend to be mainly with members of the same sex. In fact, younger school-age children often talk
about members of the opposite sex as being "strange" or "awful." Children become less negative about the opposite
sex as they get closer to adolescence.

Lying, cheating, and stealing are all examples of behaviors that school-age children may "try on" as they learn how to
negotiate the expectations and rules placed on them by family, friends, school, and society. Parents should deal with
these behaviors in private with their child (so that the child's friends don't tease them). Parents should show
forgiveness, and punish in a way that is related to the behavior.

It is important for the child to learn how to deal with failure or frustration without losing self-esteem.

(Medline, 2017)
Emotional Behavior Characteristics
Piaget
Can concentrate on what they do
for longer periods of time.
Increased problem-solving ability,
but not yet like an adult.
Can think of simple plans before
acting. For example, when inviting
friends over to play, children can
plan in advance what games they
will play.
Vygotsky
Social learning precedes development.
Social learning comes first before
development.
MKO is any person who has a higher
level of ability or understanding than the
learner in terms of the task, process or
concept at hand.
Typical Cognitive (Intellectual)
Development

Organized logical thought

Ability to perform a number of classifications task, order objects in logical sequence, and comprehend the true meaning
of conversation.

An 8 year old is able to understand the viewpoint of others: are aware that others can have different thoughts.

Can focus on several aspects of a problem at a time.

Attention span allows for them to concentrate on something for an hour our more at one time

Speech and language patterns are similar to that of adults

Inquires about the world controversies along with how things work

Develops passions for their interests and will research and explore additional information on these topics. These interests
will be pursued with great motivation.

Has the desire to work on things until mastery is obtained

(Center of Disease and Control Prevention, 2017)

My 8 year old's Cognitive
Behaviors/Characteristics

Maddixs thought is more logical, flexible, and organized than it was during his early childhood. According to Piagets Theory,
Maddix is in the concrete operational stage cognitively. Concrete operational stage is from ages 7 to 11. This is where Maddix falls in this
category. An example scenario is when Maddix attentively listens to his teacher discussing a certain number on their past quiz. When she states
the problem, Maddix immediately raises his hand to volunteer and to answer on the board. Afterwards, Mrs. Jaimes evaluates the outcome and
restates the result in terms of the original problem statement in the end. Again, he is able to solve the problem on the board.

Maddix is capable of paying attention to more than one thing at a time and thinking becomes much quicker. He likes making
decisions on his own. He quite enjoys learning and loves joining school activities. Maddix does not get frustrated easily when things dont go
well and he does not really like things to be perfect at all times. Yet, his language development, learning is very good.
Cognitive (Intellectual) Recommendation

Recommend giving children objects to sort into like groups, using the basis of similar color
and shapes.

Ask child to identify and understand that if there are two rows of five pennies, but one is
spread so that the pennies are further apart, both rows still have the same total number of
pennies

Introduce a fun way of fostering perspective taking skills is with optical illusions

(University of Washington, 1993)

Psychosocial (Social) Behaviors

Children able to view themselves based on: how they perform in school; capacity to make friends; and their
physical appearance.

Understand they can feel two emotions at the same time for example I like Jenny but I hate how she talks to
me.

Are intensely interested in peers, prefer same sex friends; develop friendships marked by give and take, mutual
trust and shared experiences.

Feel that belonging and acceptance by peers is very important. (Children may look more for peers than to adults
for gratification).

Play is no longer just fantasy play where imagination is the key element; more often children choose rules-based
games where the rules are the key element and winning the game is more frequently the objective.

Have great concern with justice and fairness; what is fair or equal is important and some children may try to get
even and become verbally or physically aggressive.

Continue to develop social skills like empathy and compassion.

Become more able to do things by themselves and as a result, their relationship with parents changes.

(Snowman & McGowan, 2017)

Typical Psychosocial (Social)
Development by Erikson

Erikson believes that the fourth psychosocial crisis is handled,

for better or worse, during what he calls the school age, presumably
up to and possibly including some of junior high school. Here the child
learns to master the more formal skills of life: (1) relating with peers
according to rules (2) progressing from free play to play that may be
elaborately structured by rules and may demand formal teamwork,
such as baseball and (3) mastering social studies, reading, arithmetic.
Homework is a necessity, and the need for self-discipline increases
yearly. The child who, because of his successive and successful
resolutions of earlier psychosocial crisis, is trusting, autonomous, and
full of initiative will learn easily enough to be industrious. However, the
mistrusting child will doubt the future. The shame and guilt-filled
child will experience defeat and inferiority. (Child Development
Inst.,2017)
My 8 year olds Psychosocial
Behavior/Characteristics

It is the stage wherein the child becomes

more competent and confident. Maddix, from what
we have observed is a friendly boy. He talks to
everyone and he does not choose the person he
wants to mingle with. He talks to whoever is beside
him. He also mentioned that he likes sports- martial
arts and basketball and because of these he is close
to all boys. In these kinds of activities, the child will
develop discipline and will also be able to interact
with other children. In the article Social and
Emotional Development in Middle Childhood, it
states that the child gains mastery of many basic
skills. It is a means of developing a sense of self-
esteem. Friendship is important in this stage
because its where the children become more
interested in building relationships and maintaining
them.
Psychosocial/Social Development
Recommendations

In accordance to Piagets theory a child of age eight falls under the

concrete operational stage, we recommend that children under this
stage:
Be properly guided and motivated to further develop their cognitive
development.
Eight year children under this stage can easily be influenced by
society and environment. The school and home play an important
role in a childs development. A healthy environment will develop a
healthy mind and emotion of a child.
Exposure of children to extra-curricular activities other than
academics like sports enhances their social maturity and critical
thinking of children under this stage.
Typical Moral (Character)

Has a better sense of good and bad and right and wrong
Better able to listen to reason
Can sometimes take responsibility for his mistakes
Truthfulness is still not a strong point, especially due to his tendency to exaggerate and
dramatize

(Center of Parenting Education, 2017)

Moral (Character) Development by
Kolhberg

Individualism and Exchange. At this stage children recognize that there is not just
one right view that is handed down by the authorities. Different individuals have
different viewpoints. "Heinz," they might point out, "might think it's right to take
the drug, the druggist would not." Since everything is relative, each person is free
to pursue his or her individual interests. One boy said that Heinz might steal the
drug if he wanted his wife to live, but that he doesn't have to if he wants to marry
someone younger and better-looking (Kohlberg, 1963, p. 24).
Kohlerg argued that at early Kohlberg argued that at early stages of moral
development there is a focus on punishment and rewards (e.g., you shouldnt steal
because youll be caught and sent to jail, or if you let your wife die, youll get in
trouble). But as children grow older, they enter stages where they emphasize
social harmony and law and order (e.g., no one will think youre bad if you steal the
drug, or even if his wife is dying, you still have to obey the law). Some individuals,
according to Kohlberg, reach the highest levels of moral reasoning and consider
universal, ethical principles that transcend law. (Openlearn.edu, 2017)
My 8 year old's Moral
Behavior/Characteristics

Maddix, the eight year old student, I observed was on the popular
end of the students on the playground. He was able to fit in perfectly not
only with other male students, but also with the female students in his
same age group. The majority of the time I would notice that Maddix
was surrounded by the girls and usually made the right decisions while at
play.
Moral Behavior/Characteristics
Development Recommendations

Provide children with the support they need to develop strong self-regulation skills

Seize everyday opportunities to modeland inducesympathetic feelings for other people

Help kids discover what they have in common with other people

Foster cognitive empathy through literature and role-playing

Help children develop a sense of morality that depends on internal self-control, not on rewards or
punishments

Talk with children about mechanisms of moral disengagement -- the rationalizations that people use
to justify callous or cruel acts

(Parentingscience, 2017)
Reference

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Child development. Retrieved
from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/facts.html
Center of Parenting Education. (2017). Ages 8-10 development. Retrieved from
http://centerforparentingeducation.org/
PBS Parents. (2017). Child development tracker Ages 2- 8. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/parents/child-development
Snowman, J. & McCown, R. (2013). ED PSYCH. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning

University of Washington. (1993). Child development: Using the child development

guide. Retrieved from
http://depts.washington.edu/allcwe2/fosterparents/training/chidev/cd06.htm