Assignment 8 -10 years old

1. Describe your child’s academic skills between ages 6 and 10 and assess how well these skills are developing. The 5th grade report card will be useful for this but you should also incorporate your own observations. What are you doing to help your child?

Sam's academic skills between 6 and 10 have been developing well and have stayed primarily along the same curve.  He demonstrates strength in reading, spelling and writing which has always been the case.  Since he started writing at 6,  Sam has liked to write short stories and even illustrate them.    Sam has taken a huge interest in drawing and was even given a special assignment for the school art fair.  

Additionally,  Sam demonstrates strength in speaking and listening in content of social studies and science.  Sam has always been interested in science I think the week like science camp we signed him up for did wonders to foster a stronger love for the subject.    Sam was rated appropriate for grade level in  mathematical problem solving which I found contradictory towards his abilities since he has always been in above grade level classes for mathematics. Perhaps I was not encouraging his math skills enough.  

My husband and I have tried to encourage Sam by taking him to places focusing on topics of his interest like science museums and fairs.   I am proud of Sam I feel his academic performance is outstanding and he is progressing not regressing (although we will need to jump back on math a bit.)

2. How well is your child adapting to social situations in the home and outside the home? Does your child have any behavior or emotional problems at this point? Why do you think these problems are occurring and what are you doing about them?

As for social adaptations, Sam and his sister have been fighting quite a bit.  We find separating them and putting them in time outs in there room seems to be the best way to handle their fights.  Certainly, my spouse and I need to model appropriate behavior when it comes to arguing. We informed the children that it is natural to disagree, but if you argue, you must apologize and make up.  

I do not feel my child has emotional or behavioral problems.  He can be a bit anxious and nervous he sometimes gets very emotional about tests, so much so he gets an upset stomach.   I look on this as Sam does not have full emotional self-regulation but is on his way to emotional self efficacy.   I've taught Sam some yoga posses and breathing exercises for times of stress.  Hoping he can use them as a coping mechanism.

Sam is starting to discover girls.  It seems he is more tolerant of having girls play in his sports games or hang out with he and his friends around the neighborhood.  Sam prefers to have a few close friends rather than a whole bunch of friends at one time.  I encourage him to play with others by having kids over, but ultimately, I feel a few trusted close friend will serve him well.

3. Has your parenting changed since the preschool period and if so, why do you think it has changed and what effect might this have on your child? Refer to your textbook or lecture notes for evidence on typical changes in parenting that occur in middle childhood. 

My parenting is still authoritative.  I still expect Sam to act appropriately and encourage this through loving and firm guidance.  I would like to think through our encouragements we are fostering a mastery-oriented  approach.    I feel that I can trust Sam to make  appropriate decisions for his age.  And have allowed him more freedom without me hovering over his every move.    I tend to be letting him take the lead more than I have in the past.   I am hoping that my maturing parenting style will help to ground his self esteem.  I think once Sam realizes for himself that he is  intelligent enough to make age appropriate decisions he will be well on his way to an emotionally well regulated child. 

Assignment 7 - 8 years

1. How smart is your child, and in what areas? Think back to the blurb on multiple intelligences that appeared at age 6. Find specific evidence regarding your child's verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence from your observations of your own child as well as the psychologist's report at age 8 years, 11 months.

I think one would be hard pressed to find a parent who did not feel that their child was intelligent.   Do to that fact I will break down Sam's abilities based on Howard Gardner's multiple  intelligences.   Sam's musical abilities have been continuing to advance since his self teaching of the keyboard.  He is now playing the saxophone in the school assembly.  

His physical and athletic abilities are average.  He plays baseball and enjoys it, although he has not had much success with home runs.  He regularly participates in school yard sports, rides his bike and skateboards around the neighborhood.   

Sam's understanding of his self or emotional intelligence is above average.  He is a "model citizen" in the class room and and is well liked by other students.  He is able to influence others yet allow them to take the lead in projects.  I look at this is a great since of self esteem and self worth.  Truly a vast understanding of the self.   

We can look at the previous example as well to demonstrate Sam's intrapersonal skills he plays well with other children and seems to have over come his overcontrolled temperament and metamorphosed into a resilient child.  

Sam's naturalistic intelligence is demonstrated through his tremendous love of science and how things work.  He loves to use his imagination and create with his hands no matter what the medium, clay, paint, charcoal or scraps of wood in the back ground.  He has also taught our new dog Max to do many tricks.  Sam spends a tremendous amount of time working with Max basically learning how Max learns.

Sam is working math problems of the 4th and 5th grade level and his psychological report came back as average to above average in the areas of mathematical reasoning.

2. Describe some examples of your child's behavior or thinking that you think are due to typical American gender role socialization and explain why you think so. Several examples can be found at ages 6 and 8. How closely does your attitude toward gender roles correspond to typical American attitudes, and if there is a discrepancy, to what do you attribute this (e.g., cultural background, attitudes of your own parents, etc.)?

Sam is still playing mostly with boys which would be typical of American gender role socialization.  However, he seems to get along with girls better than most of his boy friends in school.   I feel that we as his parents have been really pushing to make Sam aware of the fact that women and men can do most things equally well.  I feel this life lesson will benefit Sam both in the short term, dealing with his sister, and in the long term when Sam deals with girls and women in his day to day life of work and personal relationships.  

My personal attitude towards gender roles is both typical and non-typical.  I am very much not a house hold feminist.  I feel that my role in the family is best suited as a nurturer and my husband is best suited as  a bread winner, protector.   I typically take on the feminine roles of cooking clean and child rearing.  However, last week both my kids saw me up on a ladder unclogging the gutters before the first rain so my husband didn't have to do it when he came home from  a long day at work.   If the lawn needs mowed and he's not home I'll do that too.  If somethings broken, I'll take a crack at fixing it or learning how to.   

My husband has no problem doing laundry or dishes if it needs to be done.  He very much enjoys spending time with our children and helping with school work and sports.  Time is our biggest constraint.  He leaves the house at 6:00 am and frequently is not home until 7:00 pm.  So we do our best to help each other.  My can do attitude definitely comes from formative years living with a single mother and my 2 sisters.   With a houseful of girls we had to figure things out ourselves.  My Dad wasn't there to fix my bike chain when it came off, so guess who fixed it.  Me.  That makes me tear up just thinking about it. 

3. How might your child's development have been different if s/he was raised by people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background? Base your answer on specific evidence of SES/cultural differences from the textbook and class lectures.

From our readings back in chapter 2  we know that children of lower SES families tend to foster external characteristics like obedience, and politeness .  Where as higher SES families  tend to foster more psychological traits like curiosity, happiness and self direction. (pg 46-47)  If my socioeconomic status had been lower I likely would not have had the financial means to help foster Sam's love of science by buying books and enrolling him into science camps.  I would not have had the time do to work requirements to take Sam to museums and zoo's.  All these things sparked Sam's curiosity at an early age and has helped develop him into the well rounded young man he is becoming.   Sam likely would have remained overcontrolled or worse undercontrolled without the guidence,  and patience he was provided.

 

Assignment 6 - 6 years

1. How well is your child adapting to social situations in the home and outside the home? Does your child have any behavior or emotional problems at this point? Why do you think these problems are occurring and what are you doing about them?

Sam has been making steady strides towards his school and home  socialization.  He is falling into line with the emergence of Gender Identity (214).  He has been modeling his father's behavior by mimicking sayings, mannerisms and actions.  Just the other day he was right along side his Dad working on a plumbing project and repeating many of the actions and words his father said.  We've noticed Sam's favoritism in male gender so Dad has  tried to reduce the stereotyping by doing more feminine or androgynous tasks with Sam, like cooking.  We have also worked on explaining that both boys and girls can do lots of if not most of the same jobs.

Another aspect of socialization that he has been doing well in is going out to restaurants we have no challenges with Sam at all.  He is very well mannered and behaved.  Now we just have to work on his sister.  

As for school, Sam has a group of close "boy" friends who he plays with exclusively during recess time.  He almost goes out of his way to avoid girls.  I do realize this is normal behavior, however, I encourage him to play with both boys and girls.

Sam is still not as independent as other children.  We are trying to work on this.  He is taking swim lessons at the recreation center we are hoping this will help him develop more self confidence.

Sam does not appear to have any behavioral or emotional problems, other than he is nervous around new situations.  We have been trying to combat this ever since we realized his temperament was over controlled.  We take him out to parks, museums and zoo's, and have play dates.  Most recently we've signed him up for soccer and baseball  hoping to foster self esteem.  

2. Do you notice any improvements in cognitive and language skills since age 4? Give specific examples. Does your child have any special needs with regard to cognitive or language development at this point and what do you plan to do?

We have noticed in the last few months Sam's ability to communicate  with adults has advanced.He uses surprisingly complex words in both his written and spoken language.  I truly believe all the reading that we have done with Sam has helped to enhance his language and reading abilities.  Sam reads on a first and second grade level.   We try to keep challenging him with more advanced books.  He digests them quickly.  

Sam's cognitive abilities have been advancing rapidly as well, he can now beat me in most memory games which is a big change from just a few years ago  when I would have to throw a game or two to keep him interested.   Sam does very well in math however, his favorite subject is science.  Sam loves to go to museums and the zoo.  We usually buy a book at the gift shop that is of interest to Sam to help foster his interests in nature and science.  He has taken to playing an electric keyboard and has pretty much taught him self using a little self help guide.  We are trying to get him interested in singing since he can carry a tune and memorises the words to song quickly.  He only seems partly interested.

3. Which aspects of your child’s behavior and personality reflect continuities from earlier behavior (e.g., at ages 3-4 years) and which seem to be novel for this age level? 

Since around 3 we noticed Sam's interest in books, language and reading.  This interested has not faltered as he is reading on a 2nd grade level.  I would still classify his temperament as over controlled.  He is still nervous in new situations and is not as independent as other kids.  I wonder if this is more of a hereditary trait that has been kept in check because of our awareness and concern for our son.  Perhaps he would be extremely introverted if we had not acknowledged his "overcontrolledness" and tried to a just.

I think his gender identification and stereotyping are novel for this age.  All of the children in his first grade class appear to be going through the same stage at the same time.  I am sure when he is 14 we as his parents will wish he still thought girls had cooties! And some of them still do!

Assignment 5, 4 years

1. How would you characterize your parenting style? How have your specific parenting techniques changed since infancy? In what ways do you think your parenting style, or any other aspect of your parenting, has been influenced by your cultural background or other experiences?

We enrolled Sam into a kindergarten prep session over the summer.  Upon completion Sam received an assessment.  With in the assessment the observer noted that my parenting style fell with in the average when it came to affection and warmth and within the average range for discipline and control. I feel the assessment was quite accurate.   I feel that my spouse and I are exibiting an Authoritative parenting style.  Affection and warmth is difficult to evaluate in this medium, however I have always tried to keep his feelings into consideration when ever confronted with a problem. As for discipline, I have not felt the need to "spank" Sam,  or be overbearing.  I feel time outs and verbal reprimands are adequate punishment.  

My parenting has not changed much since infancy.   Although it has grown and adapted as Sam has grown and adapted.  I think in the beginning I realized that Sam was very attached to me and my spouse.   We made attempts to help him socialize with other adults.   We just have not been able to break him of his clingyness to his teachers.  All along we have realized that he was above average in his spatial and vocabulary skills and continued to foster those skills.  

Culturally, I feel that my parenting style was influenced by my SES status.  I was able to stay home with Sam which gave me a tremendous amount of one on one time to with Sam.  It also gave us the opportunities to go to museums, and zoo's and have playdates with other children at young ages.  A working mother would not have the ability to spend as much time fostering there children's interests, purely on the stand point of time alone.

2. Describe two specific examples of changes in your child’s behavior at age 4 that seem to stem from growth in cognitive and language ability since the period of infancy (e.g., improvements in symbolic thinking, reasoning, knowledge of the world, theory of mind).

Sam loves make believe play.  He frequently will act out adventures with his action figures and loves to pretend to be someone or something else with friends and family.   I think this is a direct relation to cognitive growth as seen through Piaget's early childhood schemes.  Sam's play is less self-centered and he is including more complexity in his play, by making his action figures act out adventures.  

Sam's reasoning skills are advancing so quickly.  I feel language development has hugely influenced this.  Sam now has the words to articulate a question and the language and  reasoning skills to interpret the question.  

3. How would you characterize your child’s personality? Would you say that your child is primarily overcontrolled, undercontrolled or resilient? Support your argument.

Sam's personality is a mix of characteristics.  Mostly he would fall into over controlled.  He follows the rules and isn't aggressive, yet when he is faced with an uncomfortable situation he becomes shy and clingy.   I feel resilience is beginning to come out in him.  I think his cognitive abilities and reasoning skills are helping him break out of the overcontrolled and he is realizing he is able to do more and enjoy more if he participates.