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.
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