Case Report On Life Span Development
Introduction
Destiny (pseudonym) is a 6 year and 4 months old female child, of Indigenous American descent, born on May 12, 2012. She is originally from New Jersey, and currently resides in Pooler Georgia. Destiny has resided in Georgia for almost 4 years now. She lives in a quiet residential neighborhood. Destiny has just entered into a new school year this past August and is in the first grade. Her family structure includes me (her mother), step-father, two older step-sisters, and a younger brother.
However, Destiny’s biological father, and two younger sisters reside in New Jersey. Her younger sister whose closer in age to her share a deep attachment and they often keep in contact via FaceTime and visits when possible. The data was collected on September 27, 2018, in Pooler Georgia, at Destiny’s home through face to face conversation and observation.
Physical
Destiny is 22. 68 kg (50lbs), and 3 feet 6 inches in height. She is quite proportional forher age. According to the text on page 195 Table 1, she is right in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. In our text we find that children’s growth is more rapid between ages 3 and 6. This would explain why Destiny seems to have grown so quickly in the past year. Last school year Destiny was able to wear a 5T, which was quite loose fitting. Destiny is now wearing a 6x/7. Her feet seem to also grow at a rapid rate and needs new shoes about every 3 months. If Destiny continues to grow 2 inches to 3 inches a year my guess is she will probably end up falling in a slightly taller bracket for girls. For the gross motor the data collection was done by asking Destiny to complete 2 different tasks. In the first task Destiny was asked to run from one end of the driveway the other a total of 2 times. She completed the task in 28 seconds. Running is one of her things to do.
On page 262 the text talks about recess- time. It states that boys play more physical and girls favor more verbal expression games or counting aloud. Destiny is the opposite, she actually enjoys more physical games, such as chasing, running, and rough and tumble play. Destiny is quite an active kid, which is why her body image and obesity is not a concern. The second task I had her complete was throwing a soft ball back and forth to me. She seemed to have good coordination and caught the ball 8 out of the 10 times it was thrown to her. She is able to walk up long steps and requires no assistance. Her gross motor skills meet the characteristics of a six-year-old. She is quite intuitive when it comes with electronics. She enjoys using her tablet and operating my phone to watch her favorite show “Little Pony”. Destiny is able to, button her pants and shirt.
However, tying shoes is a challenge for her, she has not quite mastered shoe tying yet. When it comes to eye-hand she is able to throw a small ball in the air and catch it. On pages 198-199 our text states development of motor skills both fine and gross.
Cognitive Development
According to Papalla and Marotrell, on page 207, the preoperational stage lasts approximately age 2 to 7 and is characterized by the expansion use of symbolic thought. Using the concept found in the book on page 212, table 6 I tested Destiny’s conservation by using two identical balls of clay. I rolled one into a circular shape, and the other into a cylindrical shape. I then asked Destiny “Do both pieces have the same amount of clay or does one have more”. Her response was “The sausage has more”. I then asked her why the sausage has more, and she stated, “It’s longer”. According to the text on page 269 it states the preoperational stage of development children are focused on appearances and have difficulty with abstract concepts. It further goes on to give an example of the same test I completed on Destiny, the child used in the example gave the same response Destiny gave.
Therefore, she was deceived, and failed the conservation task. Subsequently, the text further states children do not gain the ability to pass the various types of conservation tasks, such as the clay task until about the age 7 or 8. Categorization was the other task Destiny was tested on. She did well, in this task, she can count to 100, sort crayons by colors from dark to light, as well as red and oranges and greens and blues. On page 268 in the book seriation is the arranging objects in a series according to one or more dimension. Children appear to become better at seriation such as darkest to lightest. This was a task Destiny achieved during my observation. Destiny has recently started the first grade, I have observed her closer in days passed while completing math homework. She seems to be improving with her addition and subtraction skills. On page 270 the text talks about children counting in their heads by 6 and 7. This was observed with Destiny. The text goes on the state that it may take 2-3 more years for them to count down for subtraction. In my observing Destiny it appears she is pretty good at counting down. Maybe she’ll grow to be good in math.
Psychosocial Development
When Destiny was asked how she sees herself and about her self-concept, she answered “I’m pretty, smart, funny, and I can run fast”. Destiny also states she is thankful. In Chapter 8 on page 235 the text talks about Erikson, and the initiative versus guilt stage children encounter. While observing Destiny I noticed that she is often hard on herself, when she can’t get something the first time she tries until it frustrates her. An example of this is with reading homework. If she doesn’t know a word and has difficulty she will become too fearful to even try. It is important for Destiny to learn how to regulate these opposing drives and develop purpose. The text discusses this also on page 235. Destiny is very intuitive and aware of her surroundings, she seems to know her family well. Destiny was observed while playing with her younger brother. She shows empathy with him. Destiny was observed using her imagination. She was the super sister with special powers, and it was up to her to save her little brother from the bad dinosaur. On page 244 in the text it talks about dramatic play, which involves imaginary objects, actions, or roles. The text states dramatic play involves a combination of cognition, emotion, language, and sensorimotor behavior. She often makes correlations between things that girls can do and the thing’s boys can do. She has a great memory. She can often recall things in great detail. For example, she recalls the kitten that she had when she was 3 years old. She is specific with the colors and the texture. Destiny is good with directions and can recall particular landmarks. On pages 216-217 of the text states that preschool children tend to do better with recognition than on recall.
Reflection
The developmental process is simply amazing to me. The brain development is quite exciting to me. In the text on page 164 it states, that the development of the brain after birth is so closely connected with emotional changes is mind blowing. While collecting data I was able to observe my daughter with different eyes and understand her better. Understanding the developmental process is very important. While these theories, such as Piaget’s and Erikson’s, to name a few, are valid, I realized through the data I collected that children develop differently. I was also able through my own data to see how my own child measures up to these theories.
