My virtual child answers 18 years

My Virtual Life Simulation Assignment

Overview: My Virtual Life is a simulation. The simulation allows you to raise a child from birth to age 18 and monitor the effects of your parenting decisions over time. Assignment Directions:

1. Specifically, in Appendix A, you will find the exact questions you are to answer after raising your child and a rubric for how your responses will be graded. You will see the assignment is divided into 4 parts: infants and toddlers, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Each part is worth 25 points, equaling 100 total points.

2. Your responses to the questions in Appendix A should be typed in a word document. Use single space, Times New Roman 10-point font, and 1-inch margins.

My Virtual Life Simulation 1 Infants and Toddlers (23 points) - Appendix A General guidelines: A good answer will address every part of the question, and will describe the child’s behavior and provide 1 or 2 supporting examples. In addition, wherever possible, you should relate your descriptions and explanations of the child’s behavior to the concepts, theories and research covered in the book. Please avoid expressing an unfounded opinion – try to base your arguments on research studies and conclusions, or a theory that seems well supported by the research in the field. The questions are printed below along with a scoring rubric. 0-8 Months: 1. How does your baby’s eating, sleeping and motor development compare to the typical developmental patterns? 1 point for describing VC’s behavior in each of two domains and referring to what might be expected at these ages. (2 points) 2. At 8 months of age was your child an “easy”, “slow-to-warm-up”, or “difficult” baby in terms of Thomas and Chess’s classic temperamental categories? On what do you base this judgement? 1/2 point for explaining the category and half a point for a supporting observation on VC’s behavior (1 point) 3. How is your child’s attachment to you and your partner developing? What is happening at the 3-month and 8-month periods that might affect attachment security according to Bowlby and Ainsworth, and various research studies?

1 point each for describing two aspects of the child’s behavior that indicate attachment is developing at 3 or 8 months, and 1 point for describing one aspect of parental behavior that may affect attachment security. (3 points) 8–19 months: 1. Describe and give examples of changes in your child’s exploratory or problem solving behavior from 8 through 18 months and categorize them according to Piagetian and information processing theories. Note that 8 months is included, so you’ll need to use the time-line to look back at 8 months for examples. 1 point for describing an improvement or a qualitatively new behavior and one point for explaining it using a specific Piagetian or information processing concept to classify the child’s behavior (2 points) 2. Analyze your baby’s temperament in more detail at 18 months than you did at 8 months. How would you describe your baby in terms of the five aspects of temperament utilized by the Virtual Child program (activity, sociability, emotionality, aggressiveness vs. cooperativeness, and self- control)? Has your baby’s temperament been stable over the first 18 months? A blurb defining and providing examples of the five aspects of temperament is provided at 12 months, but you should seek out further explanations of temperament from your textbook. Explain how the concept of goodness of fit (also discussed in the blurb on infant temperament) applies to your interactions with your child. 1/2 point for giving a supporting example of each of the five aspects of temperament, ½ point for addressing the issue of stability and 1 point for discussing and giving an example of goodness of fit (4 points) 3. Were you surprised by anything in the developmental assessment at 19 months? That is, does your perception of your child’s physical, cognitive, language and social development differ from that of the developmental examiner? Give specific examples. If you were not surprised, write instead about some aspects of your child’s development that need the most work. 1 point for describing each area of development plus a description of why you were either surprised or not surprised by each, based on the textbook (3 points) 2 Years: 1. Have there been any environmental events in your child’s first 2 ½ years that you think might have influenced his or her behavior? On what do you base your hypotheses? 1 point for each of two environmental events – be sure to explain how you think they influenced your child (2 points) 2. How is your child progressing on the typical toddler issues, such as learning household rules, learning to follow routines, listening to you, developing self-control and learning to get along with other children? 1 point for each of three toddler issues (total of 3 points)

3. Analyze your own parenting philosophy and practices. What principles from social learning theory, Bowlby, Ainsworth, Piaget, Vygotsky, information processing theory, developmental neuroscience and other theories do you appear to have relied on in making your parenting choices or interpreting your child’s behavior? Include three principles/theorists from the above list in your answer. 1 point for discussing an example from your parenting that fits a concept or principle from each of three theories you select from the list above (3 points) Early Childhood (age 3-4 years) (17 points) 3 years: 1. What activities and experiences you and your child have engaged in might be promoting healthy behavioral practices and an interest in physical activity. 1 point for each of three activities or experiences (3 points) 2. Describe development of your child’s language and cognitive skills and discuss how these might be affecting his or her interactions with you and your responses. 1 point for each of two examples illustrating changes in cognitive or language skills and for explaining how they might affect your interactions with your child (2 points) 3. 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? 1 point for an instance of adaptation in the home and 1 point for an instance outside the home. 1 point for describing a problem (or an area in which the child needs improvement) and what the parent is doing or plans to do about it. (3 points) 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? 1 point each for two examples describing your parenting style, and 1 point for illustrating how specific parenting techniques have changed since infancy (3 points) 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). 1 point for each of two examples of changes in behavior; be sure to use one or more concepts from the course, including but not limited to those listed above (2 points)

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