My virtual teen

Running head: MY VIRTUAL TEEN 1

MY VIRTUAL TEEN 8

My Virtual Teen Assignment

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My Virtual Teen

Raising a kid from the time of birth to adolescence is one of the toughest and most fulfilling jobs on earth. It is also one for which most parents may feel not well prepared. Again, a child’s development is a lifespan progression that begins before birth and prolongs till they are teens. At all the stages of life, every child is in a state of personal growth and development. The process is primarily driven by physical changes and the cognitive abilities progress and wane. This happens as a reaction to the growth of the brain in childhood. Psychosocial development can also be said to be greatly influenced by the physical growth. Due to the changes in brain, body and the environment people live in, it affects their identity as well as their interactions with those around them.

My virtual child’s name is Princess. She is a white female of average height and weight with brown eyes. Princess came earlier than it was anticipated, when we were still talking of how she will be born. It actually came a week earlier than expected and had to rush to hospital. My partner contracted fully on our way to hospital and gave the nurses an extra duty as we reached the hospital. The natural childbirth techniques that we had practised for some time could not work and the nurses had to use other methods during the push. But then the time came and Princess was delivered to us. What a sigh of relieve to everyone in the delivery room. I was specifically happy for my partner for having delivered such a lovely being to this world. I held the baby in my arms and immediately felt the connection with the child.

It only takes a week and my partner feels the hormonal connection with Princess. When the baby starts crying she is breastfed and goes quiet all of a sudden. That is the kind of communication between a baby and the mother. Breastfeeding according to research ensures that the bond stays strong between the two. However, if she stops breastfeeding the connection will die off with time. So it is a decision that we make to breastfeed Princess. To this feeding she responds adequately and we are amazed at how quickly the baby is growing. To our surprise the baby even outweighs our schedule. It prompts us to keep check on how Princess shall feed going forward. I am particularly concerned about the possibility of building up many fat cells. To check on this, I design method of feeding in which the baby stays until she is hungry then she is fed to satisfaction. This method is nourishing and shows some progress which I then choose to make regular. This is what is needed for the growth and development of any child throughout the stages (Berk & Meyers, 2013). Each stage is characterized by specific physical changes which occur thus affecting the individuals’ cognitive and psychosocial developments. It is important to analyze such developmental phases even as the individuals progress from infancy to senescence s as to fully appreciate their behavioral changes (Berk & Meyers, 2009).

As will be observed Princess behaves like any other babies at this stage. the stages of childhood growth are divided as per what psychologists describe as specific models of behavior seen in particular phases of growth. Infancy may include the first twelve months of life and toddlerhood (Vander Zanden et al., 2007). Princess sleeps for a duration of two hours and then wakes to play like other babies. It is my duty to soothe the baby every time she wakes up and rock her a little if need be. Making faces to her is what she likes and dance around with her to make her happy. At this stage I have purchased a few toys for her to play with as long as she is not crying. Nonetheless, there are times Princess just does not want to take a nap. She becomes very difficult to handle and even soothing does not help. If she cannot sleep, the best way is to try and play with her to make her wear out then she will finally doze off. Another better method that lulls her to sleeping is taking her around in a stroller. All in all, I must keep the schedule as regular as possible, the feeding, playing and nap times.

As studies indicate, the ground of growth and development is greatly multifaceted. Also, this is the stage when cognitive, physical and psychosocial maturation is so changeable (Berk & Meyers, 2009). Due to the high levels of dependency at this stage, the main focus of instruction and healthcare is towards the parents. The parents are even considered to be the prime learners as compared to the young children. This is also the time at which there is rapid physical maturation, especially from infancy to toddlerhood. The self and environmental exploration becomes very key and enhance the physical development even more (Vander Zanden et al., 2007). At this stage, the patient educators focus their teaching on the parents teaching them the importance of nutrition, stimulation and other safety measures. The parents must be very careful to promote better healthcare and prevent illnesses (Vander Zanden et al., 2007).

The past week terrifying when Princess was struck with bouts of indigestion and diarrhea. The baby kept crying which gave me sleepless nights. We visited a doctor and she was treated for rice water and pedialyte. Even after going to hospital, he baby is still crying and making me worried. She refuses to eat completely for some time. The pain however, subsides after a while and she recovers to her normal health. In our normal occasions we hang out with Princess. We engage in baby exercises like her arms and legs as she tries to push back. Rocking her while singing is something she likes and I have made it a habit to make her happy.

From our living standards, it is possible for my partner to take some time off or better still work part time if we decide to hire a babysitter. We make a decision to use an experienced woman as her babysitter. A woman who with the familiarity of raising a kid. As time goes by, Princess shows some signs of independence. She wants to be left alone to crawl and move to new places where she spends a lot of time. Like a responsible parent my obligation is to ensure the places she wants to explore are safe and also provide toys for her to play. Even as she is left to be independent, I keep an eye on her from a distance. Children at this level begin to acquire some independence which makes them obtain new behaviors. Getting a bit of independence from their parents means that they start caring for themselves more by themselves. Early childhood is very crucial in the individual’s development since quick gains are made in physical, cognitive and socioeconomic spheres. These gains create the building blocks that will influence the child’s later growth. The many areas of child development are closely intertwined (Lerner, Lewin-Bizan & Warren, 2011).

With time, Princess develops a habit of clinging back to me when sobbing. This usually occurs whenever she is in a new situation or meeting new persons. Because I want to raise her as an outgoing person, I try to expose her to these new situations and people repeatedly. The holistic approach to this type of development captures the important perspective that humans and not variables develop (Berk & Meyers, 2013). Children develop their sense of self-esteem when they see themselves through their parents’ eyes. The tone of the voice, expressions and body language is absorbed by the children. The words uttered by the parents and actions they perform influence the self-esteem of the child more than anything else. Any accomplishments the child makes should be appreciated. Such teachings however small ensure the development of the child and are tenets of good parenting.

Sometimes, the baby just gets irritated for no apparent reason. I respond to this differently depending on the circumstances. Sometimes I make physical contact or hold her but other times I choose to ignore and only concentrate on calm behavior. There are times that Princess clearly indicates she prefers my partner, me then others respectively. To counter this and because I want her to love me, I start spending more time with her. I do the feeding, the changing of diapers and all the playing with her. If necessary I also make arrangements to have the baby spend more time with other caregivers and family members. It may sometimes be difficult for parents to make time to be with their kids. There is probably nothing the kid would love more than spending quality time with their parent. A child who is not getting attention from the parent may be tempted to misbehave since their actions will go unnoticed either way (Lerner, Lewin-Bizan & Warren, 2011).

The baby turns nine months old and the pediatrician advises us after examining her. He says that Princess may or may not accept soothing whenever she is upset. Regarding her health, she is fine and would do better with more varied baby foods, fruits and vegetables. Also, the baby cannot fully embrace new situations and persons especially in my absence. With time Princess seems to be getting closer to my partner than any other person. This is evidenced by the fact that Princess is willing to make more advances and try new things with my partner around. But since preschool is fast approaching I decide to make her cope with many situations in the absence of my partner. With the good neighbors around I take the advantage to have Princess to play with their kids who are a little older. I notice she starts to understand a few words and can easily point to what she wants. At twelve months she starts to mention words. At this stage it is vital to make the child feel important (Lerner, Lewin-Bizan & Warren, 2011). It is up to the parents to model the kind of traits they would wish to see in their teens like honesty, kindness and respect.

Lev Vygotsky in his social development theory argues that the social interaction comes before development (Vygotsky, 1978). As per this theory, social interaction plays a critical role in as far as cognitive development is concerned. In contrast to other scholars, Vygotsky opines that social learning precedes development. He says that in a child’s cultural development, every function appears twice. The first is on the social level and later on the individual level. In other words, the first time is interpsychological or between people and then later is the intrapsychological meaning inside the child themselves (Vygotsky, 1978). For this reason, I am determined to ensure that Princess grows out to become a social human by interacting with others. Another scholar Erik Erikson proposed the psychosocial development theory that goes through the eight developmental stages (Tuckman & Monetti, 2011). As the human goes through all the stages, their selfhood independence identity and self-worth may either be developed or crushed. This factor is dependent on how human interact with other people or how they solve the issues along the stages. He says that each stage is characterized by a turning point which he refers to as a psychosocial crisis (Tuckman & Monetti, 2011).

There are various dimensions used to describe the child in their first 30 months which are random and change depending with parenting decisions and events. They include sociability, activity, emotionality, self-control, and aggressiveness vs cooperativeness. The temperamental traits vary with response to the pressures of the environment. Goodness of fit applies where the parent is required to adapt to the temperament of their child. For instance Princess has just turned fifteen months and she can learn her environment. She can even pick her toys and play with them differently. Princess gets sad when my partner leaves but after that she becomes normal and plays with the babysitter well. She has even identified her favorite places to play and does not want to be carried around.

Features like motor skills are improved and become refined as the baby grows. Learning also continues through each phase of growth which affects her reasoning. For example, Princess is now able to imitate words that she had some time back. She sometimes get frustrated but decides to give up. She has learnt to even get toys that are hidden and can now follow the house rules more often. The child’s environment has a greater influence on their behavior so it is easier for the parent to change the behavior by changing the environment. As the child changes so should the parenting style. In as much as a child may want to emulate more from their peers, the parent should always be available to give guidance. Providing discipline in a child should leave room for some independence while ensuring there is a good connection between the child and parent.

Princess has learnt a lot more and it is time to join a preschool program. She handles challenging tasks pretty well and scores well in tests. To improve her grades the examiner recommends new activities for her. To improve her motor skills, the specialist recommends more outdoor activities. For the two and a half years, I can say the child is very active and requires attention. Her psychosocial growth has been no more than any average child.

References

Berk, L. E. (2009). Child Development, 3rd Canadian Edition. Pearson.

Berk, L. E., & Meyers, A. B. (2013). The role of make-believe play in the development of executive function: Status of research and future directions. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 98.

Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Lewin-Bizan, S., Boyd, M. J., Kieluy Mueller, M., Schmid, K. L., ... & Bowers, E. (2011). The 4-H Study of positive youth development: past, present and future. Tufts University: Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development.

Tuckman, B.W., & Monetti, D.M. (2011). Moral, personal, and psychosocial development. In Educational psychology (pp. 99-112). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Vander Zanden, J.W., Crandell, T.L & Crandell, C.H. (2007). Human Development (8th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.