Holistic Profile of 3 and a Half Years Old Girl - Essay Example

Holistic Profile of 3 and a Half Years Old Girl Child development refers to the cognitive advancement, the physical quantitative increase in size/height, ability to understand a given language, communicate with people and the emotional growth. Child development commences after conceiving. Through physical interaction and experiences the child acquires the knowledge of the world. The child development process helps him in acquiring memory i.e. object permanency. The child acquires new intellectual ability through physical development by making short movements. (Bruner, 1974) Physical development After a long interview with Mrs. Davies and her three and a half years old daughter I learnt the following about this child. My interview included questions about the child right from infancy so that I could have a clear picture of the child's development right from birth. The mother informed me that the daughter started demonstrating intelligence at the age of six months; this she did by motor activity but could not use symbols. My interview revealed that the child had gone through the sensorimotor stage without any complexity. The child was now in her pre-operational stage, this is a period which comprises two sub-stages where a child demonstrates intelligence through using symbols development of imaginations is achieved, skills in language use are fully acquired and lastly the child lacks memory such that it is very hard for him to remember something. Thinking is thus done in a manner that is not logical. (Piaget,1972). By both observing the three and half year's old Dan and gathering information from her mother I arrived at the following physical observations. According to the mother her mother informed me that her daughter sleeps for about twelve hours at night. This has been consistent but in case the child is not in good health then he might sleep for fewer hours. The child is learning on how to use the toilet but with the assistance of the care giver and at times with the mother's assistance. She also knows how to put on shoes by herself though she cannot tie the shoe races on her own. I provided the young girl with a big ball which she repeatedly threw overhead and kicking it up and down in a jovial mood. On several instances the child was making efforts in trying to catch the large ball. The child was hopping and down on one foot a thing that she appeared to enjoy most. She also demonstrated developed balancing skills while standing and walking on a straight line. At times Dan would stop whatever she was doing and would start watching whatever we were doing. In several occasions she tried to imitate us after carefully observing our activities. The child had already developed the full set of babies teeth with her appearance resembling that of an adult though thinner (adult-like appearance) After weighing the three and a half years old I noted that Dan weighed thirty eight pounds. This was a good weight considering her age and the current stage of development. According to the mother her daughter remained asleep in most nights while recording minimal cases of wetting the bed. (Piaget, 1972) Her child knows how to dress herself and the only assistance that she requires is on how to use the buttons and also zippers. She gets the required assistance from the caregiver and has been improving on matters concerning dressing herself. The child also knows how to feed on her own. This she does with lots of spilling but this is reducing as time goes. She also climbs up and down a small slide by herself and at the same time she can ride a small bicycle without experiencing many problems in using the pedals Through the interview with the mother I learnt that her daughter is much interested in the handling of food and also in learning the cooking procedures.she repeatedly peters the house help claiming tat she want to do some cooking. She has the ability of washing her hands, getting a drink on her own and can also brush her teeth without any difficulty. She knows how to butter bread using a knife and can also feed herself by using a small spoon and sometimes a small fork. According to the mother the physical development of her daughter has been steady though a bit slower compared with the first two years. The pulse rate was from ninety to a hundred and ten beats in a single minute whereas the recorded respiratory rate ranged from twenty to thirty. Upon taking measurements I realized that the circumference of the head was equal to that of the chest, this makes the head size to be in better proportion with the body. (Piaget, 1995).Her legs appeared to grow faster than the arms Cognitive development Cognitive development concerns how the child develops her thinking skills and the interpretation of images observed. After interviewing the child's mother and making my own observations I learnt the following about the child's cognitive development pattern. According to the mother's claims, her daughter likes looking at various books and at the same time she pretends to be reading to the other family members. She is always attentive in listening to stories that follows under her level of understanding. She knows how to answer questions which deal with those objects and events that she is familiar with. Examples of this questions includes, where is your dad What are you holding What is this Et cetera She likes making comments at the story times particularly those relating to family matters. The comments made are always relevant to the story. Dan makes speeches that are easily comprehendible by the rest of the family The child has developed the skills of properly producing verbs that end with "ing", for example, cooking, washing, riding among others. Many at times she puts "-s" on the already pluralized form of words for example, sheeps. The child usually indicates negatives by inserting "not" and "no" before simple verb and noun phrases. For example she says that she is "not baby". Dan has fully developed on the production of expanded nouns phrases she can comfortably pronounce words like "big better bicycle" She easily recognizes sounds in the environment. When a bell is rung she is able to recognize the sound of a bell. She can easily tell the difference between food material and the non-food materials. She therefore knows what to eat and what not to eat. She knows some alphabetical numbers but can not arrange them in the right order. The child had the memory of what had happened the previous day. I asked him a question on what they had taken for supper the previous day and her answer was very correct. The child shows some concentration in paying attention to listen at stories. However, her concentration is short lived and covers a period of about three minutes. She demonstrated developed the ability in properly matching those objects that appears to have a similar function, for example putting toothpaste and toothbrush together. She knew how to pretend plays and I could see him substituting one object for another for example, she was substituting a match box for a vehicle. After providing her with various objects and their pictures I learned that she had the ability of correctly matching an object to a picture of the same object. She was able to count three to four objects but could not exceed that limit. She also knew where various objects belonged for example; she normally placed plates in the kitchen, clothes in the wardrobe e.t.c. She understood what one meant and whenever I asked him to bring one spoon she did it without a mistake. She also had the knowledge of words like later, soon and now. I tested this by asking her questions like, will you bring that bicycle right now or will you bring it later (Piaget, 2001) The mother informed me that her child could laugh at silly ideas presented to him. I asked him to milk the cat and she just laughed off the stupid ideas. The girl had the ability of following some simple commands as long as they were issued step by step. The child new what was dangerous and she carefully avoided dangers, for example she could not touch a burning frame all play near roads as this would expose her to dangers. She also displayed some ability of going through a book on her own. Social and Emotional development Socializing is another important aspect in an individual's life. Social developments start in the early stages of a child's growth and development process. I talked with the parent on the noted social development of her daughter as well as making my own observation on the child's behaviours. Through the interview I gathered the following. The child appeared friendly and was laughing most of the time in the interview period. The mother informed me that her daughter was always eager to please people especially her family members. The mother informed me that her daughter suffered occasional nightmares and feared darkness, fire and the mention of demons and ogres The young girl made observation to other playing children and would start playing parallel to them and at times she joined them in their play. She showed deep affection to those children who are hurt and those who are younger than her and she appeared disturbed when these people suffered The child dislikes being bothered while listening to stories. She hardly disrupts other children who could be listening to a story. Her concentration in the listening of stories spread up to ten minutes. She likes hiding her toys away from other children to ensure safety of her toys. At times she may become aggressive with other children if they may take her toy where she grabs the toy and fights back using it. She likes imitating the house help and at times she assists the house help with simple tasks like passing utensils to him. She also likes joining her friends in their simple games and other group activities but at times she likes playing alone. Whenever playing alone, Dan likes talking to himself with repeating some phrases that are common to him. She enjoyed being read to (books) by her mother a thing that she enjoyed most. She like talking about mental states like forgetting and other feelings. She is always ashamed of herself if caught in the wrong doing a thing that demonstrates that she understands between the wrong and the right thing. While playing she has demonstrates full knowledge on the use of various symbols for example, using a match box in place of a car .At times she is willing to take turns though not always She pesters the house help every time asking her to allow him to use the toilet on her own. She will always try to make jokes or things that would make others laugh. She knows her first and last name the name of her mother, father and that of the house help. She knows where her grandmother resides. She like participating in pretended social plays. She assigns roles to her friends and likes taking the father's role She understands that she is a girl and her elder sister is a girl. She understands "you," "he," "she" and "I". Besides, she likes playing in a spontaneous manner with two or three children in organized groups. She easily makes a pyramid by stacking objects of different sizes together. She always engages himself in playing alone and also with other children. She has the simple believe that everything centres around her such that by hiding her eyes she thinks that nobody will be capable of seeing him. Language Development This is another important aspect and a good tool in evaluating the acquired child development level. As a child grows she learns the use of various languages such that it becomes easy for him to communicate with his/her family members and also friends with whom they play together. My interview with Mrs. Davies and her daughter Dan helped me realize the following concerning the daughter's language development. Dan knows how to use pronouns correctly for example upon asking him what her sex was she responded that "I am girl "I again asked who is called Dan "Me" she responded. She is good in the use of past tense and plurals and does not have a big problem with the tenses. She is conversant with some body parts for example, the hand, and nose. Whenever I asked him to touch various body parts she did it without making any mistakes. She has some little knowledge with prepositions and their use, making it quite easy for him to handle a three word sentence She clearly understands the simple question that deals with her surrounding environment and also those that revolves around her daily activities. For example any question regarding her daily played games. She has developed ability in relating her experiences such that they are followed with some good reasons. She is able to properly reasons out questions like "what must you do if you are feeling very hungry According to the mother she has the ability of correctly naming common animals and objects in books and magazines. In proper language the girl gives her age, sex and full names a thing that displays her competency in language. Ninety percent of what she says is very much understandable to me .She demonstrated high understanding of prepositions this was especially after I gave him the commands on the same. Her language is largely predominated by verbs and has an average of between nine hundred and a thousand words She makes wide usage of verbalization in carrying out her daily activities. Consonants p, b, m, w, n, vowels and diphthongs are very well established in her conversations. She also knows some colours, for example, red, green, white and black. She has the ability of naming at least twelve objects that are familiar to her. She asks very short questions but understandable to the recipient. She demonstrated understanding of over and under. This I tested by giving him a cup and instructed him to put it under the table. This she did in the right manner. The girl demonstrated clear understanding of concepts like longer, larger and wider. After presenting two objects to him one being long and the other one shorter, she correctly identified the one that was longer than the other. She tends to make much repletion of words, sounds, phrases and syllables when engaged in a conversation. She demonstrated the ability of repeating four digits after I slowly gave him the four digits and successfully made use of three to five word sentences. Dan demonstrated much competency in following of simple commands even where the thought objects of stimulus are not visible. She has some developed ability on using plurals , for example cows , toys .She repeated simple rhymes on several occasions. Motor development According to Vygotsky, (1980), motor development relates to the ability to move. Normally at three and a half years a normal child's style of walking is usually stable. Motor developments starts later after the physical, cognitive and social developments. It is a very important stage in growth and development of a child since the child needs to make some movements as she plays with other children. I interviewed Mrs. Davies on the motor development of her child and collected the following data. (Neisser, 1967) The child walks up and down the stairs of their house without requiring any assistance she normally walks with one foot as she momentarily balances the other. She also eats without any difficulty and requires nobody to assist her while eating She could manage turning the pages of a text book through the use of circular, horizontal and vertical strokes one after the other. She has very strong hands and she is capable of throwing objects at a given distance with proper aiming. She enjoyed swinging in a swing that is placed a bit low and whose speed is not as fast. Also, she could catch a very large bouncing ball with both arms extended. I provided her with crayons and instructed him to make a drawing of a house. This she did and I was stunned by her improved crayon control skills. She was holding the crayons between her first two fingers and the thumb a method commonly known us tripod grasp. The child was jumping from a step on the bottom and could land on both feet. She enjoyed playing with clay by pounding, rolling and squeezing it. She always carries half a litre container filled with water without spilling and pours the water in a different container. She shows hand dominance in most of her activities She demonstrates ability to handle glass using one hand and after showing her how to hold a paper she repeated this and was very successful, she also manipulated zippers and large buttons on clothing, walked in tip toes if shown how and demonstrated ability of stacking blocks and mostly enjoys building with blocks.(Rawls, 1971) Conclusion Three and a half years marks a very important stage in the child growth and development, the child learns how to communicate in a given language, he develops his thinking and socialising skills where the child acquires qualitative and quantitative increase in size. At this sage caregivers should give the child maximum support by being patient with toileting, training hand and eye- coordination, using short sentences, listening to the child and asking him/her questions. This way a child will achieve the required development as to his/her age. Appendix Being in her pre-occupational stage of development the child is doing well in the child growth and development process. Her rate of development is steady and to the expectations of the health officers. Her cognitive development appears to be doing well and she seems to know most things some of which are not known by children of her age. She has well developed observation and imitation skills with a tall and thinner adult-like appearance. Her physical development is also in order and has the required height with the head being proportional with the other body parts. She is socially and emotionally well developed making him a friendly child who cares about younger children and those people who are hurt. She has acquired the necessary language development as per her age and knows how to use pronouns, prepositions and various tenses. References Bruner, J. (1974). Toward a theory of instruction. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Pp.112-142) Colby, Anne, Kohlberg, L. (1987). The Measurement of Moral Judgment Vol. 2: Standard Issue Scoring Manual. Cambridge University Press. London. (Pp.85-92) Erickson, H. (1959). Identity and the Life Cycle. International Universities Press, New York. (Pp.41-68) Neisser, U. (1967).Cognitive psychology. Appleton-Century Crofts, New York. (Pp.87-92) Piaget, J. (1972). The psychology of the child, Basic Books, New York. (Pp.45-63) Piaget, J. (1995) .Sociological Studies. Routledge. London (pp.124-132) Piaget, J. (2001) .Studies in Reflecting Abstraction. UK: Psychology Press, Hove. (Pp.321-344) Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Balkan Press of Harvard University Press, London. (Pp.201-223) Vygotsky, L., & Vygotsky, S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological Processes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Pp.87-99) Read More