Running head: Child Case Study: Alyssa

1

Child Case Study Project:

Development and Growth of Alyssa Phillibert

Barry D. Thibault

University of West Georgia

Development and Growth of Alyssa Phillibert

  1. Introduction

Alyssa Phillibert is my 4 year old niece and the child subject of this case study project in child development and growth. Alyssa was born on May 28, 2006 to my sister, Pam Phillibert and brother-In-Law, Rick Phillibert. Alyssa's parents have been married for 3 years when she was born and she is the only child in my sisters' family. This study allowed me the opportunity to interview and observe Alyssa and her family to support my learning about the development and growth of young children. The conclusion of this case study of Alyssa's development will allow me the opportunity to become a better teacher by understanding the development of a student's cognitive, moral, emotional, social, physical and language attributes of pre-school aged children.

This study of Alyssa Phillibert will identify the following concepts of the important growth attributes of the developing child:

  • Intelligence
  • Academic success/failure
  • Thought processes
  • Interest in school
  • Attention span
  • Memory
  • Ability to reason
  • Aggression
  • Temper
  • Self control
  • General disposition
  • Emotional problems
  • Self concept
  • Self esteem
  • Egocentric behavior.
  1. Identifying information

Subject:Alyssa Phillibert

Age: 53 months (4.5 Years Old)

Sex: Female

Birth Order: 1st and only child

Height:

Weight:

Parent Information:

Mother:

Pamela Phillibert, 38 years old (34 at Alyssa's birth)

High school graduate,

Employed at :Manatee County Courthouse

Father:

Richard Phillibert , 40 years old (36 at Alyssa's birth)

High school graduate,

Employed at: Time Warner Cable Company

Community demographics:

The Philliberts live in Bradenton, Florida. They reside in a suburb called Lakewood Ranch in a beautiful family home. They have lived in this home for 6 years and contribute to the growth and development of the neighborhood. This suburb is in a new part of Bradenton with brand new schools, hospitals, shopping and community centers. The family attends Bayview Church which just built a new multi-million dollar complex.

  1. Physical development

Includes appearance, motor coordination (gross, fine), muscular strength, growth pattern, degree of activity, comparison with peers.

  1. Appearance:
  2. Muscle Strength:
  3. Growth Patterns:
  4. Activity:
  5. Comparison with peers:
  6. Gross (large) motor skills:

Skills observed:Performance: Compared to other children:
walking
running
jumping
climbing
throwing
catching
riding a tricycle
swinging
hopping
Galloping
skipping
dancing
balancing skills
Singing
  1. Fine (small) motor skills:

Skills observed:Performance: Compared to other children:
handling small objects
pincer grasp (usingthe thumb and index finger to pick up objects)
eating
buttoning
zipping
tying shoelaces
dressing
undressing
working puzzles
cutting
pasting
coloring
painting
manipulating blocks
hand motions to songs- Conducting
  1. Emotional development

A.Alyssa at Play

(1) practice
(2) pretense/symbolic
(3) social
(4) constructive (building or making something: art, puzzles, blocks, legos, sand castles)
(5) games.
  • Tell which ones he/she does not use.
  • Tell what % of time the child spends in group play? (with one or more other children).
  • What % of the time does the child. play alone?
  • Is this age-appropriate?
  • What have you observed the child learning from play?
  • What gender differences in play activities have you noticed?
  • What toys/activities are both sexes involved with?
  • girls only?
  • boys only?

B.Interactions with peers.(Interview with Alyssa's parents: Pam and Rick Phillibert)

  • How does your child interact with other children?
  • How is he/she a follower or a leader?
  • How does he/she influence the others, if at all?
  • When & how is the child friendly, cooperative, hostile, outgoing, withdrawn?
  • Does the child engage in aggressive behavior?
  • When? why? to whom? and how?
  • How does the child react to aggression expressed by others?
  • Who does the child spend the most time with?
  • How do the other children react to this child?
  • Does the child express sympathy to others or help them in any way

C. Adult Interactions(Interview with Alyssa's parents and observation)

1.Parents(observed)

  • Describe the parent-child interaction if observed.
  • Was the child's behavior different when the parent was there? How?
  • How did the parent relate to the child? What was said?

2.Teachers.(interview)

  • Does the child have a favorite teacher?
  • How does the child relate to various adults in the room--lead teacher, aide, child development students, other visitors?
  • Compared to the others, how well does the child listen & follow the teachers' requests and instructions?
  • Is the child clingy, dependent or independent?
  • How do the teachers react to this child?
  • How do the teachers deal with problems concerning this child?
  • What methods of guidance and control are used with all children? tone of voice?
  • How are positive actions reinforced?
  • How do the teachers help this child learn?
  • How much attention does this child get from teachers?

D. Erikson's theory of personality development (psychosocial stages). In observing your child, determine which stage, or stages, your child is in, according to Erik Erikson's theory. Give specific examples and reasons for your answer. Use your Handout and text to help answer this section.

  1. Social development

Emotions. Describe the emotions that your child expressed.

  • Does he/she cry easily?
  • become frustrated?
  • indicate that he/she is happy, mad, sad, hurt, etc.?
  • (Give specific examples of situations for each emotion observed-- what causes the child to be mad, hurt, etc.?)

Self esteem.

  • How would you describe the self-esteem of the child--high, low, average, a combination?
  • What have you observed that causes you to draw this conclusion
  • In what areas is your child most advanced for his/her age?
  • Which abilities are least developed?
  • Which areas are average?
  • Why do you think so?
  1. Cognitive Development

A.Number concepts. Discuss the child's ability to count withcomprehension and tell what the child counted (plates, blocks, etc.). How high can he/she count? Tell if the child used pre-math words such as "more", "less", "bigger", "longer", "shorter", indicating understanding of quantity or size.

B.Attention and problem-solving style. Discuss the child's ability (or inability) to attend (pay attention, focus or concentrate) to various activities or projects.Tell how many minutes he/she stays at each major area or activity. [Example, "She often spent from three to fifteen minutes on art activities."] What did your child seem to enjoy doing the most? the least? When working (or playing), is he/she easily distracted by other people, noises, etc.? When faced with a new activity, does the child get frustrated easily and give up or keep trying for a long time?

C.Reasoning ability and learning Tell if your child indicated by words or actions that he/she "figured out" something--how to work something, how to get to something he/she wanted, why something happened, etc.What has this child learned while you observed? What specific problems has he/she solved? [Remember, the child may learn that some things aren't allowed, and that some things don't work.]

D.Curiosity, creativity and imagination. How does this child show (1) curiosity about things around him/her? exploratory tendencies? Give examples of (2)creativity (new, different, unusual, original) things the child has made, said, or done. How did this child use his/her (3) imagination (imaginary activities, people, creatures, etc.)?

E.Memory. Discuss child's (1) short term and (2) long term memory abilities. How has the child indicated remembering usual daily routines, people, special events from past? Discuss any memory errors.

F.Piaget's stages of cognitive development. In observing your child, determine which stage and substage, your child is in, according to Jean Piaget's theory. Give specific examples, reasons for your answer. Use your text and handout to help you answer this section.

  1. Language development

A.Phonetics. Does the child pronounce words clearly and correctly? Quote "bigger" words pronounced correctly. Quote any pronunciation errors. [Example: She says "fwee" for "three"; "teeter" for "teacher".]

B.Semantics. Quote several of this child's "bigger" vocabulary words (words the child says). (This is active/productive vocabulary). How does this child's vocabulary compare with that of other children the same age? How well does the child understand the meaning of words used by others? (This is passive/receptive vocabulary). Give examples of specific directionsgiven by the teacher and describe whether the child understood and followed them. [Child may understand but not want to do it.] List any examples of child's misunderstanding word meanings.

C.Syntax. Does the child generally use good grammar? Quote examples of correct grammar, then quote any grammaticalerrors you heard and try to explain the reason for these errors.

D.Pragmatics. Does your child speak when appropriate and keep quiet when appropriate? Does the child speak especially loudly or softly? ...in a pleasant tone quality? How does the child use language?To whom does he/she speak, and in what settings? To what extent does the child use egocentric speech (failing to take the listener's viewpoints into account) versus socialized speech? How effectively is the the child able to communicate with peers?...with teachers? Give examples in detail. Tell how the child communicates. Describe non-verbal communication--body language, gestures, facial expressions--especially if the child is not yet very verbal.

E.General complexity.Quote four to six typical sentences spoken by your child, including the longest one.Compute the average length of the sentences [# words] spoken by your child. (Be sure to average in some of the shorter sentences.) How does your child's language compare with that of the other children in the room?(Indicate if your child is younger or older than the other children, or about the average of others in the room.)

  1. Moral development:

his or her view of right and wrong (Piaget, Kohlberg)

  1. General Assessment:

I have learned a great deal about the development of children during this assignment with my assessment and interview with Alyssa and her family. I have used the knowledge I learned from the chapter readings of this course of human growth and development to evaluate Alyssa's development with other students her age. This knowledge will help me understand the behavior and common issues of the students I work with on a daily basis. According to Santrock, (pg. 138) "Parents and educators who clearly understand how young children develop can play an active role in creating programs that foster their natural interest in learning, rather than stifling it."

Jean Piaget, study of children's development by observing, talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set them.Through his observations, Piaget developed his idea of stages of cognitive development which have made a lasting contribution to psychology.Piaget saw the child as an active participant in the development of knowledge constructing his or her own understanding. The child, he argued, tries to make sense of the world around him and this is known as the process of adaptation.

What are the outstanding characteristics of this child? What kind of additional information do you need to understand this child better? Put this child in the developmental stages of as many theorists as possible (Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, Kohlberg) and explain why.

Before Piaget, there was no body of theory on how intelligence develops through childhood and into adulthood.

Piaget's Developmental Model

Piaget's developmental model for children involves schemes (i.e. "concepts") or the action of categorizing. A baby begins life with a small number of sensory or motor schemes. As a child interacts within the world, they acquire more experiences and these schemes are modified as they make sense of new experiences.

Later, the toddler develops "mental" schemas and this shift is through the process of assimilation (absorbing some event or experience to some schema), accommodation (changing the schema as a result of new information) and equilibration where balance is achieved.

Piaget was one of the first psychologists to apply scientific method to his work, carrying out experiments based on measurable criteria. Freud and others who came before him relied on case studies

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Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget's theory of the way a child's thinking develops consists of four stages: the sensorimotor stage, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. His theory still greatly influences behavioural psychologists and educationalists today.

  • Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to two years): Child's intelligence develops through his motor (physical) interactions with the environment. During this stage the child starts to recognise how he or she can manipulate objects i.e. shaking a rattle to make a noise and will achieve object permanence i.e. realising things exist even when they aren't present. Mum can walk out of the room but she hasn't disappeared forever!
  • Preoperational Stage (Between two and 6/7 years): Child is able to make mental representations of unseen objects but cannot use deductive reasoning. During this stage child uses mental symbols to understand and interact with the world; they begin to learn language and engage in "pretend" play i.e. picking up a box and pretending it is a zooming car. They will start to classify objects by a single feature i.e. putting together all the blue blocks regardless of the size, or all the round blocks regardless of colour.
  • Concrete Operational (6/7 years to 11 or 12): Child starts thinking logically to solve problems and organise the information they learn. During this stage children will begin to classify objects according to several features.
  • Formal Operational (11/12 onwards) Adolescent starts to think more abstractly to solve problems and will systematically test hypotheses. At this stage thinking becomes less tied to concrete reality.

Piaget's theory of how children's minds work and develop has been an enormous contribution in developmental psychology

Three key theorists have impacted the understanding of learning and teaching. Gardner, Piaget and Vygotsy identify separate factors in effective learning. Three theorists have greatly influenced the way children today are taught: Howard Gardner, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Multiple intelligence, the importance of language, development and culture, and scaffolding ideas are key concepts in the understanding of learning.

Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligence

According to Gardner, how a child learns depends upon the child’s type of intelligence. Gardner believes children learn through one of eight different modalities: linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, or naturalistic. Although Gardner’s theory has been popular, testing for types of intelligence has proven problematic. The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scale (MIDAS) is a work in progress. In one study, teachers were able to accurately predict which children would score high an area of expertise (mathematics, language arts, etc.), but MIDAS did not produce clear categorizations.

Students do exhibit different abilities, and MIDAS might be helpful in understanding a child’s preferred learning modality. Even with an improved test available, however, educators would have difficulty implementing individual plans in a classroom. Would eight separate lessons plans be required? Aldridge and Goldman ask how musical intelligence could be addressed in a lower socio-economic school? While looking for ways to address different modalities, the practical teacher must ask, “What has been demonstrated to be generally effective, and possible, in the classroom?”

Internal Motivation and Society: Piaget and Vygotsky

According to the Piaget, learning is maturational, tied to specific ages. Motivation to learn is intrinsic and internal in nature. According to Lev Vygotsky, human motivation to learn is socially constructed. Vygotsky views motivation as both intrinsic as well as extrinsic with the individual and the culture interacting to form new understanding.

Rozycki and Goldfarb explain the relationship between society and the child as "constructivist." The ability to think is distinct from the ability to use language, but language itself is developed through social interaction. In turn, language development is necessary for participation within a culture. So, language, which is developed socially, is a key to learning.

Vygotsky and Research on Scaffolding

In contrast to Piaget’s stages, Vygotsky’s theoretical model has been said to be “fluid.” Vygotsky provides the teacher with guidance in regard to teaching so that children will rise to higher levels of understanding through incremental challenges called “scaffolding.” Learning is constructed via social interaction and language. A teacher will look for the “zone of proximal development” or the place where the child can complete a task with assistance, but not alone. This is the place where the mentor can effect change. The teacher presents lessons incrementally. The teacher and student discuss the lessons.

In Vygotsky’s model, both the teacher and the student are active participants in the learning process. The “Tools of the Mind” research project is dedicated to encouraging scaffolding techniques. Best Practices for Education reports that the Tools of the Mind approach has demonstrated its effectiveness. Teachers reported children improving scores from well below average to above average. An excellent overview of scaffolding was done by researchers at the University of Georgia