Sunday, September 28, 2008

3 years and 11 mon

Angel and I sing along to her preschool songs such as, ABC's, wheels on the buss go round and round, and etc. Angel her dad and I like to jog around the block. We find doing out door activities promotes a healthy life style.

Angel is cooperative and friendly with both adults and other children, and able to focus well on tasks. Angel is quite self-confident in novel social situations and seemed to be well-liked by several children. She had several little friends in the preschool and was somewhat of a group leader in free play activities, such as imaginary play or riding trikes. Angel's language skills were above average.Angel is able to tell a detailed and coherent story about a picture. My friend advised me to continue to read aloud, talk about anything of interest to Angel and to go on outings of interest to Angel to stimulate and broaden her vocabulary and knowledge base.Angel is below average when it comes to cognition skills. I feel we need to work on more puzzles, and games that involve Angel to use her thinking process.

Angel's adapting to social situation outside the house very well, she really likes kids and new people. Angel loves to make games up and plays with all the kids in her daycare. We just had another baby girl, Angel really loves to help me out with the baby. Angel rocks and feeds the baby, the only down fall is Angel sometimes seems to be regressing and becoming more demanding and whiny, and less cooperative, but other times prides herself on being a competent older sibling.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Assignment 3, age 30 months

1. Have there been any environmental events in your child’s first 2 1/2 years that you think might have influenced his or her behavior? On what do you base your hypotheses? Angel was over at the neighbor's house a couple of weeks ago and was scratched by their cat. Since then, Angel has not wanted to visit the kindly neighbor, and has been more clingy and whiny than usual. Another time, Angel was riding her hot wheels tricycle , but recently has avoided it completely because of a scary accident in which she went off a curb in the park and got scratched up. Now it really seems Angel cries more lately and wants my partner and I around, even when doing little things. I just found out I'm pregnant Angel doesn't know yet. I feel it's going to be interesting to see how having another baby will influence Angels behavior.

2. How is your child progressing on 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? Well according to an early childhood development specialist, Angel has a hard time sharing with other kids especially when it comes to her favorite toy.Angel handled challenging tasks fairly well except for an occasional need for encouragement.Angel scored in the above average range on tests of receptive and expressive language, and provided unusually complete and grammatically mature sentences in a conversation the examiner and she had about a picture. Angel is below average in solving problems with more than two steps, and grouping objects together in categories. The examiner also said Angel needs more help in copying shapes, and with her attention span. I think Angel is developing very well; I disagree with the specialist about Angel being below average in solving problems. Angel and I play solving games all the time at home like hide in seek, and figure out where we hide the toy ( by retracing steps ). Angel really loves to help out at home, and is good at following the rules.

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. When it comes to social learning theory: I feel I use this more in my parenting then others. I edit what my kids watch on t.v because I know kids mimic what they see, this also goes for limiting the kinds of video games they play as well. I make sure to let my kids know they can do anything they put their minds to, and when I see them struggling I offer my kids support and encouraging words to help them. Another theory I seem to use in parenting is Jean Piaget's developmental theory. When my kids were little we would play games like hiding toys then finding them. We would also play with big puzzles to see if my girls could put the pieces back the right way.I believe these developmental thinking games really show how kids think logically.One of the last theory I use in my parenting is Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. I believe this theory is widely used at home,at school and in social peer pressure events.For example, my girls are raised with religion as a guide in how to be. When put in a situation that calls for inner thinking or problem solving my girls have their religion as a moral base into what they feel is right or wrong.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Assignment 2

1. AT 8 mons, I try the object permanence test. Angel is able to find a hidden object, as long as I don't wait too long or distract her in the middle of the search. Angel really likes this hiding game and shows by her interest that she wants it repeated. However, if I hide the object in the same place repeatedly, and then change the hiding place, Angel has a strong tendency to look in the old hiding place, and then get confused about where the object is, or forget about it.Now at age 18 mons Angel loves playing the object permanence test, she is really good at finding the hidden objects and always wants to play.

2.Angels temperament hasn't changed much from 8 mons to 18 mons. Angel still cry's when I leave her at daycare, and she she seems to try new things more when I am around.One thing new is Angel has shown some interesting new behavior. She acts shy when looking in the mirror, uses the word "me" a lot, and wants to do things herself.I think the new behavior is a sign of self awareness, and I have to decide what the balance will be between allowing Angel to be independent and teaching her to follow the rules. Angel is usually calm and cheerful and seems to tolerate minor problems (hunger, fatigue, stress) easily. I noticed Angel doesn't show much interest in the age-appropriate blocks, toys, and building sets that we have, and gets frustrated when she does occasionally try to play with them.We have new blocks, bigger ones so I am hoping she Angel will like those better.

3. I was very surprised by Angels ability to learn new things.Angel is able to imitate actions or words that she has seen or heard days before. This greatly expands her ability to learn new things. Angel also seems to be aware of basic categories, such as big or little, and blue or red. I can tell because of the way she is sorting her toys. Angel was cheerful throughout her play sessions and the examination session, she rarely became tense or emotional during the period of observation.
Angel scored above average in all aspects of language development, and is ready to be read aloud to more frequently, as she can follow typical story lines. The examiner also noted that her memory was pretty good and recommended that I frequently ask Angel to recount experiences as a way of encouraging more language growth. I thought this was fantastic Angel seems to be growing great!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

9 months of age / Assignment 1

Angela’s eating great; she is very healthy and strong. The pediatrician said she could try more of a variety of ground up fruits and veggies. Angel still wakes up during the night but she is getting better. Angel is advanced in her gross and fine motor skills and enjoys crawling, pulling up to stand and manipulating objects. According to Bowlby and Ainsworth, and various research studies, when Angel becomes upset; it is difficult to soothe her down. She sometimes accepts my embrace and sometimes pushes me away. I believe baby Angel will be fine it’s just a phase. Angel loves people; she made eye contact, smiled at them, and vocalized to everyone in the pediatrician's office. Around 8 months of age I was rear ended, thankfully Angel wasn’t in the car. I am doing physical therapy two times a week, getting depressed, and having trouble sleeping. I get up set at Angel’s crying and have a hard time waking up at night, even with my partner helping me. But for the most part Angel is doing good she is very healthy and enjoys new people, and objects. So I guess we will see how it goes.

3 months

At 3 months of age, Angel is showing more intense interest in her surroundings. Angel smiles at familiar people and toys, is able to laugh at surprising or funny things (such as a little dog), and is developing lots of cute little habits. Awww I love it Angel is coming along great.