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.