Developmental case study

It is important to know and understand the developmental milestones and be aware of the problems so children can be supported and offered the intervention if need. The bible provides a framework for Christian teacher's hereafter and actions that teachers can nature kindness, patience, humility and love of their own lives and the lives of their students (Galatians 5:22-26). By understanding children development is like a road map to explore the perspectives of children developmental theorists use to understand how children grow and change.The developmental case study is greatly improve the ability to interact with children with the better understanding of the stages of development, greater sight into how children behave, think and feel in certain ways which is a helpful way to gain and feel more comfortable in talking, playing and working with them. It is also important to realize that development is an ongoing process through out the lifespan and having a greater understand of how pe ople continue to grow and change can help appreciate and manage all stages of life.Participants Observation There are two participants in this developmental case study. First is a four years old boy, Monterey, who is a single child from African-American ethnicity. He attends NC Pre-K program, which provides high quality early educational experiences for four years old who are not attending preschool for various reasons and prepares children for kindergarten. Monterey is a very happy and high energetic child. He enjoys participate his friends in dramatic play center, running in the playground and eagerly to learn the new things during circle time.The second participant is ten years old girl, Kimberly, who is in fourth grade. Kimberly family are originally from Honduras, Kimberly is a bilingual student who speak fluently both English and Spanish. Her family moved to United States of America when she was three years old and she started to learn English when she attended preschool at th e age of four. Kimberly is very easy to get along and likes to play with younger children as she spends her late afternoon with mother, who is the reechoes assistant teacher. She likes to watch television, exercises with her older sister but not heavy active activities.She is a honor student, very bright and very curious about everything around her. The Whole Child Concept The â€Å"whole child† concept is based on the accepted principle that all areas of human growth and development are integrated. All areas of growth are knitted together in mutually supportive network creating the uniqueness of each child. Teachers learn what makes each child special, what they look like when the children move their bodies or change their expressions. The observant teachers read through the way they express the â€Å"whole child† (Gordon & Browne, 2013, p. 67).To define the â€Å"whole child†, observant teacher uses six developmental domains to express how children grow and de velop, which are developmental of social-emotional, physical, cognitive, language, cultural identity and creativity. In this development case study mainly focuses on three developmental domains in each participant, which are: Social-emotional development, includes children relationship with themselves and others, self-concept, self-esteem and ability to express their feeling. Physical placement, includes gross mother, fine motor and perceptual motor activities.Cognitive development, includes curiosity, ability to perceive and think, memory, attention span, general knowledge, problem solving, analytical thinking, beginning reading and computing skills. Developmental Case Study Monterey is four years old and according the social-emotional development during preschool years, a young child's social life evolved in relatively predictable way. The social network grows from the relationship with parents or other guardians and including family members. Social interactions extend from home t o child-care arrangement or preschool.Erick Erosion's theory of social development suggests that during the preschool year, children must resolve the personality crisis of initiative versus guilt. The child's successful solution in this stage results in a sense of initiative and ambition tempered by reasonable understanding of the permissive (Slaving, 2012, p. 62). Monotone's social-emotional development is age appropriated. He is learning what is acceptable and what is not. His emotional regulation skills expand and able to identify his feelings, as his language skill develop.Monterey enjoys being around his peers, during preschool years, peers begin to play the important roles. Peers conflict let children see that others have thoughts and feeling different from their own. Most of preschool interactions occur during play, which reflects the four levels of social interaction (solitary play, parallel play, associative play and cooperative play). Monterey spends most of the time in dr amatic play center and he achieves in the cooperative play level, which occurs when children Join together to reach common goals, sharing and taking turn.Play also allows boys to express themselves through dramatic play and to learn how to negotiate social-emotional challenges. It is through imaginary scenarios that young children work through family situations, pretend to be, negotiate role and problem-solve other real-life situations (Groper et al. , 2011, p. 36). Movement is a hallmark of early childhood and dramatic changes occur in both gross motor skills and fine motor skills (McDermott & Ramrod, 2013, p. 164). During preschool years, gross motor skills become smoother and better coordinated as a result of muscular control increasing.Young children infuse pretend role in into their physical play. In gender difference, boys have a larger proportion of muscle tissues Han girls, they are more physically active and participate in more rough-and-tumble play than girls (Gordon & Bro wne, 2013, p. 341). In this observation, even though Monotone's physical appearance is smaller than his friends in the classroom, he tends to play rough-and-tumble like other boys who are bigger than him, which in this case, size does not matter in his physical development.Monotone's fine motor skills make major strides in his age by dressing himself, eating with utensils, building blocks, putting small puzzles pieces together, writing his name legibly and cutting by using scissor to follow certain patterns. Level Weights believed that the adults in the society foster children's learning, engage children in meaningful and challenging activities and help them make sense of their experiences. Weights emphasized the importance of adult guidance in promoting cognitive achievements. Children's learning involves the acquisition of information from others and deliberate teaching.Development occurs as the child internalizes, be able to think and solve the problem without the help of others, this ability is called self-regulation. There are three key concepts in Weights theory, which are a zone of proximal development (ZAP), scaffolding and private speech or self-talk. As Monterey being observed, he clearly shows one of the key concepts of Weights theory, Private speech or self-talk. There are many times when he is working on play dough, puzzles and building blocks, he usually talks himself out loud about his plan in what to do next.When thought and language first merge, children often talk to themselves. Self-talk serves an important function in cognitive development. By talking to themselves, children learn how to guide their own behavior through complex maneuvers (McDermott & Ramrod, 2013, p. 17) and self-talk increases when children are performing more challenges task. Language development in children age three to seven years is tied with their thoughts, during these years, children talk aloud to themselves. After a while, self-talk becomes internalized so he child ren can act without talking out loud (Gordon & Browne, 2013, p. 09). Children talk to themselves for self-guidance, self-direction and help children think about their behavior and plan for their actions. ZAP and scaffolding are also important keys in helping children develop their cognitive skills. ZAP helps hillier master their skills with the assistance of another skilled person and scaffolding is a useful structure to support children's learning. Children who get advice to help them master the activities within their abilities tend to be more successful in their cognitive skills and development.Kimberly is ten years old girl, who is very curious about everything around her. By the time, children enter elementary school, they have developed skills for more complex thoughts, actions and social influence. The primary grade children will normally be spent working through Erosion's fourth stage, industry versus inferiority. They contribute to their sense of industry and accomplishment . During this stage, children start to prove that they are â€Å"grown up† or â€Å"l can do it myself† stage. This stage also includes the growth of independent action, cooperation with groups and performing socially acceptable ways.Most children make great strides in terms of their ability to recognize emotions in themselves and others, control their emotions and communicate about their emotion with language. As Kimberly was being observed, her emotional regulation continues to evolve. She can substitute one activity to another, change the way they think about troubling situation. Only one thing that she tends to do is keeping her feeling to herself. According to McDermott & Ramrod (2013), elementary and middle school students also tend to keep their feelings to themselves that suggest they are vulnerable (p. 37). Kimberly tends to move on to the new thing and does not like to be asked about the problem that bothers her. Throughout the school year, children have oppo rtunities to face many circumstances to develop their emotional regulations and how to properly express their social expressions. Most children have a similar appearance during middle childhood, the body size increases and their legs are longer in proportion to the body. This steady growth results in an increase in height and weight. Girls mature somewhat quickly than do boys.As children progress through middle childhood, they become increasingly sensitive about their physical appearance (McDermott & Ramrod, 2013, p. 165). This shows in Kimberly perspective of others in their appearances. She likes to ask why people wear certain types of outfit, hairstyles and the way people look. She was asked to explain about her ideas about her own curiosity, her answers give the result f what she wishes she could have or looks like. Self-conscious increases as children get close to puberty, which children start to notice the changes of their appearances.Many children exaggerate their own physica l flaws, the reality is that appearance is influential in social relationship and affect how they feel about themselves (McDermott & ramrod, 2013, p. 165). Jean Pigged referred the period of cognitive development of children age between seven to eleven years old is concrete operational stage. During this stage, children become increasingly skilled in the understanding of logical and concrete information. Even though, they still struggle with hypothetical or abstract concepts, they still be able to focus on multiple aspects of problem, thinking in different viewpoints and become less egocentric.They begin to have longer attention span and better able to remember information for longer period. Play still plays an important part in children during this age group. Middle childhood play fosters cognitive development. Children exercise their executive skills when planning pretense scripts. Using symbols in games, designing constructions and organizing games with rules (Bergen & Foregoer, 2009, p. 428). Play also shows the ability to use what they already know to construct new knowledge.During the observation, Kimberly shows how she relates her cognitive skills with play ideas by creating new games, rules and being adjust them to be appropriated to younger children in her mother's classroom. Play is the essence of creativity in children throughout the world, it is universal and reflects the children's growth, life and how they look at the world. Not only cognitive development, play promotes learning for the whole child, providing benefits for all developmental domains. Conclusion Once, everyone was a child. Learning about child development can provide additional insight of how a child becomes later in life.The better understand of the age process, the better prepare when the issues emerge. Teachers, educators, parents and educator are not only gained the process of understanding but will be able to recognize what is normal and not normal in the children development. Bible also makes clear that each person is unique. All are able to contribute to life in a special way, using their distinctive gifts (Romans 12:4-8). Study human development tends to follow remarkably predictable patterns, which indicate the typical placement of each ages and stages.