A. How is your child progressing on early childhood issues, such as learning household rules, learning to follow routines, listening to you, developing self control and learning to get along with others? Does your child have any behavior or emotional problems at this point? Why?
Liam’s is doing fairly well with childhood issues such as the ones listed above. Especially sense we added a new addition to our family, Liv, when Liam turned about 3 and a half years old. He has adjusted to this issue within his childhood fairly well. Right from the beginning he was bragging about his new baby sister and was continually helping me care for her. After the first couple of months he did show some regression in which he displayed behaviors of whininess and non-compliance. However, it was not long until he became mommy’s cooperative, complying and caring little boy once again.
Liam is a very cooperative child who rarely shows behaviors of non-compliance or defiance. He has the household rules down fairly well, he still forgets a few minor details every now and then but if he does forget he remembers the next time. Liam started struggling with lying when he was about 4 years old, they are terribly obvious lies. These lies usually occur when he is sneaking a cookie or breaking some other small household rule, I explain to him how lying can affect how other people feel about him and how it can make them sad. Liam seems to be regressing a little bit which is evident to me because he is much clingier than he was before Liv was born. This could very well be because I had another child and Liam does not feel as if he is getting the attention that he needs. He not only clings to me in new situations but also at home, and often relies on me to solve small daily problems for him. He is clingy to other authority figures as well, especially in nerve racking situations. However, he has the habit of warming-up in these new situations and turning into a social butterfly.
B. How might your child's development have been different if s/he was raised by people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background? Base your answer on specific evidence of SES/cultural differences that you conduct through research on your own. Note, if your cultural background differs from the predominant culture in the U.S., how might you have raised the child differently or made different decisions based on your own culture (e.g., being stricter or more lenient, emphasis on assertive/independent vs. cooperative behavior, emphasis on family relationships vs. relationships outside the family)
Although there are many ways in which one can calculate their SES, I am just going to go ahead an guess that my partner and I are middle class citizens that have background within the predominant culture of the U.S. Liam has had a pretty nice childhood so far, we have always been able to afford toys and other luxuries for him, we were able to move into a new home when he was about 4 years old because we had saved our money and he is now involved in interacting with our friendly neighborhood kids. If my partner and I were not able to provide for Liam as well as we already do this hardship would most definitely affect our sons personality, behavior and emotional state. In the article Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes, and Individual Development by
Rand D. Conger, Katherine J. Conger, and Monica J. Martin, it was noted that parents who are living in low SES are more apt to use inconsistent child rearing practices, parent more harshly and are typically less involved within the child’s life. When in comparison to how my partner and myself are now, we tend to be too soft in some situation. Such as when Liam is struggling with a small problem, I tend to come to the rescue when I should be letting him figure small problems out on his own, encouraging him to be independent. If we had a low SES then I may be the opposite of soft, I could be harsh and only allow Liam to solve his own problems which could display to him that I do not care much about his happiness, successfulness or need for attention. This is just one situation that would dramatically change if we had a low SES.
C. How would you characterize your child’s personality? Would you say that your child is primarily overcontrolled, undercontrolled or resilient? Support your argument.
I would say that Liam is primarily overcontrolled and maybe leaning towards the more resilient type. This is apparent to me because he follows the rules at home and in group settings with other children. He has been recently attending a kindergarten pre session in which a teacher assessed an evaluation of Liam in order to determine how he will do in kindergarten. She too noticed that Liam is very cooperative and noted that he was eager to please her by following the rules. Although he was initially shy at the beginning of the session, he quickly warmed-up and made several little friends. He did not show any signs of aggression while interacting with these peers. However, when Liam did feel stress or become nervous he would look to the teacher for support and somewhat cling to her as he does with me in our home setting. These are all characteristics of an overcontrolled child. However, I voiced my opinion that he is moving or leaning towards a more resilient personality type because his need for clinginess to an adult when he is under pressure had decreased sense his last pre-school evaluation. When Liam was about the age of 3 and a half he began to show this major signs of clinginess however, he only appeared to need some support when he became stressed in the pre kindergarten session. This, to me, looks like improvement on Liam’s end and my partner and I plan on allowing Liam to self-sooth more frequently than we have been in order for him to increase his independence.
Liam’s is doing fairly well with childhood issues such as the ones listed above. Especially sense we added a new addition to our family, Liv, when Liam turned about 3 and a half years old. He has adjusted to this issue within his childhood fairly well. Right from the beginning he was bragging about his new baby sister and was continually helping me care for her. After the first couple of months he did show some regression in which he displayed behaviors of whininess and non-compliance. However, it was not long until he became mommy’s cooperative, complying and caring little boy once again.
Liam is a very cooperative child who rarely shows behaviors of non-compliance or defiance. He has the household rules down fairly well, he still forgets a few minor details every now and then but if he does forget he remembers the next time. Liam started struggling with lying when he was about 4 years old, they are terribly obvious lies. These lies usually occur when he is sneaking a cookie or breaking some other small household rule, I explain to him how lying can affect how other people feel about him and how it can make them sad. Liam seems to be regressing a little bit which is evident to me because he is much clingier than he was before Liv was born. This could very well be because I had another child and Liam does not feel as if he is getting the attention that he needs. He not only clings to me in new situations but also at home, and often relies on me to solve small daily problems for him. He is clingy to other authority figures as well, especially in nerve racking situations. However, he has the habit of warming-up in these new situations and turning into a social butterfly.
B. How might your child's development have been different if s/he was raised by people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background? Base your answer on specific evidence of SES/cultural differences that you conduct through research on your own. Note, if your cultural background differs from the predominant culture in the U.S., how might you have raised the child differently or made different decisions based on your own culture (e.g., being stricter or more lenient, emphasis on assertive/independent vs. cooperative behavior, emphasis on family relationships vs. relationships outside the family)
Although there are many ways in which one can calculate their SES, I am just going to go ahead an guess that my partner and I are middle class citizens that have background within the predominant culture of the U.S. Liam has had a pretty nice childhood so far, we have always been able to afford toys and other luxuries for him, we were able to move into a new home when he was about 4 years old because we had saved our money and he is now involved in interacting with our friendly neighborhood kids. If my partner and I were not able to provide for Liam as well as we already do this hardship would most definitely affect our sons personality, behavior and emotional state. In the article Socioeconomic Status, Family Processes, and Individual Development by
Rand D. Conger, Katherine J. Conger, and Monica J. Martin, it was noted that parents who are living in low SES are more apt to use inconsistent child rearing practices, parent more harshly and are typically less involved within the child’s life. When in comparison to how my partner and myself are now, we tend to be too soft in some situation. Such as when Liam is struggling with a small problem, I tend to come to the rescue when I should be letting him figure small problems out on his own, encouraging him to be independent. If we had a low SES then I may be the opposite of soft, I could be harsh and only allow Liam to solve his own problems which could display to him that I do not care much about his happiness, successfulness or need for attention. This is just one situation that would dramatically change if we had a low SES.
C. How would you characterize your child’s personality? Would you say that your child is primarily overcontrolled, undercontrolled or resilient? Support your argument.
I would say that Liam is primarily overcontrolled and maybe leaning towards the more resilient type. This is apparent to me because he follows the rules at home and in group settings with other children. He has been recently attending a kindergarten pre session in which a teacher assessed an evaluation of Liam in order to determine how he will do in kindergarten. She too noticed that Liam is very cooperative and noted that he was eager to please her by following the rules. Although he was initially shy at the beginning of the session, he quickly warmed-up and made several little friends. He did not show any signs of aggression while interacting with these peers. However, when Liam did feel stress or become nervous he would look to the teacher for support and somewhat cling to her as he does with me in our home setting. These are all characteristics of an overcontrolled child. However, I voiced my opinion that he is moving or leaning towards a more resilient personality type because his need for clinginess to an adult when he is under pressure had decreased sense his last pre-school evaluation. When Liam was about the age of 3 and a half he began to show this major signs of clinginess however, he only appeared to need some support when he became stressed in the pre kindergarten session. This, to me, looks like improvement on Liam’s end and my partner and I plan on allowing Liam to self-sooth more frequently than we have been in order for him to increase his independence.