Lisa Pennington – Week Two
Lisa is now 12 months old. The last year has been incredibly
stressful for Scott and Marsha, and they have barely been able to make the
payments on their home. The stress has taken a toll on their relationship, and
they get into verbal shouting matches frequently. Scott’s anger scares Marsha
and makes her think back to her own upbringing when her mother and father got
into shouting and shoving matches.
* Write a developmentally appropriate dialogue that the
Penningtons might have with their son to introduce him to his new sister.
* What should Lisa be doing physically, cognitively, and
emotionally at 12-months of age? Are there aspects of her development at this
point that we might legitimately expect to be “culture bound?”
* What is the likely effect of the ongoing verbal arguments
on Lisa’s development?
DECISION POINT
* Do the Penningtons stay together? If not, what
happens to Lisa and her brother?
The following is a developmentally appropriate dialogue the Pennington’s might have to introduce their son to his sister, Lisa: "Meet your sister, her name is Lisa. You are going to be her big brother! She is brand new, and many things are probably very scary, so we have to be careful with her. We need to make her feel welcomed into our family. She needs a lot of love and care, that we all will give her - but know that we love you just as much as we love her. She may cry a lot, but she's just letting us know she needs help and wants our attention. You acted a lot like Lisa when you were little. Being a big brother is a special job but we know you will be great at it!"
ReplyDeleteAt 12-months of age, Lisa should be developing in certain ways. She has reached a stage known as the “Infancy and toddler period” (Feldman, p. 7). According to a publication from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, that used CARING FOR YOUR BABY AND YOUNG CHILD: BIRTH TO AGE 5 by Shelov and Hannermann, Lisa’s physical development should include: “crawling on her belly, assumes hands-and-knees position” and creeps on that position, sitting up, transitioning “from sitting to crawling”, “pulls self to stand”, “walks holding onto furniture” or a few steps without holding onto anything, momentary stance, “putting or taking objects out of containers”, poking/pointing, banging “two objects together”, and the “pincer grasp” (Shelov & Hannermann). This publication also notes what Lisa should be doing cognitively and emotionally. It states that cognitively Lisa should be doing the following: exploring “objects in many different ways (shaking, banging, throwing, dropping)”, finding “hidden objects easily”, imitation of others (particularly gestures or words), correctly identifies picture “when the image is named”, using “objects correctly” (ex: “drinking from a cup”), paying “attention to speech”, responding to “no” or verbal requests, uses expression like “oh-oh!” or “dada” or “mama”, and “babbles with inflection” (Shelvo & Hannermann). Emotionally Lisa should react these ways: “shy or anxious with strangers”, distraught at parental departure, enjoying imitation, “tests parental responses” to both “actions during feedings” and “behavior”, has a preference of caregiver being the mom, yearns for “attention”, may be fearful, and, as expected, should be crying (Shelvo & Hannermann).
ReplyDeleteMany aspects of Lisa’s development are “culturally bound”. Lev Vgotsky is a psychologist commonly associated with the idea of being bound by culture, which he called the “sociocultural theory”. Vgotsky said that children socially develop on two cultural levels, societal and on an individual level (Vgotsky). The societal level experiences are “between people or interpsychological” and the individual level is “inside children or intrapsychological”. Vgotsky hypothesized that cultural development is applicable to a child’s “voluntary attention”, “logical memory”, and “formation of concepts”. Thus, “all the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals (Vgotsky)”. Vgotsky’s studies proposed a basis for linking a child’s social development with the child’s cultural environment.
Over time, we've learned that several aspects of children’s lives are often culture bound. Lisa is developmentally “culture bound” when she plays. Hyun found that a child’s play and parental perceptions of such vary among cultures. Lisa would be engaging in Euro-American ideals of play that encourage individuality, specifically what a “child can do sociocognitively for oneself as an individual in the social context” (Hyun). From the parental perspective, the Pennington’s will expect Lisa to be exhibiting “individualism, self-reliance, individual problem-solving, self-help, and autonomy” (Hyun).
ReplyDeleteLisa’s language development is also culturally bound. Language differs immensely from one culture to the next. Beth Maschinot says that language may vary in the following ways: “the timing of specific milestones may vary”, “who is thought to be the child’s main communication partner”, “which interaction styles are encouraged or discouraged”, “which topics of conversation are allowed or are forbidden”, and “how highly participants value talk” (Maschinot). Another concept to keep in mind is bilingualism. A child will be culturally bound to the language spoken at home but also affected and possibly bound to a language spoken in their community, thus being able to “profit from the rich exposure to differing language inputs” and are able to “achieve language milestones even earlier than their counterparts” (Maschinot). The potential detrimental effects of being bilingual without practice could include the language knowledge to “die out because the environment does not offer the opportunity for its use” (Maschinot).
Cultural ties may also be elicited through ethnicity and class. The Pennington family may be considered lower class due to their lacking income and may not be able to afford middle or upper class luxuries, possibly including something as simple as children’s books. It has been found that “the nonpoor were far more likely than the poor to have three or more books for their infants” and “the poor families read substantially less to their children” (Maschinot). The difference in ethnicity had slightly less effect, but nonetheless “compared with European American families, a higher percentage of African American families and Hispanic American families owned no children’s books” (Mascnhinot). The Pennington’s children are culturally bound to North American ways of play, language, and lower class stigmatizations.
References:
Feldman, R.S. (2011). Development Across the Life Span (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson, Inc.
Hyun, E. (1998). Making sense of developmentally and culturally appropriate practice (DCAP) in early childhood education. New York: Peter Lang. Chapter 2. All rights reserved Retrieved September 14, 2011, from http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/ehyun/10041/culture_and_development_in.htm.
Maschinot, B. The Changing face of the United States: The influence of Culture on Child Development. Washington, D.C.: ZERO TO THREE).
Shelov, S., & Hannermann, R. (2004). CDC - Learn the Signs. Act Early. Milestones 1year - NCBDDD. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 14, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-1yr.html
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Even as young as 12 months, the verbal arguments between Lisa’s parents have likely affected her. A Purdue University publication claims that children are well aware of parental problems and stress in their environment. Goetze et. Al note that often times children suffer during verbal arguments and their needs are not met. In fact, Lisa “may not know what is happening” and “may be scared” (Goetze et. al). Lisa’s development could also be hindered because of the arguments. She may “lose skills” she’d learned “for example, some children may lose their toilet-training skills. They will learn those skills again, but this is one way they show stress” (Goetze et. Al).
ReplyDeleteReference:
Goetze, G., Karuppaswamy, N., Natrajan, R., & Myers-Walls, J. (10/2004). How Children Experience Divorce. CES.Purdue.edu. Retrieved September 14, 2011, from www.ces.purdue.edu/providerparent/PDF%20Links/HowChildrenExperienceDivorce
DECISION POINT
The Penningtons will stay together. If Lisa’s parents divorced many negative consequences will be avoided. Lisa will not have to undergo a “non-normative life event” which is defined as any “specific, atypical events that occur in a person’s life at a time when such events do not happen to most people” (Feldman, p 10). Most children do not experience parents going through a divorce at 12 months old, so Lisa should not either. Likewise, Lisa is in a fragile stage of Erikson’s “trust v. mistrust”, meaning that Lisa is developing “feelings of trust from environmental support” (Feldman, p. 25). If Lisa’s parents remain together she can feel the support of her environment and trust both of her parents.
Reference:
Feldman, R.S. (2011). Development Across the Life Span (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson, Inc.
1. Will Marsha and Scott's fighting effect their son and newborn daughter?
ReplyDelete2. Will financial setbacks hinder their childhood development?