Muana, Elouiessa

My Virtual Child.
Alygaias simulation questions

EIGHT MONTHS
How does your baby's eating, sleeping and motor development
compare to the typical developmental patterns?

Alygaias development is normal for her age. She can crawl, sit
up, and stand up, but not yet walk. Her eating is also typical, she
would eat lively at times and be off the mood at times. Also, as
she age, she has been getting a 2 hour day naps and 6 hours of
night sleep, which is also similar to the typical development of
patter of the babies.

At 8 months of age was your child an "easy", "slow-to-warmup", or "difficult" baby in terms of Thomas and Chess's classic
temperamental categories? On what do you base this
judgement?

She would be slow to warm up, she is cautious and shy in most
new situations or with people. But with me being present, she
eventually warms up to the situation and people. She may be
difficult sometimes when she is upset, she sometimes pushes
and/or accepts my embraces.

How is your child's attachment to you and your partner

developing? What is happening at the 3-month and 8-month
periods that might affect attachment security according to
Bowlby and Ainsworth, and various research studies?

She has an attachment with my partner and I. Through

consistent caregiving, our response to her needs helps to
develop a secure attachment. During her newborn phase, the
attachment was developing by breastfeeding, changing the
diapers, and responding to her crying when she might be wet or
hungry.
During attachment-in-the-making phase, Alygaia has
developed an obvious preference for her mom over other people.
The baby smiles, imitates mom. The main caregiver (mother)
effectively responds to her needs. Clear-cut attachment is

displayed when Alygaia shows distress when mom leaves her

with the caregiver, which is called separation anxiety.

NINETEEN MONTHS
Describe and give examples of changes in your child's
exploratory or problem solving behavior from 8 through 18
months and categorize them according to Piagetian and
information processing theories. Note that 8 months is
included, so you'll need to use the time-line to look back at 8
months for examples.

Alygaia is able to imitate actions or words that she has seen or

heard days before. This greatly expands her ability to learn new
things. Alygaia also seems to be aware of basic categories, such
as big or little, and blue or red. It shows by the way she is sorting
her toys.

Analyze your baby's temperament in more detail at 18 months

than you did at 8 months. How would you describe your baby
in terms of the five aspects of temperament utilized by the
Virtual Child program (activity, sociability, emotionality,
aggressiveness vs. cooperativeness, and self control)? Has
your baby's temperament been stable over the first 18
months? A blurb defining and providing examples of the five
aspects of temperament is provided at 12 months, but you
should seek out further explanations of temperament from
your textbook. Explain how the concept of goodness of fit (also
discussed in the blurb on infant temperament) applies to your
interactions with your child.

Activity- Alygaia was highly active. She would stay up late, often
into the early morning, and had a tremendous drive to use his
motor skills. This was fairly consistent with her temperament
when she was younger, at least during situations when she was
secure.She was rather shy during his assessment, but at home
was a very active crawler, and grew up to be a very active
toddler as well.

Sociability- Alygaia was more introverted than extroverted. There

were only a handful of adults that he was comfortable with, and
would become easily upset by new situations. She was typically
very shy in new situations and around new people.

Emotionality- Alygaias emotionality seemed to decrease from 9

months to 18. When he was younger he would have massive
mood swings with very little provocation, but this tendency
seems to have lessened a great deal as he has become more
confident. At her 19 month assessment, the examiner noted that
she did become moody and irritable several times during the
play session, when things did not go her way.

Aggressiveness v. Cooperativeness- Alygaia was generally not

aggressive at the assessment, unless another child tried to steal
a toy from her in which case she resisted. She was fairly
cooperative with the examiner. I have not noticed any
particularly aggressive behavior from her at home.

Is your child delayed or advanced in any area of development

according to the 19-month developmental examiner's report?
Based on what you have studied, and what you know about
your child, do you think this is most likely a result of specific
biological or environmental factors?

According to the examiner, Alygaia was above age-norms for

building block tower to model one made by the examiner and
other spatial skills. Her range for communication, language
comprehension and language production are about the correct
month age. I think she is growing in a normal phase and
developing well.

TWO YEARS OLD

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?

Alygaia's hesitation to new people and environment are

influenced by parents childrearing. It will take her awhile to
familiarize herself to new situations, when she was younger, she
chose a preference for familiar faces to be around her, cry and
be sad whenever that established figure is not around her. When
I was in the hospital for a couple of days because of an illness,
Alygaia's behavior drastically changed, she was mostly sad and
irritable.

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?

According to the examiner, Alygaia's development varies on

different categories. Her scores on measures of language
comprehension and production were in the average range, and
she was beginning to show more consistent use in conversational
speech of grammatical markers such as past tense, plural, etc.
Alygaia is about average in solving problems with more than two
steps, and grouping objects together in categories.
She is above average in copying shapes with a pencil, working
with picture puzzles and constructing things out of blocks and
seemed to enjoy working with these things a great deal.
Alygaia's gross motor skills were typical for her age, and varied
from slightly below average (climbing) to slightly above average
(throwing and catching a ball).
Alygaia was able to focus on the tasks given by the examiner for
the entire 40-minute session. The examiner said this was
unusually good for the age.
Her hesitation to new environments, people and situations
changes eventually with proper encouragements.

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.

Alygaia's development supports more of Vygotsky's Social

Learning, there are a couple of instances to show this-- when we
play hide and seek, after she learned where I hid, she would also
pick the same spot that I did when its her turn. She's also very
good at mimicking me, and following what I do or what I said. I
definitely like the information processing theory in my
childrearing, that is why I have been helping her prepare to
daycare. i think the daycare would help her tremendously
overcome her fear or hesitation to new environment.