Kalia Lee

Human Development I:Child Psychology 3205

12/01/2009

Development Profile Paper

In this development paper, I choose to do the developmental profile about two children I

know from church. The boy's name is Titus Yang and the girl's name is Lillian Thao He just

turned two years old recently and she is only about 10 months old. I choose both of them because

from watching them, I notice that things that surrounds them affects their cognitive, social and

emotional development.

Cognitive Development

I have been observing Lillian when she was two months old and as I watched her

progress in her cognitive development, I have seen many different things. When I hold Lillian,

she does some simple reflexes with her hand and legs. In Piaget theory of development stage, it

says from 0-2 month is the reflexive stage which means babies at that month of age likes to flex

their legs and arms. Lillian loves sucking on her blanket or basically just anything she can hold

and put into her mouth. I remember going to class this one day talking about Piaget and his

theory about primary circular reactions. Dr. Everhart said that babies think it's so cool when you

move your fingers for them to watch. I got curious and so the next weekend I went to go watch

Lillian. I put her on the ground and while she was looking up at me, I took out my hand and

moved my fingers around. At first she wasn't even looking, but after my moving fingers caught

her attention, she just kept looking at my fingers. Her face expression shows that she was very

interested in how I was flexing my fingers and how I was controlling them. A couple months

later she was about four or five months old. She was in the stage called secondary circular

reactions. That means that babies at that month of age starts to reproduce interesting

consequences such as kicking feet and more mobile suspended over the crib.

I also observed Titus when he was around one year old and his cognitive development

have grown to be more rapid. In Piaget's theory, Titus was in the stage Coordination of

Secondary Reactions. I remember playing this one game with him where I would have a gummy

bear on the palm of my hand and I would hid it in one of my hand. I would show him both of my

hand open and then put the gummy bear on one of my hand and close both hand. I would ask

him to choose which one. If he doesn't understand the concept I would open both hands again

and close it. Then open one hand and there would be a gummy bear. Open the other hand and

there would be no gummy bear. So after teaching him the concept of the game, he kind of got it

and he started choosing which hand the gummy bear was in. Once he picked the right one, he

gets a reward which is eating the gummy bear. Another stage that Titus was in was Tertiary

Circular Reactions. Titus discovered new ways to produce the same consequence to get the same

goal. For example, when Titus is tired, he pulls a pillow towards him and rests. When he is

playing with a toy, he would do the same thing like let say a teddy bear. He would use the same

teddy bear as a pillow if he cannot reach for a pillow. He can still reach his goal by using

something else.

It is true about Piaget's theory. Around Lillian's age, at that time she did kick a lot and

likes to kick the crib when she is in there. Going back to Piaget's and Vygotsky, they both have

similar theories but they also do have their difference. In Piaget's theory, he believed that

intelligence came from action. He said that children learn through interacting with their

surroundings and that learning takes place after development. Vygotsky on the other hand felt

that learning happens before development can occur and that children learn because of history

and symbolism. He also believed that children value input from their surroundings and from

others.

Social Development

Titus had some social development problems when he was development his

communication. When he was hungry, he did not give any sigh to show that he was hungry.

There was no crying, no body language showing me that he was hungry. When I talked to his

mother, his mother said the same thing too that he showed no sign of hunger. I thought it was

pretty odd that he didn't show any signs what so ever. I remember this one day in class, we were

talking about when infants communicate, they use cooing, babbling and gestures when they want

something. Titus, he was just different. He didn't show gestures until he was about almost one

years old. His brother has a lot of influence on him. His brother Austin is about 5 years old and

because he's a boy, he is into a lot of boy stuff such as transformers or power rangers. All sorts of

action figures and fighting movies. Ever since Titus stopped hanging out with his mother and

me, and learned how to play toys with his brother, his brother's influences totally changed him.

He went from a non-talkative quite innocent infant to a loud infant that jumps around and

screams. I was doing some observations on him. I taught him how to say please. I notice that

when he says please. He says it very loud and when I give him that look like it's not appropriate,

he would just smile and starts laughing. I said "no, say please" in a quiet voice. I kept doing that

and he would observe me and he would try it. It's pretty interesting how fast infants can learn.

Another I observe him was when he walks. He is such a silly walker. When he walks, he

walks like big foot. He would step and stomp his feet hard. I don't know if he intended to do so,

or is that just how he walks. There was this one Friday where his mother brought him to church

because they had a meeting. I watched him and observed him. In the hallway, he walked so loud.

I was walking in front of him and when he walked loud I would turn around and put my index

finger to my lips and go " shhh..." he would laugh . So I thought of a method where I teach him

how to walk quietly. I would walk quietly and show him how it is done. He would try to copy

me and try to walk very quietly but it just doesn't work. I would say "no, like this Titus". I would

repeat myself and walk quietly and he would watch where my hands are, how I walk and the

movements I make with my feet. It's cute to see that he was trying his best to copy me exactly

how I do it. I wanted to test out his social skills. I was teaching him how to say please, and he

was when he says please he would say please really loud and really hard just like when he tries

to walk quietly. So I would go through the whole method of teaching him how to say please but

in a indoor voice. Every time I teach him, he would say it loud and I would say no Titus, like

this. I was doing the reward thing that when he says please the way I would like him to say it, he

would get a reward such as gummy bears. So now, when I ask him to say please, he would say

please softly. He's learning and my method of teaching him is increasing.

Lillian on the other hand, her social development was different from Titus. There was

really no influence on her even though she was the third child. When she was about two to three

months old, she loved to look at people with her big eyes. If you smile at her, she would smile

back at you. If you try talking to her, she would try to move her month and tries to speak but

nothing comes out except noises. I was observing Lillian when my cousin Sunshine was holding

her. When Shy was holding Lillian and when Shy was talking to Lillian, Lillian was attracted to

her mouth. She kept wanting to stick her fingers into Shy's mouth. After Shy got braces, she held

Lillian again. Once Lillian say something shining in Shy's mouth, she got afraid and cried. From

that point on she would never go to Shy again. I guess Lillian remembered Shy's face because

after that whenever Shy tries to hold her, she would just cry. The only thing that she focus on

when Shy holds her is just Shy's mouth movements and that shining thing in her mouth. Now

that Lillian is a couple months older now, she enjoys sticking her hand into people's moving

mouth, so I am assuming she has grew out of the habit of being scared.

Emotional Development

Both Titus and Lillian's emotional development was different. Although they may be at

the same age of development, they have different perspective when feeling. I have notice that

when I hold both of these infant, whenever I smile, they smile back. Going back to my notes on

October 15, 2009, there is a thing called social smiling. It says that babies begin to engage in true

social smiling around 2 1/2 to 3 month. I believe that is true, because that's the first thing that

babies look at when they look at you. Whatever moves, they tend to stare it whatever is moving

because it attracts them. When Titus was about 6 month, he already knows the meaning of

emotional expression. I remember there was a weekend where I had to watch a couple of the

babies because the parents had a meeting. I've notice that when one baby cries, all the babies call.

I believe that's when they learn an emotional concept that maybe something is not safe. In my

notes, Social Referencing says by 12 month they can use others emotional expression to regulate

their own behavior. For Titus, when he sees his brother mad and gives a tantrum to his mother,

Titus learns right then that when he doesn't get what he wants, he will show his emotion by

giving his mom a tantrum as well. I also notice when observing Titus that when he doesn't get

what he wants, he would start to throw stuff around and starts crying just to get his mom's

attention. When his mom doesn't give him any attention, he would just stop. After a while when

he notice what he is doing isn't working, that is when he would go up to his mom and hug her leg

so that his mom would at least look at him. Just this past weekend when I was watching Titus,

I've notice that he shows a lot of emotions to those surrounded by him. If he doesn't like the

person he is with, he would treat them really bad. For example, my mom would always mess

with him. He doesn't like it so when my mom tries to be nice to him and take him out to play, he

would walk back and shut the door right on my mother. It is odd to see how a 24 month year old

child can act like this. Do you think that there is an influence in him somewhere. I am a bit

worried because I doubt he has seen anyone shut the door on someone when their mad. I also

wonder where do babies pick up all these things if it's not from their family members. I have

notice that Titus likes music a lot. Titus mother told me that when she was pregnant with Titus,

she would sing to him and listen to Christian music a lot when he was still in her stomach. Since

I am in a band, I have decided to take Titus to practice with me, and I have notice that right when

the music begin, he would sit still and listen. He also kept his eyes on my drum player. Once the

band is done practicing, I would let him walk and he would head straight to the drum. He would

pick up the drum sticks and try to sit on the stool and try to play the drums. I believed he

watched the drum player very carefully because once Titus started playing the drums, I've notice

that he knew how to play one drum box and switch his stick to play another drum box. He knew

how to use the bells and the sneer. I was pretty amaze by how just him looking and observing

others, he learned so quickly.

For Lillian, she didn't really express her emotions except cry. If she doesn't recognize familiar

faces, all she would do is cry to see if someone will show her a familiar face. She has a

recognition memory where she knows how her mother sounds like or her grandparents sound

like. I remember watching a movie in class. I cannot recall what the movie is called but it talked

about how when babies are in the mother's womb, and the mother would put on music, if the

baby hears it, the baby would start moving with the beat. Once the baby is out, the baby can still

recall the music nor the beat to the music. Babies are pretty smart even though he don't

understand what is surrounded by them.

I thought it was pretty cool learning about Gibson's visual cliff paradigm. So after I heard

about it, I went home and did the experiment on Lillian and Titus. For Titus, when I put him on

the cliff, he was scared. I put him on one side where the cliff was and I was on the other side.

The only thing he can do was raise his hand wanting me to help pick him up. I just kept telling

him to come and try but he was scared. So I encouraged him to try his best and kept giving him

eye contact and smiling at him. So he tried walking across it and notice that there was something

there. It was this glass that was protecting him from falling. When I saw his face, he was a bit

confused how it was there and how he made it across to me without falling. The funny thing was

that he kept looking back and checking it out how he did it.

For Lillian, when I put her at the cliff, she was really scared. She did not have the

understanding like Titus did. When she saw that I was away from her and when she notice that

she was on a cliff, all she did was cry. She kept crying even though I tried talking to her. So the

visual cliff thing did not work on Lillian.

Over all doing these observation was interesting to me. I have learned so much and there

are still more learning to come. I enjoy watching babies learn new things each day. I love

watching them make face expression and showing their emotions to their caregiver. I know

understand why babies are what you call babies. One thing I thought it was pretty interesting was

that babies are more attractive to sensitivity colors. They like to look at things that are not

complicated and that are easy to see. Too many colors, they don't like. Although they like colors,

they still prefer around 2 to 3 colors so that it's an easy contrast. I have learned so much from this

observation and have experience with this two children. The more I watched and observed them,

I really gotten more closer to them and enjoyed working with them. They weren't too hard to

work with. I guess you just have to be patient and know what you are working with. I hope to

learn more so that I can understand babies more. I had so much fun watching these two babies. It

was a worth the 3 month observing them.

I just wanted to take this little section to thank you Dr. Everhart. I really enjoyed being in

your class. I have learned so much from your lecture and from others sharing their experience

with the class. It was really inter?esting and I hope to take some more classes with you. It was

wondering having you as a professor. I never thought that I would be so close to these two babies

after watching them and observing them but because of your paper you had us write, I've learned

so much. Thank you