Psychology: critical review of a child in my area in order to understand the child's potential for great future

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

Published: 27 / 12 / 2013

1 INTRODUCTION

Early childhood development has been a topic of high debate in recent literature  This is because; it has been described as a sensitive period in human development (rsc-src, 2013). The term “sensitive” has been associated with early childhood development because it is the period during child is developing his whole system for future survival. Such developments include the brain, especially elements that govern human emotion, attention, self-control and stress is molded into the child’s gene based on experiences (rsc-src, 2013). As the child grows, the biological and environmental elements that influence development are increasing linked. If the environment is secures and positive, these factors combine to help increase the child’s potentials, but if the child is growing in an environment that is full of obstacles to healthy development (e.g. poverty, inappropriate care and violence), the child can experiences emotional, physical and mental ill-health. Normally such experiences are the guiding force that determines how well the child will develop in the future.

Under the above notion, this paper aims to review and critically study a child in my area, in order to determine the potentials for quality growth in the future. In the course of such study, this paper will look into the child’s physical development, language acquisition, personality development, emotional development, cognitive and intellectual growth. Thus, it is expected that at the end of this paper, readers will be able to understand how to analyze a child’s growth and induce positive factors that will help in turning a child into a great potential for the society he lives in.

For this study, Li Fang is the chosen child. She is a 5 years-old daughter of middle-class parents who hail from East Malaysia. I have had the opportunity of living with Li Fang since her birth because we both live with our parents in the same condominium flat (5^th flour). Compared with other regular children, Li is really advanced because he was exposed to modern day technologies (she can operate laptops and android phones to a really great extent), life style (she has Astro TV channels in her room, so she watches advanced channels like Entertainment and Fashion) and is presently the only child of her parents (so she gets absolute care, love and compassion from both dad and mom). Thus, living with her has been exceptionally inspiring and I still keep wishing I would have a baby of such qualities in my future because she is intelligent, adorable, beautiful, smart, and most of all humble.

2 LI FANG’S PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

According to North Dakota University (2006), seeing a baby roll over for the first time or watching the baby kick a ball are precious and memorable moments in the lives of the parents. The University in its research on physical development of children stated that rolling over or eating with a spoon are examples of physical development

In my case, watching Li Fang roll over was also a memorable moment and the parent’s feeling is unquantifiable. This is because, Li is their first child and she had been sorted for since they got married 4 before her birth. The first time I experienced Li moving was when I came back from school and she mother was cheerful telling her “Lai Lai” – which means come. She was slowly but surely moving. Since then, the rest has been history.

Li’s physical development has been exceptional since birth and I see her as a very strong girl. Being the only child, there is little doubt that she must have been put through numerous pressures by the parents to do everything faster and easily. Thus, it is expected that such pressures must have weighed up her level of physical development. This development includes strong muscles and sound locomotion.

Athletically, Li is not to be left out as she can perfectly swim and cycle. Her parents started taking her to the kids’ swimming pool in the condominium since she was aged 3, and I guess the two years of experiences has turned her into a little “Chinese tilapia.” Additionally, she also cycles across the condominium (under the care of her parents). I have also noticed her doing some miniatures jobs such as arranging her beds, trying to sweep the house (if not sweeping it), arranging DVDs and helping her mother in the kitchen.

Just like other kids, she also enjoys jumping from one corner to another happily. She also plays dancing games that requires moving different parts of the body. Thus, her growth has been wonderful and she is really developing into an enticing young girl (except for some falling milk teeth). I can attribute her physical development to exposure to quality food (nutritious and rich in calcium) and exposure to facilities that requires flexibility of the muscle.

3 LI FANG’S LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

In terms of communication, Li’s dynamism is not lacking either. Communication is exceptionally important because it allows individuals to voice out their ideas about a problem, understand ways to improve the problem by listening to people, and apply corrections measures from previous experience. Thus, the earlier a child begins to speak, the better for the parents because they will fell more secured knowing that the child will always communicate his or her problems to the person around.

Li’s parents are both Chinese, and Mandarin is their spoken and written language. Additionally, the parents are also good in spoken and written English and BahasaMelayu. Thus, this versatility aids communications with the parents because they can always find a way of speaking their partner’s language when undertaking any form of communication with other Malaysian.

Since birth, the parents have adopted numerous measures to improve Li’s communication skills. Some of the noticeable once are: a language toy that speak an English word and asks her to identify the word in pictures, home tutor that teachers her mandarin and the house help who uses BahasaMelayu to communicate with her. While she is not yet professional in these languages, she speaks and understands Mandarin fluently. Additionally, I can describe her as an intermediate speaker of English and beginner in Melayu. At age 5, there is no doubt to the fact that Li’s language development has been successful over the years as a resources of numerous efforts and resources invested by her parents to make her such a success.

Thus, I can conclude this section by stating that the parents have really invested a lot in educating their child, and exposures to TV programs as well has helped in advancing her language skills. When compared with other kids, Li is advanced in communicating with Mandarin and English, and her Melayu is constantly improving.

4 LI’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Anoka Ramsey Community College Cambridge (2013) present an analysis of Erikson’s identity formation as applied in development personality in children. The analysis was based on epigenetic principles that development comprises of series of stages that are universal to mankind, and occurring in a predetermine order. It was also revealed that there is no fixed outcome and life is not determined. Additionally, it was stated that most of the main influences on development are social and not sexual, identify changes over lifetime, and individuals are expected to take responsibility for their actions.

Thus, it is expected from the above analysis that the social environment a child grows up in will directly influence the child’s personality development. Such social factors include common norms, cultures, beliefs and customs of the society. In the case of Li, she is from a decent Chinese home. Judging from her parent attitude, she is born in a family that cherishes harmony, respect, value for humanity and decency.  I have never heard of any of her parent having conflict with anybody in the condominium. Thus, this is a quality home image that the girl will definitely be influenced with.

As such, it doesn’t surprise me to be greeted with a warm smile by Li; neither does it surprise me to have her reject my gifts and advances (which of course she doesn’t do to her parent). I believe the parent has cultured a sense of self-dependence and respect for humanity in her. She is not enticed by gifts, she is not disrespectful, she is critical (abusive is you don’t understand her with a matured mind) and she has a great sense of self dependent.

Considering the challenges being faced across the world in terms of financial crisis, cultural crashes and workforce harassment, this is a great quality is she continues to live by it. This is because, it increases her sense of innovation (since she is self-dependent) and creativity to find new ways of doing things, establish her own businesses, and make critical decisions in management. Additionally, I must chip in that these qualities must have been acquired from her parent because both her father and mother exhibit these qualities to some extent. for instance, even though I live directly opposite her parents in the same condominium floor, her parent have never for one day sort myself with going to errands or doing whatever the home chores must be. To further support this idea, her parent employs house help and this reduces the possibility of them seeking help from other people in the condominium.

5 LI’S EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Emotional developments in children as related to relationship with parents have been a topic of great discussion in the last 3 decades. This is mainly because it has been widely conceived values that re somewhat controversial, but a concurring belief that such development have implications for functioning of the child in the future. Many books and reviews have also summarized the importance of understanding emotional development in children as it related to future applications as an adult (e.g. Thompson, 1998; Weinfield et al., 1999).

Understanding emotional development in children has been accorded all these attentions because what a child learns to live with today, he or she will learn to adopt tomorrow. Thus, if a child is emotionally damaged as a result of abuse, harassment or absence of necessary care, he or she might not have respect for people in the future, and he can end up becoming a social vice.

In order to make sure that the child doesn’t end up into a social vice, it is expected of the parents to make sure that he or she gets necessary help in development his or her emotional attachment to people and humanity in general. In the case of Li, she has been accorded all the necessary help as her parents are also in good terms with humanity. She is a well-mannered and caring girl. A personal experience that touched my heart was when she was in the swimming pool, there was another kid crying because she had no swimming Google. Li actually took off her own swimming Google and gave it to the girl. She didn’t end there; she also stood by her side and was petting her to stop crying. It was an emotional moment for me because I kept wondering how such a young girl would have developed such a caring and loving attitude towards her fellow kids.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development as applied in children comprises of five stages. The first stage is oral stage – when the child begins to learn how to speak, the second is anal stage – the child becomes familiar with toilet related behaviors, the third stage is phallic stage – when the child becomes concerned about his or her sexuality, the fourth stage is latency stage – when relationship is closely established with fellow genders, and the last stage is genital stage – when relationship becomes more familiarized with people of opposite sex and the child becomes more protective of her genitals. In the case of Li, she is currently in the latency period, but she is also conscious of her genitals and she always makes sure her body are fully covered when outside.

6 LI’S COGNITIVE AND INTELLECTUAL GROWTH

Cognitive and intellectual skills are really vital in our live because they comprises of those qualities that aid critical thinking and analysis of situations. An intelligent child have higher advantages against his or her peers because he can excel more in class, perform higher tasks that require cognitive thinking, apply skills and strategies that will draw attentions of elders, and solve his or her problems fasters.

Thus, it is important that parents always look into the cognitive and intellectual growth of their wards. In modern day, such approach has been backed up by abundance of daycare and tuition centers where parents can enroll their wards and help them advance their cognitive and intellectual ability. While it has been argued that such a separation affects mother to child bond (Belsky and Steinberg 1978, Booth et al. 2002, Egeland and Hiester 1995, Farran and,  Ramey 1977, Lamb 1996, Schwartz 1983), other researchers have supported the idea of developing children’s cognitive and intellectual competences by getting them exposed to learning environments such as day care centers where such skills are being developed. Studies in support of this state that a child’s cognitive and social wellbeing are developed from exposures to environment (Belsky and Steinberg 1978, Field 1991, Lamb 1996, Peisner-Feinberg et al. 2001).

Piaget's theory of cognitive development lays down the staged of development in children as shown in this figure. There is no difference in Li’s case. She has been subjected to numerous rigorous educations in the form of daycare and home tutors. These have helped in developing her intellectual and cognitive skill. She is doing in both reading and speaking Chinese and English, and she is constantly improving her Melayu. Additionally, she is a mathematical genius. In order subjects, she is also doing fantastically well and this has helped her in winning the brightest student of the year in her school. It was a competition between pupils in nursery section of her school, and she emerged the best. She is also in the second stage (2-6) of Piaget's theory of cognitive development as she still don’t listen logically, is egocentric and has the ability to pretend (e.g. claim sick in order not to go to school).

Thus, it must be stated that the extra care taken by her parent in making sure that she receives the best level of education is yielding fruits as she is competent in all her subjects, won accolade to cement her legacy as one of the brightest students the school has ever produced in the nursery section. As stated earlier, Li Fang is an exceptionally gifted and talented young girl, and her parents has put in a wonderful amount of efforts to make sure that such talents and gifts are not being wasted, but instead but to its potential. So far, it is yielding fruitful result in a girl that her future is set to experiences one of the brightest growth a child will ever witnesses.

7 CONCLUSION

Childhood development is a sensitive time in human development. This is because, most of the characteristics that influence our daily approach to life as adults are developed during our childhood. Children have been characterized as being smart and quick to learn from their environment, and this is unanimous with the findings from this paper.

In the case of Li, it was illustrated that both parents and social factors play a significant role on the development of a child. Li Fang is a young girl that lives directly opposite my apartment in a condominium here in Kl. She was opportune to be born into a caring, loving, responsible, and middle-class home. Both her father and mother always but the best of their efforts and commitments to ensure that tis young girl is being transformed from a child to a future star that will give the society numerous bright lights to see from.

Thus, it will be concluded by stating that parents across the world should but extra efforts in providing their wards with the necessary love, care, and concern to grow up brightly and develop competencies in the areas of life as discussed above. This is because, it will help them to grow into more fruitful people for the society, and increase their survivability in a very competitive world as ours.

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