I would say that our parenting style is Authoritative. We do our best to enforce and explain the age appropriate demands we place on Katie Anne. I do not think that my parenting techniques have changed much since infancy. I model and consistently praise Katie Anne for good behavior. I also encourage her to share her thoughts and feelings. Although, since Katie Anne seems depressed when stressful situations occur, perhaps that is a result of the harsh fighting my husband and I have done in front of her. My experience as a parent of 4 kids has been helpful in realizing that I don’t have to be my child’s friend. I should guide and direct my child with warmth and love. However, since Katie Anne is still slow to warm up and at times clingy at 4 (and none of my real children are either of those things) I wonder how to “virtually parent” differently to get different results or if those things are simply a built in part of my child’s personality.
Since Katie Anne is now ready for Kindergarten, she is not as easily distracted or impulsive as she was at 2. She can finish a task by herself, unless it becomes too demanding. At 2 she was easily distracted, and rarely finished activities. Part of that comes from goodness of fit, I can recognize that Katie Anne benefits from warm parenting with firm and reasonable demands. That allows her to master a new experience. Katie Anne was able to write her name, and earlier she showed below average results for copying lines. She improved on several of her fine motor skills. I feel this growth comes with age and symbolic thinking as she can control more of her fine motor skills.
I feel that Katie Anne is still slow to warm up to new situations, yet resilient since she is usually in a positive mood, and seems to take ups and downs during the day in stride. She also seems to be able to avoid conflicts and arguments with peers. However, I wonder if Katie Anne is overcontrolled? Katie Anne needs a lot of encouragement and support from teachers to get started on and persist with many tasks or activities, especially if they become too demanding. She often does that with me when a task is too demanding at home. I will continue to encourage her to find a solution on her own and only step in if I fear she will harm herself or others.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Katie Anne at 3 years 10 months!
Katie Anne loves to kick soccer balls, ride her trike, play catch with a baseball, and climb on everything. My husband and I spend lots of time playing these games and activities with her. We feel that helps foster her love for physical activity.
I am disappointed that Katie Anne is still below average in her language skills. She has trouble communicating in complete sentences and uses only a few words. She throws tantrums when she isn’t understood. I have to be very patient with her and that wears on me. I try to spend a lot of time talking to her whenever I can, however my husband and I will begin to spend even more time talking to her about anything and everything. We also plan to take her to interesting places and watch educational tv shows with her as well as read out loud more to her. She only tells broad outlines of a story without many details. Yet Katie Anne is above average in reasoning tasks such as counting and classifying.
In preschool Katie Anne seems to be anxious and unsure of herself in new situations, but given time and encouragement eventually joins in the group activities. At home she loves being a big sister to her new baby, but occasionally regresses to making baby sounds for attention.
Katie Anne has been lying, a common practice among 3 year olds as they learn to distinguish fantasy and reality. We explain that lying is wrong, makes others feel bad and she gets a time out when she lies. She also has trouble sitting still for periods of time (like dinner time).
I am disappointed that Katie Anne is still below average in her language skills. She has trouble communicating in complete sentences and uses only a few words. She throws tantrums when she isn’t understood. I have to be very patient with her and that wears on me. I try to spend a lot of time talking to her whenever I can, however my husband and I will begin to spend even more time talking to her about anything and everything. We also plan to take her to interesting places and watch educational tv shows with her as well as read out loud more to her. She only tells broad outlines of a story without many details. Yet Katie Anne is above average in reasoning tasks such as counting and classifying.
In preschool Katie Anne seems to be anxious and unsure of herself in new situations, but given time and encouragement eventually joins in the group activities. At home she loves being a big sister to her new baby, but occasionally regresses to making baby sounds for attention.
Katie Anne has been lying, a common practice among 3 year olds as they learn to distinguish fantasy and reality. We explain that lying is wrong, makes others feel bad and she gets a time out when she lies. She also has trouble sitting still for periods of time (like dinner time).
We tell Katie Anne what we expect from her during dinner times and praise her when she cooperates.
Monday, September 15, 2008
30 Months Old!
I feel that several environmental events have influenced Katie Anne’s behavior over the past 2 ½ years. Katie Anne is still slow to warm up to new situations. Perhaps that is due to the car accident I was involved in when she was 9 months old and the week I spent in the hospital with pneumonia when she was 2. Her attachment issues peaked after these two events. We attempted to make up for these by spending more time with Katie Anne and offering her encouragement when she appeared distraught. Katie Anne has a positive relationship with her dad, due in part, to the time they spent together as a result of my accident and illness. When she turned two, Katie Anne’s playgroup got a new playgroup leader. Katie Anne exhibited clinginess and lack of cooperation then. We gave her more reassurance that we still cared for her and did not push her out of her comfort zone. Her behavior improved and we lavished the praise.
Katie Anne is truly a toddler now and is progressing nicely on typical toddler issues. Katie Anne still needs reminders of the rules with step by step instructions. The experts continue to think I should offer more routines for Katie Anne. I think I have been offering routines when faced with the decision to do so. I am curious to see how these skills will be developed in the months ahead. Katie Anne wants to please my husband and me and likes to have directions to follow. Katie Anne needs to be reminded to share with others, something that most 2 ½ year olds still need reminders in. She gets along well with others once she is comfortable. She tends to observe before she gets involved in group situations.
Many theories and principals have influenced our parenting decisions among them Bowlby believed that infant’s social signals encouraged caregivers to respond to babies needs (Berk, 18, 150). In the pre-attachment phase (six weeks) Katie Anne spends time gazing into my eyes. Katie Anne and I practice that when at 3 months she begins to make “oooh”ing sounds and I respond by talking to her and encouraging her to continue those sounds. We are working at attachment in the making. At 8 months Katie Anne is distraught when strangers are near – in her clear cut attachment phase. But by 2 years Katie Anne is less able to predict my coming and going and tends not to understands my absences especially when I was in the hospital with pneumonia. She is a little behind in development as it relates to the formation of reciprocal relationship phase.
Perhaps at 2 years of age Katie Anne would not be slow to warm up to new situations if we had actively practiced Ainsworth’s Episodes in the Strange Situation (Berk, 151). Where Katie Anne and I play, a stranger enters, I leave, the stranger comforts Katie Anne, etc.
Piaget’s sensorimotor stages of development, which are my favorite to gauge her development by, (Berk, 117) are evident in Katie’s Anne’s growth. She exhibits characteristics from each substage. As a newborn her rooting and palmer grasp reflexes are evident (substage 1). Then at 3 months she studies my face intently (substage 2). At six months, she is able to imitate new behaviors (substage 3). Then at 12 months her goal oriented behavior kicked in (substage 4). She searches many locations for hidden objects and people when she is 18 months old (substage 5). Mental representation (substage 6) is clearly evident as Katie Anne engages in make believe play with a doll house and doll family. She loves to set the rooms up like rooms in our own home.
Katie Anne exhibits the stages of information processing (Berk, 122, 123). During her first year she focuses on interesting stimuli. As a toddler, her sustained attention improves. She is goal oriented with stacking blocks and potty training. Her memory improves and she can recall where blocks are hidden and loves to play hide and seek, looking for me when I hide. She hides in the same place when I seek. She is also able to categorize like items. Her vocabulary has increased and she is able to recall past events, like trips with dad to the park and zoo. She can respond and describe those events now.
All in all she is one terrific little girl!
Katie Anne is truly a toddler now and is progressing nicely on typical toddler issues. Katie Anne still needs reminders of the rules with step by step instructions. The experts continue to think I should offer more routines for Katie Anne. I think I have been offering routines when faced with the decision to do so. I am curious to see how these skills will be developed in the months ahead. Katie Anne wants to please my husband and me and likes to have directions to follow. Katie Anne needs to be reminded to share with others, something that most 2 ½ year olds still need reminders in. She gets along well with others once she is comfortable. She tends to observe before she gets involved in group situations.
Many theories and principals have influenced our parenting decisions among them Bowlby believed that infant’s social signals encouraged caregivers to respond to babies needs (Berk, 18, 150). In the pre-attachment phase (six weeks) Katie Anne spends time gazing into my eyes. Katie Anne and I practice that when at 3 months she begins to make “oooh”ing sounds and I respond by talking to her and encouraging her to continue those sounds. We are working at attachment in the making. At 8 months Katie Anne is distraught when strangers are near – in her clear cut attachment phase. But by 2 years Katie Anne is less able to predict my coming and going and tends not to understands my absences especially when I was in the hospital with pneumonia. She is a little behind in development as it relates to the formation of reciprocal relationship phase.
Perhaps at 2 years of age Katie Anne would not be slow to warm up to new situations if we had actively practiced Ainsworth’s Episodes in the Strange Situation (Berk, 151). Where Katie Anne and I play, a stranger enters, I leave, the stranger comforts Katie Anne, etc.
Piaget’s sensorimotor stages of development, which are my favorite to gauge her development by, (Berk, 117) are evident in Katie’s Anne’s growth. She exhibits characteristics from each substage. As a newborn her rooting and palmer grasp reflexes are evident (substage 1). Then at 3 months she studies my face intently (substage 2). At six months, she is able to imitate new behaviors (substage 3). Then at 12 months her goal oriented behavior kicked in (substage 4). She searches many locations for hidden objects and people when she is 18 months old (substage 5). Mental representation (substage 6) is clearly evident as Katie Anne engages in make believe play with a doll house and doll family. She loves to set the rooms up like rooms in our own home.
Katie Anne exhibits the stages of information processing (Berk, 122, 123). During her first year she focuses on interesting stimuli. As a toddler, her sustained attention improves. She is goal oriented with stacking blocks and potty training. Her memory improves and she can recall where blocks are hidden and loves to play hide and seek, looking for me when I hide. She hides in the same place when I seek. She is also able to categorize like items. Her vocabulary has increased and she is able to recall past events, like trips with dad to the park and zoo. She can respond and describe those events now.
All in all she is one terrific little girl!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Katie Anne at 19 Months
At 8 months Katie Anne was able to find a hidden object during an object permanence test as long as she wasn’t distracted in the middle of her search. However, she would only look in one spot and became confused if the object was hidden somewhere else. At 18 months Katie Anne demonstrated the ability to search for an object hidden in several different places. This behavior supports Paiget’s sensorimotor substage of Tietary circular reactions. Katie Anne also imitates new behaviors, as supported by Paiget, and we try to encourage her to respond and imitate new behaviors she observes. She enjoys trial and error experimentation and understands that when she places her toys under the bath water, they pop back up. Her perceptual to conceptual abilities are developing as Katie Anne is now able to categorize her toys into groups, a game she loves. Her dad and I label objects when we play with her and we feel this aids her information processing skills.
Katie Anne’s temperament has stayed consistent over the first 18 months. She is still slow to warm up to new situations, but once comfortable participates well. We will continue to attend playgroups to develop her interaction skills. Katie Anne is a very active child and is on the go constantly. She can be restless at times and loves to engage in physical activity. Hence her gross motor skills are very advanced for her age. This is supported in Rothbart’s model of temperament. She is shy around new people. She is a highly emotional child and her mood fluctuates often. (A typical little girl in my parenting experience with my own “real” girls. My boys are much more stable with their emotions.) Her irritable distress (from Rothbart's temperment model) spikes when she tries to perform activities that she cannot complete – like building a block tower or copying lines. We will continue to provide Katie Anne with the materials and opportunities to master these skills when she shows an interest in them. She cooperates with others, unless they become aggressive and try to take her toys. A skill I think is essential in learning how to stand up for yourself in life. Goodness of fit as it relates to Katie Anne’s temperament causes my husband and I to find creative ways to calm Katie Anne down when we want her to have quiet time. She is so active that simply asking her to sit and read is not the best option. Instead we take her for a slow walk and encourage her to look calmly at the soothing shapes of the clouds in an effort to best parent her without dampening her natural curiosity and activity.
Katie Anne is still advanced for gross motor skills, but slightly below average for communicative skills and spatial skills. That surprised me because I spend so much time talking to her and expecting her to respond with words, not just gestures. I thought I was doing well by reading to her and naming the things we saw. We will continue to focus on her communication skills. She also is not able to build a block tower or copy a line. Perhaps I am focusing on her gross motor skills (climbing and running) and should re-direct some of that activity to include spatial activities. Katie Anne does possess self recognition so she is well on her way with her self development skills. We will continue to work on language, communication and her attention span by offering activites that encourage her to participate in her learning.
Katie Anne’s temperament has stayed consistent over the first 18 months. She is still slow to warm up to new situations, but once comfortable participates well. We will continue to attend playgroups to develop her interaction skills. Katie Anne is a very active child and is on the go constantly. She can be restless at times and loves to engage in physical activity. Hence her gross motor skills are very advanced for her age. This is supported in Rothbart’s model of temperament. She is shy around new people. She is a highly emotional child and her mood fluctuates often. (A typical little girl in my parenting experience with my own “real” girls. My boys are much more stable with their emotions.) Her irritable distress (from Rothbart's temperment model) spikes when she tries to perform activities that she cannot complete – like building a block tower or copying lines. We will continue to provide Katie Anne with the materials and opportunities to master these skills when she shows an interest in them. She cooperates with others, unless they become aggressive and try to take her toys. A skill I think is essential in learning how to stand up for yourself in life. Goodness of fit as it relates to Katie Anne’s temperament causes my husband and I to find creative ways to calm Katie Anne down when we want her to have quiet time. She is so active that simply asking her to sit and read is not the best option. Instead we take her for a slow walk and encourage her to look calmly at the soothing shapes of the clouds in an effort to best parent her without dampening her natural curiosity and activity.
Katie Anne is still advanced for gross motor skills, but slightly below average for communicative skills and spatial skills. That surprised me because I spend so much time talking to her and expecting her to respond with words, not just gestures. I thought I was doing well by reading to her and naming the things we saw. We will continue to focus on her communication skills. She also is not able to build a block tower or copy a line. Perhaps I am focusing on her gross motor skills (climbing and running) and should re-direct some of that activity to include spatial activities. Katie Anne does possess self recognition so she is well on her way with her self development skills. We will continue to work on language, communication and her attention span by offering activites that encourage her to participate in her learning.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Katie Anne's Nine Month Report Card
Based on the pediatrician’s report card – I would characterize Katie Anne as one of the 35% of children who don’t fit into any one individual Thomas & Chess’s classic temperament categories. She shows a blend of the characteristics. For example, she is “difficult” when she reacts negatively if she is upset and is hard to soothe. Yet, she is “easy” in that she warms up fairly quickly to new experiences.
Katie Anne’s emotional reactions are typical for her age. She experiences fear of total strangers and separation anxiety, just as many 8 month old children do. At 3 months, she preferred me to my husband. So we had my husband get more involved in her care to increase her sense of trust. By 8 months, she preferred the two of us to any of her other caregivers.
Katie Anne needs a larger variety of baby food and ground up fruits and vegetables. Her sleeping patterns are stabilizing, but her gross and fine motor skills label her as advanced when graded next to her peers. She enjoys crawling, pulling up to stand and manipulating objects.
Katie Anne’s emotional reactions are typical for her age. She experiences fear of total strangers and separation anxiety, just as many 8 month old children do. At 3 months, she preferred me to my husband. So we had my husband get more involved in her care to increase her sense of trust. By 8 months, she preferred the two of us to any of her other caregivers.
Katie Anne needs a larger variety of baby food and ground up fruits and vegetables. Her sleeping patterns are stabilizing, but her gross and fine motor skills label her as advanced when graded next to her peers. She enjoys crawling, pulling up to stand and manipulating objects.
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