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.