My Apgar Test

Right after Aurora Marie Easley was born the doctor did the Apgar score on her to know if she is a healthy baby or not. APGAR scoring is based off of heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes and skin tone. Then if Aurora gets a total of seven or more than she would be considered in good physical condition, a total of four to six she would need special attention and a total of three or less her life is life-threatening. However, Aurora scored a total of ten, she weighted eight pounds and was the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

According to Babywise, human infants have innately bad tendencies at birth. The co-author of baby wise, Dr. Robert Buckham, says that the main purpose of parent-controlled feeding is conducted to create a sense of order in a newborn’s brain. He also says that newborns that are fed in a timely manner gradually get used to immediate gratification. By doing this, the newborns fall into the risk of becoming more and more demanding as they get older. In the article, Bob LaMendola writes about how newborns must learn that the world does not revolve around them and that their parents are in control. Baby wise exposes newborns to parent-controlled feeding to show them that the world does not revolve around them.

From eight to twelve weeks, infants convey this choice by scooting and reaching toward particular caregivers. Next, from twelve weeks to two years old, is the third stage, which Sheperis et al. call the “true process of attachment.” During this stage, toddlers begin to anticipate the actions of their caregivers and adjust their behavior accordingly. For example, children may hold their hands up after noticing that their caregiver picks them up whenever they do so. Consistency of caregivers and caregiver actions is crucial to the continuation and success of this stage of attachment. If the child’s primary caregivers are frequently changed, the third stage of attachment must restart. This not only delays the completion of the attachment process, but it hinders the child’s behavioral anticipation and adjustment skills.

One of my earliest memories, is picking up a book and staring at the printed words on its fresh, crisp pages, and I knew from that time, that reading was not my ideal fit. From a young age I enjoyed spending days outside of the house and just hanging with friends and playing sports. Honestly, I never liked school but always looked forward to school to see my friends. I never liked school but I always kept in mind that education can take you far in life and I was taught from a young age that education is life and that with education I can accomplish anything and everything. So I had to balance my passion of sports and my time spent with friends, with school. Sports and Athletics was a big part of my life growing up. Since I enjoyed playing

At an early age, my parents enrolled me in dance and piano lessons. They wanted me to be a “child prodigy” that had numerous talents. Since, both my parents were foreigners, they never had the opportunity to do activities such as this. Therefore, it was important to them that I did the things that never got to do. I never liked the idea but, as my father always told me “No knowledge is wasted”. So, I just went along with it. As I grew, I dropped piano lessons but stuck with dance. However, I had bigger passions than dance, and that was science.

The eight psychosocial stages of development are all vital in some way to our advancement as humans but the stage that is the most important to us is the first stage of Trust vs. Mistrust. This stage takes place from the moment the baby is birthed into this world all the way until they are almost two years old. It can also occur near the end of people’s lives as they have to trust they will be taken care of when they are too old to do so themselves. In this psychosocial stage, this is when infants learn to either trust or mistrust the world around them and Erikson believed that it helps to regulate and employ a prevailing impact over a person’s relations with others for the rest of their lifetime. Infants need care and attention because they fully rely on others for their numerous needs to be met. These particular needs

Avoidant infants regulate their attachment needs through exploration, and have mothers who are consistently unresponsive or unavailable. Resistant infants know that they cannot rely on their parent for their needs to be met, as they have mothers who have been inconsistently responsive. Disorganized/disoriented infants can be characterized as a severely confused child with a lack of apparent strategy by their parent to meet their needs. (Raval et al., 2001)

The first prime area that was observed was personal, social and emotional development. One example of this was the relationship between the child and the babysitter. As the child has a secure relationship with the babysitter where they had felt safe, they were able to explore unfamiliar tasks knowing that they had support (Neville, 2012). This

Apgar scores range from 0-2 for each of the five areas assessed with a maximum score of 10 possible. The score helps medical personnel determine what treatment measures are needed for baby. A score of 0-4 can call for prompt life saving measures. If the score is between 4-6 the baby may need assistance with breathing. A score of 7-10 is ideal and means that baby only needs routine post delivery care. The nurse will asses these five areas in order of importance starting with the heart rate. The nurse evaluates the babies heart rate with a stethoscope and scores the baby between 0-2 as

When infants are born prematurely it affects their natural neurodevelopment, even more so when feedings are a set and regulated requirement. This is because when an infant is in utero, the central nervous system develops at a slow natural pace. Sucking reflexes for the fetus are still being developed. Infants born prematurely, have a disruption in this developmental milestone because preterm infants have not yet fully mastered their sucking reflex (Pickler et al., 2015). McClure also lends support to the findings that infants who are born 34-37 weeks have decreased flexor tone and less coordinated sucking and swallow synchronization (McClure, 2013). Furthermore, Pickler et al. stated that out of utero feedings need to have a more normative experience for infants to essentially help build neuronal networks in a more natural way. The pathways set for neurodevelopment are not only important for the neonate now, but for infant development later in life which include other cognitive functions such as thinking, organizational skills, and especially language (Pickler et al.,

When I was growing up, my parents enrolled me in many organized activities to do during my free time. I did soccer, basketball, softball, track, gymnastics and Girl Scouts. Every weeknight, I had practice or a Girl Scout meeting and every weekend I had games and tournaments. I did not spend much time with the children around my neighborhood because I was too busy with my activities. My childhood relates best to Garrett Tallingers’ childhood. Garrett’s life revolves around his sports and organized activities and does not get much time to play with the other children in his neighborhood. Although I did not make many friends in my neighborhood, I had many friends in my organized sports and we were all very close. I do feel that even though I grew up through concerted cultivation, I had a good childhood and still got to be a kid.

That trust with my parents helped me develop in areas, such as socialization, and gross motor skills. Socializing starts early in the life of a child and continues throughout life. As for the gross motor skills, just like most infants I crawled before I walked. Crawling helped me gain strength and explore new things before being able to walk. Further, to strengthen my legs and safely explore my parents bought be a baby walker. I believe that the baby walker helped me develop the necessary strength to be able to use my legs to walk. Berger states that “Maturation of the prefrontal cortex allows impulse control, and myelination of the corpus callosum and lateralization of the brain permit better physical coordination.” Without the maturation of the prefrontal cortex and myelination children would have a rough time developing gross motor skills. Further, with the development of gross motor skills, my mother told me that at the age of one and a half, she began to toilet train me and when I was around 24 months I learned to use the toilet. Berger states that “ In the second year, with the anal stage, pleasure comes from the anus—particularly from the sensual satisfaction of bowel movements and, eventually, the psychological pleasure of controlling them”. I was quite successful during the anal stage which I guess satisfied the sensual

Parents shape their children in the most fundamental ways and provide them with the necessary skills for survival. Parents, possessing such authority, also contribute to psychological, sociological, and physiological disturbances. Some parents exhibit their own unhealthy habits, thoughts, or practices. Children learn and emulate these behaviors, attitudes, and habits. Food is often used by parents as a means of controlling a child. Denying food as a form of punishment, or dispensing it as a reward in attempt to modify behavior is a devastating convention. This detrimental practice conditions the child's mind to associate food with either positive or negative emotions. For example; rewarding a child with cookies when they behave properly reinforces the idea that affection and consumption of food are synonymous. (Brown & Ogden, 2004)

For decades, researchers have been cognizant of the development of a child’s brain in the first five years of life, which is remarkable (NRCIM, 2000). First, brain development depends on the genes a person is born with and the experiences one has from birth. Second, the brain takes up to twelve years to become fully organized. Third, an infant’s relationship with their parents or primary caregiver has a profound effect on the composition of the brain. Lastly, early childhood interactions have a direct effect on how the brain is “wired”.

The third stage, Secondary Circular Reaction, occurs during the fourth month through the eighth month. Secondary circular reactions involve the development of constructive coordination to reproduce events outside of the body. This differs from stage two where the focus of action was with the infant’s own body. An example of this includes when a baby is laid on an activity mat and kicks their legs to rattle a toy on the mat which may cause the baby to smile or laugh at the sight or sound of the rattling toy. According to Crain (2011), Piaget sometimes referred to secondary circular reactions as “making interesting sights last” (p. 123). During this stage, infants learn psychologically to connect their physical movements to produce pleasing