My Virtual Life Assignment: My Child

His evaluation at nine months states that socially he was cautious around new people and situations. In order to engage in positive interactions with new people he would visit several family members, neighbors or friends weekly with me or the father to build relationships and familiarity (My Virtual Child). Emotionally at eight months old, Dominic showed separation anxiety during drop off times at child-care. At times he would become fussy or irritable, as parents we would make an effort to engage in physical contact but other times we would let him fuss to build independence (My Virtual Child).

1) Q: You are starting to notice that Preslee's crying is rhythmic and moderately loud when she is hungry, wet, or cold. If she is startled, there is a sudden intake of breath and a loud wail, followed by more deep breaths and loud wails. A: You try to respond to the different types of crying by changing, feeding, or soothing little Preslee.

Social and Emotional Development: Developing sense of own identity and wanting to do things for their selves, demanding of adults attention and being jealous of adults attention being shred, reluctant to share play things, acts impulsively, requiring needs to be met instantly, prone to burst of emotion tantrums, enjoys playing with adults or older child who will give attention, beginning to play with others of own age for short periods of time.

Raising a Virtual Child had been a great experience for me. This assignment made me better understand why adolescents are the way they are. I had my own expectation before the onset of this project, how my virtual child was going to be at age of 18? I was expecting that my child would be a successful and obedient one. She would be nice and polite, follow rules and will be good in education. For me, while raising a child, bonding between child and parents is an important factor to consider. It makes child feel secure and let know that his/her parents are there to look after their needs. Communication between parent and child is important too. It will provide a great scenario for learning and aid in cognitive development. Discussing problem with parents and finding a solution is the best way to go during the childhood. I think parenting is not that much hard as it seems but is absolutely a sensitive and responsible task to raise a child. I had enjoyed raising my virtual child and hope my feedback is going to be a good one too.

In the initial few months babies will recognise familiar voices and faces, they will try to 'people please' and bay for attention by performing for their audience through laughter and giggles. They will enjoy playing games with others such as peek a boo.

| * May be ready for toilet training * Will play happily alongside other children but doesn’t actually play with them (parallel play) * Can feed self with a spoon with no problems * Says ‘mine’ a lot when others try to play with his favourite toy * Takes exception if others get attention from his parent or carer

Strong emotions such as fear, joy and anger are shown. Imitates adults in simple tasks. May alternate between independence and clingy behaviour. Enjoys other children’s company but still reluctant to share. 2 years to 2 ½ years May have established a hand preference (right-handed/ left handed).

Adolescence is defined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes happen at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, greater independence, and a time when someone begins to construct their identity. Identity means their life value and goals including a secure sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the next few paragraphs I will be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went through adolescence (ages 11- 16). I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each

With what I have learned from the My Virtual Child program, I now understand the complexities of raising and guiding a child. Mere decisions made during infancy can affect a child long term, physically, cognitively, and even emotionally. To make important developmental decisions cannot simply be classified as a challenge, it is one of the hardest things parents experience. Making decisions for one’s self, as opposed to making decisions for one’s child is so challenging that most people will not understand until they have children. Even with the realistic impression this program has, I would venture to say that even

I was asked to create and answer questions about a virtual child. When I was told this was an assignment I thought “this should be easy”. Boy was I wrong! I found many things can affect the outcome of my child. If I am too strict or too easy, the child’s behavior will show this. Over time, this will also affect the child’s temperament. I have learned that some of my classmates’ virtual children are harder to get along with and require more discipline then others. I decided to just trust my instinct and answer the questions as if they were for a real child. In this report you will see how my answers affected my virtual daughter Alexis and, my experience throughout the duration of the assignment.

Charlie builds the relationships with his educators in the Nursery room. He likes to join his educators and friends in the activities that he is interested in. He sits side-by-side his friends, enjoys the good times together such as singing a song, moving along the music and looking at the animal pictures and naming them. He especially loves to look at the pictures in the books and listen to his educator names each picture. He often pulls on his educator's arm and leads her to the book corner to read a book to him as to initiate and communicate his needs to his trusted educator (EYLF 1.1). He confidently makes his own choices in play and exploration of his surroundings. He is often seen exploring something in one corner of the room and loves to share his discoveries with his educator by getting her attention and pointing to what he finds, such as new toys or books in the corner, bird and airplane in the sky.

Mary Ainsworth is known for her ‘Strange Situation’ (Custance 2010) studies with children. Her theory was that the quality of an infant’s attachment depends largely on the kind of attention the infant has received. She observed the attachment styles of children, mostly aged between 12 and 24 months, by placing them in an environment and recording their reactions to their mothers (or primary caregivers) leaving the room and then returning. Based on these observations Ainsworth concluded that there are different types of attachment. Three types of attachment are: ‘anxious-avoidant’, where the child shows little upset with the stranger, but will avoid contact with the parent on their return. The ‘securely attached’ child is one that will show moderate levels of proximity seeking towards the parents and is upset by their departure but deals with the parents return positively, often returning to play. The third type is the ‘anxious-resistant’ child; greatly upset by the parent’s departure and on reunion seems angry and will not be comforted or picked up (Custance 2010).

| * Repetitive play as the baby enjoys doing something over and over again * Crying if they cannot see their parent or carer * Maybe shy around strangers

The parents reported that their child’s pre and post natal development was normal without illness or injury. However, as an infant/toddler, he had been difficult to soothe when upset and demanded constant attention which his parents found difficult to manage.

At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992).