Personal Statement : Raising A Virtual Child

When a person becomes a parent, their role in life undoubtedly changes. The person must become a teacher, a guide, and a helping hand in the life of the child. Research has shown that there is a distinct connection between how a child is raised and their overall developmental outcome. John Bowlby’s attachment theory emphasizes the importance of the regular and sustained contact between the parent-infant or parent-child relationship (Travis & Waul 2003). Yet, what happens when the only physical contact a child can share with their parent is a hand pressed on the shield of glass that separates the two? What happens when the last memory of their mother or father was from the corner of their own living room as they watched their parent

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.

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.

Insight to the ease in which Jack could be settled was illuminated through observation of Alice’s focused positive attention to Jack prior to his ‘needing’ it—not due to over-attentiveness but rather as within a natural rhythm of activity that Jack and Alice are sublimely attuned to; Alice is genuinely interested and engaged in Jack’s activities and continuously feeds his need for attention with understated but meaningful interactions that include eye contact and her demonstration that she understands what he is seeing or doing, without his explicit request or demand. This reduced the need for more dramatic expression of need by Jack and seemed to facilitate a ‘low-maintenance’ level of engagement by Alice—she and I had a long-conversation of good depth without any major interruption from baby. Even during this period of strong natural preference for caregiver and wariness of strangers (p. 31), because of a notably secure attachment to Alice, Jack was able to adapt to a new person (myself) with considerable ease and self-confidence for this stage of life, when the child is grappling with the understanding of his mother as a separate entity from himself (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 185). All three factors in the development of attachment –arousal-relaxation cycle, positive interaction cycle and claiming (Fahlberg 2012, p. 54)—were

The virtual child stimulation is an online program that offers students a feel of what it is like to raise a child and make parenting-decisions concerning that child. Students also learn about the situations that occur in the three main life stages, and see how their decisions determine how their child will turn out. The focus of this assignment will be on my virtual child, Jason, the problems that occurred in the life stages, and the options I chose when raising Jason.

Once you have raised your virtual child through age 5, respond thoroughly to the following questions.

Spending a few days with the newborn, doesn’t give adequate time for the mother to structure any type of connection with the child. The first months of the baby’s life are essential for its progress. In the later years when it’s time for the mother to come home, she and the child are strangers. Not having developed that bond at an early age causes the child to be unfamiliar with its own mother, which leads to long term sentimental and conduct issues.

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

Infant attachment is the first relationship a child experiences and is crucial to the child’s survival (BOOK). A mother’s response to her child will yield either a secure bond or insecurity with the infant. Parents who respond “more sensitively and responsively to the child’s distress” establish a secure bond faster than “parents of insecure children”. (Attachment and Emotion, page 475) The quality of the attachment has “profound implications for the child’s feelings of security and capacity to form trusting relationships” (Book). Simply stated, a positive early attachment will likely yield positive physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development for the child. (BOOK)

I observed Harper, a 23 month old little girl that is full of energy. Also participating in the interaction with Harper was her mother and five year old sister, Mya. Harper is very friendly and outgoing. She is very interested “reading books” and loves to be read to. She enjoys helping her mother clean and do simple tasks. She seems to be very confident with and without her mother in her sight. Harper’s father is not actively involved in her life because he lives in another state.

Being an aunt to a virtual child was quite similar due to the fact I am an aunt too a toddler and seven year old. Raising Madeline, being apart of her development stages from birth to five years of age was much easier to relate and connect to, since I play the same role outside of this assignment. It was an amazing dynamic raising a child with other types of people who all share different morals and values. It influenced my beliefs and thoughts I had but with others opinions, class information being taught it modeled me into broaden my thinking of how I want to help raise my niece and nephew. The most rewarding aspect of this assignment was the various developmental views and influences throughout a child’s

Rosie’s family exhibits many strengths in treating the child and not just the disorder. One of the parent’s strengths in this area is that they have adapted their home environment to suit the needs of their children. For example, they allow Lenny to play with sand in the home, they have installed a swinging apparatus in the home for him and they have a trampoline with safety netting set up outside (Through my Eyes-Rosie’s Story, 2012). The parents also have many toys available that suit the interests of their children including squishy balls, rings and tops. Furthermore, the parents are also helping their children become as independent as possible while still acknowledging and accommodating each child’s specific challenges. For example, in Daisy’s case, the parents have chosen a school that is designed for children with special needs and indicated in the video that they hope this school will help her achieve optimum development (Through my Eyes-Rosie’s Story, 2012). Another strength the family demonstrates is that Rosie’s parents are engaged with their children and interact with them regularly. They actively play with and speak to their children just like they

There are a number of influences that contribute to the formation of attachments and the differences among individuals. One influence on attachment is the amount of time a caregiver spends with an infant. The amount of time can be affected by the age, health, and social status of the mother. For example, a younger, teenage mother, may return to school in order to complete their education. Returning to school can preoccupy a mother and create a disconnect when an infant’s distress and behaviors are not attended to or ignored. Another example of how the amount of time spent with an infant can be affected is a single-mother or a mother who returns to work within the sensitive time of an infant’s development. Similar to the younger mother example,

“Half of the infants in the United States today have employed mothers, twice the proportion that there were in 1970.” Studies on the affect of mothers going back to work have been varied and have thus for lead to interpretations of the results. The mothers and infants relationship has a central part in a lot of theories on an infants trust development. Freud’s trust vs. miss-trust theory is an example of this. “Infants must learn to trust their caregivers to meet their needs. Responsive parenting is critical.” (Pg 38, Life span and development, Text book). Freud theory focused on the importance of the individuals early experience with the family. He believed that an infant’s early experience went on to contribute to the individual’s adult personality. The following studies data is based of a one time assessment session. This research found by (refecence 3) has found that infants still form attachments with their mothers who work full time. Although they did argue that these infants are more likely to form an insecure relationship with their mothers compared to mothers who did not work or worked part time. This then posses the risk that working mothers are at risk of having a emotional insecurity as the infants may perceive the parents absence as a rejection. This could be disturbing because of the development of coping strategies leading to anger and mistrust with the mother. Other study that have been done to try and compare infants trust with working or non working