Reflection On Virtual Child

I need to start by admitting that this video was difficult to watch! Within a few seconds of watching the video I was reminded of the level of difficulty of the social work profession. As described in the video, Child Protection Services’ role is to protect children from neglect and abuse (Mierendorf, 2000). Similarly, social workers play several significant and complex roles within child advocacy. Social workers need to ensure the safety and well-being of children and be their voice when they are being silenced or maltreated. Social workers need to identify the abuse and address the situation accordingly. This could be particularly difficult when is in the best interest of children to be removed from their

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

The Strange Situation is meant to be a snapshot of the relationship between infant and caregiver, and provide insight into the dyadic patterns that define this bond. Securely attached children are thought to have a primary caregiver who is sensitive, available and receptive to their infants needs. Insecure-avoidant children have primary caregivers who are intrusive, controlling and hurtful. These caregivers may be present in the infant’s life but unable to understand their infants needs, and provide the correct response. Caregivers of insecure-ambivalent infants have been found to be unresponsive to the needs of the infant, and very often unavailable. The effect of this treatment is that the infant is starved for affection and attention. The infant also feels the need to amplify their needs in an effort to reach their caregiver (Barnett & Vondra, 1999).

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.

My virtual child covers physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development at several age levels. This gave me an opportunity to visualize "the whole child" at various points in development. I raised a virtual child from birth to 18 years of age. Each virtual child has a unique set of characteristics at birth, some of which were influenced by how I answered the assessment I completed when I first logged onto My Virtual Child. These characteristics gradually emerged and affected his behavior and development.

Providing physical and emotional security for each child and helping each child to know, accept, and take pride in him or herself while developing a sense of independence is my responsibility as a child caregiver. Part of my responsibility is treating each child as an individual and promoting their own strengths and needs as they grow. To encourage growth in each of these areas I use books, pictures, stories, and discussions to help children identify with positive events and experiences in their lives. I help to ensure each of my children feel love, affection, and security through consistent encouragement and positive reinforcement.

While there are some caregiver’s that are only in the human service field to earn a paycheck and with the lack of parental involvement in their child’s life, it can make a caregiver’s job more challenging. Daycare centers serve as a stepping stone for a child’s future that will teach them how to establish appropriate skills and aid in the development of their cognitive abilities. Positive child interactions not only aid in the development of social and cognitive development, but also in the child’s self-esteem and it lets them know they are important and loved.

All parents have different views on how they should raise their children and different parenting methods. While having children may be "doing what comes naturally", being a good parent is much

I found all of our simulations very interesting today. I gained an enormous amount of information which I am sure will enhance my skill performance. Our instructor was very helpful in explaining fetal monitoring and how to interpret the strips. I thought that she did an amazing job explaining how to read the strips and answering the questions we all had. I feel more confident about this material than I did prior to coming to clinical. I would have to say that learning more about this is one of

I'm also taking this class for my pre-nursing degree. I need it as a prerequisite for my pre-nursing degree and want to be a nurse when i grow up. I like learning about people and human behavior because it's interesting how we react in certain situations. I wish you and your kid the best of luck!

I have no experience in raising a child, my parents were always around when my little brother was born, and I also wasn’t the oldest child. I didn’t really help raise my brother, but we are still very close. I asked my mom, dad, and my aunt about their experiences with joys and challenges with raising an infant. The women provided more information for me to use, but their joys and challenges were similar. My dad said he sort of felt helpless in raising infants, he couldn’t really do anything. He couldn’t breastfeed us kids, and my mom wouldn’t let him do a lot of the things needed for an infant, then they had my brother and he started helping out more. He also had trouble sorting out the different patterns for each child. Figuring out the different sleeping patterns and the food we liked, or what calmed each baby down. Also, of course with every child there is a struggle with finances, which is a problem. Before, you have a child, you should plan out the finances, but if the

This semester in Child Development has helped me a great deal. I came into this class wanting to be a Child Development teacher at the high school level. I am leaving this class with the same ambition to become a Child Development teacher. I have learned so much by taking this class and I know it will all be helpful in the future once I am standing at the front of a classroom. Also, just by watching the way Mary teaches the class, I have learned things that I want to take into my own style of teaching.

This week we learned about Erickson and his theory on development. Erikson studied under the Freud method, but unlike Freud, Erikson actually did research on infants and children as they were developing. I really enjoyed learning about Erikson considering I have a 5-month-old at home growing away. It was interesting to compare these videos to where my baby was in development. Another interesting thing about this module was the James Marcia Identity Status which consists of 4 parts foreclosure, achievement, diffusion, and moratorium.

My virtual child has honestly been super eye opening to me. It has thrown different real-life situations at me in which I had to respond in a specific way, showing me the difficulty of making a decision on certain situations. I noticed that every decision that I make will affect my child in their future reactions, ways that they interact with friends and how they act.

I am currently an intern for Child Care Resource Center, I was placed in a center that is located in Sun Valley called Rescue Canyon Head Start. The center is a preschool that provides free education to 60 qualifying children who are either 3 or 4 years old. The program is meant for low income families but priority is given to foster or homeless children. In the preschool, for the most part I am in the office with the Family Advocate but at times I am requested to assist the teachers in the classrooms. In various occasions, I have had the chance to interact with the children, which is why the children no longer just stare at me or acted shy around me. Now once some of the children see me they come up and they hug me. Moreover, after being put into a certain class more constantly than the others I decided I would observe and interact with a child name Jayleen. My supervisor placed me in room 1 where that specific child is enrolled in and she gave me the chance to observe/interact with her for about an hour.