Virtual Child Essay

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

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.

How do children’s needs change as they grow through development stages from infancy to teen years? How do special needs children differ?

My Virtual Child, Violet is at Preconventional Level. During the preconventional level mortality is externally controlled. Meaning mortality is based on the opinions of authority figures. Behaviors that result in punishment are viewed as bad, those that lead to rewards are good. For example, “During a trip to a competition, students from one of the vocal groups at Violet's school stole some trinkets from a store and they were caught. They were suspended from school. Violet agrees with the punishment because they did not live up to the expectations of their parents, their coach or their teammates.” (My Virtual Child, 2014) I brought up laws of society (e.g., against shoplifting) However, Violet could not get past the weight of violating other’s

The My Virtual Child program allows the user to become a parent and make various decisions revolving around their virtual child. A lot of people may have used this opportunity to try and show what a caring and wonderful parent they can be, however, I did not choose this route. Throughout my daughter’s life, I made it my goal to stunt or inhibit her developmental growth in any way that I could. I believed it was just as challenging, and took just as much knowledge of the subject to be the worst parent as it was to be the best parent.

(Ogden, Carroll, Kitt, Flegal 2012). The health risks obesity poses are overwhelmingly high, including the leading cause of death today; heart disease. Isolating a single leading cause to obesity in children is not possible. Of the several causes, one of the most identifiable is the impact of the parents’ habits on their children. Children are more likely to develop poor exercise and eating habits if they see their parents participate in those poor habits and continue them through their children (Kaneshiro, Zieve 2013). Obesity is a fate no child or parent foresees for themselves nor desires. By introducing children to exercise before problems ensue, they are having a better chance to a healthier and low risk life.

Skyleigh going through a lot of mind-blowing changes. It's a remarkable time of life.I can see her frustration with wanting to do so many things all at once, but not quite having mastered all the skills yet. I'm just trying to be there for her as much as I can and reassure her that she's doing great. She's just entering another leap so i can sense that shes feeling a bit off lately, but aside from those challenges she is a very happy baby. She loves to clap her hands, giggle, smile, baby talk [too cute for words]. She loves doing things to get a reaction out of people! she is easy going when being held by new people. She loves to put up a HUGE fuss when getting her clothes changed, face wipes, especially getting ready for bed. It's like end

Family/behavior: Caregiver expressed that youth started to use her linguistic skills for approximately a month then started to regress to nonverbal communication again. Caregiver noted she believes

It is understood that not all children are overweight or obese. Parents of children that are of average weight argue that their child does not need to be physically active because they are not overweight. Physical activity is not targeted at individuals who are overweight; physical activity is part of a healthy lifestyle. The Active Healthy Kids Canada 2009 Report Card states that only 13% of Canadian children are achieving the recommended 90 minutes of physical activity per day (qtd. in “Fighting,” par 13). Admittedly, some children have been blessed with favorable genetics; how frequently they participate in physical activity does not make a substantial difference in weight maintenance. Nonetheless, physical fitness provides children with more than just a healthy body weight. Researchers suggest that there are other valuable health benefits associated with physical activity: “reduced blood pressure[,] increased lean muscle mass, bone mineral density and aerobic capacity[,] and improved flexibility” (“Fighting,” par. 33).

She is now a lot more talkative, has more vocabulary and longer sentences, better articulation and balance (no more bruises on her knees).

First, I watched a video “Childhood Obesity Prevention: Be A Player” that I watched in week 2, and we discussed their lifestyle for twenty minutes in my house. Nice music and characters made them dancing. After enjoying watching it, they noticed that they were like boys in this video. I told them the importance of one hour exercise every day for their health, using another video “Benefits of Exercising, Regularly...,” by Boon Jiun Ooi.

By living a non-healthy lifestyle, they will just continue to get larger and face more health complications and many other battles to fight in their lifetime. It is vital that us as teachers, parents and care givers educate our children on the importance of eating a healthy stable diet but also to teach them and guide them that physical activity is not a chore but it’s a healthy way of living and will only benefit them later in life.

Psychosocial: I now have an 18 months old son. He is very active and enjoys being outdoors. At 18 months, I find it fascinating to see his reaction when there are minor changes on his routine. For example, he wakes up every morning to eat breakfast before I leave for work. Very rarely I ask the sitter to feed him when I have to be at the office a little early. When that occurs, my baby throws temper tantrums, cries all day, refuses to take a nap and struggles to fall asleep at night.

In order for a child to maintain a healthy balanced life, it is important for him or her to always stay physically active and maintain a healthy diet by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. “Your child can maintain his or her physical activity by taking at least 60 minutes out of his or her day by doing some moderate-intensity activity such as brisk walking, playing tag, jumping rope, playing soccer, swimming, and dancing.” (Heart.org)

“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.” Amy Chua is a really strict parent, I agree with somethings but not all. Amy Chua’s book talked about how strict parenting is the best. She also writes on how she teaches her children to make them better at almost anything. Amy Chua compares Western parenting and Chinese parenting. I will talk about which parenting style is the best in my opinion. I believe that a flexible parenting style is the best. I believe this because if you are flexible your children would have more self esteem and if you have a strict parenting style your kids will probably not participate in extracurricular activities. Also if you have a flexible parenting style your children would have more of a reputation.