The subject of the observation is a young family. The mother is of GermanIrish descent and is 31 years old. The father is from GermanItalian descent and is 30 years old. Their daughter is 18 months old. The father is a full time contractor. He has a masters degree in mechanical engineering and is a part time graduate student working on a masters degree in engineering management. The mother stopped working full time nine months after the baby was born. She is currently working part-time as a barista in a coffee shop and has just started working on her masters degree in counseling full time. The daughter does not attend any type of structured program since being withdrawn from full time daycare at 9 months. She does however attend a play group for toddlers each Friday for two hours. The German heritage is very important to the family. The daughter is allowed only two hours of video each day. One hour of video is German cartoons and the other hour is English cartoons. The family does not have cable.
The structure and health of this family appears to be stable. The daughter was born prematurely. The mother has a few health problems due to the traumatic birth, but otherwise the family does not experience health problems aside from the common cold and flu symptoms at times. The mother wakes with the daughter and prepares meals. The father is normally out of the house for most of the day and sometimes the evening depending on his school schedule. The child is exposed to many books and is often given the choice of books. For the past two weeks she has been choosing Once Upon a Potty most often. According to the mother this choice is reasonable because she has recently received a potty as a gift and began using this last week. The mother believes that the daughter can relate the experiences of the main character Prudence to her own potty training experiences and is therefore choosing this book. The child normally has three story times a day. The relationship between the mother and father is slightly strained. The recession has made it difficult for the father to find employment in his field and this causes some financial and emotional grief in the household. The mothers choice to quit her fulltime job and start a lesser paying part-time job while furthering her education has not been taken well in the household. Most often the parents act happy for the daughters sake, but at this time there is little interaction between them if it is not concerning their daughter.
The parents are well aware that children need structure within their homes and daily and weekly routines. The daughter has a schedule. She wakes up at approximately 7 am each day. She has a bottle with milk and spends some time cuddling with her parents. After this she plays in her toy area until about 9 am. At this time the child has breakfast. She has two scheduled naps during the day. The other time is dedicated to free play and also video language emersion. The three of them eat dinner together as a family each night that the parents are not attending class. The child is given a bath before her bedtime of 930. The family attends a local Catholic church as part of their weekly routine with the daughter.
During the home assessment it is clear that the family is concerned about safety. There are several smoke detectors throughout the home. There are child protective covers on all outlets. There is also a gate to block the child from exiting the main living area. The parents keep the bathroom door closed at all times as a precaution because the daughter is fascinated by both the bath tub and the toilet and they are both potential dangers for the young child.
Childs Observation
This subject of this observation is an 18 month old healthy female. The subject is capable of both walking and running with great stability. The subject is curious and touches everything. The subject is acutely aware of what is important in the household. She turns the computers, television and dishwasher on and off. It is noted that she is observing the caretakers in the household. The subject is skilled at opening and closing doors. She precariously tries to place shapes and numbers into a puzzle box. She is frustrated if she can not succeed. If this occurs she throws the object and screams. The subject is verbal. She responds to conversation directed at her with a smile and ongoing babble. She also entices you to play games such as peek-a-boo and knock-knock. She enjoys touching the adult caregivers face. She recognizes her image in the mirror. She pronounces her dogs name as she follows him. She enjoys dumping his food and water on the ground if she can access it. The subject is also aware of what is important to her in the home. She knows where her snacks are kept and points and grunts if they are wanted.
She cries when tired.
In utilizing Jean Piagets Sensorimotor Stage of CognitiveDevelopment to evaluate this child it is notable that this child is learning through her senses and motor movement. It is clear that this child has successfully worked through the Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months) substage. She clearly has intentions such as repeatedly dumping the dogs food and water. She understands that if she picks up the dish the contents fall on the floor. If this dish happens to contain the dogs food the child will place the food back in the dish one piece at a time. The child is also imitating the parental behaviors. She turns on the television, computer and dishwasher. She has learned to do this simply by observing her parents. She is intentionally trying to elicit attention by intimating games such as peek-a-boo. She imitates behaviors that were taught to her as well, including kissing baby dolls and blowing kisses as a way to say goodbye. The child also waves when one enters or leaves a room. This child is in the Tertiary Circular Reactions substage which occurs between 12-18 months. In this stage the child will start to exhibit new behaviors to try to get the attention of adults. This is shown to be the case with this child as she has begun to hit, throw tantrums, kick her feet if picked up when she is doing something, and to turn on reachable appliances to get the attention of her adult caregivers.
This child is also exhibiting some behaviors of the Mental Representation (1824 Months) stage. In this stage children begin to imitate behaviors that were learned days or hours before. This is commonly referred to as deferred imitation. This child picks up telephones and cell phones and holds them to her ear in attempts to have conversations. This child mimics behavior with objects that are similar in size and shape to the telephone including shampoo bottles and miscellaneous toys. The child is also evidence of object permanence as she is aware that the parents cell phone is still available when it is removed from her and put away in the mothers closed purse. The child goes to the purse and cries for the cell phone.
Creative play is something that the child is engaging in. Piaget also believed that childs play is a major tool for facilitating childrens mental development (Hughes, 1999). This child is showing signs of adapting to her environment through the everyday activities that she finds amusing. When she plays with an empty spoon she is actually practicing hand eye coordination according to Piagets theory. The child is also learning socially acceptable behavior such as eating with a spoon. By playing with the puzzle box the child is experimenting with trial and error techniques. She tries to put the puzzle pieces to the appropriate side, matching them with color and shape. It appears that there are some pieces that she is more aware of including an orange letter C. When she has this piece the child immediately manipulates the box to the correct side, matching the color and shape. This situation is showing that the child has a goal-directed behavior.
I feel that although the child was premature she appears to be on schedule developmentally. She did accomplish some behaviors such as crawling (achieved at 10 months) and walking (achieved at 15 months) relatively later than some other children. It initially appeared that her motor skills may be developing a bit slower than other children in her age group, but it now seems that she is catching up to her peers and achieving similar experiences. I appreciate Piagets developmental theory and can see why this is integrated into the education system. This theory is a great insight into explanation behind toddler behavior. Seeing the child as a little scientist is an eye opener as everything she does at this point is to explore and understand her tiny world.
Parents Observation
The parents of this observation are fairly well adjusted. The father is almost completed his second masters degree, although the recession has left it difficult for him to find a job in his field. This does leave the subject rather sullen and depressed and he does show signs that he feels inadequate because he can not provide for his family in the way that he expected. The father is self-described as stubborn and has difficulty taking accepting the viewpoints of others. According to Piagets theory the father may not have fully completed the pre-operational stage of development emotionally. Although it is clear that the father is competent and shows signs of successfully going through the Formal Operational stage, in terms of his academic achievement.
The mother in this observation is self-described as easy going. Most of her professional and academic relationships would agree, although these relationships may be superficial. In addition the mother shows signs of high anxiety and displeasure with her marriage partner. The mother has severe trust issues. According to Erik Erikson the mother has not successfully completed the Trust vs. Mistrust stage of development.
Both parents in this observation should seek counseling to resolve their ongoing issues so they do not interfere with their daughters development in the future.
Family Centered Nursing
The family is kind and nurturing to the daughter and she comes first in the relationship. However it is clear after several interactions with the family that parents do not have a nurturing relationship with one another. The subjects are clearly aware of their marital conflict, but have not yet taken the steps necessary to resolve or minimize the conflict between them. It is necessity at this point. The subjects did reveal a concern that their current health insurance does not cover mental health services. Given the families concern about finances and their status as graduate students it is recommended that they receive reduced fee counseling at one of their Universities. The counseling center at the University offers fees are based on income and the range normally begins at 10 per session. Given the families involvement in the Catholic Church and mention of their ongoing relationship with their pastor it is recommended that the family discuss some of their marriage issues with him.
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