The reports of Virtual Child Assignment

When Micky was 0 months old...

Micky was in a hurry to be born! You are still amusing people you know with the dramatic

story of his birth. Your water broke at home one week before the due date, and you rushed to

the hospital as quickly as possible. You went into full contractions on the way, and were

nearly fully dilated by the time the nurses wheeled you into the delivery area. You couldn't

even use the natural childbirth breathing and relaxation techniques you had been practicing

for the past three months before it was time to push! When Micky was born, you both felt the

biggest surge of emotion that you had ever had. When you held Micky in the delivery room

you were amazed that you and your partner had brought this new being into existence.

After only a week with Micky, you can already feel a hormonal connection. When Micky

cries, you begin to lactate! This will increase if you choose to breast feed, but it will die off

gradually if you do not.

When Micky was 3 months old...At 3 months of age, Micky is showing more intense interest in his surroundings. Micky

smiles at familiar people and toys, is able to laugh at surprising or funny things (such as a

little dog), and is developing lots of cute little habits.

Micky is able to focus his eyes on you. He spends a lot of time studying your face and the

faces of anyone who comes close to him.

You have not been feeling very energetic since shortly after Micky was born. You are listless

and don't take much interest in activities around you. You complain that you don't have

enough energy to deal with the baby.

At 8 months:Micky is sometimes a little reluctant to part from you at daycare and starts crying. He usually

gets over it quickly after you leave.

Micky's caregiver moved out of town a few weeks ago. You set Micky up with a new

caregiver, but you have been unhappy with this caregiver for the last month. You are

searching for a new caregiver while trying to improve things with the current one.

You try the object permanence test. Micky is able to find a hidden object, as long as you don't

wait too long or distract him in the middle of the search. Micky really likes this hiding game

and shows by his interest that he wants it repeated. However, if you hide the object in the

same place repeatedly, and then change the hiding place, Micky has a strong tendency to look

in the old hiding place, and then get confused about where the object is, or forget about it.

This curious error was first discovered by Piaget, but researchers have some new explanations

for the error.

As Micky turns 9 months, the pediatrician has the following to say after a routine physical

exam, a few items administered from the Bayley Scales of Infant Intelligence, and some

observations of Micky in the playroom: When Micky becomes upset, it is difficult to soothe

him down. He sometimes accepts your embraces and sometimes pushes you away. Based on

your report, Micky is able to digest new foods well, so the doctor recommends that Micky eat

a variety of foods from the family dinner (ground up). Micky is cautious and shy in most new

situations or with new people. With you present, he will eventually explore, but rarely warms

up completely to the strange situation or person. Micky had fairly mild to positive reactions to

most of the situations and people in the pediatrician's office and the playroom. He cried when

given the vaccination, but calmed down rather quickly. The only problem came with a brief

separation from Mom, but that would be expected. Micky's motor skills are typical for age:

crawling, sitting up, and standing up, but not walking yet.

At 12 months:

Virtual Child uses five dimensions of temperament to describe the child's behavior in the first

30 months. These dimensions are random at birth, are influenced by your questionnaire

responses, and change gradually over time in response to events and parenting decisions. The

five dimensions are activity, sociability, emotionality, aggressiveness vs. cooperativeness, and

self control. There is behavior genetic and longitudinal evidence for varying numbers of

temperamental traits and the five traits used in the program are on a lot of lists. Studies also

show that temperament changes in response to strong environmental pressures.

ACTIVITY refers to the physical and mental energy level of the child. Highly active children

may sleep less, be more restless, and engage in more physical activity. Less active children

may sleep more, enjoy quiet pastimes, and show less interest in vigorous physical activity.

SOCIABILITY refers to the child's friendliness and desire for social interaction. Highly

sociable children are sometimes given the label "extroverted" and less sociable children the

label "introverted."

EMOTIONALITY refers to the intensity of emotion experienced by the child. Highly

emotional children may show more of everything (anger, joy, sadness) and more fluctuation

in moods. Less emotional children may show less extreme emotions and less fluctuation over

periods of time.

AGGRESSIVENESS VS. COOPERATIVENESS refers to the tendency of the child to be

aggressive in social situations with the parent, day-care provider or other children. Highly

aggressive children may be quite resistant to parental demands and throw tantrums or even

lash out at the parent or other children. Less aggressive children tend to be more cooperative,

or to whine and fuss rather than actively resist the parent. Research indicates that boys are

somewhat more aggressive than girls, but there is a great deal of overlap between the sexes,

and this is reflected in Virtual Child.

SELF CONTROL refers to the child's ability to control his or her behavior, delay

gratification, plan out a course of action, or inhibit responses to a typical situations. This is

not exactly the same thing as aggressiveness or emotionality. For example, a child with low

self control might take a cookie when asked to wait, not out of a spirit of lack of cooperation,

but just due to low impulse control. Children who are extreme on this dimension may fit

typical criteria for attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity. The Virtual Child has a 5%

chance of having moderate to severe hyperactivity and a 5% chance of having mild

hyperactivity.

GOODNESS OF FIT is a concept that is closely related to temperament. It refers to the

tendency of the parent to adapt his/her behavior to the child's temperament. For example,

suppose you have a very active child, and you are trying to promote exploration and learning.

Rather than "going against the grain" and attempting to quiet the child down to look at a book

about bugs, you might appeal to the child's active nature and choose to go on a walk and talk

about the bugs you see. Goodness of fit also applies to developmental level. For example, at

6-8 months most infants are at least somewhat anxious around strangers, so you would want

to introduce the child to a new person gradually rather than thrusting the child into the

person's arms. Parents desiring to change their child's temperament, or help their child

develop a particular skill, can benefit from the principle of goodness of fit, and the related

concept of moderate novelty. Parents desiring to encourage growth in their child should

introduce moderately novel activities and experiences, because children are more likely to pay

attention to and profit from such experiences.

You, your partner and Micky like to visit grandma and grandpa's house on weekends, and you

all have a great time. Micky loves to play with their gentle dog, and gets a lot of attention

from grandma and grandpa.

You try the object permanence test again. This time, Micky is able to find the object even

after long delays and seems to think this is a great game! You set up two hiding places for the

object and hide it under one of the two covers repeatedly. When you switch it to the second

hiding place, he no longer has the problem you saw earlier of searching at the more common

of the two hiding places. You can't even trick him by hiding it in your hand. Micky likes this

game and wants to play it over and over.

At nine months old, Micky began to understand a few words and point to something he

wanted. At twelve months old, Micky now clearly understands a couple of dozen words. In

fact, Micky just recently pronounced his first clear word and pointed at the object in

question....

Was it "Mom"? Was it "Dad"? No, it was the name of your parents' dog!

Micky's first birthday is coming in a few days! You invite all the relatives over and throw a

big party.

Your partner has received an advancement and a pay raise. The three of you celebrate, and

Micky is very happy, but doesn't have a clue what the party is about.

At 15 months:

Micky just turned 15 months of age, and you notice he often studies things in his environment

and performs simple little "experiments" with them, almost like a little scientist. For example,

he builds a little mound of dirt and then studies the effects of pouring water on it.

At 18 months:

You are showing Micky how to take care of the growing number of plants you have on the

sunny balcony of your apartment. Fortunately the balcony is child-safe, and there is no danger

of Micky falling.

The virtual child assignment part 1

The infant years(birth to 19 months old):

A）How does your baby’s developmental domains compare to the developmental

milestones patterns? Is it typical? Support with examples.

Physical Development:

1. By 3 months:

My baby micky is typical development. When he was three months old, micky is showing more interest in his surrounding and he can smiles at familiar people and toys. He can laugh at surprising or funny things. Micky is able to focus his eyes on me. He try to familiar with my face and the faces of anyone who comes close to him. Compare to the developmental milestones patterns, the characteristic of micky’s development process is holds both eyes in a fixed position, follows a moving object or person with eyes. Thus, micky’s physical development is typically, he doesn’t happen any atypical

characteristic when he was grow.

2. By 8 months:

When micky was eight months, he is atypical development in physical. He is able to digest new foods, he can eat a variety foods from the family dinner. Micky’s motor skills are typical for age such as he can crawling, sitting up and standing up, but not walking .compare with the developmental milestones patterns, micky’s development process can reflect the theory of that which is enjoys some finely –chopped solid foods and sits alone without support. But like the feature of atypical physical development, most babies in eight months are usually uses finger and thumb to pick up an object, transfers objects from one hand to the other or develops a rhythm for feeding, eliminating, sleeping and being awake etc . Those character that micky does not have when he was eight months. Based on that, micky is belongs to atypical infant development.

3. At 12 months:

When micky was 12 months, he is progressing based on typical infant development. Such as he know how to walks by holding onto furniture or with adult help, stands alone holding onto furniture for support. He try to explore everything by mouth. Thus, he is following the typical infant development progressing and does not appear any differences.

Intellectual Development:

1. By 3 months:

At 3 months of age, compare with typical intellectual development, micky does not progressing based on typical development. Such as he doesn’t know how to play with fingers, hands or toes; turns head toward bright colors and lights or recognizes bottle or breast. These typical characteristic micky doesn’t have.

2. By 8 months:

When micky was 8 months, he is progressing based on typical intellectual development. When I play game with micky, he is able to find a hidden object and really likes this hiding game. He is very interested in. micky also has a strong tendency to look in the hiding place. That is to say, he is able to focuses eyes on small objects and reaches for them and searches for toys hidden under a blanket, basket or container. Therefore, micky is progressing based on typical development.

3. By 12 months:

At twelve months old, micky now clearly understands a couple of dozen words. In fact, he can pronounced his first clear word and pointed at the object in questions. Compare with the typical development, the character intellectual development of micky is says first word and says some simple words. Thus, micky is belongs to typical development.

Social And Emotional Development:

1. By 3 months:

At the age of 3 months, micky is showing more interest in his surroundings. He can smiles at familiar people and toys, is able to laugh at surprising or funny things. The character that micky can reflect on typical development which is returns a smile.

2. By 8 months:

When micky was 8 months, he is typical development. He is able to responds differently to strangers and family members. But he is cautious and shy in most new situations or with new people. Compare with the typical development, micky is progressing based on it and doesn’t happen abnormal behavior.

3. By 12 months:

When micky progressing at this period, he is little weakness in this part. Compare with the typical development, the characteristic of infant is responds to name, likes to watch self in mirror, offers toys or objects to others but expects them to be returned etc. But those character micky doesn’t happened. So he is atypical insocial and emotional development.

B) Identify specific health and safety considerations that you will have to consider during the infant years. How will you address these issues?

When micky was 12 months, he’s first birthday is coming a few days and I will invite all the relatives throw a party. So I need to consider about micky’s safety problem. First, the material of dinnerware I will choice plastic, because this material is more safety than stainless steel and micky will not be get hurt easier. Second, I will consider about what kind of food that micky will get allergy. I will not to choose any food that include peanut and so on. Also, I will choose beverage to instead of alcoholic, because alcoholic is an dangerous foods for kids. Third, if micky get any present from relatives, I will consider about is this safety for micky? Kids in different ages need play different kind of toys. If some toys are very small, it is unsafe for micky because he may puts the toy in his

mouth. So I will choose the safety toy for micky.