Child Study: Observation and Description

CHILD STUDY:  OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION

Dr. Bill Sousa

06/22/2013

By:   John Jones

INFORMATION:        

1. Name: Suzie Blade

Sex:     Female

Age:    10 years old

Birth Order: She is five minutes older than her twin sister.

Weight of the child:  85 pounds

Mother’s Name: Synthia Blade

Occupation of the mother: Registered Nurse

Father’s Name: Ranyy Blade

Occupation of the father: Machinist          

Education of the parents:  Mother has college degree, father is a high school graduate.

Community:  Semi-rural community, population 20,000, town has two Fortune 250         companies where many of the residents are employed.  Agricultural make-up consists of soybeans, tobacco, and cotton.

1. Physical Development:  Appearance – average height and weight, blond hair and blue eyes.  She appears to be developing consistently in comparison to other children her age. She speaks with a slight lisp. She is an active child and spends a lot of time playing with her twin sister.

1. Emotional Development:  Her parents were divorced five years ago. She is definitely attached to her mother, but doesn’t want to talk about her father at all. In spite of the divorce, Suzie appears to be fairly well-adjusted and is very protective of her twin sister.

1. Social Development:  She has good manners and is very active in her church as I would expect from a child growing up in the heart of the “Bible Belt.” Suzie has shown signs of falling behind the other children in her school class. She appears to view school as a social experience where she enjoys all the attention she receives, but is not applying herself except in the area of reading.

1. Mental Development:  Suzie is in the fifth grade and until recently has done very well in school. She recently has begun to fall behind the other children’s level, especially in math. She can carry on a very intelligent conversation for a 10 year old, but is definitely self-conscious about her lisp. It only becomes noticeable when she is excited or nervous.

General: Suzie is in Piaget’s concrete operational stage of development, using her cognitive abilities to start to understand why her mother and father no longer live together. She still is very hesitant to talk about the divorce, but when pressed, she shows a good understanding of the alcoholic behavior that caused her mom to leave her dad.  Despite her slight lisp, Suzie is showing good verbal skills. Her math skills have started to fall slightly behind her classmates. As Piaget described of this developmental group, Suzie is showing tolerance (objective thought) for her sister’s closer relationship with their father, even though she doesn’t feel the same way towards him.  In Erikson’s stages of social and personal development she falls into the industry vs. inferiority stage with her new significant relationships being mostly those that are centered around her school life.