A Child's World: Infancy through Adolescence - Assignment Example

I have noticed that John is very physically fit and has endurance and stamina. When he is playing football he is very active and does not halt for a long time like 10 minutes. He is interacting with the ball more than 5minutes which shows the passion he has with football. In between John changes his football game with a bicycle. I have noticed that riding a bicycle seems to be his favorite activity. His sits on the bicycle and ride it very swiftly to and for the backyard. While riding a bicycle I observed that he is very happy and indulging.

But while turning a bicycle I can notice that John is pretty fearful. According to (Papalia & Feldman,2011,pg.306) “ Passing fears are common in early childhood and are tied to cognitive development “. I can observe that biological development of John is pretty strong. His fine motor skill like grasping objects with a finger is strong. I observed that he is holding the handle of the bicycle very strongly and is highly confident in riding it. At the time he is pointing to the bicycle and letting me know that it is his bicycle.

In between, I noticed that John gets out of the bicycle and runs into the house at a slow pace. He then enters the kitchen very lively and opens the refrigerator to grab chocolate. He then runs back to the backyard and gets seated on his small plastic chair. He then opens the chocolate wrapper and starts eating the chocolate. Here I can notice that John is not very perfect in feeding himself. John while eating the chocolate drops a piece on the ground and he also cannot focus rightly into the mouth and spread chocolate all around his cheeks.

After he finishes eating chocolate, he runs to the tap nearby and washes his hands and mouth. Here I notice that his muscle strength and growth is very intact. He has strong legs and does not dwindle while walking or running. Here I can guess that infant memory of John is average. He later runs and holds the ball and start to punch it with a stick and same time his mother approaches him and suddenly he drops the ball on to the ground. This shows that his operant conditioning is strong as he is scared of punishments from mother.

Here I compare this incidence with that of Piaget’s preoperational stage in which a child can differentiate between past and present events. As per (Papalia & Feldman,2011,pg.168)“ The Piagetian approach looks at changes or stage in the quality of cognitive functioning. John is again playing with a football and it is noticeable that john is a child with good self-esteem as the way he plays football indicate it. Suddenly I could see John’s mother approaching him and pats on his shoulder which makes him proud.

According to (Papalia & Feldman,2011, pg .284)“ When self –esteem is high the child is motivated to achieve”. Here the emotional understanding of John seems to be high. In a second he tells his mother that he is a boy and he is strong. This indicates that John has started to develop gender identity. As per (Papalia & Feldman,2011,pg.286)“ Gender identity , the awareness of one’s femaleness and maleness and all it implies is an important aspect of the developing self concept” He also tells his mother that she is a girl and he is a boy, which shows his understanding of gender differences.

Apart from this, the physical activities of john like running, talking, walking and sitting postures indicate that his gender roles fit into that of a boy. As I noticed John getting down the bicycle, I understood that John has the child fear of falling on the ground.