Undersocialized Delinquents

I found the juvenile delinquency section in Chapter 16 very interesting. I will be doing my practicum in the fall and choose to do it at a juvenile probation center. I found out that I will be working with the adolescent sex offenders. I was told that these delinquents can be as young as ten years old. The book states, “Under socialized delinquents typically begin criminal activity at an early age, well before the onset of adolescence (Feldman, 2007, P. 461). I was told that most of these juveniles become sex offenders because of the way they were raised. They tend to have been sexually abused themselves. For the majority, this classifies them as under socialized delinquents because they had harsh and uncaring parental supervision. These children are usually performing sex crimes on younger siblings or neighbors. I feel that if the parents had a bit more influence on the children, then maybe this could have been stopped. The only thing different about the sex offender juvenile delinquents is they usually have good characteristics otherwise. The book says that delinquents are usually aggressive, less intelligent then average, and usually partake in more then one crime (Feldman, 2007, p 461). The juveniles I will be observing usually perform well in school and have no history of other crimes such as drugs. It will be a very interesting experience for me!

Single-Sex Education

I found a very interesting topic that caught my eye in Chapter 15. It was about the differences between males and females in college. It says that in most colleges the majority of professors are still males. “Males students are more likely than women to receive extra help from their professors” (Feldman, 2007, p. 427). Since I go to an almost all women’s college, reading that women could really benefit from a single-sex education was interesting. I went to Tarrant County College for my first two years of college. I did not notice that there were more male professors then female. I also did not notice any extra attention given to male students. The book says, “Women who attend same-sex colleges may show higher self esteem than those attending coeducational college” (Feldman, 2007, p. 429). I do agree with this. Since I have been at TWU I have felt that there are more important things then “seeing cute guys.” I was able to branch out more and find my interests based on what I wanted to do. I have really been able to focus on my coursework and make life long friends. Also, the majority of the teachers are women. I think this is positive, because we are then able to have great female role models. I have had a few male professors at TWU, and they are great. I feel that they bring a bit of diversity into the school, without going overboard. Overall, I feel that attending college with mainly women has made me realize that there is more to life then just boys. It also allows for women to explore more careers without being put into the “male career” category.

Bulimia in Adolescence

I have learned quite a lot about anorexia and bulimia in adolescence in many of my college courses. I learned a few new things about eating disorders in Chapter 14 that hit close to home. “Girls who mature earlier and who have higher level of body fat are more susceptible to eating disorders during later adolescence” (Feldman, 2007, p 390). I have a friend that I have known since sophomore year in high school. She was a bigger girl, but always seemed to be content with the way she looked. We would go out to dinner, and every time at the end of the meal she would have to go to the bathroom. The thought that she could be bulimic did not cross my mind, until we had been friends for about a year and she came clean. She told me that every time she eats she feels sick afterwards. She said her stomach hurt so bad that she had no choice but to throw up. I would try to not allow her to go to the bathroom, but after awhile it just seemed normal for her to do it and I semi-accepted it. In our senior year of high school, her father left her mother. She decided to see a therapist and this helped her immensely. The book mentions that adolescents who are depressed are more likely to have an eating disorder. The doctor found out she was suffering from depression and began to work with her on her eating disorder. We are still best friends and she is doing much better. She tells me every once and awhile that she will still purge, but she tries to eat well and work out 5 days a week instead. It is amazing to me to think that she has been this way for almost 8 years and no on really knew because she was extremely skinny or sickly looking. When I look back I wish I had pushed her harder to get help when I first found out, but I am glad that she was able to eventually and is on the right track now!

Play in a Childcare Setting

A question on the quiz sparked me to talk a little about play with preschoolers. The point was that boys will tend to play in groups and girls will tend to play in pairs. I enjoyed reading about the types of play in Chapter ten. I spend once a week observing 4 year olds for another class and have spent many hours observing in the past. I have witnessed many different types of play and found it very interesting that it was actually a fact that girls like to play in pairs and that boys prefer groups. I always notice at the childcare that the girls latch on to one friend and they spend most of the day together. Sometimes they will fight and say “You’re not my friend anymore.” They then usually just move on to another friend until they have decided to forgive the other friend. The boys seem to always like to play together especially in block center and on the computer. They seem to be taking part in cooperative play because they all take turns and converse with one another. Often times a big group of children (boys and girls) will be engaged in parallel play. I have observed this in the block center, sculpting play dough and putting together puzzles. They will all be building their own objects, and occasionally will speak to one another, but are not actually playing together. One little boy always engages in onlooker play. He will walk around to every center to see what everyone is doing. He usually doesn’t talk to anyone or partake in playing. He will just watch everyone until he finally finds something he wants to participate in. Another aspect that was covered is make-believe play. I usually refer to this as dramatic play and the kids I observe love it! It is called home center, but they have tons of dress up clothes, a kitchen, a bed, and much more. The kids love to put on dress up clothes and act grown up. They do things like play post office, make dinner, teach school, and even bake pretend cakes. I think that they get a lot out of it. They are also able to act out feelings and emotions that they may have about home life, better then they may be able to put in words or on paper. I am a firm believer in pretend play for both boys and girls!

Are Piaget's stages really universal?

Piaget has said that he believes that concrete operations, such as understanding conservation of liquid don’t begin to develop until middle childhood. For the most part I agree with this theory. Chapter 12 discusses the role the child’s culture plays on their cognitive skills. It suggests that in non-Western areas some children may never grow out of the preoperational stage. As I kept reading it became clear to me that all children develop differently. The children in other cultures may not ever learn the conservation of liquid because their brains may not be developed in that area. This comes from inadequate education. Piaget says that his stages are universal, but sometimes this may not be true. I feel at some point, the children in non-Western communities can learn concrete operations if taught them. It just may not be at the same time a typical Western child learns them. The book also points out that children in other cultures have different life experience at different ages then we do. In non-Western countries it may be that a child has to go to work in the fields at a very young age. Or a child may be responsible for taking care of other younger children. When discussing Piaget’s “universal” stages, we definitely have to put a child’s culture into place. I do believe that all children will develop these cognitive skills at some point, even if it is in adolescence.

Vygotsky

I liked the large section of Vygotsky's view of cognitive development. Of course I have learned about him in many other classes, but this text book helped me understand more about his theory. I definitly agree that children learn through the assistance of parents, teachers, and caregivers. I do feel that each child has their own personality and will bring many different aspects to their cognitive learning. However, one's society and cultural beliefs also play a major role in how children develop. If a certain society believes in one thing, then this is going to have a large impact on how a children develops their cognitive thoughts. His thoughts are much different then Piaget. I am not sure if either of them are totally right or wrong, I think that both theorists have good points. I just agree with Vygotsky when he says that children must learn through guidance from others. Most children are "copycats," relying on someone else to look at and mimick. If a child is brought up in a loving and caring environment and sees it, then they will probably gain these aspects cognitivly.
Mollie Lanigan

Childhood obesity

I enjoyed reading the sections about obesity and health in both chapters 8 and 11. It was interesting how preschool health and middle childhood health paralleled each other so much. Chapter 8 begins to discuss how prevalent obesity can be in children. Preschoolers are growing so fast, so sometimes it can be hard to monitor their food properly as parent or caregiver. Childhood obesity has become a major topic of discussion in the news, talk shows, and books lately. It almost seems like it is becoming an epidemic. I remember when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was run around outside. Now, all children want to do is play video games or watch TV. We as parents, teachers, or caregivers really need to work on getting our children out to exercise. It is so important to stress to children that if they don’t eat right and exercise, then they could face serious health issues when older. I think a good tip to parents is to not have junk around the house. If you have healthy snacks around then the kids will have to choose those. If you have junk food around, the child is constantly going to want that. Also, limit the fast food trips to a few times a month.

Mollie Lanigan

Attachment in different cultures

I was really interested in reading about Bowlb'ys theory of attachment. I spent last semester learning about children in other countries. It was interesting that Chapter 7 covered some of the same thoughts. Bowlby suggests that the desire for attachment is universal. After learning about the other countries, I would disagree. I know in Japan, parents tend to not encourage independence. This in turn means that the child probably feels very attached to the mother or father. This becomes a big issue when the child has to attend school, and is throwing fits everyday. Children in China tend to go through the same struggles. I learned that children in the United States and in Scandinavia usually don't have such a severe attachment because they both encourage independence at a younger age. I agree with the book in that attachment goes on everywhere in the world, but it depends on how the caregiver promotes independence to the child. I also think that attachment comes from inside the child, one child may be more prone to want to be independent than another child does.

Mollie Lanigan

Early Learning

In Chapter four I came across a scientist that I have learned about in many of my previous classes. His name is Ivan Pavlov and I remember hearing about Pavlov's dog in my first semester of college in Psychology. Ivan Pavlov developed the basic type of learning called classical conditioning. As I have learned more about young children, I see what a benefit classical conditioning can have as soon as the baby is a few days old. A baby can learn to respond to a neutral stimulus that they usually wouldn't respond to, unless paired with a stimulus they are used to already. A baby could hear the cap being screwed onto the bottle and eventually relate it to 'being time to eat." If something is done over and over in the same manner, it could be easily related to what is about to happen next. I really like this early learning capability. After reading about Pavlov, I read about "Little Albert." I don't feel that one should shape human emotions. I know that today the whole test would be unethical, but I just wanted to add in that young children should not be trained to feel certain emotions. Every time I hear about "Little Albert" my stomach churns. How does one make a child afraid of an animal that he wasn't afraid of in the first place?

Mollie Lanigan