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Bowen is born
Bowen was delivered by cesarean delivery, or c-section, due to his Mom's age (40) and on the advice of the attending obstetrician. After the release of oxtytocin from his mom's pituitary gland, the uterus began to contract and the cervix dilated as part of the first stage of the birth process, labor. The delivery of Bowen had failed to progress after 18 hourse of labor, so Bowen was delivered at 6:32 am healthy and a bit unhappy! The umbilical cord was cut by Bowen's other mom. (p.85-87) -
Infancy: Bowen's first word
Bowen said his first word today. He said 'ball' after our beagle named Rex brought him a toy ball. Bowen said his first word just a week before his first birthday. In infant cognitive development the first understandable word spoken can occur between 10-14 months (pp.157). First words usually are something important to an infant, such as a parent, food, or toy. Although Bowen only spoke one word to start, most infants know about 50 different words around 12 months of age. -
Toddlerhood: Self-Recognition
Bowen recognized his reflection in the mirror today. We picked out a tiger costume for Bowen to wear for Halloween and painted his face with orange and black stripes. He saw his face in the mirror and he tried to wipe off the stripes! Bowen is demonstrating self-recognition, which typically occurs in Toddlerhood between 2-3 years (pp.203). With self-recognition, Bowen seems to be also demonstrating self-reflection, as he has been using personal pronouns when talking about his toys. (pp.203) -
Early Childhood: Piaget's Preoperational Stage
Bowen is now 5 years old and enjoys playing with his stuffed toys. Each has names and feelings that Bowen has given them. Bowen is demonstrating animism, the inclination to presrcibe his own feelings and thoughts to non-human objects. Animism is one part of Piaget's preoperational stage where children between the ages of 2 and 7 don't yet have the ability to see or understand other people's perspectives (pp.242) -
Early Childhood: Gender Schema
According to Arnett, "a gender schema is a gender-based cognitive structure for organizing and processing information" (p.257). Bowen uses gender schemas when he describes food his little sister likes, strawberries, clothes she wears sometimes, a skirt, as "just for girls" and girls clothes, girls food, etc. In contrast Bowen describes his interests as male or boy-interests only, such as legos, swimming and eating sushi, even though his parents demonstrate non-gender conforming roles at home. -
Toddlerhood: Private Speech
As we started to teach Bowen to tie his shoes we taught him a rhyme to remember how to start, "bunny ears bunny ears playing by a tree...".We progressively showed Bowen the different steps to tying a shoe, which is similar to scaffolding (p.190) He started to also say the rhyme out loud to help remember the steps, but as he improves he now says the rhyme in his head rather than outloud. According to Vygotsky, this type of private speech is helpful and used throughout life for various tasks. -
Middle Childhood: Self-Esteem
Bowen does well academically in school and enjoys being a member of the swim team. Both of these aspects of Bowen's life contribute to his sense of worth or well-being, which is defined as self-esteem (p.312). In middle adulthood Bowen can also identify self-concepts of being smart and athletic, but not very good at dance or music, although they are not as important to him.These self-concepts contribute to Bowen's high self-esteem. -
Middle Childhood: Social Comparison
Bowen is 9 years old and participating in a tennis summer camp. He enjoys it, but compares his abilities to other kids fairly accurately, meaning he knows he is about average at playing tennis. This is an example of social comparison, how one sees themselves compared to others based on ability, looks or social standing (pp.312) -
Adolescence: Puberty
Bowen is 13 years old and starting 7th grade. He is visibly changing due to puberty, the time when a person's physical and emotional self changes dramatically due to hormonal changes (pp.342-343). Bowen is showing secondary sex characteristics such as growing 3 inches in the last year and his voice becoming slightly lower. Both of these changes are due to an increase in testosterone levels and can occur between the ages of 10-16 for boys (pp.343) -
Adolesence: Media Use
Bowen is like many of his peers and enjoys playing electronic games and watching movies. Unlike his peers, Bowen is not allowed to play video games that depict violence. Bowen does make associations with products that are on tv, such as food, clothes, and music, and he seems to relate his identity to these objects (p.386-387), but he also rejects some of the commercials that don't align with his values or identity, like axe body spray. This behavior also mirrors the Media Practice Model (p.386)
