-
Crawling
Ben was able to crawl on his own for the first time at 7 months old! Statistics show that the range of age should be around 5-11 months. According to those same statistics, he is right at the average age to begin this new skill.(p141) This shows his development of his gross motor skills. These skills are ones that define his balance and posture and make it to where Ben is able to put movements together like moving his arms in legs in sequence to make him crawl. -
Communicating
Ben starting using gestures to communicate. He went from standard babbling such as "da da da" to actually using hand gestures to help him communicate what he needs and wants. For example he picks both arms up when you walk by to gesture that he wants you to hold him. (p.157) Also he will crawl to you and lay his head down on your leg to tell you he is ready to be snuggled for a nap.He did this at nine months old and it usually occurs between eight and ten months of age. -
Baby's first words!
Ben said his first words. He has broken that verbal communication barrier at the young age of twelve months. Since a child usually begins to speak around a month after his first birthday, it seems like Ben is right on track. He has picked up on the important people in his life and can say "dada" and "mama". According to the text (p.193) he should be learning about 10 words a month for the next several months. -
Left Handed!
At the age of three, Ben started favoring his left hand when drawing as well as the rudimentary writing he had begun to learn. This shows that his handedness.(p.237) Although it is easy to see now, research shows that children start prefering a hand much before this age with such things as thumb sucking, or holding a pacifier to their mouth. -
Preschool
We started Ben in preschool today. We found a preschool that focuses on the child's learning instead of teaching to tests.(p247) It is called a Montessori school and is suppose to have some of the best performance rates in the country. In his class he has already started picking up on both english and spanish words and he comes home at night and teaches us the new vocabulary over dinner. -
Period: to
Social Comparison
Ben has really started to advance in the concept of social comparison.(p.312) Just one year ago, he could only describe himself in the external, saying things like "I'm good at soccer". He now gets the idea that he fits in to a bigger picture and when asked about his soccer skills he says "I'm better than most kids on my team, but John is still better than me." -
New attention span for games
Ben has picked up playing board games like chutes and ladders and even checkers. This shows that he has developed the ability to focus on particular tasks and be able to have the attention span to stick out the entire game. He has also shown that he can understand and follow rules in these games. This part of his cognitive development is brought on by a development of the corpus collasum in his brain. This part of his brain, as it develops, increases information processing ability (p296). -
Clothes Shopping with Mom
Ben is now so in to the way he looks and about who he is with that he has decided that he can no longer go shopping for his clothes with his mother. As a compromise I have taken him shopping where we have to discuss that we cannot always have name brands of everything and that people are always watching him. I know about this kind of adolescent egocentrism (p360) and try to explain to him that not everybody is watching him and judging him. -
Puberty!
Ben is in Middle School and has become a very athletic child. He seems stronger and faster than ever and he is miles ahead of some other kids in his class. He also has started to get acne as well as adding some body hair. These are all signs that Ben has reached puberty (p343) and it is changing him physically. He is also changing on the inside as he has started to be much more interested in girls. -
First day of Highschool
As Ben goes in to highschool he is nervous about how he will fit in and in what groups he will belong. I can see his sense of self concept is up in the air as he finds himself. I also know that until he finds his place in this new environment his sense of self esteem is very edgy and basically any small incident can destroy it.(p364-65)
