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John is born!
Today, I gave birth to my son, John. The birth was quite difficult because John was not in the correct position. The doctors had to do a C-section, but he was born a healthy baby. His Apgar score was 7-8, which is quite good considering the difficult birthing process. According to the text, "A score of 7-10 is considered normal" (Pearson, 88). -
Object Permanence Test
I tested John on his object permanence skills today. He is 8 months old and shows that he can find an item that I hide as long as I don't wait too long or distract him. He does have difficulty finding an item if I hide it in the same place repeatedly and then move it to a new location, but that is normal for his age. He is currently in Substage 4 of Piaget's stages. According to the text, "It takes time for the concept to be fully comprehended" (Pearson, 146). -
John turns 1 and says his first word!
John just turned 1! He also has been understanding a lot of words lately, and has become quite talkative in his baby speech. He just learned his first word, "Dog!" This is an average age, as the text states that the first word is typically uttered between the age of 10 and 14 months (Pearson, 159). -
Imitation
According to the text, as infants and toddlers begin to grow cognitively, they realize that certain sounds they make can provoke vocal or physical responses from others, and that they can mimic others as well (Pearson, 145). John can now imitate others, and is learning a lot of new things! He knows basic colors and sizes and has even begun sorting his toys. -
John is potty trained
John is officially potty trained and almost never has accidents. I am very proud of him, and he is very proud of himself as well! He also knows that he is a boy and can categorize his behaviors as they are suited to him. While he does not know about gender constancy (the fact that he will always be a boy), he has developed a gender schema, "a cognitive framework that organizes information relevant to gender" (Pearson, 252). -
John got accepted into colleges!
John's SAT and ACT scores were quite good, and he has been accepted into multiple schools! He is not sure where he wants to attend or whether or not he will take a year off and take community college classes. If he ends up taking a year off, it could be beneficial. "The satisfaction that can come from holding a successful part-time job while attending school may be a sufficient psychological reward to outweigh the inability to try out various roles" (Pearson, 410). -
John takes a year off
In order to save money, John will take a year off to work and earn a few transferrable credits from a community college. He will attend his college of choice next year. Erikson calls this a "psychological moratorium," when students take a year off to pursue other interests (Pearson, 410). This will allow John to spend time determining what he wants to do in life.
