Relevant facts of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder)

ADD 

I will describe what I consider relevant  facts or details of this cognitive disorder. I did some research and I will gather information from the pdf file that we will discuss later in class.
There are two types of ADD:
1) Hyperactive
2) DA without hyperactivity


DHD-I is similar to other subtypes of ADHD in that it is characterized primarly by inattention, forgetfulness. In some cases, children enjoy learning may develop a sense of fear when faced with structures or planned work, especially long or group-based  that requires extended focus, even if they thoroughly understand  the topic.
The inattentive children may realize on some level that they are somehow different inetrnally from their peers. However, they are also likely to accept and internalize the continous negative feedback, creating a negative self-image that becomes self-reinforcing.
If these children progress into adulthood undiagnosed or untreated, their inattentiveness, ongoing fustrations and poor-self image frequently create numerous and severe problems maintaining healthy relationships, succeeding  in post secondary shooling or succeeding in the workplace. These problems can compound fustrations and low-self esteem and will often lead to the development of secondary pathologies including anxiety, sexual promiscuity mood disorders and substance abuse. This to me represent the worst decision that a normal person can do; it is not advisible to moke this people, we do not know how profound the memories of what we say can threaten them.

It affects from 2% to 11% or more to those children who attend school around the world and it is characterized by inattentivness and excessive distractibility, forgetful in daily activities, has trouble keeping attention on tasks or play activities, does not give attention to details or makes careless mistakes in school work, work or other activities, loses things needed for tasks and activities and does not follow instruction and fails to finish schoolwork, chores or duties in the workplace ( not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions).

What can teacher and parents do to fight and cope with this disorder? 

Children with ADD or ADHD can be extremely disorganized. Parents should work with them to find specific places for everything and teach kids to use calendars and schedules.
Parents are advised to get children into sports to help them build discipline, confidence and improve their social skills. However, sports and physical activity boosts the brains's dopamine, norepnephrine and serotonin levels and all those neurotransmitters affect focus and attention, some sports may be too challenging and can add fustration. In order to avoid this, parents should talk with their children about what activities and exercises most estimulate and satisfy them before signing them up for classes or sports.
Besides, toddlers and preschoolers may be unable to sit still, follow  even simple directions, or control impulses. They may become angry for no reason and hit their peers or siblings. They tend to be impatient, interrupting others when they are talking or playing. They may move constanty, jump from one activity to another, and have a high level of energy and a low sense of danger.

How to recognize ADHD symptoms at every age?
 I have a anecdote from a teacher experiencing the ADHD:

Although Carol Stevenson didn’t suspect attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when her son, Jacob, was very young, she still knew at an early age that there was something different about her child. As a toddler, Jacob was slow to talk and often resorted to hitting out of frustration. By the time he started kindergarten, he was speaking well, but his behavior was sometimes troublesome and disruptive at school.

“He was always playing with things, dropping his pencil, or using one pencil to flick another off the desk,” says Stevenson, who lives in Santa Clarita Valley, Calif. “He didn’t pay attention in class and would get up and walk around.” As a result, she says, he was always being redirected, reprimanded, and sent to the principal’s office.

Shortly after Jacob started first grade, Stevenson received a call from his teacher that ultimately led to a diagnosis of ADHD (previously known as attention deficit disorder, or ADD). “She said in her 30 years of teaching, he was only the second or third child she had so quickly recognized as having ADHD,” recalls Stevenson. “Essentially, she was sending out the message that it was something she doesn’t throw out frequently or lightly.”

Like Jacob, many children who are later diagnosed with ADHD show signs of hyperactivity or other red flags from the time they are very young,  Parents may recall the symptoms of ADHD to be excessive for the developmental age of their child. Some mothers say they remember their hyperactive children kicking in the womb more vigorously than their other children, says Walt Karniski, MD, a developmental pediatrician and executive director at Tampa Day School, which specializes in educational services for children with ADHD. Although the fetal kicker and colicky baby theories have never been substantiated, it is clear that children with ADHD often show signs early in life.

To be diagnosed with ADHD, a child must have displayed symptoms for at least six months and those symptoms must have started prior to age five. “If a child had ADHD at age five, he also had it at age four, and anyone who has ADHD at four had it age three, though it may not have been manifested,” says Karniski. Often the first suspicions of ADHD arise when children begin preschool and have to be in a structured environment for the first time, he says. As they progresses through school, other signs of the disorder may become evident. The diagnosis also requires that the symptoms be present in several settings. 

FACTS

-It is a heterogeneos conductual disorder that can respond to multiples  possible etiologys; environmental; brain injury, genetic and neuroanatomical-neuroquimical. 

-It can be confused with: 

• a learning problem
• psychosocial problems
• medical problems ( malnutrition, epilepsy, hearing or visual problems)
• depression, anxiety, bipolar disruption. 

-Its causes are unknown. It seems difficult to find a origin.

-The available evidence suggest a biochemical basis of the condition having been shown that the amount of neurotransmitters, essentially appears reduced dopamine and norepinephrine in the  front brain regions of patients with ADHD. 

At the school where I teach English, there is an unusual boy. He is in first grade. He is very impulsive, hit their classmates for no reason and interferes when I  am talking. He walks around the classroom and apparently he cannot follow my intructions. He listens well, but I think he must be seen by a doctor or a specialist so that he get treatment. I am not the one who will diagnose him, but throughout the research I have realized that he has many of the symptoms described in here. I have to admit that I am very concern and I do not know if the teacher ( the one that is always with him) is aware of the problem he has. She is very strict and yells a lot to the children. I mean, that group of children are very problematic, since they are always running and talking but we as teachers do need to take this task seriously and not to get them more fustrated. He is always poorly dressed ( dirty uniform and he neves uses socks), I think his family is not wary of his problem. I am not saying that he has this deficit, but his teacher said to me that he acts like crazy and  that maybe he has a problem, neves listens or gives importance to activities  and she described him as "poor boy".

I was very shocked, at the time she said that, but our reality is that there is still lack of medical or specialized information about this deficit in our country. Salvadorian schools need more profesional intervention and maybe that way teacher will be able to recognize and then experts can handle the situation properly.

Behavioral and cognitive differences between boys and girls

Cognitive Development in Middle childhood

This part of the blog, will show how congnitive changes occur and behavioral, understanding how children emotionally grow and develop. 

Cognitive Progresses

Children who are in the stage of concrete operations perform various tasks at a level much higher than when they are in the preoperational stage. They have a better understanding of spatial concepts, causality, conservation and the numbers. 

According to the book "Psicology  Development Infancy through Adolescence", the authors question the following: Why a lot of children at six or seven years old can go from their home to their school and come back without losing themselves, while this maybe difficult to do for a younger child? 

One reason is that children who go through the stage of concrete operations get better understanding of the  spatial relationships (Gauvain, 1993). They have a clearer idea of how far one place from another and how long it takes them to get there, plus they can remember  easily the path and benchmarks that are in the way. With age, improves both the ability to use maps and models as the ability to communicate spatial information. And though a child of six years  can seek and find hidden objects, they do not give instructions common to find them duly organized-perhaps because they lack the appropriate vocabulary or do not realize what is the information the other person need (Plumbert, Pick, Marks, Kintsch and Wegesin, 1994).

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning 

According to Piaget, children going through the stage of concrete operations resort to inductive reasoning. From observations on certain elements of a class of people, objects, animals or events, they draw general conclusions about the class as a whole. 
("My dog barks,  Terry and Mike's dog also does. Therefore, it seems that all dogs bark"). 

While the deductive reasoning, according to Piaget  does not develop until adolescence stage, and it starts with an afirmation or general affirmation about one clase and it can be applied to selected elements of the class. As for example, "All dogs bark. Puchis is a dog. Puchis barks". 

It is important not to forget that the concrete operations, proposed by Piaget, start approximately about 7 to 12 years of age. 

Moral Reasoning

Let us first explain that to make flourishing the children's moral, Piaget (1932) told them a story about two kids: "Once August observed that his father's ink vase was empty and, to help him, he decided to fill it in. When he opened the ink bottle, it spills out a massive amount of ink in the tablecloth. Another day, Julian, was playing with the ink bottle and it spills a bit amount of the ink in his clothes". Then, Piaget asked them: "Who was the most mischievious child of the two of them? " 

The younger children who were less than seven years normaly considered that August was the most mischievious, because he made the biggest spot of ink. The children recognized that August did well and made the biggest spot by accident, while Julian made one small spot at doing what he should  not have done. The inmature moral judments, stated Piaget, are focused only in the degree of the offense made by the child. In the more mature judgments, the intention is considered. 

In the second stage, between 7 to 8 and 10 or 11, it is characterization goes for a major flexibility  and they have certain degree of authonomy that is based on the mutual respect and the cooperation. 

There is a great difference between a 4 years old child versus a 6 or 7 child, cognitively speaking, the last ones are more logical and have their own oppinions about what they see or live. I do not really know how a girl's moral behavior is, but as my opinion, I think that girls are not that mischievious than boys, they are not regularly into an argument or if they are, they fight with their girl classmates. I think boys, according to my experience in the school I go to finish my community service, they are not likely to cooperate in activities, they are always finding ways to mess around and do not want to get punished, they make up stories, excuses not to get grounded. 


There is certainly differences in behaviors. Girls are not that impulsive than boys, this contributes them to behave quietly. However, cognitively speaking, both genders have the same developmental changes. This has helped me to realize that is not that easy to live those changes. Children do not know they are going through many variations in the development of their brain, but they feel that they are quite different, they can feel that a partner does not like her or him and they have to behave according to their context. 

This is the end of the reflection! It is certain that their cognitive development is complex and intense! 

Case Of Study Video

My case of study video

Introduction
I would like to start this entry telling you that it was so much fun to produce it. Kids loved it and they were not intimidated by the camera. Since Gerardo is not that perceptive as Mariel, he just wanted to run and do the crafts or directions I requested.

BEFORE VIDEO
I prepared my cameras and the people that was going to be with me in the filming process. I'd like to say that I first, gather the material I was going to use. I just used the materials from the chapters we have been reading. I also look up for some information in the Internet, in the video I provide you the site I consulted to.
I read thousands of time those parts that I was going to use in the video, and also some of the test that experts did, as the Planfulness of Attention study, in the Attention section.

Besides, my own preparation I also asked my sister in law if she agreed to have her children in an activity about my teaching practice, and she said that it was ok.
Then, I was advise to get the children to my mother-in-law workplace. She gave me the idea, and at the end it worked.  I was in my mother-in law's workplace at Cojutepeque. She works as a phycologist for those special and disable children in that place. The name of the school is Escuela de Educación Especial "General Adolfo Q. Blandon". She spoke with the head of the school to let me in and do this video. I spoke to her and she was deligheted to having me there and the other teachers were happy, too.
I was not sure if the activities I had in mind were going to work, specialy with Gerardo. He was more paying attention to the teenagers in the yard, who were in the jungle gym, so my mother in law helped me and also my boyfriend, in video you can hear a male's voice as well.

DURING
At the right side of the blog, there you have Mariel Abarca, she is 6 years old, she is preschool. She lives with her mother and father. Mariel's mother and brother live in their grandmother's house. Mariel and Gerardo's father works as a cameraman in a television network in San Salvador, so he does not spend quality time with his sons nor his wife. I was told that he only goes to Cojutepeque on Weekends. As far as I saw him with their kids, he is very nurturing and takes care of the two of them. They have had some family troubles, but they have dealt with them and they are pretty good so far.
 Besides, Mariel  likes to play with her girl friends and also with her brother. They do not play  much outside their home, but they do it on the Weekends. She is able to write  many words or phases, and I was told that she is learning to read as well, but I cannot prove it, I have not seen her doing it. As part of the education, she attends to a nearby private school in Cojutepeque, at the Montessori School. I was told that they implement the same integration of the ideal of working in groups, let the students be creative and they focus on giving the students freedom and interaction with materials and activities.

She is slim, is taller than her brother. She has long legs and arms. According to her age, she has the body complex she must have for her age. Her brain, according to the "Physical development in Early Childhood", has reached 90 percent of its adult volume. So that permits her to perform many intelectual activities, such as more reflection on thinking, ask questions, play, take objects, etc. I did not measure Mariel's height nor her weight, but we must remember that at this age girls are slightly smaller and lighter than boys.

Below, you will can see Gerardo Abarca. He is two years and three (this month he turned three) months old. He is very kind, active and energetic boy. He spends most of his time with his sister at home. His mother, Sara is not working she only goes to finish her community service at a hospital in order to finish properly her career, but in the afternoon, she takes care of the kids. In the morning, gradma and a housekeeper take care of them.

Gerardo is not three years old yet, so we can say that his brain has not reached the adult size brain. However, next year his brain will reach about three-quarters of its adult size. Mariel's brain has reach 95 percent of its adult volume. I said also, that the brain and the head grow more rapidly than any other part of the body, such as the head, the eyes and the brain than any other parts of the body. That is why, they seem to have big heads!
I am now conviced that Mariel's gross and fine motor skills are wide different than Gerardo. He presents less coordinated features, like for example, he cannot cut paper with his two fingers, he just grabbed the scissor with both hands. That was hilarious to see! He was so concentrated and committed to cut the paper. Also, he was able to open the glue and then I saw him close it without  any problem. We captured him doing scribbles. As Kelloggs suggest in the first chapter, "Artistic Drawings", children at age two are able to scribble. They are drawing when they are 4 to 5 years. This means, in Gerardo's case that he is able to put the pencil in his hand; you saw him scribbling his family...there were circles, and dots. :) This is also part of his fine gross skills.

Gerardo's scribbles at two years of age

Also, in gross motor skills, he was able to step on a stair and he did not fall. He runs, throws ball at least two meter or more, jumps, he also in the video, was able to pull up the cement chair and he managed to be sitted, though he needed his grandmother's help to get down. We watched that there was a jungle gym at the school, and the children pull up and down of it without problem. In conclusion, even though Gerado is not three years, maybe he is so active because of his genes or becuase he was so pleased or happy to be at another place having fun, so I can say that he is active. Imagine when he is 3 years! Mariel has already dominated the fine and motor skills, well she performs most of the activities she was supposed to do at her age. She is now riding a bike with training wheels. Also,  Mariel reproduces letters, copies shorts words. She also can click on the links (I saw her doing it in my boyfriends's computer and she grabbed the mouse carefuly and managed to click on whatever she wanted to open). This also demonstrate the fine motor skills. She draws circles, not in the video, but I saw her once. All of this if possible because first, her brain development and that she is attending school, so she learnt how to do many other skills.
Talking about Mariel's drawing in the video was portrayed her family. There you find out that she is in the Pictorial Stage, the fourth stage according to Kelloggs's studies. This demonstrate me that she can draw more in detail, she put details in her drawings and an adult can distinguish them easily.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 

Piaget's Preoperational Stage
The Intuitive Thought Substage

I asked Mariel the following question: What would you do if you were hit by a car?
She answered: "I would get appart (from the car) or I would run". 
As I said in the video, she understand how that situation can be, but her ideas are still simple and lacks of more complex thought. On the contrary, an adult will respond so much different from a six year child, obviously. The point here to mention is that I wanted to prove that she was not able to answer the "What if..." as proposed in the Intuitive Thought Substage. They have difficulty understanding events that he knows are taking place but that he cannot see. Her thoughts bear little resemblace to reality, and in fact that was I wanted to prove.
Piaget stated that he called this substage intuitive because young children seem sure about their knowledge and understanding yet are unaware of hhow trhey know what hey know. That was surreal to experiment with Mariel! To sum, they know how to things are but know it without rational thinking! 

Moreover, I prepared Mariel to respond to "The Planfulness of Attention Study" in the Information Processing approach. This generated gives information about how young children think and how theu thinking changes. This is important for teachers to get familiar with.
The study of the pair of houses, starts when I asked her to identify the differences of the houses. She told me right away that the B's houses were equal, she gave reasons why she thought of that and explained also that A's houses were different. According to chapter 9, it expresses that children's control of attention is still deficient:

*Salient versus relevant
*Planfulness 

I focus on the second one, it shows that in general young children's planning improves as part of advances in executive attention, so experimenters ask children to judge whether two complex pictures are the same, preschool tend to use other strategys, I mean they do not clearly see how is it different from one another, they do not examine the details before making a judgement. In contrast, the elementary-age children see systematically the details, and they use their eyes (scan) the windows in more detail ways, so their aswers ere more accurate. Mariel gave the differences in the windows. She was pointing where she saw a difference and gave them even names to the differences.

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

In the video I focus, well it caught my attention,  how children play and what means to them to play. To adults, we only see them playing and that is all. Well, as the chapter 10 describes, "play is a plesurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake, and its functions and forms vary". Play increseases during childhood. The experts say play is healthy and even necessary to the children's development. It helps the child to channel his or her anxities and conflicts. As a child, I was always into my mom's pressure to cope with my homework, she told me that I was very lazy and I did not put much effort in my school, so what that has to do with play? When I encountered play outside I run sufficiently to be tired at night. I forgot my problems with my mom and I was free to do and act out with my dolls. I used to play with dolls, as Gerardo played with his dolls (those dolls were borrowed by another teacher at the school, so Gerardo can be quiet). He tried to get the intimate clothes of the doll to see if they were equal to him (Gender). He was so curios about that!!! He was discovering and interacting with the dolls, and as you see he was combing the hair, and getting them to the swings to continue playing. In that part we can observe him alone, not paying attention to anything else. That is what experts call "Solitary Play"; it occurs at two and three years old.
I think that maybe Gerardo also was in the "Pretense Play", when playing with dolls, maybe he was the father, cause he knows his mother combs his hair and he tried to do it, too. However, it is difficult to say it because he did not tell anything, he was quiet playing.
Mariel plays more with her barbies saying she is the doctor and Gerardo also pretends to be the patient, too.

Pretense/Symbolic Pay
They use objects in their play and pretend to be a character.

At two or three years old, kids love to play alone. (Social Play)

This type of symbolic play appears about 18 months adn reaches a peak at 4 to 5 years of age. 

AFTER

Well, that is what I studied, according to chapters one, nine and ten. I really have a positive experience doing it also I liked very much to experience the results with Mariel and Gerardo. They are very different from each other and those differences make them unique. This was a nice and enriched experience that hopefully, will help me to be immersed  in this ample and rich stage. Children need to be understood and we need to learn that they need our support but more importantly that we as educator can implement many things to get the best of them.
Hope you have learned a lot as I did!
Thank you for reading and watching my video!

Gross and Fine motor skilss (Early and Middle childhood)

Gross motor skills

Children develop their gross motor skills during early childhood. When children move more their legs and they want to be sitted, they are begining to move more. Gross motor skills means that they are able to make movements with their legs, such as walking. Also, they move their arms to get what they want. Between three  and four years, young children can:

Pedals tricycle or bicycle at least three meters

 Catches large ball

Hops three hops with both feet

Jumps to floor from 12 inches

As they get older, they can easily do major or complex activities with the help of their body. At 4 years of age children are adventurous. They like to make the same activities but this time they go beyond, they can can down stairs with one foot on each step. They begin to include both feet but they alter them. At 5 years of age, they are more active and like to make races with their peers. I have to include in here that they are more competitive. My boyfriend's cousins used to make races, they were four boys, so imagine them running all the time. Rey was the younger one, he was four and half and he was always left behind the rest of his cousins, so he used to say: "Mom! (crying) I want to win this time!!! It is not fair, they always run faster than me and I don't want them to win, I want to win, just me! ". The whole family laughed when they remember this funny moment!

Middle children can do more activities, and among them we can observe the following activities:

Kicks rolling ball

 Rides bike with training wheels

Races become something fun among peers or their parents

Roller Skates

Skips rope

Now, talking about salvadorian children, I would like to mention that most of the children I met they only do the bike, the skips rope, the kicking ball, though we tend to play more the salvadorian games that we know or made up when we were between five or six. At that age, salvadorian children I have observed are energetic and mischivious. Well, I guess it is on our ADN. I used to play with my girls friends only, because I unconsciously avoided the boys' prescence. They were ignored and most of the time they used to act like the "gangsters and the cops", so those games did not caught my attention. I used play skiping the rope, hide and seek or with dolls.
So, as we have noticed, these activities mainly involved our gross motor skilss. So, let's move on to the next topic.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS

These motor skills deal with the small movements of the body, such as in the hands, fingers, toes, lips and tongue.  These motor skills that children develop become very important for every day activities. These skills allow children to tie their shoes, use scissors, open and close things, pinch objects, and many more functional tasks! Now I see the point on using and develop fine motor skills! If teachers promote fine motor skilss, children not only will have fun in the activities, but they are are going to be able to help develop their fine motor skills, which will allow them to do many tasks in the future that serve important functions to their daily lives. We  could have the children use different objects and tools to paint with and use for other crafts. Tools such as sponges, droppers, brushes, and cotton balls are among the many we use for our activities. Using these different tools require different hand movements that are precise that not only will allow them to do these activities, but it helps develop their fine motor skills, which will allow them to do many tasks in the future that serve important functions to their daily lives.

 "At three years of age, children show a more mature ability to place and handle things than when they were infants. They can build block tower, each block placed with great concentration but they fail placing them in straight line" (Physical development in Early Childhood, p. 260) It is important to monitor their develpment, so they one can evaluate their accuracy according to their age. 



At four years of age, this skill is more advanced and they can actually do their tasks more precise. They can build block towers more coordinated and sofisticated. They also get mad at themselves because they want it to be perfect, but it is part of their learning this skill. Then, by age five, children's fine motor coordination has improved fantasticaly. 

They enjoy playing dough at home. As a teacher we can implement it as a way of a tool. You can hide items in the dough and let them find it. They are manipulating dough in the way they want and they are also practising their fine motor skills! 

A five years olds girl, can easily insert the thread into the object. This requires that her hand, arm and eyes coordinate to make it happen. 

PICTORIAL STAGE

Also, drawings are showing us if the fine motor skill is developing correctly. I did not know that the infant can scribble at age 2 and by the time, they correlatinate scribbles to what they see about the world they live, so if you tell a two year old boy: Draw your sister, mother, father, the dog, the infant will just draw a scribble. However, this is not a bad outcome. At that age, they are expected to do it and then they acquire other stages of drawings. Scribbles include vertical, horizontal, diagonal, circular, curving, waving or zigzag lines and dots. Then as they progess from scribbling to picture making they go through four stages: Placement, shape, design and pictorial. Those stages were discovered by Rhonda Kellogg. 

The stages of Young Children's Artistic Drawings

Age 4 to 5 Pictorial stage

It is so important that teachers notice or observes that gross and fine motor skills are a child's tools so that he or she can actually develop more complex activities. Also, we have to promote this two skills in classroon and let the child be and do what they desire to show us with their drawings.

See you! :)

Erik Erikson Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson Psychological Stages (Second Part)

Industry versus Inferiority: The stage occurs during childhood between the ages of six and eleven.  There is a virtue in this stage name competence.  School and social interaction play an important role during this time of a child’s life. Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities. At this stage they are in school and are sorrounded by peers and they are uncredibly amazing at achieving many tasks successfuly and they want to excel their abilities. According to Erikson, this stage is vital in the development of self-confidence. During school and other social activities, children receive praise and attention for performing various tasks such as reading, writing, drawing and solving problems. Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Also, success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority. 

Identity versus Confusion: This is the fifth stage of development. We now stop exploring children and Erikson states that this stage is unique but difficult to some teenagers. Teens begin to explore what they are, their self is in constant movement. They are wondering who they are; they tend to focus only in themselves. 

This stage occurs during adolescence between the ages of approximately 12 to 18. since they are moving from childhood to adolescence they feel often confused and insecure about themselves and they think how they fit in their context, school, society, peers, friends.  "What am I all about?" and "What am I going to do with my life?" are the main questions teens aske to themselves. if adolescents are able to explore these roles in a nice way they may achieve a positive identity. I explore this questions, but I did not give them answers until late years after. I was so busy at that moment that I did not pay attention to "What am I going to do...in order to achieve my goals?" Then when I was 18 I think, I started to put effort and give them response. It is something not to take for granted (the  self -questioning) because it might be too late.  

Intimacy versus Isolation: this stage goes between 19 and 40 years of age. As the name of the stage stands, people are thinking if they are going to be loved or lonely. This feelings appear constantly preocupied to know their destiny in this area. Erikson believe that having these stages fulfilled is essential because the previous helps the next one. If a person does not have a sense of positive image, their relationships are not healthy and are not successful.  There are studies  which have demonstrated that those with a poor sense of self tend to have less committed relationships and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness, and depression.  The more people develop get close relationships the more they will feel less isolated. 

Generativity versus Stagnation: occurs approximately between the ages of 40 and 65. Adults are working and taking care of their children. Their main task is to work for them and then they feel happy. My mommy and daddy are at this stage of their lives. They are mainly preocuppied about their work, their performance on it and their family. Even though they are living apart from each other, I recognize that they have done a great work when they were together.  Two components to get through are:  Generativity refers to "making your mark" on the world, through caring for others, creating things and accomplishing things that make the world a better place. Stagnation refers to the failure to find a way to contribute. These individuals may feel disconnected or uninvolved with their community and with society as a whole. 

Those who are successful during this phase will feel that they are contributing to the world by being active in their home and community. Those who fail to attain this skill will feel unproductive and uninvolved in the world. 

Integrity versus Despair: occurs approximately between 65 through the end of life. To me this stage demonstrate the begining of a more complete life. People who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death. Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death. My grandma, says that for her age, she is only awating for death. She feels that she has helped her family. Even when she is sick she made fun of her sickness saying that  "ya  es "el pijo" de años, that is why she is sick.  (lots of years she is.)  She  knows that God is merciful and that we do not have to be angry at him, even when she is sick.  Those who are unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many regrets. The individual will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair. I thik this has to do with those moments of "What if..." people is constantly fighting with this due to that fear they had and now that they are old, they cannot persue it. This is why we have to live every moment if it was the last we have... To me this stages are more proximate to what we are living or lived at certain point. I agree with Erikson and his capacity to depict all these stages.  In order to understand our stages and facilitate our knowledge, Erikson let us know how to manage or what we can expect from someone at certain stage. 

This is the end of the first topic peers!! 

Let us continue! 

Carpe diem :)

Three Different Stages of the Childhood( -Piaget-Vygotski-Erickson)

Piaget's  Preoperational Stage

His studies demostrate that children first stage  in the sensorimotor stage that children explore the world with sensations, perceptions with physical movements and actions. Moreover, the preoperational stage, which is the second one, children begin to represent the world with words, images and drawings. Their concepts are stable and they begin to reason more. This is what I recall from my younger brother when he was 4 years: he questioned my father about almost everything, and my parents did not understand why he was so curious about his sorrounding. They explained him some things, but I can bet those ansewrs were not enough for his mind. 

• I was wondering why Piaget thought it was a good name "Preoperational Stage"...and does it have a purpose on children's life?

It does in fact have a purpose for chidren, because after they were able to reprensent their thoughts in actions, but now they can do it mentally as well. Preoperational Thought is the ability to reconstruct what was physically to do it mentally. This can be divided into two substages: the symbolic function substage and the intuitive thought substage. 

What I can think is my grandma! 

The first one, the symbolic function substage, occurs between the ages of 2 and 4. Young children gain the ability to represent an object that is not present (mentally). If someone ask a 2 years old child to draw his family, you would expect to see faces, but not in this stage. They scribble to represent a person, a car, a bike, the sky, etc. I really like this stage a lot! You can see that they do not draw concrete facts, but scribble designs allow them to get a better idea of their thoughts. Althought, children make great progress in this stage, they still have limitations, two of them are: Egocentrism and animism. 

Egocentrism is the limitation to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's perspective. This was initially studied by Piaget and his coleguees to study how the child reacted when asked to select from a series of photos the one photo that reflects the dolls's view. Children in the preoperational stage pick yp their own view rather than the doll's view.

Children uses toys to say to parents questions: Mom, the doll doesn't want to make pi like me"  

Animism, is the belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and capable of action. So, a young children would say something like:" The turtle does not like me", "That tree pushed me and I fell down, mom". As a child, I used to think that my doll would sleep with me and because I was the mom, I was supposed to feed her with my "milk"! My mom just encouraged me to play and did not say anything negative to my pretencious play. I believe that girls play to be mom because they want to be "mom" and to have "babies" because of the social interaction that we had as a babies with our mom.

The Intuitive Thought Substage is the second substage of preoperational thought, occurs between 4 to 7 years of age. In this substage, children begin to thought, reason and want to know the answers to all questions. Like, "What taste does our tongue has daddy?", "Why does it rain?", "Why my little brother is on my mom's belly?"...This ideas are simple and lack of logic as you see. Salvadorian parents have to be cautious about the kind of answers they give to children. They also believe firmly in these responses, like unbreakeable rules. Though, this child is not very good at reasonig like adults are. He also does not understand that:"Tomorrow his aunty is coming to visit him". Also, something that stroke me, was the fact that some children cannot answer quesions with "What if..." in any reliable way. I asked this same kind of question to my niece (6 years old), but I added: "What if you were about to be hit by a car?" and she responded: "I would run and put myself out the road". Even thought she responded logically, the "run" is not a reliable answer.


Vygotskys's  Theory 
Vygotsky (1896-1934) stated that children contruct their learning throught social interaction with others. Their congnitve development depends on the tools provided by the society and their minds are shaped by the cultural context in which they live in. (Gredler, 2008; Holzman,2009).
I think that what he wanted to point was that children also learn with peers in their social context, that is the school, the church, any place where they were immersed. And also Vygostky's belief in the importance of social influences is reflected in his concept of ZPD (Zone of proximal development).

The concept is defined as the rage of task that are too difficult for the child to master alone but that can be learned with guidance of more- skilled children. 

Scaffolding: means changing the level of support. If someone is learning a task, well a more-skilled peer can guide the other student this addjust the amount of guidance to fir the child's performance. This happens in our English classrooms (or so I think) teachers let an advance learner to help the otehr student, and results are fantastic. Tutoring, creating a conversation club (with more advanced students).

Erik Erikson Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology. Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Erikson's theory describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan. That is why it is so important how children spent their life in the context they live in.  One of the main elements of Erikson's psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction. According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experiences and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others. 

When psychologists talk about identity, they are referring to all of the beliefs, ideals, and values that help shape and guide a person's behavior. The formation of identity is something that begins in childhood and becomes particularly important during adolescence, but it is a process that continues throughout life. Our personal identity gives each of us an integrated and cohesive sense of self that endures and continues to grow as we age.

In addition to ego identity, Erikson also believed that a sense of competence motivates behaviors and actions. Each stage in Erikson's theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery, which is sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy.

In each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development. In Erikson's view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure.

The first stage: Trust and Mistrust 

The need to deal with mixed feelings about oneself is at the core of the third crisis of personality development to identify Erik Erikson: trust and mistrust. The conflict arises from the increasingly meaningless of purpose that makes the child to make plans and activities, and growing qualms you may have with respect to such plans. For example: If a child successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure in the world. Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting contribute to feelings of mistrust in the children they care for. Failure to develop trust will result in fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable.  Of course, no child is going to develop a sense of 100 percent trust or 100 percent doubt. Erikson believed that successful development was all about striking a balance between the two opposing sides. When this happens, children acquire hope, which Erikson described as an openness to experience tempered by some wariness that danger may be present. 

 Second stage: Autonomy versus shame and doubt is the second stage of Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. This stage occurs between the ages of 18 months to approximately age two to three years. According to Erikson, children at this stage are focused on developing a greater sense of self-control. Gaining a sense of personal control over the world is important at this stage of development.An example of this is going to toilet  and even the toilet training plays a major role; learning to control one’s body functions leads to a feeling of control and a sense of independence. Other important events include gaining more control over food choices, toy preferences and clothing selection.

Children who successfully complete this stage feel secure and confident, while those who do not are left with a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt. Children ask themselves: "Will I be able to put this on?" "Will I be able to control my own body and not to make pi in my bed?" Of course they like to demonstrate that they are able to do what they want. However, if they fail they feel ashmed. 

I read a blog from a mom, this is the link if you want to read it through: http://mybabyedgar.weebly.com/3/post/2012/09/stage-three-initiative-vs-guilt.html 

I just notice this part, that helped me get into this stage more: "Between 3-5 years old my baby has learned the basics of life. He now knows our basic routine and knows how to get ready by himself, even though I still have to set his clothes for him. He tries to act all grown up by eating with a fork or spoon instead of with his fingers. He no longer needs me to help him to eat. He knows from right and wrong and what he should and shouldn't do. He is able to eat almost the same food I eat. For example, he can eat junk food now but not that much. He still eats three times a day with me and we try to keep it like that".  

The fact that a 3 years-old boy select his shoes or clothe demonstrate that he is in this stage. I see that it is very important to understand them and also to help them feel confortable with what they want or desire. 

Initiative versus Guilt: This stage occurs during the preschool years, between the ages of three and five. During the initiative versus guilt stage, children begin to declare their power and control over the world through directing play and other social interaction. 

 I recall that my mom used to made fun of me when I did not do anything right, for example (I was 5) sweeping. She pushed so hard that I make an effort to sweep like the way she did it. I reflect now and I said that she should have helped me how to do that first. Since that moment I felt terribly ashamed of myself and scared to get done another chore. I read that children are immersed in different context and they begin plan activities, facing challenges, etc. It becomes important to understand what role are the parents playing in this stage. Those parents that discourage their children, these children may feel ashamed or themselves and become dependent upon the help of others. Parents and teachers have to be aware of this feature of not embarrasing children just because...children may be threaten.  

The second part will be in a new entry! :) 

See you!