CASE STUDY
ISSUES IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT EDUC 566
Name Date
Table of Contents
Background Information ...... 2
Physical/Motor Development ...... 2
Language Development ...... 4
Cognitive Development ...... 5
Social Development ...... 7
Emotional Development ...... 8
Moral Development ...... 9
Conclusion ...... 11
Appendices
A. Permission Form ...... 12
B. Preschool Developmental Checklist ...... 13
C. Ocean Picture ...... 17
D. Drawing of Person and their Body Parts ...... 18
E. Observations by Early Childhood Specialist ...... 19
F. Observations by Student ...... 20
G. Piaget’s Conservation Tasks ...... 23
References ...... 26
Reflection ...... 27
1 Background Information
Lucy*, the subject of this case study, lives in a small town with many of her relatives on her father’s side living within walking distance. Lucy lives in a two-parent home with one dog. When she was an infant, Lucy’s mother became a stay-at-home mom, working part-time from home about 20 hours a week, while her father continued his full-time teaching job. When Lucy was 3 years old, she attended a Parents Day Out program 2 days a week and stayed with her aunt one day a week while her mother went back to work 3 days a week. At 4 years old, Lucy attended a daily morning preschool program administered by a college and her mother went to work teaching full-time.
During this time, Lucy would spend the afternoons at her grandmother and grandfather’s home. Lucy has lived in the same house throughout her lifetime thus far and has not experienced any major medical issues.
Lucy’s father is a 38-year-old non-Latino white professional. He received a B.A. in Biology in 1994 and has completed graduate coursework. Lucy’s mother is a 38-year- old non-Latino white professional. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry in 1993 and has completed graduate coursework. They married in 1995 and were married nine years before having Lucy, their first and only child. Lucy’s parents are of the Christian faith, attend church regularly, and both have taught Sunday school classes.
Physical/Motor Development
Lucy, a non-Latino white female, was born on February 19, 2004. She is currently 5 years 4 months old. She weighs 46 pounds and her height is 3’ 8”. Her
* The name of the subject of this case study has been changed to protect the confidentiality of the subject.
2 calculated Body Mass Index (BMI) is 16.7, which is in the 82nd percentile for children.
This corresponds to a healthy weight for her age and gender (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention).
Lucy was observed swimming with her father in a pool. She was able to swim and play by herself in the pool (her father was with her in the pool at all times). Lucy, like most 5 year olds, enjoys playing outside. She is able to swing by herself, climb on things, run very fast, jump on a trampoline, and run and slide on a water slide. When running with friends her age, she typically passes them and gets to the objective before they do. According to her Preschool Developmental Checklist, she has mastered the skills of throwing a ball underhand, catching a ball, walking on tiptoes, balancing on one foot, hopping on one foot, walking backwards, and pedaling a tricycle around a track.
However, she still has some difficulty throwing a ball overhand. Overall, her gross motor skills are above average for her age (Appendix E).
Lucy was observed putting on her bathing suit by herself before she swam with her father. She is able to button, snap, and zip clothing and completely dress herself, with the exception of tying her shoes. Lucy can hold pens, pencils, and crayons, manipulate simple tools and Legos, use a scissors appropriately to cut paper into two pieces as well
as cut along a line, she can draw a person with at least five body parts and string one-inch
beads. Lucy can print her name and draw a recognizable square, circle, and triangle. She
was observed placing stickers and plastic jewels on party invitation. Lucy constructed a
model of a “roly-poly” bug using facial tissue, cotton swabs, and tape. She is also able to
manipulate and place puzzle pieces easily. Overall, Lucy’s fine motor skills are average
in relation to her age (Santrock, 2009).
3 There are some areas for improvement in Lucy’s physical and motor
development. For gross motor skills, she should continue to practice throwing balls
overhand. For fine motor skills, she needs to continue to practice printing her name and
letters. Although she can draw and name many body parts on a person, she should
continue to improve her drawing abilities of recognizable objects.
Language Development
Lucy can identify herself by her full name and is able to use complete sentences,
compound sentences, and can connect sentences to tell about an experience she has had
or to give a sequence of events. She is able to apply rules of syntax and ask wh- questions, applying the auxiliary-inversion rule correctly (Santrock, 2009). According to her preschool Developmental Checklist, Lucy has mastered the following language skills: following a two-three part verbal direction, singing or reciting simple songs or rhymes, speaking clearly enough to be understood by a stranger, naming objects based on their action or function, and using pronouns correctly. She can also tell a simple story using pictures, as illustrated in Appendix C, which is a drawing of her favorite animal in an ocean environment.
Lucy is able to read beginning reader books with minimal help, such as the
Biscuit book series. She demonstrates an ability to use sight words and phonics as well as context clues while reading to decode the words.
Lucy’s overall language development is above average for her age level (Child
Development Guide, 2007; DeBord). She has a good grasp of the English language and uses vocabulary words that are above her age level. Because of her level of language
4 development, it is recommended that she begin learning a second language. This will not only have a positive cognitive effect but will also increase her ability in grammar and understanding the meaning of words (Santrock, 2009).
Cognitive Development
Several of Piaget’s conservation tasks were administered to Lucy to help determine her level of cognitive development. In the first task, modeled after the beaker test, Lucy answered that one glass had more water in it than the other glass. According to
Piaget, this puts her in the preoperational stage (Santrock, 2009). However, in the other four tasks that were administered (number, mass, and length) Lucy correctly responded that there was still the same amount of substance after the manipulation. According to
Piaget, this puts her in the concrete operational stage (Santrock, 2009). Conservation of number and conservation of mass are not typically reached until ages 6 and 7, respectively (Atherton, 2009). It is not unusual for a child to both correctly and incorrectly assess different conservation tasks. This may mean that Lucy is not fully in the concrete operational stage yet. However, Lucy is capable of seriation, which is another characteristic of Piaget’s concrete operational stage (Santrock, 2009).
From Lucy’s drawing of a person with many body parts, including nerve endings and cells, we can see Vygotsky’s theory applied. Both of Lucy’s parents are scientists and teachers, thus her environment has played an important role in her cognitive development. Lucy’s description of herself is very concrete; she described herself in terms of her physical appearance only.
5 According to her preschool Developmental Checklist, Lucy has mastered identifying primary and secondary colors and basic shapes, counting by rote to ten (she has been observed to count to 100), and easily counting 20 objects in a group. She is able to add numbers to and subtract numbers from 10 and is beginning to add double digit numbers. Lucy was observed completing a 100 piece puzzle with minimal assistance in
20 minutes. This shows her capability for sustained attention (Santrock, 2009). She knows her age and understands the concept of age, she can distinguish between relative concepts such as hot versus cold, and she can name missing objects of a group.
Lucy can remember simple routines and put them into practice, such as washing hands before eating and flushing the toilet and washing hands after using the bathroom.
She was also observed searching for a lost stuffed animal. She employed the technique of retracing her steps from when she knew for certain that she was holding the puppy to eventually find it. This is a typical trait of children between the ages of 6 and 12
(DeBord).
Lucy planned an elaborate tea party for her friends in which she named the children she wanted to invite, planned how she would decorate, including the dishes she would use, helped choose activities and food, chose the pictures and wording for the invitations, and embellished the printed invitations with stickers and plastic jewels. This not only shows executive attention (Santrock, 2009) but the ability to finish a project as well as developing a plan to meet a goal, which is typically a trait found in older children
(DeBord).
Lucy has been observed problem solving – when something doesn’t work the way she thinks it should, she tries something different until she gets the desired effect. She is
6 also able to manipulate objects to create new functions. She demonstrates above average
problem-solving skills (Appendix E).
Lucy has shown her cognitive development to be above average for her age level.
She should continue to develop her problem solving skills as these will help her to handle
conflicts as she gets older while remaining calm, cooperate with adults and peers, and
develop good communication skills including verbalizing her feelings (Loh).
Social Development
Lucy was observed playing with girls ages 5 to 10. They played dress up and
with baby dolls, feeding and changing them. She shared her toys and offered things to
the other girls. Lucy used and directed elaborate play schemes, often being the leader
and manipulating the other girls to her way of playing. While playing outside with the
girls, she was cooperative and took turns jumping on a trampoline. She typically preferred to play with only one or two of the girls at a time, but was observed interacting with all of them together several times. This is consistent with findings that show children at this age prefer to play with same-sex peers and girls especially playing in small 2 or 3 person groups (Santrock, 2009). Lucy also planned a party for several friends and was specific about who she wanted to invite, all of them being girls.
According to Lucy’s preschool Developmental Checklist, she related positively to
adults in the classroom, became involved in activities during free play time without
constant direction, participated in group activities by singing songs or playing simple
games, attended a story or group activity for 10 to 15 minutes, initiated interactions with
classmates and became involved in play with 2 to 3 other children. She also played
7 cooperatively with peers by observing rules and negotiated roles with other children, was able to work out simple conflicts with peers without adult intervention, and will stand up for her own rights, not allowing other children to take advantage of her. This behavior is typical of a child her age (Santrock, 2009).
Lucy has a very strong personality and likes to be the leader of a group of peers in most situations. For future social development, she should continue to be cooperative in play with her peers and be cautioned not to become “bossy”. Her innate affinity for being a leader and her leadership skills, if nurtured and built upon positively, will serve her well throughout her lifetime.
Emotional Development
Lucy generally demonstrates feelings of pride in her accomplishments. She was observed smiling when she completed the 100 piece “Hello Kitty” puzzle. She displays appropriate feelings in situations. For example, during the administering of Piaget’s
Conservation Task concerning mass, when Lucy was asked if the ball of play dough had more play dough or the log of play dough had more play dough, she emphatically replied that they were the same because, “You just rolled one into a log!”
According to her preschool Developmental Checklist, Lucy separates from her parents without reluctance, asks for assistance when needed, relates positively to adults without being overly dependent, demonstrates a sense of humor, and identifies basic emotions and can recognize them in others.
When Lucy was observed after she had lost her stuffed puppy, she displayed an appropriate feeling of being upset but was not overly emotional. Once she began
8 searching for the puppy, the signs of being upset disappeared and were replaced with
determination. When the puppy was found, she hugged it and smiled.
During Lucy’s description of herself, she originally mentioned that she had a
catfish that was now dead and buried. She stated this matter-of-factly without showing
any real emotion. This doesn’t necessarily show a defect in her emotional development,
just a lack of attachment to the catfish, which she had owned for only 2 weeks. Lucy also
does not display an overly negative self-conscious opinion of herself (Santrock, 2009).
Again, during her description of herself, she mentioned that she had little bumps from mosquitoes. She demonstrated a consciousness of her physical self, but there was no negative emotion or embarrassment involved.
Overall, Lucy is a happy child who displays age appropriate emotions in a given situation. Like all children, if she is tired, her emotions will be strained, but again that is typical of her age. Lucy should be given the opportunity to express her emotions, continue to be talked to about self-control and how to regulate her emotions, and continue to be encouraged to express empathy for others.
Moral Development
Lucy attends Christian church services with her parents on a regular basis. She
has a strong religious moral foundation that is continuing to be built upon.
Lucy is able to stand up for her own rights and those of others and does not allow
other children to take advantage of her. This could be considered to be a demonstration of Piaget’s heteronomous morality, but can also take into account the intentions of the other person which would put her in the transition stage, according to Piaget (Santrock,
9 2009). Lucy was also observed to play by the rules and negotiate roles in play situations
with other children.
Lucy was given three moral dilemma scenarios. In each scenario, she was asked
which person did the worse thing and why. In the first two cases, she chose the person
who acted intentionally harmful as the one who acted the worst. Her reasoning included,
“He wasn’t acting nice and the other one was an accident,” and, “He was being mean and
the other one was trying to be nice.” The third scenario involved a modification of
Kohlberg’s classic moral dilemma of “Heinz steals the drug”: A farmer had many crops
and overcharged for them. A neighbor, whose daughter was sick and dying and who
could not afford the food, tried to purchase food from the farmer for less than what the
farmer was charging. The farmer said no, he would not sell the neighbor the food. The
neighbor later broke into the farmer’s house and stole some food. Lucy said it was okay for the neighbor to steal the food from the farmer because, “His daughter was going to die if he didn’t feed her.” It could be argued that Lucy is in either the preconventional reasoning stage 2 of individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange (the neighbor was stealing to pursue his own interest of keeping his daughter alive) or the conventional reasoning stage 3 of mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity (trust, caring, and loyalty are valued and this is what the neighbor displayed to his daughter) (Crain, 1985; Santrock, 2009). No other questions were asked to Lucy, so we can not infer anything further from this scenario.
Lucy was asked several general questions about lying and how we can hurt or help people. She stated that a lie is, “Something that we don’t tell someone and it’s
mean.” She emphatically stated it was not okay to lie. Lucy also told several ways that
10 we can hurt a person, both physically and verbally. When asked what we can do to make
someone feel better, her only reply was, “We can say sorry”; she could not think of
anything else that would make someone feel better. These can also be applied to
Kohlberg’s conventional reasoning stage 3 in that Lucy understands that you can be hurt
verbally and she experiences empathy. This would also correspond to Gilligan’s Stages
of the Ethics of Care in which Lucy would will fall in the conventional stage (which would still be Kohlberg’s stage 3 [Crain, 1985]) because it focuses on interpersonal feelings, compassion, and caring (Huff).
Overall, it could be argued that Lucy’s moral development is either at or above her age level. She demonstrates a concern for others and a more developed sense of right
and wrong. Empathetic and compassionate behavior should continue to be modeled for
Lucy, and she should be encouraged to practice caring for others and to think about moral dilemma scenarios.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is my opinion that Lucy is developmentally age appropriate or above in all aspects of development. She should continue to be given a positive,
nurturing environment in which she can grow.
11 Appendix A
Note: Permission Form was Included by Eliminated to Preserve Anonymity of the
Parents and Child
* Lucy’s father chose not to comment on this Case Study.
12 Appendix B (page 1 of 4)
13 Appendix B (page 2 of 4)
14 Appendix B (page 3 of 4)
15 Appendix B (page 4 of 4)
16 Appendix C
17 Appendix D
18 Appendix E
19 Appendix F (page 1 of 3)
20 Appendix F (page 2 of 3)
21 Appendix F (page 3 of 3)
22 Appendix G (page 1 of 3)
23 Appendix G (page 2 of 3)
24 Appendix G (page 3 of 3)
25 References
Atherton, James S. (2009). Piaget's Develomental Theory. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from Learning and Teaching Web site: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm.
BMI Percentile Calculator for Child and Teen. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/.
Child Development Guide (2007). Retrieved July 6, 2009 from Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Web site: http://www.dshs.wa.gov/ca/fosterparents/training/chidev/cd06.htm.
Crain, W.C. (1985). Theories of Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
DeBord, Karen Childhood Years: Ages Six Through Twelve. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.
Huff, Chuck. Gilligan's In A Different Voice. Retrieved July 7, 2009, from St. Olaf College Web site: http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/handbook/Gilligan.html.
Loh, Andrew. Problem Solving Skills with Children Two to Eight - Parts I and II. Retrieved July 10, 2009, from Brainy-Child Web site: http://www.brainy- child.com/article/problem-solving-skills.shtml.
Santrock, John W. (2009). Life-Span Development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
26 Reflection on Case Study
The case study process was a new experience for me. I had to delve more deeply into the
theories concerning the specific stages of development and be able to apply them to the
development of my case study subject. I learned a lot about the developmental periods of early and middle childhood, since the subject of my case study had characteristics of both stages. I believe this will help me in teaching adolescents as I can better understand the developmental stages they should have already gone through. And if I identify a student
who still seems to be in one these earlier stages of development, I will be better able to
help them. This case study experience has not only given me more in depth knowledge
of the early and middle developmental periods, but has made me more interested in
learning more about the total development throughout a lifetime. This has also given me
a process by which I can perform case studies on my students to better understand them.
I believe this case study experience will serve me well throughout my teaching career.
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