Physical Development (Chapter 2)

Physical development is the development of the body from conception until death. Physical development allows us to reach our full potiential over time. Within a cell, where the development process starts, the nucleus contains hereditary material that makes up our DNA ,which creates our genes. Genes from our parents are what make us different from one another. Our genes are developed through a set of 46 chromosomes, one set of 23 from each parent. The genes from our parents are expressed through alleles, dominant and recessive. The dominant and recessive allele matches are what determine our dominant and recessive traits, such as dark hair and thin lips. However, to develop a recessive trait, the recessive allele must come from both parents.

Physical development takes places in a number of different stages and they all contribute different characteristics. Prenatal Development is divided into three month sections called trimesters: Germinal period (weeks 1 & 2), Embryonic period (weeks 3-8), and Fetal period (months 2-9). In the germinal stage the sex organs, eyes and ears start to appear. During the Embryonic period or the second trimester the distinct sex organs begin to appear. In the third trimester or the fetal stage the eyes are able to open and all the body parts are formed.

Infant Physical Development refers to two distinct physical patterns of growth, cephalocaudal and proximodistal. Cephalocaudal growth starts at the top of the head and moves downward, in this growth pattern infants gain control of their head first. Proximodistal growth starts in the center of the infant body first and moves outward, in this growth pattern infants develop the ablity to use their hands first. In addition to the physical patterns of growth in infants, they also develop motor and perceptual skills such as crawling and walking.

In Childhood Development there is a change in weight, height, reproductive growth and brain cells. All of these types of growth can be affected by genetic and environmental factors. Motor development in this stage ranges by age, for example from the ages of 2 to 2 1/2 years the child develops the galloping technique. During this stage of development children also begin to use more complex language to communicate with their caregiver.

Adolescent Development is the time when children move from childhood into adult majority, which also causes a change in social and emotional feelings. During Adolescent Development puberty happens, puberty is the process when the body develops well enough for sexual reproduction. The mean beginning ages for puberty in the United States is 11.5 years in males and 12.5 in females. The onset of menstruation is the hallmark of puberty for females and ejaculation for males.

My personal adolescent development began when I was in the sixth grade. I experienced menarche, the onset of my menstruation, around the eighth grade, and just as they are supposed to, things changed. My body began to develop in certain areas, some more than others, and it showed. However, I did not have sexual experiences earlier due to my earlier start of puberty, but I did mature quicker than those around me. My cognitive development was at the top of the charts. But my emotional development, still to this day, does not seem as if it is fully together. I have younger cousins that experienced menstruation younger than I did when I was growing up. That goes to show how effective the secular trend is, because things changed within the environment around them every day which caused them to experience things earlier than usual. I always thought that there were things that they made with the food that we consume that cause quicker changes than usual in kids now. It is also fairly true that girls mature faster than boys because my younger girl cousins' act older than my little brother, who I don't think, has experienced puberty yet, but I am not too sure.

For the development of my career, it is important to know that boys and girls physiologically develop at different times. Therefore, I cannot expect as much from my males students as I would my females students. The popular saying that girls mature faster than boys is what I would have to dwell on mostly because it will apply to all situations. However, I have made the choice to deal with smaller kids so I will not have to worry so much about puberty, adolescent development and menarche. I will focus more on the parenting style of the kids and my teaching style in order to help them process things better. 

Parenting Styles (Chapter 1)

Diana Baumrind distinguished three main parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) based on the degree af parental responsiveness and parental demandingness provided to the child. Later, Maccoby and Martin (1983) added the neglectful parenting style to Baumrind's three parenting style model. Parenting style could be understood as "a context that moderates the influences of specific parenting practices on the child" (Daring & Steinberg, 1993, p.487)

The responsiveness of a parent depends on the extent to which a parent responds to the needs of their child, mostly considered as warmth or supportiveness. The demandingness of a parent depends on the degree of what a parent expects such as responsiblity and appropriativeness of a child, basically behavioral control.

The authoritative parenting styles consists of high responsiveness and high demandingness. This style is widely accepted as the preferred parenting because it develops the language, social, cognitive, and moral development of the child. The authoritative parent sets high standards and provides their child with lots of support in order for their child to achieve their set standards. However, this nuturing parent shows firm control when necessary and does not burden the child with unnecessary restraints. Authoritative children are encouraged to be verbal and ask questions, likely questioning rules and expressing their opinions.

The authoritatian parenting style consists of low responsiveness and high demandingness. This parenting style is the opposite of the authoritative style. Authoritatian parents sets high standards for the child's achivement, but they do not provide the adequate amount of support for them to do so. This kind of parent does not encourage verbal reasoning with the child and does not favor freedom. Instead, they expect the accept what they say without reasoning and for a child to stay in a child's place. Due to this, authoritatian households are less likely to reach the goals of cognitive and moral development leaving the child to withdraw, Although these parents do not provide a loving and supportive environment these children still feel the love and know their parents mean no harm.

The permissive parenting style consists of high responsiveness and low demandingness. This type of style is referred to as favorable. Permissive parents are highly involved, but are not as demanding, more like a friend of the child leaving the child to do as they please. Children from these households hold their head up high in all situations, but they fail to follow rules like an authoritative and authoritatian child would. These children also lack self control and have a hard time learning new things. They may also suffer from normlessness due to their parents fail to providing them with a sense of direction in life, leaving them more prone to misconduct.

The neglectful parenting style consists of low responsiveness and low demandingness. This is the "uninvolved" (Maccoby and Martin, 1983) parenting style, this parent does not provide any sense of control over their child. Basically meaning, this parent does not care what their child does. These type of children will act out in all situations because they beg for attention outside of the home. As opposed to the authoritative parenting style, neglectful parenting has been linked to lower levels of socio-emotional competence and higher levels of psychological and behavioral dysfunction (Lamborn et al., 1991).

As for myself, I was raised in a single parent housing situation. My mother has always been the authoritative parent with high responsiveness and high demandingness. Very seldom did my actions result in consequences such as punishment, but when they did I was able to question and recieve answers on what was taking place. My mother was never the "do what I say or else" type of parent and neither was my father. As for my father, he was the permissive type, nothing really matters to him. I mean certain things do but he is more of a friend, the parent you call when you need laughter. However, it was important to make him proud and give him something to show off, that was the plus of being his only child.

Being familiar with the four main types of parenting styles serves a greater purpose for me. As a educator I can apply these parenting styles to my teaching styles and choose consequences for my students. Most importantly, my upbringing would play a greater role within my teaching style. I would begin my teaching style as authoritarian so that I can set my standard of conduct and eventually change my style to authoritative so that my students will not think that I am just easy to push over. I would just much rather choose the type of teaching style that promotes cognitive, social and moral development.



Late Seminar Post

I do believe there is community on social media, but I have not noticed any. I only say this because there are many different ways to use social media, but I do not use social media for community based reasons outside of my learning community. I am aware that it exists in several ways from jobs, sports, and other branches.

My community on social media consists of music, nurses/nursing school, and #C24 members. I did not develop my first community until I started to take Freshman Seminar. However, a lot of things I learned while taking this course were fairly new to me. Communities are a way to keep your social media interactions organized and it serves as a great asset.

9 DAYS!!!

Whew, Hasn't this transition been a life changing experience for me? I've cried, struggled, procrastinated, succeed, and everything else that your typical college student does! It has all been worth it though, I have enjoyed EVERY BIT of it.. Nothing to regret! I've almost made it through my very first semster of college and I am proud of just that.

I am more amazed about the fact that I have already registered for the Spring 2014 Term and that my Christmas Break is nine days away! (excluding weekends) I must say that my first semester has been a success as I look over my grades, disregard my transition I think I have done pretty well. I applaud myself because being a First Generation College Student is sometimes hard.

Blogging? It has been a great experience and I wish that I followed outside blogs, but I cannot find any interesting ones. Putting Blogger into our 1010 class was a great addition! I was never a blogger before this, I think its a greater aspect of Social Media.

Basically, my first semester of college has been a success and I hope it was the same for the rest of you. I plan to see you all in 1020 next semester!

Love,
Mi'Keisha <3

Oh yeah, Tweet Me "Happy Birthday" on the 23rd of December guys :)

Child Development Website Review

Today, there are several different ways to obtain information. We have access to books, magazines, websites, data sources, and more. So to speak, everything is supposed to come to us viewers as a breeze, right? This is not always true, most of the time there is quite a need for advanced searching. Majority of the time searching is easier through the internet than other things. Most websites allow their viewers the right of advanced searching whether it is through a simple search or a toolbar that has separated its contents according to its groupings. However, on our websites today there are multiple advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the ease of accessing information.

   There are several different things to expect when comparing two websites like The March of Dimes, and the Child Development portion of the CDC’s website. Although both websites primary purpose is to assist new mothers with birthing full-term babies and informing them on what to expect from their new addition, the websites contrast in many ways. While both websites, March of Dimes and CDC, are helpful to mothers because March of Dimes is organized in a simpler manner, provides supplementary information, and its navigation ease from one topic to the next exceeds the dull color scheme and format of the CDC’s website.

  The design of March of Dimes is more enthusiastic than the CDC’s. Upon entering The March of Dimes website viewers are presented with a banner style slideshow, which includes big pictures of newborn babies. The photos of the infants resemble embracement for mothers making them feel hand in hand with their very own. At the same time, the CDC’s website which also has an opening banner, but a much smaller size of pictures isn’t very much appealing to the eye. Along with the opening banner, The March of Dimes color scheme is pleasant to all of their audience also because of the homepage’s very strong amount of color choices. On the contrary, the color scheme for the CDC’s website includes navy blue and white. Since the Child Development portion of this website has such an unusual color scheme it is what pushes the audience far afield. Viewers expect for things that are associated with younger kids to be presented in a lively manner, no matter the sex of the child. All in all, the format of both websites are easy for an adult to understand and gather information from, but the March of Dimes website has a basic searching method like majority of today’s sites, whereas the site for the CDC has a more complex way of searching. Therefore, due to the opening banner, color scheme, and format of March of Dimes it is more appealing to the mothers whom visit this website.

   Correspondingly, both websites have a mobile option, but the CDC’s mobile app option is much easier to understand then their desktop mode. Therefore, their topics are easier to access meaning some viewers may disagree with the complexity of the website because of the app’s simplified manner. When searching through the mobile app their main topics are right in the center of the page, whereas on the desktop mode there are some things to be found through the toolbar at the top of the page. On the other hand, the mobile app for The March of Dimes is not contrasting at all it still catches the eye of its audience just as much as it does on the desktop. The banner continuously displays different photos of infants and it still follows the same format. There is not an imbalance between the mobile or desktop option for The March of Dimes website however; there is a small one for the Child Development portion for the CDC’s website.

  Unlike the CDC website, The March of Dimes allows viewers to research the problems that threaten our babies today and how they work on preventing premature births. They also have their own community, which includes a blog posts section, for NICU families to publicize their experiences. The March of Dimes is focused on one objective which is the strive to end premature birth, covered through the breakdowns of several topics, stages, and individuals who has several NICU experiences. Rather than the way the CDC provides their advice, their website covers it’s basics through age group which only include kids from birth to the age nine. Although, the CDC provides viewers with multiple resources for mostly data searches, parenting tips, specific conditions that children may face, and the ability to subscribe to their feeds on different topics. However, they fail to cover things in depth as much as March of Dimes. The CDC fails to show a set research topic therefore they have their viewers seeking information in multiple places. Even though they both provide good information, The March of Dimes website is more informative for parents on a selected topic rather than the information on the CDC’s website which is more effective for a viewer that is looking to do more research because they provide information on a statistical base.

  The speeds of the websites are quite consistent even though they contain a few ads. However, they are not the disturbing advertisements that have associated audio, block page viewing, or off subject ads that do not pertain to the website’s information as a whole. The advertisements’ on the CDC’s, Child Development portion are very small and inform its viewers about getting health insurance or displaying reports by the CDC on Children’s Mental Health. Similarly, the advertisements on The March of Dimes website are about donating money to the NICU Family Support, related articles for your viewing topic and about receiving their newsletter. The advertisements for these websites are necessary for their proposed purpose. They both encourage the idea of ways to make our infants better through donation and ways to stay connected.

  Furthermore, for those accesses that prefer to go more in detail about either of the websites or need answers to some of their questions, they both have great relationships with the social media world. The CDC allows viewers to stay connected with them through Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and a YouTube channel, LinkedIn, Google +, Flickr, and Pinterest. Just as the CDC allows further connection, The March of Dimes allows it viewers to stay connected also with the help of Facebook, Twitter, a YouTube channel, Email, and Pinterest.      

  Compared to the navigation style for the CDC’s website, The March of Dimes is easily understood. The A through Z index is in conjunction with The Center for Disease Control and Prevention as a whole. Although viewers may be looking for more information pertaining to the Child Development portion of the website, the A through Z index is obligated to take viewers through the websites total number of topics. Most viewers would think since they are viewing things through a particular portion of a website they should receive their search results in the same manner. After all, that is not the scenario according to the creators of the CDC’s website. The March of Dimes website grants viewers their usual opportunity to search through its website with the help of a basic search and toolbar, which first allows viewers to search through a category and then provide them with subcategories to choose from. Even though they both allow viewers the opportunity to search, the categories and subcategories is an easier way to navigate instead of using an A through Z index. The search results and links for the CDC’s website open in a different window, whereas The March of Dimes search results open in the same window. In spite of both websites giving their viewers the right to search The March of Dimes search method is much more effective than the CDC’s search method. While some viewers may look at them through the same perspective there is a difference when accessing the internet because most users may be unfamiliar with the website’s style.

 While many viewers may argue that one website is more credible than the other; they both have their pros and cons. The users’ particular use for these websites may differ which will then create an arousal in opinions. However, most of them may believe that The March of Dimes website is more presentable than the CDC’s Child Development portion because of the way information is accorded. Any viewer can tell that The March of Dimes website was created for the use of mothers’ to inform them on how to do things with their new baby while the CDC may primarily be used only for research or data sources. Therefore, The March of Dimes is a better website than the CDC.

  

Seminar Post

Although I attended Freshman Seminar once a week I've learned a lot. Social Media has it advantages and disadvantages. I've learned that social media can be very helpful compared to the way that we use it today. The way I look at it now is different from the way that I used to. Social Media isn't always for entertainment it can be used for credible purposes. This class is so different from my other classes, we don't do any papers or projects everything is based on interacting socially.

However, we have did assignments but they were through Twitter, Instagram, and Storify. We used Storify to put together hashtaged stories from Twitter results. Instagram for college picture collages and Tweetchats using the #c24mem hashtag. I enjoyed the out of class conversations that we had through Twitter.

Social media is more than entertainment, #C24 shows so!

Smile :) It's Almost Over

I'm so excited about the ending of the semester slowing approaching! I've worked hard, stayed up, did some late night snacking, and even procrasinated, but I've made the best of everything! And I didn't have to drop any classes this semester! However, I've had the best week since the first week of school. I recieved a B on both my Math and Journalism Test so I feel great about that! Now it's about time that I begin working on my compare and contrast essay, another assignment that I find very interesting.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Fall Term as much as me!! I've met plenty of people and I look forwarding to meeting more and also becoming more familar with The University and the city of Memphis. I'm sure we've all ran into some obstacles while being here, I mean it wouldn't be life if we didn't right?

 I know I'm scrambling a lot, but I'm also ready for THANKSGIVING! I mean who doesn't LOVE Thanksgiving?? I know I do! Okay no seriously... See you guys later!