As you have been reading, there are multiple aspects of development in the early years, including cognitive, emotional, social, and the development of a sense of self. What are the risk factors in a baby’s life that impede healthy emotional development? How do different parenting styles affect a child’s development of a sense of self? For this assignment, you will analyze a case study that deals with the early childhood stage of development, applying course concepts you have learned.
Angela and Adam, page 169.
Dawn, page 205.
Evidence
and APA
The third core writing skill of the
Capella Writing Standard
s is related to
evidence
.
Capella Writing Standard
Integrate appropriate
evidence
Integrate into
tex
t appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.
Developing your skills as a scholar requires you to consider your research
methods, source credibility, and synthesis of complex information. Ensuring
you are able to integrate appropriate evidence in your texts will better situate
you for success and supp
ort your development as a scholar.
APA Style and Format
Capella requires that learners use APA Style
to provide attribution to the authors
of external sources. APA promotes the abilities to paraphrase and summarize,
create concise texts, and develop in
–
tex
t citations and reference pages that will
connect your readers to important sources of evidence.
APA has developed a virtual representation of the APA manual on Academic
Writer, a tool that you can use to support you in following APA format. All
Capella le
arners are provided with a subscription to Academic Writer.
Explore APA’s virtual representation of the APA
Manual.
ACADEMIC WRITER
What Does It Mean To “Use APA”?
· Law Icon
BASICS OF ETHICAL ACADEMIC WORK
APA has a foundation in academic honesty and integrity. To uphold these terms, writers must provide citation of external ideas or sources, eliminate bias from their texts, and aim for objectivity.
· File Text Icon
BASICS OF DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION
APA provides writers with organizational tactics for sections of a text as well as standard formatting guidelines for academic texts, including formatting for the title page, table of contents, and tables and/or figures.
· Quotes Icon
BASICS OF CITATION
APA promotes the author/year writing process, wherein ideas from external sources are immediately cited in-text, using the year of publication.
APA Paper Formatting
Use this basic APA paper template for your course submissions. Note that most assignments do not require you to include an abstract, so you can simply omit that page.
View APA Formatting in a Sample Paper
Evidence and APA
The third core writing skill of the Capella Writing Standards is related to
evidence.
Capella Writing Standard
Integrate appropriate
evidence
Integrate into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.
Developing your skills as a scholar requires you to consider your research
methods, source credibility, and synthesis of complex information. Ensuring
you are able to integrate appropriate evidence in your texts will better situate
you for success and supp
ort your development as a scholar.
APA Style and Format
Capella requires that learners use APA Style
to provide attribution to the authors
of external sources. APA promotes the abilities to paraphrase and summarize,
create concise texts, and develop in
–
tex
t citations and reference pages that will
connect your readers to important sources of evidence.
APA has developed a virtual representation of the APA manual on Academic
Writer, a tool that you can use to support you in following APA format. All
Capella le
arners are provided with a subscription to Academic Writer.
Explore APA’s virtual representation of the APA
Manual.
1/31/22, 2:11 PM
Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood Scoring Guide
https://courseroomc.capella.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/PSY/PSY6015/220100/Scoring_Guides/u04a1_scoring_guide.html 1/1
Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood Scoring Guide
Due Date: End of Week 4
Percentage of Course Grade: 20%.
CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED
Analyze lifespan
development
theories to
determine the most
appropriate theory
or theories to apply
to the case study.
27%
Does not identify
lifespan
development
theories.
Identifies but does
not analyze lifespan
development
theories to
determine the most
appropriate theory
or theories to apply
to the case study.
Analyzes lifespan
development
theories to
determine the
most appropriate
theory or theories
to apply to the
case study.
Analyzes lifespan development
theories to determine the most
appropriate theory or theories to
apply to the case study. Provides
justification for the selection or
selections by citing supporting
research and/or relevant
examples from similar
circumstances.
Apply the
appropriate lifespan
development theory
to support an
identified
intervention
process.
27%
Does not apply a
lifespan
development
theory to support
an identified
intervention
process.
Applies a lifespan
development theory
that does not
support the
identified
intervention process
or is inappropriate
to the
circumstances
described.
Applies the
appropriate
lifespan
development
theory to support
an identified
intervention
process.
Applies the appropriate lifespan
development theory to support
an identified intervention process
and supports the selection of the
theory with recent academic
research and/or examples from
similar circumstances.
Describe the
potential impact of
individual and
cultural differences
on development for
the current age and
context described in
the case study.
26%
Does not identify
the potential
impact of
individual and
cultural
differences on
development for
the current age
and context
described in the
case study.
Identifies rather
than describes the
potential impact of
individual and
cultural differences
on development for
the current age and
context described in
the case study.
Describes the
potential impact
of individual and
cultural
differences on
development for
the current age
and context
described in the
case study.
Analyzes the potential impact of
individual and cultural
differences on development for
the current age and context
described in the case study, and
supports analysis with recent
academic research and/or
examples from similar
circumstances.
Convey purpose, in
an appropriate tone
and style,
incorporating
supporting evidence
and adhering to
organizational,
professional, and
scholarly writing
standards.
10%
Does not convey
purpose, in an
appropriate tone
and style,
incorporating
supporting
evidence and
adhering to
organizational,
professional, and
writing scholarly
standards.
Conveys purpose in
an appropriate tone
or style. Clear,
effective
communication is
inhibited by
insufficient
supporting evidence
and/or minimal
adherence to
applicable writing
standards.
Conveys
purpose, in an
appropriate tone
and style,
incorporating
supporting
evidence and
adhering to
organizational,
professional, and
scholarly writing
standards.
Conveys clear purpose, in a tone
and style well suited to the
intended audience. Supports
assertions, arguments, and
conclusions with relevant,
credible, and convincing
evidence. Exhibits strict and
nearly flawless adherence to
organizational, professional, and
scholarly writing standards.
Apply APA style and
formatting to
scholarly writing.
10%
Does not apply
APA style and
formatting to
scholarly writing.
Applies APA style
and formatting to
scholarly writing
incorrectly and/or
inconsistently,
detracting
noticeably from
good scholarship.
Applies APA style
and formatting to
scholarly writing.
Applies APA style and formatting
to scholarly writing. Exhibits
strict and nearly flawless
adherence to stylistic
conventions, document
structure, and source
attributions.
1
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Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood
Learner’s Name
Capella University
PSY6015: Lifespan Development
Instructor Name
July, 2020
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Case Study
Sophia is a 24-month-old who lives with her mother and maternal grandmother. She has
never had contact with her biological father. She is a biracial child whose mother is Mexican
American and whose father is African American. Sophia stays at home with her maternal
grandmother during the day while her mother works as a waitress. While there were no pregnancy
or birth complications with Sophia, her mother was exposed to significant pre- and postnatal stress
and experienced notable postpartum depression, which resulted in inconsistent care for Sophia.
When her mother leaves for work, Sophia often cries uncontrollably, but upon her mother’s return,
Sophia ignores her mother or clings to her grandmother. Sophia does not yet use two-word phrases
and primarily communicates through gestures or pointing. Sophia enjoys playing with dolls and
looking at books but rarely engages in play independently and often follows or clings to her
grandmother during the day. Sophia is beginning to feed herself and shows some interest in toilet
training. Sophia’s pediatrician reports that Sophia is overall in good health but has concerns about
lack of language development. Sophia’s family moved frequently within her community in rural
Tennessee during the first years of her life because of trouble securing housing. The family
currently lives in a two-bedroom apartment in which Sophia shares a bedroom with her mother.
Sophia currently co-sleeps with her mother. Sophia has trouble falling asleep on her own and will
wake if someone else is not in the room. Sophia’s mother and grandmother have a contentious
relationship. Her grandmother is often critical of her mother’s parenting skills and thinks that
Sophia’s mother should be more attentive to Sophia’s needs. Sophia’s mother reports feeling
overwhelmed and depressed and is often angry when Sophia cries when she comes home from
work. The family has limited financial resources, and money is a constant source of stress. At times,
there is not enough food in the house and the family has to use local foodbanks. The family has no
extended family in the area and a limited social support network.
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Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood
Sophia is a 24-month old biracial child who lives with her mother and maternal
grandmother. Sophia’s mother was exposed to significant pre- and postnatal stress. She
experienced notable postpartum depression, which resulted in inconsistency in care for Sophia.
According to her pediatrician, Sophia is in good health overall but lacks in language
development. She is very attached to her grandmother but displays a lack of affection for her
mother whenever she is around. Sophia’s grandmother believes that Sophia’s mother is not
attentive to her needs. The family has moved residence multiple times, and limited financial
resources are a constant source of stress.
Sophia’s cognitive development, especially with respect to language skills, is
comparatively slower than that of most children of her age. Sophia has not yet started using two-
word phrases and still interacts using gestures. She also finds it difficult to fall asleep if there is
no one around. She clearly has attachment-related issues when it comes to her mother. Sophia’s
situation can be understood by deducing the causes of the change in her behavior using
Ainsworth’s attachment theory. This theory will help explain Sophia’s behavior with respect to
her development as a child and her issues with attachment. It will also explain the relevance of
Sophia’s environment to her development.
Application of Lifespan Development Theory
In Sophia’s case, there is a clear lack of an emotional bond between her and her mother.
The issue of emotional bond can be understood by applying Ainsworth’s attachment theory.
According to Bowlby’s attachment theory, a child is considered attached to someone when the
child is able to seek proximity with a particular person, especially when he or she is ill, tired, or
frightened. This attachment is seen between caregivers, typically mothers, and an infant. The
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child forms this emotional bond through physical proximity when he or she is around 6 to 18
months of age (Ainsworth et al., 2015).
According to Ainsworth et al (2015), the first category of attachment is secure
attachment. Children are labeled secure when they receive a considerable amount of attention
from their mother. Secure children are social and display confidence in playing independently
after some time, even when a caregiver is not present. The second category of attachment is
avoidant attachment, where children display indifference to the presence or absence of their
mother or caregiver. The third category of attachment is ambivalent attachment, where children
protest and become anxious when separated from their mother but are disinterested in any
contact, and rather resist any contact, on the return of their mother (Ainsworth et al., 2015). An
ambivalent attachment can be noticed between Sophia and her mother as she cries when her
mother leaves for work but is disinterested in making any contact with her mother upon her
return. Sophia also displays some features of a secure attachment with her grandmother, in
whose presence she shows some interest in toilet training and feeding herself. Owing to the lack
of a secure attachment with her mother, Sophia has not been able to develop social skills or play
independently. It is probably because of a lack of attachment and a feeling of insecurity that she
has trouble falling asleep on her own (Singer, 2019).
In Sophia’s case, while she does show interest in feeding herself and in toilet training, her
response to new things in her environment is limited. Although her grandmother is very
affectionate toward Sophia, she does not play an active role in Sophia’s cognitive development
because she believes this is Sophia’s mother’s job. On the other hand, Sophia’s mother’s poor
financial status along with prolonged postpartum depression has led her to neglect Sophia during
crucial developmental stages (Bormanaki & Khoshhal, 2017). Sophia is also the child of a single
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parent, her mother, who spends most of her time working as she is the sole earning member of
the family. Sophia’s father is not involved in raising her. The lack of interaction with her primary
caregiver and the lack of a stable environment due to a constant change of residence has
suppressed Sophia’s ability to assimilate information at her pace and then accommodate it. Since
Sophia has not been able to assimilate the language she could have learned from either of her
caregivers, she has not been able to accommodate or apply language on her own. For her
language skills to grow, she needs to be able to assimilate new words and then accommodate
those words to new scenarios that she comes across.
Cultural and Personal Challenges to Development
One of the cultural challenges to Sophia’s development is her biracial lineage, as her
father is of African American descent and her mother is Mexican American. The other challenge
is the absence of her father during her formative stages to provide any background to the cultural
practices of one half of her lineage. The third challenge is that as a biracial child she belongs to
an ethnic minority in the society she lives. Sophia’s biracial lineage and the fact that she belongs
to an ethnic minority can make her and her family vulnerable to racism. Racism here may lead to
social exclusion, which in turn may cause anxiety, depression, and emotional and behavioral
difficulties in Sophia. A positive aspect of being in an ethnic minority is the development of an
ethnic-racial identity. While this can be fruitful in racial socialization and the development of
cultural knowledge and beliefs, in Sophia’s case, it would not be complete because of the
absence of a caregiver’s attention in her formative stages (Macedo et al., 2019).
Another challenge to Sophia’s development is the fact that she is being raised by a single
parent, who also belongs to a lower economic stratum of society. While racism may cause
exclusion, low economic standing deprives Sophia from availing necessary medical attention and
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enrollment into a decent educational institution. In families of low socioeconomic status, the
prioritization of resources is a challenge. Arranging means for basic survival holds a higher
priority to education and health, and in such cases mental health is of the least concern. In a
family of low socioeconomic status, where a single parent has no time to spare for a child’s
development, the child may feel materially deprived. In Sophia’s case, while she already is
deprived of parental bonding, she may also be deprived of material happiness, good education,
and attention to health. This may lead to Sophia developing aggressive behavior (Jensen et al.,
2017).
An extremely important aspect of cognitive development in a child is language
acquisition. A child’s use of language progresses from one-syllable cooing to babbling and then
to the use of gestures. After this phase, the child starts engaging in actual one-word
conversations in the language he or she has been exposed to since birth. At this stage, language
development requires parental intervention through conversations with the child that involve
statements that are broken down into small phrases or that are easy to remember such as “Give
baby ball” rather than “Give that ball to the baby.” The use of high-pitched voices, facial
expressions, simpler words, and actions helps a child assimilate words and accommodate them to
new situations (Lally & French, 2019). This explains why the absence of her mother has led to
the slower development of language in Sophia, even though her grandmother is around her.
The difficulties faced by Sophia may not be easily resolved if the bond she shares with
her mother is not strengthened and maintained, which may be missing due to her mother’s
prolonged postpartum depression. During pregnancy, mothers are hardwired to tend to any
emergency pertaining to their baby. After child delivery, mothers tend to lose out on the alertness
that they developed during pregnancy because of a high influx of oxytocin (Lally & French,
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2019) This causes stress and anxiety, which is why Sophia’s mother gets anxious and irritable
when she sees Sophia crying upon her return. Sophia is currently severely deprived of parental
attachment, which she tries to fulfill by clinging to her grandmother. Unattended postpartum
depression can cause a mother to neglect her child (Corrigan et al., 2015).
Intervention Using Lifespan Developmental Theories
The main concern with Sophia’s development is the lack of attachment between her and
her mother. The first step that needs to be taken for Sophia’s development is the betterment of
her relationship with her mother. Literature confirms that lack of support to mothers facing
postpartum depression can compromise childcare and attention (Corrigan et al., 2015). Sophia’s
mother must recognize that she still suffers from postpartum depression 2 years after delivery
along with added anxiety from being a single parent and the family’s sole earning member. For
the development of her child, Sophia’s mother must seek help from agencies that offer
emotional, instrumental, and informational support to mothers (Corrigan et al., 2015). This will
help her receive the tangible support she may require to assist in Sophia’s development. It will
also act as a system for providing the encouragement and awareness that she may need to build a
secure base of attachment with Sophia.
Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based approach to treating
children who face issues with behavioral development. It can be used to bridge the deficit in
Sophia’s behavior due to the lack of attachment with her caregivers. This approach is best suited
for children between the ages of 2 and 7 years. The PCIT approach involves two stages: child-
directed interaction and parent-directed interaction. A third party, usually a child psychologist,
helps the caregiver develop interaction skills to effectively interact with the child. The
psychologist also helps the caregiver with the development of the child’s communication skills.
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A review of literature has helped understand that PCIT has helped not only children but also
caregivers and parents by reducing parental stress and improving parenting skills. In Sophia’s
case, PCIT would be beneficial as it would improve her interaction with her caregivers, primarily
her mother, and encourage positive interaction in the family, which is essential for child
development (Lieneman et al., 2017).
Conclusion
The difficulties faced by Sophia are primarily due to the deprivation of attachment with
her mother and the lack of a conducive learning environment. Sophia is still in her formative
stages and does show signs of learning. Early intervention can help ensure that she catches up
with a normal pace of development. While Ainsworth’s pattern of attachment helped identify
Sophia’s problems, their application can also help narrow down the interventions that can resolve
her problems. There are many developmental theories that can help resolve Sophia’s
developmental issues, but the crux here is that every theory will highlight the contentious
relationship between Sophia, her mother, and her grandmother. Equal efforts from both her
mother and grandmother can contribute immensely to Sophia’s growth.
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References
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. N. (2015). Patterns of attachment a
psychological study of the strange situation. Taylor & Francis Group.
Bormanaki, H. B., & Khoshhal, Y. (2017). The role of equilibration in Piaget’s theory of
cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(5), 996-1005.
http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0805.22
Corrigan, C. P., Kwasky, A. N., & Groh, C. J. (2015). Social support, postpartum depression,
and professional assistance: A survey of mothers in the Midwestern United States. The
Journal of perinatal education, 24(1), 48–60. https://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1058-
1243.24.1.48
Jensen, S. K., Berens, A. E., & Nelson, C. A. (2017). Effects of poverty on interacting biological
systems underlying child development. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 1(3),
225–239. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(17)30024-x
Lally, M., & French, S. V. (2019). Lifespan development: A psychological perspective (2nd ed.).
http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/LifespanDevelopment
Lieneman, C. C., Brabson, L. A., Highlander, A., Wallace, N. M., & McNeil, C. B. (2017).
Parent-child interaction therapy: Current perspectives. Psychology Research and
Behavior Management, 10, 239–256. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S91200
Macedo, D. M., Smithers, L. G., Roberts, R. M., Haag, D. G., Paradies, Y., & Jamieson, L. M.
(2019). Does ethnic-racial identity modify the effects of racism on the social and
emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal Australian children? Plos One, 14(8).
https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220744
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Singer, E. (2019). Child-care and psychology of development.
https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315165813