Jessicas Social-Emotional Development Case Study Paper Example

Jessicas social-emotional development is impressive. Judging from observations, Jessicas expressions, experience, and management of emotional is striking. From how she relates to her mother all her emotions are appropriate for a particular situation. For instance, her show happiness when her mother rewards her with a piece of fluffy cake after she helps her do some of the light chores. Another situation that I observed was when Jessica and her mom go to the convenience store to do shopping, and Jessica asks for ice cream, but her mother denies her because of the cold that she had. She becomes sad but still understands why her mom denied buying her ice cream. The ability to regulate emotions is enhanced gradually from birth depending on the nature of care giving that the child gets during early life. Jessica has a positive relationship with a trusting adult who in this case is her mother, and this is key for the development of successful social-emotional development.

Of importance in my observational assignment was the fact that Martha and her daughter Jessica are from the Hispanic culture. Hispanic culture is known for its strict and authoritarian type of parenting. This is attributed to the fact that Latino usually put a lot of value of family loyalty, obedience, and closeness of families. The value of familyism in Hispanic is therefore taken as a crucial issue. According to Pinquart & Kauser, (2017), the strictness of the Hispanic culture serves to bring both parental warmth and hostile control at the same time. Martha comes from a Hispanic background, and therefore the importance of strictness is still on her. She does condemn misbehavior immediately it is done. An incidence I observed was when Jessica overate ice cream and fluffy cake that was in the refrigerator and later on got a cold. When Martha realized that she had had too much cold food and that that was the reason for her cold she immediately raised her voice at her, warning her not to do it again. With this kind of strictness, Jessica is not bound to repeat such a mistake. Despite the strictness of Martha, it does go to the extent where child abuse is evident.

Various challenges have been linked to Hispanic culture. Due to the authoritarian parenting styles of Hispanic parents. Such setbacks that have been shown to occur are depression, anxiety, and somatization in young children. I took a keen interest to observe how Martha treated her daughter and if it was possible that she may suffer from any of those challenges. However as much as Jessica had a strict mother, she is less likely to experience those adverse effects of authoritarian parenting. Martha is a little different from other Hispanic mothers since she is lenient and understanding. She knows the right ways and means of relating to her daughter.

Jessica, being a three-year-old, already knows how to interact with her environment. From where the family stays, Jessica can make new friends of about her age from the neighborhood. Sometimes some of her friends come over to their house so that they can play together. Most of the neighbors are Hispanic in origin and therefore share the same belief with Martha and her family. Playing with other children from the neighborhood has had a positive impact on Jessica. Her cognitive skills, for instance, have developed pretty early for a three-year-old. She was even able to join kindergarten at an earlier age that most of the children her age. The ability to socialize with other children from the neighbor has enhanced her social interactions with people.

While making my observation on Martha and Jessica, I made a few assumptions. One of the assumptions that I made was that Martha was a single mother who was living with her daughter. Since the topic of marriage is a sensitive topic and that Martha was not willing to talk about, I did not dwell so much on it. Even if Jessicas father is present, it is evident that the house lacks a father figure and this has had an impact on the growth of the child. Children who have been brought up in whole families usually tend to develop not only cognitive skills faster but also have early social-emotional development. Another assumption that I made was that Martha had a decent job. Martha was at home most of the time, even though a couple of times she would leave the house and take Jessica to daycare or to some friendly neighbors they had. She would not stay out for long and came back in about two to three hours. When I asked her what kind of job she was doing, she shied off from answering.

The observational assignment had an insight in my cultural lens in that through it; I got to understand the Hispanic culture and the similarities and difference that it has with my own culture and beliefs. Understanding different cultures makes me appreciate all the culture even if I dont agree with all of them. At the end of the assignment, my observational skills had been significantly improved.

In conclusion, during the period of my observation of Martha and her three-year-old daughter, Jessica, I got to learn a lot about her family and the relationships that they have between them. During this assignment, I also got to learn about some of the Hispanic cultures. At the end of this assignment, I hope that I will have developed my observational skills. The assignment also gave me a chance to relate the theories that I learned and put them into perspective f...