Lisa Blake

EDF 218

Case Study

I. Introduction: For this case study, I will focus on my daughter Mika Jo and her level of psychological development according to Erikson and his social development, Piaget and his cognitive state and Kohlberg’s view on moral development. I will also discuss her physical and social development, along with her language and thought development described by Vygotsky, Chomsky or Skinner. I will explain how I think Mika Jo relates to each of these levels of development.

Mika Jo just recently turned three years old January 10, 2007, and is a very loving child that lives in a happy and safe home with her parents, who are happily married. Two nights a week she stays with her mom-mom and papa (my parents), where she loves to go and is in a positive learning environment. As her mother, other than going to college, I stay home with her and I am teaching her basic learning skills such as shapes, colors, numbers and letters. She was attending the Child Development Academy at MU, where she interacted with other children and learned many activities, but I recently withdrew her because she kept getting ill. Her father works out of town during the week, but is active in her life on the weekends when he is home. She is a very active child who has been raised on a farm around dogs, cats and horses, and loves to ride the horses.

II. Erikson: In relation to Erikson’s psychosocial theory, Mika Jo is in the Initiative versus guilt stage. Mika Jo always tries to do things on her own, before asking for help, and always offers her help to others. I believe that she has and is being taught right from wrong and has been given the encouragement to try new things, and is never punished if she does not succeed. Mika Jo is highly supported in learning new things, and although she is not pushed too hard to succeed, she is however praised when she does succeed. She is a very confident child in almost everything she does, and likes to do things by herself.

Mika Jo always offers her help to do things, especially to me. Whatever it is that I am doing, she wants to be apart of it. When I am running the sweeper, she gets her sweeper out and goes along side of me, and tells me, “I am helping mommy!” When I read her a book, after we are finished she reads it to me. She likes to help me fold laundry, and when I go to the barn to clean stalls, she gets her own wheel barrow and shovel and helps. The one thing that surprised me was one day she wanted to watch her movie, so she turned on the DVD player, put her movie in and pushed play. Just from watching me, she learned how to use the DVD player without any verbal instructions.

Mika Jo has her own pony named Clyde. She has never had any fear of ever riding Clyde. After seeing her daddy and I ride the big horses, she now wants to ride the horses and not the pony. After Christmas, we let Mika Jo ride my horse (Junie) by herself and that thrilled her and boosted her level of confidence tremendously. Now she will barely have anything to do with her pony since she knows she can ride the big horse by herself.

III. Piaget: According to Piaget’s cognitive theory, Mika Jo is in the preoperational stage which includes ages 2-7. Mika Jo enjoys make believe play, but does understand the difference between reality and make-believe. She got the Ariel kitchen for Christmas, so she likes to fix dinner for me and tells me what she is fixing. Then we sit down at her little table and eat.

Mika Jo has the My Little Pony Fantasy Castle and quite a few of the ponies. She will talk to the ponies and let them talk amongst themselves. She brushes their hair, dresses them and gives them a bath. She also likes for me to play with her, but she likes to pick the poise that I get to play with. When Mika Jo is not playing with her ponies, she refers to them as toys, and tells me the horses are in the barn (letting me know her toys are not real like the horses in the barn are).