Case Study: Child Development
Cynthia Denise Bussey
Psychology 210
April 6, 2015
Professor Jennifer Kennedy
Case Study: Child Development
According to our justice system, a six year old cannot form criminal intent, therefore not held responsible for their actions. As some might wonder why this can be, some considerations should be put into perspective under a few developmental factors of the brain. Myelination, which is a fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals between neurons in which case, six year olds have less than older kids, and slower information processing abilities (Berger, 2014). Guided participation, theory-theory, emotional regulation, and reactive aggression should also be considered. There is a lot to consider when
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The speed of thought from axon to neuron becomes pivotal when several thoughts must occur in rapid succession (Berger, 2014). This by itself; could cause disaster if the child is angry, and only knows what he sees at home as a solution to the problem. His brain is not fully developed making it hard for him to make sense of his many thoughts going on in his mind. In other words, when he decided to bring a gun to school and shoot his “enemy”, his brain did not think through the consequences of his actions.
Cognitive development, according to Vygotsky’s developmental theory, a child constructs knowledge, and development cannot be separated from its social context (Berger, 2014). As made clear in the case study, the adults in the house apparently interacted with guns on a near daily basis. Both nature and nurture of this sort seemed natural to the child as his brain developed. Guided participation as in a child learning by others guided experiences (Berger, 2014), led the boy to the shooting since those around him in the home treated guns in a criminal manner, the boy also followed that
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Reactive aggression as defined to be an impulsive retaliation for another person’s intentional or accidental action, verbal or physical, which is common in most young children (Berger, 2014). Although children are less likely to respond with physical aggression (Berger, 2014), in this case the child only knew physical aggression; considering his background at home. This in turn, was one of the only outlets his mind was able to comprehend, due to the guided participation previously came understand at
Case Study of Brain Age Jeremiah Hausauer Rasmusen College There is much debate regarding criminal charges for underage children. The debate stems from a child’s ability to be able to understand the consequences of their actions, and whether they are capable of determining right from wrong. There is study that shows that the brain of a child is physically different from an adults brain. Being able to determine this difference in physiology could be both a blessing and a curse for criminal proceedings. There is a theory in the case study that a child brain, while able to tell the difference between right and wrong may not be able to fully understand the long term consequences of their criminal actions.
The Greater Houston area and its surrounding community’s offer many different community-based, private, non-profit programs that cater to the growing population of our young children. Many of these organizations are free to families or provide financial support in order to provide a service to the children and their families. There are two programs that I researched and found great information that could be beneficial to my future students, parents as well as me. BACH ECI Brazoria County Association for Citizens with Handicaps (BACH) Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is a non-profit organization that was established in 1973to service the needs of people with disabilities.
Aggression is one of the most common behaviors in the children. It takes a longer amount of time for this emotion to fade away, because a majority of the time they feel they are not understood, and they see everyone as an
Through his research he has determined that brain features that reduce fear, reactions to distress, and blunt emotional reactions. Raine believes that he may soon be able to tell if a person’s offspring is likely to grow up to be a psychopathic killer. Raine and other researchers examine the brain of unborn children. Raine does not want to mark children as potential killers but he believes that it can be a helpful tool to prevent a child killer. Raine describes a child that started to commit crimes at an early age and was convicted at the age of 17 as an arsonist.
During this developmental interview, I chose to conduct an observation/interview study with my one of my cousin’s child. This child is a 4 year old girl and will be identified as “child K” in relation to her first name. Her parents had no problem letting me interview her, but I had them stay in the same room as us. The purpose of this interview was to observe the child’s physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development. I observed her behavior and gave her several tests to show how well she has progressed.
This custom of many U.S. families is causing children to grow up forgetting one of the fundamental rules of gun safety: do not point the gun at anyone. By allowing children to pretend to shoot their friend, society is letting them grow up to think they can do that with a real gun. Though they might not have the intention to kill, not growing up with the correct firearm education could lead to more accidental shootings among children and teens. This desensitization of the true harm a firearm can cause in the wrong hands is common because of the parents allowing children to misuse toy guns. A kindergartener from Alliance, Ohio, took a gun to school for show and tell.
(NY Daily News) B. (Subpoint 2) Traumatic experiences like physical and sexual abuse will impact young individuals negatively and eventually cause them to lash out with gun violence. 1. (Sub-subpoint 1) Traumatized shooters come from dysfunctional families, in contrast with shooters that are psychopathic. The shooters have all faced some sort of physical/sexual abuse and have had at least one parent with a criminal record.
The case, which we will be analyzing through 2 theories of development, is the case of a girl named Ashlee Martinson. She was teenage girl who used to writing blogs and poems related to torturing and killing people. On March 7, 2015 Ashlee Martinson’s parents were found dead at their home. On March 7, 2015 itself, Martinson had a fight with her parents because of which she left the home but was brought back by her father.
There are many reasons as to why people commit crimes, but why would juveniles use firearms in crime? In Kids, Guns, and Killing Fields they had surveyed and studied two groups
In conclusion, this child demonstrated at his age of six years old the inability to control emotional responses, and the social culture and home life in which he was being raised in. At six years of age his prefrontal cortex is still developing and his inability to master emotional regulation and differentiate between fantasy and reality is obvious in the tragedy that occurred. His parents should therefore be deemed the responsible party for his actions and the law that states any child under the age of seven should fall within the age of innocence is a legitimate claim due to psychological and psychosocial
The question as to whether a child can be criminally liable focuses upon whether the child can understand the difference between right and wrong. Critics however, argue that there should also be a test of the child’s intellectual capability to determine whether they can be held criminally liable as all children develop at different levels, therefore where one 10 year old understands the true consequences of their actions, another may not. This could include children who have learning
In order to protect children and their family members, they should be taught the proper way on how to shoot guns. Gun safety needs to be taught to children to promote more respect for firearms while improving education and decreasing gun violence (Foley). Many accidental shootings happened in America in the past two or three years. One example is, a three year old accidentally reach into his pregnant mother’s purse and took out her pistol and shot his mom and dad. Now the child has to live with all that for the rest of his life knowing he shot his mom and dad, in 2015 toddlers in the United State accidently shot one person per week.
Qualitative Social Work September 2012 vol. 11 no. 5 470-485. Retrieved from http://qsw.sagepub.com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/ Perry, B.D. (2001) The neurodevelopmental impact of violence in childhood.
According to developmental theorists, the first stage of criminal development is onset, which refers to an individual first time they participate in crime or delinquency (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Additionally, developmental theorists contend childhood behaviors such as bullying, lying, and cheating are precursors to serious criminal activity (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Next, continuity refers to the stability of an individual’s life path whether it is criminal or not (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Developmental theorists assert particular personality and biological traits of individuals contribute to a continuous, high rate of recidivism throughout their lives (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). The third stage of development is classified by change or turning points in which an individual’s pathway goes in a different direction (Bohm & Vogel, 2011).
Throughout this course of four weeks, my perspective of child development has changed drastically in this short amount of time. This was my first class that was related to child development and there was a lot of material that was important to learn and understand. I came to this class with not much knowledge, but I am definitely leaving this class with an abundance of information that I will be able to use in my career or just in general. Discontinuous Within the process of child development, my view is based upon that is children are constantly growing through stages which is a discontinuous process.