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Three Ages Project

Elizabeth Wilson

4/11/19

Dr. Cosby

EDUC 245-50

I, Elizabeth Wilson, have neither given nor received help on this work, nor am I aware of any

infraction of the Honor Code.

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Abstract

For this interview and analysis, I was interested in searching further for a better

understanding of child and human development. I interviewed 3 individuals, ages 4, 9, and 17, in

order to gain a better understanding of their development. I interviewed them in search of their

physical, cognitive, and social-emotional developments, in hopes to find how they are

progressing and growing. I carried this out by asking them a series of questions relating to each

of these domains of development and recording their responses on paper, so as to allow for

further examination and development of their answers later on. Each of the interviews were set in

my home, meaning it was a relatively comfortable environment for my participants, as they have

been to my house many times before. When conducting this research I was expecting to find that

the answers differed, but overlapped in a few ways. With this research I later examined and

analyzed it to find any relations it had with the theories and theorists that I have been studying

for the past few months. The results provided many relationships and ideas that I was hoping to

find, along with a few surprises along the way.

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Introduction

For the early childhood stage of development I interviewed a member of a family that is

great friends with my family, and who at times in the past I have babysat. Her name is Abigail

and she is 5 years old and is in kindergarten this year. Abigail came over to my house and we sat

at the dining room table, which is a fairly comfortable environment for her, as her and her family

come over a lot, so it was a good setting for the interview. I selected Abigail, because I have

known her since she was born and she has always been very comfortable and outgoing with me,

so I knew she would provide me with reliable and an abundance of information for me to

examine.

Next, for the middle childhood stage, I used my best friends little sister, Samantha.

Samantha is 9 years old and is in the 4th grade. Samantha also came over to my house and we sat

at the dining room table. Samantha is also pretty comfortable with this setting as she comes over

with my best friend quite a bit. I picked Samantha, as she is a very energetic and outgoing

individual who loves to talk, so I knew answering a few questions for me would be fun and easy

for her. Another reason I selected Samantha is because she is very athletic compared to my other

participants, so I want to see if this compares or contrasts in any way.

Then, for the adolescence stage, I interviewed my 17 year old brother Mark. I knew Mark

would be a good participant for this process, as he is my brother, meaning he is relaxed with me

and hopefully will not hold anything back from his responses with me. He is also a very direct or

opinionated person, as he knows what he likes and dislikes, what he wants and doesn’t want, and

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he is a determined person. I knew his answers would be detailed and straight to the point with a

lot of discussion behind them, which would provide me a lot to look at. The interview took place

at my dining room table as well, which was perfect for this interview as it was both of our house,

making the setting very comfortable and stress-free. I was hoping his vocal personality would

give me answers that may be different than how the other two participants answered.

I chose each of these participants, because of my already close and friendly relationships

with them, which I felt would enhance the detail and quality of their responses. I also felt that

each of these participants portrayed certain, unique characteristics that would play a role in their

answers that I could also look at when examining their replies. I recorded their responses during

the interview onto a sheet of paper that I could refer back to later on. When I finished I also

made sure that I wrote down factors in their lives that I knew of that could have possibly affected

their answers that I could also refer to later. My main goal in this research was to see how the

different stages of development overlap and differ and how these distinct personalities of the

individuals play a role in the differences and similarities in the responses. I also wanted to look at

one specific area in each developmental stage, in order to see how these things are involved on

their lives. For early childhood development I decided to look at the interests of children at this

age and how they are thinking about their future. Then, for middle childhood I wanted to look at

how children are planning for their future or thinking about doing with their future. I was also

curious if children of this age were beginning to think about their future at all. Lastly, I wanted to

see how our history effects the development of children, as the older they get, the more they

learn about the past of our country and that can effect how they see things in the world, thus

effecting how they grow and develop in a variety of ways. I expect to find a variety of

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similarities and differences between the stages of development and to find how individuals may

change in a variety of ways as they progress and grow.

Interviews

Child development includes the scientific study of “patterns of growth, change, and

stability” which take place from the time of conception through adolescence. It is important to

note that child development is different for every person in a variation of ways, but it is

predictable. Child development is then split into three different areas of development which are

physical, cognitive, and social-emotional, which we will be looking at extensively throughout the

this research (Levine & Munsch, 2017).

First, we will begin by looking at physical development in each stage of development.

Physical development includes the basic concepts you think of when you hear the words physical

development such as the biological changes taking place in the body and brain like the changes

in size and strength. However, it is also important to note that it includes much more than that

such as, the incorporation of sensory and motor skills or activities, and the overall development

of fine and gross motor skills (Charlesworth, 2007). To examine this aspect of development in

my participants I asked questions that helped me develop a better understanding of their size in

relation to peers, how they stay physically fit to ensure their healthy growth, and how their gross

motor skills are developing.

When examining the physical development in all of my participants, I asked them in

some form what their favorite outside activity was or gave them two options to choose from.

Then, after asking this question, I tried to dig deeper, by asking questions such as why or how

much they take part in the activity, in order to get a better understanding of how much physical

activity they are getting and what sorts of exercise they like best.

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Gross motor skills involve the large muscle groups in the body and develop as a result of

myelination. Myelination is the coating of neurons with a fatty substance known, as myelin, and

this ensures the efficiency of the neurons to do their job. Myelination occurs the most during

early and middle childhood, as the brain develops and this leads to an increased development of

gross motor skills, as well as fine motor skills (Levine & Munsch, 2017). Since this development

is so important and prominent during early childhood, I asked Abigail what her favorite outside

activity was and she responded with bike riding. She also filled me in that she is learning to ride

her bike without training wheels and her mother later showed me a video of this. With this I was

able to conclude that she would be able to ride a two wheeled bike probably in the next couple of

weeks. This showed me that her gross motor skills are developing well and improving, as a few

months ago while babysitting Abigail, she was still completely relying on training wheels.

Abigail is becoming more independent when riding a bike, showing that her gross motor skills

are developing well and rapidly. I also asked Abigail if she prefers dancing or running and she

said running. In this case, Abigail is showing that her gross motor skills are developing well and

rapidly, once again, as she is proving her large muscle groups can support this activity well. I

even took Abigail outside and she showed me how fast she could run. I observed that she had

good balance and coordination while running across the yard, showing her development in gross

motor skills.

During middle childhood, this myelination and development of gross motor skills

continues, but it slows a little in comparison to early childhood. This development of gross motor

skills can allow the child to begin playing sports, as they now have the proper coordination or

have almost reached complete coordination of their body. The development of these gross motor

skills also allow children to be able to control their “flexibility, balance, reflexes,” and their

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strength improves (Levine & Munsch, 2017). When children finally develop these physical

characteristics they may begin playing on team sports. When asking Samantha what her favorite

sport was she responded soccer and began telling me about her soccer team and even told me the

story of making her first goal. With Samantha playing on a soccer team, we see that her gross

motor skills are very developed and that she is likely close to being as coordinated as an adult,

which usually happens around age 10 or so.

By adolescence myelination increases and the gross motor skills are pretty much

completely developed (Levine & Munsch, 2017). When, asking Mark if he likes swimming or

biking better, he responds with swimming. He has the complete coordination and ability to swim

without any issues or struggles of still learning and mastering it, as a result of not having fully

developed the gross motor skills. Mark’s gross motor skills allow him to participate in activities

that require large muscle groups and coordination.

While looking at physical development I also chose to examine the growth in terms of

size of the participants to see if they were receiving the proper nutrition to meet the size

milestones that will result in a healthy development. I did this by asking Samantha and Mark

about their height in comparison to their peers of the same age, such as at school or on their

sports team. Both responded that they were relatively the same height as their peers, yet there

were some exceptions. During middle childhood it is usual for some children of the same age to

“vary greatly in stature, weight, and sexual development.” It is also important to note that for a

majority of children, their height and weight will “begin to advance less rapidly than during prior

developmental phases,” however they still experience steady growth (Levine & Munsch, 2017).

Samantha is also at the age right before a growth spurt is likely to occur, as girls usually

experience their growth spurt at the age of 10, meaning some of her peers may have experienced

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an earlier spurt or other factors played a role (Tanner). This makes sense as to why Samantha

was about the same height as a majority of her peers, yet she still differed from some. This also

shows that Samantha is likely receiving the proper nutrition, as she is growing at the rate she

should be.

The growth spurt for males usually takes place at the age of about 12, now putting them

into the stage of adolescence development (Levine & Munsch, 2017). Mark stated that he was

about the same height as his peers, and this follows the idea that Mark and his peers have

experienced their growth spurt, but may be different in size due to other factors.

Next, I looked at the cognitive development of my participants. Cognitive development

includes the changes in how a child thinks, understands, and reasons about the world in which

they are living in order to gain a better understanding. Cognitive development is not just about

how much or how we build up the knowledge we acquire, but also how we use this knowledge.

Some characteristics of cognitive development include language, reason, and problem solving

(Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to receive a good understanding of this development in the

individuals I interviewed, I asked questions in relation to how they learn or like to learn and what

they enjoy learning about, as well as, how well they’re doing in school learning about the things

they do and do not enjoy.

To gain a better understanding of Abigail’s cognitive development I asked her two

questions about learning at school and home. I first asked her what her favorite way to learn was

and she eagerly shouted, “circle time” in response. During circle time, all of the students in her

class take a seat on the carpet while they review things such as the alphabet, numbers, months,

sight words, and sometimes even a song, she informed me. They have this interactive learning on

the carpet with their teacher every day, reviewing these basic concepts. This relates to the

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memory during early and middle child, as repetition and rehearsal play a huge role in developing

memory. This is part of the working memory and is an encoding strategy in order to expand the

knowledge base in early childhood. The fact that Abigail enjoys learning this way and she is

successfully learning this way is important and a good sign for her development. My next

question was if she knows her alphabet and numbers and she said that she did. She also

explained that she learned them this year in kindergarten during circle time. This shows once

again that her memory is being strengthened and developing as it should, as she is able to start

remember basic concepts. At age 5, Abigail is in the preoperational stage of development

according to Piaget. In this stage, Abigail is not yet developed enough to have organized, formal,

and logical mental processes. A lot of her cognitive thought includes symbolic function and

intuitive thought. She is not yet able to understand complex concepts, but she is able to master

things such as the alphabet and numbers (Levine & Munsch, 2017).

Then, during middle childhood, Samantha is now in Piaget’s concrete operational stage.

Now, Samantha is able to think logically. I asked Samantha what her favorite subject in school is

and what kind of grades she makes. Samantha told me she loves math and this makes sense. She

is now able is now able to take multiple aspects of a situation into account when thinking about

something and figuring it out, which is known as decentering. Samantha is also gaining the

ability to use reversibility, which is when the stimulus can be reversed, but the outcome is still

the same, allowing her to understand math problems (Levine & Munsch, 2017) . For example,

when she told me math was her favorite, I gave her two math problems to do for me. I asked her

what 10 plus 4 was and then what 4 plus 10 was and she said 14 for both. Samantha is also

making A’s and B’s in all of her classes, showing that her logical thinking is developing and

allowing her to do well in school

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Lastly, I question Mark, by asking him what his favorite subject. History was his

response, and he especially loves learning about the era involving World War II. When I asked

him why history was his favorite he responded that he finds it the most fascinating and that he

grew up with family always talking to him about history, and especially the WWII era, as that

was their favorite and they even had stories of family members from that time. I can even vouch

for this remark, as we grew up in the same family, so I know history is very much talked about

and introduced at a young age. History is likely his favorite as he is able to think abstractly about

the topics of history and apply them to different things. Another reason is a result of the

environment he grew up in. His family introduced history at a young age and quite frequently,

meaning much of his social and interactions and environment were filled with history

Furthermore, I placed two glasses of different size on the table and placed the same amount of

water in each, or in other words, I performed the conservation test. I then asked Mark which

glass had more water, and even though the appearance may look like the taller and slimmer glass

has more, Mark knew that they each had the same amount due to his abstract thought. Mark, has

developed the concept of conservation, due to his abstract thought, where as younger children

cannot distinguish that quantity is not related to the appearance and arrangement of things

(Levine & Munsch, 2017).

Lastly, is social-emotional development which includes how we connect to other people

and express or show and understand emotions. This involves our own emotions as well as other

individuals emotions. Social-emotional development can effect how a person makes friends and

how successful they are at making friends. When I asked questions involving this area of

development, I asked questions about how they felt about certain things in their lives or about

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friendships (Levine & Munsch, 2017). This allowed me to form a better understanding of how

they are growing with their emotions and social aspects of their lives.

During early childhood, children will begin to form a sense of what is right and what is

wrong. Throughout early childhood, the child will change and develop socially, as well as begin

to form their personality, which will continue throughout the rest of their development (Levine &

Munsch, 2017). To gain a better understanding of Abigail’s stance in social-emotional

development, I asked her two questions. The first one involved me asking her how she feels

when I say the word dessert. To this, Abigail responded that it made her feel happy and good. I

then, furthered this by asking her what her favorite dessert was and she replied ice cream, but

then continued to name a few others after that, which she really enjoys too, but not as much as

ice cream she ensured me. This was the sort of response that I was expecting, as she seemed to

show no sign of guilt or embarrassment for having so many favorite unhealthy foods. I then

continued by asking my next question, which was the same format, except with vegetables.

Abigail responded to this question by explaining that she only liked certain vegetables. So then I

went on and asked what her favorite vegetable was and she said carrots, but the conversation

pretty much stopped there. Abigail did not have much to say about vegetables in comparison to

desserts, and showed no sign guilt either. This shows that Abigail is still developing her concept

of right and wrong and what is good or not good, as she did not seem to feel embarrassed or

ashamed of the conversation she was making about food in form of nutrition and health.

Middle childhood consists of a more quickened pace of development. Children in middle

childhood are able to create more and better relationships and you begin to see more of their

personality develop during this stage (Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to understand

Samantha’s social-emotional development I began by asking her what her favorite show was.

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Samantha told me it was Mako Mermaids, which is one I have never heard of before, so I asked

her to tell me a little about it. According to Samantha the show is about three mermaids that live

in the water of the mermaids, but a stray man falls in and receives special powers, because the

three mermaids were not present to guard from outsiders. Their job is to find him and take his

powers back, so that they can redeem themselves and go back to their home. The fact that

Samantha watches this show makes a lot of sense, as she is know at the age where she

understands and participates in redeeming herself for her poor actions. Samantha understands

that she must behave and follow the rules of her parents, as this effects their relationship. Next, I

asked Samantha how easily she makes friends. Samantha said that she makes friends fairly

easily, so I followed this up by asking how she makes friends. She said that she makes many of

her friends, because they like a lot of the same things so they hang out and become friends. This

shows that Samantha is developing the ability to form relationships and that her personality is

still in the process of developing, as it is likely that many of the same interests her and her

friends have may be, because they feel like they have to enjoy the same things in order to be

accepted.

During adolescence the individual advances even more socially and their personality

becomes more apparent (Levine & Munsch, 2017). In order to study this with Mark, I asked him

how he makes friends and he gave me a variety of ways. He said that he makes most of his

friends through playing sports and by working with people at school which leads to conversation

and eventually a friendship. This makes a lot of sense, as his environment, such as school and

sports teams are influencing who he associates with and forms relationships with. I also asked

him how he would describe his personality and he said open, outgoing, and laid back. This shows

that he is developing a strong sense of identity, as this is how he describes himself. A lot of

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adolescence during this stage also struggle with self-esteem, and when answering this question

their was some hesitation, leading me to notice that this is likely something he is struggling with.

I wanted to know for sure, but I did not and to pressure him and make him feel uneasy if this was

the case.

Finally, we have our areas of interest. For early childhood I sought to examine the

interests of young children and how susceptible there interests were to change. For this portion I

asked my series of two questions twice, with a little time in between to see if the answers

changed. First, I asked what Abigail wants to be when she is older and she said a teacher. This I

believe, because the few times that I have babysat Abigail, she has asked me to play teacher with

her. Then, I asked her what her favorite animal was and she said a dog and began to tell me all

about her dog that she has at home. Then, after about 10 minutes I asked these same two

questions. She repeated her answer of wanting to be a teacher, but changed her answer to a lion

for her favorite animal. This shows during early childhood, responses to questions may change,

as memory is still developing, as well as the individuals personality, so they are still searching

for their identity and exploring the world.

Then, for middle childhood, I was in search of how children at this age are thinking about

and preparing for their future. The first question that I asked Samantha was if she plans on going

to college and she replied that she wants to go to college. I followed this up by asking where she

thinks she might want to go to college and she said that she did not really know, but thought she

would want to stay near home by her family. I next asked what career she wanted in the future

and she said that she wanted to be a doctor and explained that she thought it would be fun. From

this I concluded that children at this age start thinking about their futures, but don’t quite have a

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plan or may not have the complete reasoning behind it, as they have not completely developed

their personality, and all of their abstract thinking.

Lastly, for adolescence I was interested in history on the individual. I wanted to know

what certain aspects of history do children of this age find important and why. To look at this I

asked Mark who is favorite president is and what his favorite time period in history is. This

ended up working out perfectly in my opinion, as he already has such an interest in history, so he

was willing to give great detail. Mark said that Franklin D. Roosevelt was his favorite president.

When I asked him why, his response sort of fed over into what his favorite time period was, so I

sort of got a two in one response. The era of Franklin D. Roosevelts presidency or rather, the

World War II period, was Mark’s favorite time period to study, making learning about the

policies he instituted, the actions he took, and the problems he faced extremely interesting to

learn about for Mark. Thus, he explained this was his favorite time period, because it is what he

grew up listening to his family talk about. He also explained that he found it important as it is

still very recent and if it weren’t for World War II, our world today could be very different, so he

believes it is important to be knowledgeable of it. This shows that as children progress and

develop their abstract thinking abilities allow them to look at things in the world differently and

draw their own personal conclusion or opinion about it. This also relates to the personality and

the identity that the child holds and expresses, as different personalities and identities see things

about history and the world in different lights.

Discussion

Throughout this whole process I have noticed many similarities and differences between

my participants responses. One similarity I found between all three participants was their interest

and involvement in physical activities, although they were each interested in a variety of forms

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of physical activity the overall enthusiasm of these activities was still there. Another similarity

they all shared was their development of their gross motor skills and their confidence in them, as

they were all eager to tell me about their accomplishments on sports teams, and in Abigail’s case,

on the playground. When examining Abigail and Samantha, I found that even from a young age

they are beginning to think about their future before they even need to have a set goal and plan. I

also found that Abigail and Samantha have similar personalities. Both of them showed a great

interest in school and were both extremely talkative and outgoing when it came to responding to

the questions. Mark, on the other hand was willing to talk to me, but you could tell he was

holding back in some instances and this could be a result of the adolescence stage and the

feelings of insecurities that it brings with it. I also noticed similarities between Samantha and

Mark in regards to friendships. They both expressed that they feel they make friends pretty easily

and tend to form stronger relationships which seems like the reasonable answer as they are at the

ages where they are beginning to understand the social and emotional concepts of friendships,

even though they will still likely struggle with it in some cases.

When exploring the answers of my participants I have found that they relate to a lot of

theories and theorists. Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist that thinks the social world and

culture of a child are more important in cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that the

teacher or parent must figure out what the child already knows and work within that range in

order to help them learn. The adult should be providing guidance when needed, which is called

scaffolding (Levine & Munsch, 2017). This is seen being used in Abigail’s development at

school, as the teacher is interactive with her and her peers during circle time by having them

carry out most of circle and helping when it is needed by asking questions to prompt a better

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understanding. This is helping Abigail’s cognitive development as she is learning her alphabet

and numbers through her own practice and receiving help when needed.

Then, when examining Samantha and Mark, I look to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages.

Erikson’s stages are formed on the idea that a central conflict can be resolved through the social

world and their identity development. During middle childhood the individual is in the stage of

industry versus inferiority, in which the child will learn of the tasks of society or develop a sense

or feeling of being inadequate, due to things such as social norms or feelings of fitting in (Levine

& Munsch, 2017). Samantha fit this stage as she was very confident and proud of herself for her

grades of A’s and B’s in school, as well as the way she talked about her friends. She told me she

had quite a few friends which she seemed pleased about and these factors of grades and friends

could be based on what she has seen her peers advance in and she wants to be like them. Mark

also fit into Erikson’s stages, more specifically the identity versus role confusion stage. During

this stage, the individual will either form their identity out of previous life experiences or they

will acquire a sense of confusion when it comes to identity. Mark displayed himself as a great

example of this as he was able to describe his personality in detail to me and in a positive light.

He portrayed him as being confident and proud in the way he defined himself, showing he is

displaying a strong sense of identity and finding his place in the world. However, the possible

low self-esteem that I worry about could effect this and put him in a state of confusion.

Furthermore, we have Jean Piaget who created cognitive stages of development. Piaget

believed that children’s thinking changes qualitatively while they move through development.

Piaget states that we are always searching and trying to make sense of the experiences that we

have so that we can adapt and gain better understandings in order to survive (Levine & Munsch,

2017). Mark fits well into his stages and is in the formal operations stage as he can think

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logically and abstractly to understand and survive. This is really seen in our discussion about his

interest in history, as he explains that the world would be very different today if World War II

never took place or occurred differently, showing that he is able to think abstractly and form

hypothesis’s about the world which is also known as hypothetic-deductive reasoning.

Recommendations

Overall, I do not have many recommendations or feel that I need to make many. Through

this process it seems that each of the participants are where they should be developmentally for

their age and stage. One thing that I would suggest for Abigail though, is that she try more

vegetables and attempt to be more open to trying new healthier foods, as her response to the

dessert question had me a little concerned that she was maybe eating too many sweets which

could affect her development negatively. For Samantha, I recommend that she expand her

options and try talking to peers that may not have the same interest and if things go well she

should try to make friends with these children. This could open up many more areas of life for

her to explore by learning about other interests, rather than just focusing on her own. I suggest

she branch out and meet new people and maybe she will find new interests along the way.

Lastly, for Mark, I suggest taking this interest of history further than just learning about it from

school and family, and maybe incorporate it into his future somehow, whether it be just his own

research or taking some college courses. I feel his interest in this would be helpful in his

remaining areas of development in order to enhance his cognitive abilities. His love for this topic

could help him in a variety of ways, and I feel his knowledge and passion for history could be

beneficial to others if decided to take a path in that direction. I also recommend that Mark start

viewing himself a little higher by having confidence in who he is, as it seems he may be lacking

a little in his self-esteem.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, I found that all three of my interviewees seem to be in the proper place for

their age and development. I was surprised to find that they are all developing so well, as I

expected there would be at least one instance where something was out of place, as development

takes place differently for everyone and everyone has their own individual experience with

development. Overall, I am very pleased with all of the information that I have gathered and I am

eager to hopefully be able to ask them some of these same questions in the future to see how they

have changed over the course of the rest of their development.

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Works Cited Page

Charlesworth, L., Wood, J., & Viggiani, P. (2007) Middle Childhood.

https://us.corwin.com/sites /default /files/upm-binaries/16297_Chapter_5.pdf.

Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2017). Child Development : An Active Learning Approach. Los

Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Tanner, J. M. Growth and Maturation During Adolescence.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1981.tb06734.x.