Olivia - Age 3-5

• How is your child progressing on early childhood issues, such as learning household rules, learning to follow routines, listening to you, developing self control and learning to get along with others? Does your child have any behavior or emotional problems at this point? Why?

So far Olivia has been progressing well on early childhood issues. She has been slowly learning household rules, and has been beginning to follow routines. We have been working on listening to me, and developing self control. She does not always comply with our requests and sometimes we have to work on that. However, she does understand certain things like how going to a restaurant works. There were a few times when she had a hard time getting along with others so I began providing more opportunities for her to play in play groups outside of preschool. She does communicate well with others and this has been very helpful. So far she does not seem to have many behavior or emotional problems. Part of this could be because she is still fairly young and is still learning how to express herself.

• How might your child's development have been different if s/he was raised by people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background? Base your answer on specific evidence of SES/cultural differences that you conduct through research on your own. Note, if your cultural background differs from the predominant culture in the U.S., how might you have raised the child differently or made different decisions based on your own culture (e.g., being stricter or more lenient, emphasis on assertive/independent vs. cooperative behavior, emphasis on family relationships vs. relationships outside the family)

If Olivia was raised by people with a different socioeconomic, ethnic or cultural background her development may have been different. Some cultures are very family oriented and include extended family members in their close family. If Olivia was raised in this environment, she may have been more comfortable with people and new situations as she developed. So far family has not been mentioned in the My Virtual Child Program. It is an integral part of many other cultures, so I think it would have also affected her discipline, and relationships outside the family too. I was also able to only work part-time through much of her early years this allowed me to continue bonding with her extensively and remain very active in her development. We were able to really bond during this time. Many mothers return to work and finding childcare can be difficult and can make bonding with the child more difficult. This also may have limited her ability to play with children her own age. Had she gone to a child care facility longer, then she may have been accustomed to being around other children.

• How would you characterize your child’s personality? Would you say that your child is primarily overcontrolled, undercontrolled or resilient? Support your argument. The program stated at the beginning of age three that the Virtual Child’s behavior at age 3 and 4 is designed to resemble one of three personality types. The personality types combine some of the temperamental traits with which you are already familiar. The overcontrolled category refers to a child who is cooperative and follows the rules, but is shy in social situations and anxious and clingy under pressure. The undercontrolled category refers to a child who is uncooperative or even aggressive, does not follow the rules, is not particularly shy in social situations, and has a tendency to become distracted and overly emotional, particularly when under stress. The resilient category refers to a child who is cooperative and follows the rules, is friendly, non-aggressive and outgoing, able to focus on tasks without being too distracted, has good regulation of his or her emotions, and is adaptable to new situations.

This is really hard for me to characterize Olivia’s personality. Early on I would have said that she was overcontrolled. She was cooperative and followed the rules when she was younger and was very shy in social situations. However as she got older and entered Preschool and Kindergarten she became less shy and moved closer to the undercontrolled category because she sometimes did not follow the rules. So maybe that means that at this point she is in the resilient category because she is cooperative and follows the rules most of the time. She tends to not be aggressive and is able to focus on tasks without being distracted. She can adapt to new situations such as Kindergarten and is in control of her emotions as expected for her age. I think that at this age, it can be hard because they are changing so quickly. I do think that she is closesr to resilient.