Reasoning Questions
During one of her bedtime stories about the ugly duckling that hatched and was both physically and verbally abused by other farm animals, I asked the child to predict what happened next in the story. My child predicted that the duckling flew away to a distant land away from the farm and lived happily ever after ( Winnicott, 2018) . When I then asked her why she thought that way, she explained that ducks are not the same as humans; hence, they can always fly away when others are not kind to them. After that, I asked her what she thought would happen if in the other place she flew to animals did not like her too? She enthusiastically responded by pointing out that she would keep flying until she found a better place.
Conservation Exercises
I observed the child while we had a little game of fact or fiction in which I told her two real things that were correct about the environment and one that was wrong and she had to identify the fictional one. While we took turns at each other with the game, my daughter showed a deeper understanding of the environment as she recognized most of the factual sentences.
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Interaction with other Children
During play with other children, I noticed that my child did not display any form of aggression when she wanted anything from her peers. She was mild, and whenever one of her friends indicated signs of discontent, she would be concerned and would want to know what the cause was in an attempt to help them overcome their misery. My daughter was always demonstrating prosocial behavior trying to help others at every time that they needed help, and she was too concerned to the point I became worried for her but refrained from interfering with the observation. She was easy to interact with other children and did not display any signs of anti-social behavior.
Social Skills
While conducting the observation of my daughter playing with other children, I noticed that she greeted each of them and introduced herself to those that she was not familiar with. She also maintained good eye contact while talking to them, and at times, she would pose and reflect on something before responding to questions addressed to her. Even when the other children were shouting, she maintained her voice and did not shout. In cases where she was some distance away from one of the other children that she wanted to communicate to, she would make an effort to get close by before speaking to them. This was due to the constant reminders that shouting was disrespectful and that she should always strive to talk in a clear voice.
Self-Control
From previous training, my daughter demonstrated high levels of self-control, and the test that I gave her proved this. In the experiment, I brought her favorite chocolate and left in the bag after informing her that she would only have it after I was back. I left the bag within proximity and let her look after it. I noticed that as she was playing, she kept shifting her gaze in the direction of the bag. To prove that she was not stealing glances at the bag for security purposes, immediately she saw me coming back after the brief escapade she jumped to her feet and followed me to the bag standing very close. All this while, her eyes were glued to the bag anticipating the gift.
Gender Awareness
My daughter knows that she is a girl as she continually wants her hair done, and whenever she finds an opportunity, my child adorns make-up on her face. She also likes to dress herself up with long dresses, especially when going out to church. She shows all indicators of having identified herself with feminism appreciating dolls over toy cars. When I asked whether she was a boy or a girl, she howled at me for entertaining the thought of her a boy and for a minute showed signs of hurt in her eyes for being mistaken for a boy. Her response, when asked whether she can play with mixed gender, was not a straight one as she was a little confused at first but later decided it was okay to play in mixed sexes.
She firmly believes that girls can be whatever they want when they grow up, and she also holds the same sentiments for boys. When I asked if it was alright for boys and girls to play on the same soccer or baseball team, she thoughtfully replied that boys were rougher, and hence, it will not be okay for them to play on the same teams. However, she laughed out loud when I asked her what she would think when she saw a boy doing girls stuff. She responded that things like sewing were meant for girls only, and if she came across a boy sewing, she would think of him as a sissy.
Empathy and Prosocial Behavior
I gave her an example of a child who was being made fun of at school for being overweight, then asked her what she felt about the student. She was not pleased with the example as she was sorry for the kid, and before I gave examples of helping behavior, my child blurted out that she would report the abusive children to the teacher. She even came up with her of a student at school who was constantly being mocked for having speech problems and how she reported the kids to the teacher. She was more satisfied when the teacher punished the abusive children.
Reference
Winnicott, D. W. (2018). Thinking about children . London: Routledge.
