Developmental Journal #10!

Stranger Anxiety

            Recently my 5-month-old niece has started to display stranger anxiety. I usually see her a couple times a month but last week when my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner my niece would have nothing to do with me. Normally she will reach for me and let me hold her, but this past weekend every time anyone tried to hold her she would start to cry. She only wanted to be held by her mom and dad. This stranger anxiety developed in week. The previous weekend my niece was at the house and she was perfectly fine with everyone holding her. My sister-in-law said she started crying when someone else would hold her the following day and it has continued ever since. It amazed me how fast this change in development occurred. It literally happened overnight that she started having stranger anxiety. It just another example of how quickly babies can change during their first year of life I hope as quickly as this developed that she outgrows it just as quickly. I love snuggling up with her and don’t want to have to spend Christmas just looking at her.

Developmental Blog 9

Bullying

                When do kids start bullying? Well, if you look at my practicum site, its when they are four years old.While at my practicum site I sometimes sub for a four year old classroom of typically developing kids. One day while I was watching the kids play I observed an interaction between the girls of the classroom.  Apparently the new craze in kids shoes are these sparkly toed pink shoes that look like glitter was vomited all over them. A couple of the girls have these shoes and began to bully the ones that didn’t. They were not allowing the girls play with them because they didn’t have the sparkly shoes and they also stopped talking to them. As the adult in the room I stepped in and tried to explain to the girls that it doesn’t matter what type of shoes they have, they should all be friends. They shouldn’t tease the girls who don’t have the shoes because that hurts their feelings and it wasn’t being good friends. I don’t know how much this talking to and explaining helped with the bullying situation but I tried.

                After the day had ended and I was reflecting on the events it shocked me that four year olds could be bullies. These children at some point had been taught that it matters what kind of shoes you wear. It worries me that four year olds are aware of such things and that possibly parents are teaching their girls to be bullies at such a young age. If four year olds are bullying other girls now, what will they be doing to others when they are in middle and high school? The movie “Mean Girls” flashes into my head when I think about it. I certainly hope that someone pays attention to what they are teaching their children and that they learn that material things are not as important.