Biography

Born in the early hours of the morning on March 3rd 2005, ten fingers and toes, full head

of hair, and bright blue eyes, Madison Marie Rowe came into this world, to two people who were

separated at the time, due to familial differences, and she lived with her mother. However,

around the fourth grade, between the ages of eight and nine, she began to act up in school, more

than just talking too much or not doing her homework, but she was stealing milk from the lunch

room and at one point threatened a fellow student, she switched schools because her mother had

moved houses, and to avoid having to attend a high risk Junior high in the fall of 2017, her father

requested she attend Pinecrest academy, a semi-private school, in Henderson. She completed her

first year there, with some minor issues with her grades, but she acquired a strike because she

took money from a staff member. But this year, fifth grade, she has not had any serious

problems, other than homework incompletion.

At the age of eleven, she has become used to her routine. As a child of divorce, she gets

two Christmases, two birthdays, two wardrobes, four times as much family to love her, and

overall, she is a generally happy child, with the world at her fingertips. Her mother is remarried,

and has had three other children, while her father is remarried, with no other children. If you ask

me she gets the best of both worlds, every now and again she gets to be the only child.

She’s a happy child, she loves reading, and watching movies, she likes to dance and sing,

and she loves her dogs, one at each house. She loves shopping and Starbucks, she listens to

music regularly, influenced by her step-mother she generally rocks out to a couple boyband

songs from the late 1990s, she likes to do her make-up and will ask to do yours, to the disdain of

her father. She’s on her way to becoming a good, kind-hearted, young woman.
 Physical Development

She developed very average, by the age of three she was able to spit out

sentences, run, jump, and play make-believe, and identify different shapes and colors. By five

should could tell you her name, she understood the concept of dressing herself (that one leg and

one arm each go in one hole, and her head in the middle), she was able to form attachments with

people other than her parents or family members. She also started school, which began her sense

of routine.

At the age of ten, she began to develop healthy body fat that came in just around her hips

and thighs, her breasts began to develop at the same time. She started to grow, and is currently

still growing like a weed, five feet tall. Her height stems from both biological parents being tall

themselves. Just a few months after her eleventh birthday this year, she began to have menstrual

cycles, developed acne, stronger body odor, and body hair.

She developed physically, very average scale, save for her height, where she is slightly

above average.

Emotional Development

As a young child, she wasn’t able to control her emotions very well, this is

developmentally sound. Toddlers will generally cry or scream for what they want if they cannot

yet tell you, which she did. And as she got older she was unable to hold in more complicated

emotions, such as the severe sadness she felt when she lost her grandfather and great-

grandmother within a matter of months. Every now and again we would notice her crying, and
when we asked her what was wrong she would say “I miss Pops”, which was the affectionate

name she gave her grandpa.

She had different kind of mood swings as she got older. When she would get in trouble

for the aforementioned incidents, she would begin to cry. Within the past year, she developed the

habit of rolling her eyes while her parents were talking to her. Though her emotions have

become quite strong, she has learned how to stop herself from having an outburst, rather than

succumbing to an overwhelming emotion.

That being said, she is beginning to develop different, and new, emotions. She feels love,

on a friendship level, rather than a familial one, to people of her own choosing rather than who

she’s told to. She’s developed crushes on people in her class, and then felt embarrassed when her

family figured it out and began to tease her, all in good fun. She’s gained a sense of loyalty to

particular people outside of her family. She has learned about that feeling of stress which can

only be connected to schoolwork, and a sense of relief when she figured it out, or finished a test.

Philosophical Development

At this point, her philosophies are mostly still that of her parents, though she has a

relatively unique development. Her mother and step-father, as well as maternal grandparents, are

members of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormon, faith. So there are a lot of restrictions put on her

diet, clothing and all over behavior while she’s under the care of her mother. Her father is

decidedly not of the same faith. He and his wife are of the agnostic philosophy. I was only able

to observe her while she was under the care of her father. He has decided to teach her more about
basic human kindness, such as: being kind, do no harm, know right from wrong, do not lie or

cheat, have a good heart, be nice to people, stick up for those who cannot stick up for

themselves, have humility, have a respect for our country and those who fought for it, and never

to be ashamed of who you are.

“Having a strong sense of self-confidence at this age can play a very important role in

helping your child build a solid sense of [them]self.” (Lee, K. 2016) I have known her,

personally, to be a confident individual most of her life, astounding some of her relatives with

her ability to reach outside of her own personal bubble. She has performed in dance groups and

tried out for cheerleading at school. She told me “I just saw that they were having them, called

my mom to ask if I could stay late to try out and she said yes, so I did,” all while sporting a big

smile on her face. I believe this self-confidence she has developed, will enable her to make solid

choices, and think for her own, rather than doing what everyone else wants

Also, as a side note, “Youth begin to question family and school rules and challenge their

parents.” (S. 2015) I’ve observed this on more than one occasion, not just with her prior troubles

at school, but she takes a few moments longer to do something she’s told, or she doesn’t quite

follow the instructions she was given, but the task still has the same end result, even with that

smallest bit of rebellion.

Social Development

“…children are experiencing a natural need to have some distance from parents and family and

are gravitating toward more social activities with peers.” She is beginning to think that

sometimes her family, or parents, aren’t cool and she would rather hang out with her friends.

Recently, the weekend of Halloween, there was a family event at her school where
everyone got to dress in their costumes, and the school provided a safe space for trick or treating.

There was candy, and pop-corn, a haunted house and carnival games. She lasted about thirty

minutes with her family, until a group of her friends came to say hello, and then she little less

than begged her dad to let her go hang out with her friends, to which he obliged and she

remained safely in sight, but far enough away from her parents that she wasn’t disturbed.

There is a noticeable amount of peer pressure, not to a serious extent but rather

that she likes certain bands, movies, or shows because one of her friends likes them, and she

dislikes certain things for the same reason. I think, because of her strong personality, and some

of the wild ideas she can come up with, she might be the ring leader of her clique that she’s

forming. In imaginary play, she likes to pretend to be the person in charge.

Also, young preteens and teenagers believe they are the center of attention, hence their

being painfully self-conscious, a pimple is the end of the world.

Intellectual Development

Kids existing in middle-childhood are still concrete thinkers – they perceive things as

good orbad and right or wrong. They are just beginning to imagine greater things, recognize the

dire consequences of their actions, and beginning to anticipate what others might be thinking.

She is following in this development pattern, within herself. She still thinks in concrete ideals,

and is just beginning to recognize the grey areas between good and bad, and right and wrong.

Jean Piaget referred to this stage as the concrete operational stage. This means that those

in middle childhood are able to really understand concrete information, the things they can see
and touch and know to be true, but are having trouble grasping the concept of the hypothetical

situation. They are more focused on the present rather than future concepts or consequences.

Madison understands the here and now very well, she is nearing the end of this stage and

is more able to grasp realistic hypothetical concepts. For example, her hypotheticals when she

was younger were along the lines of, ‘what if it started snowing right now, but instead of snow it

was ice cream, and then it started raining spoons and cones and everyone came out and they were

all eating ice cream!” but now are more along the lines of “what if we went to a Packers game,

and I saw Clay Mathews, and he said hello to me, and then he came home with us” the latter is

superfluously more realistic than the former.

Her short-term memory has improved as well. She is able to recall new concepts faster

and with more depth than she had been able to before. She also has developed a larger attention

span. She was a reader growing up, and she pays attention to more adult conversations, so her

vocabulary is quite large. She no longer struggles to stay on task, and has the capabilities to

multi-task, as well as priorities what she needs to do versus what she wants to do.

Recommendations:

Physical Development:

I would recommend starting a healthy diet, choosing foods that focus on giving

her more energy, and not to lose weight. I recommend periodic and semi frequent check-ups, just
to make sure she stays healthy, and to make sure she continues to develop normally. Also, maybe

some

Emotional Development:

Take time to listen and pay attention to her needs. She might be dealing with

emotional changes that she hasn’t shared to anyone, and it might be something difficult to talk

about. Provide an open and safe space for her to share her thoughts and feelings.

Philisophical Development:

When she expresses her own views and opinions on life, allow for some wiggle

room in your own lives, for her to feel welcome. If she does not wish to believe in those

ideologies of her family, I would suggest learning more about her ideologies. Sit and talk with

her about why she wishes to express herself that way, and try to use muted tones, or not to use

discouraging tones. Treat her ideas with respect. I don’t think they will, but should they prove to

be of harmful intent only then should you intervene.

Social Development:

She seems to be developing social habits very well, making friends, joining dance

teams and cheer squads. I would encourage some rec center sports or gathering, appropriate to

her skill level and age level, in order for her to thrive in this aspect. If she begins to show signs

of an introvert, I would recommend talking to her about why she changed, and encourage her to

at least try to develop regular social habits, but for now she seems to be doing well.

Intellectual Developent:
 Her intellectualism seems to be developing at an average rate. I would encourage

her to read some more books, ones at a slightly higher level than her current capability. I

recommend turning the television, and electronics off for thirty-minutes to an hour every day and

reading together, not necessarily the same book. I’ve found the best way to improve intellectual

levels is to read. When she expresses genuine interest in academic, give her intrinsic motivation,

praise and encouragement.

Other:

As far as the stealing and severe misbehavior in the beginning of her school career

goes, I would have recommend she talk to somebody, anyone, who can get to the root cause.

Children generally do these things for attention, whether it be a family figure or friends.