Developmental Stage Interview and Observation Paper 1

Developmental Stage and Observation Paper

Chloe Espinosa

Southwestern College and New Earth Institute

Developmental Stage Interview and Observation Paper 2

Since my younger, half-brother, Santiago reached his adolescence I have struggled to feel

connected to him. Initially, I admit, I thought of his teens as an obstacle to overcome rather than

a crucial part of development. After reading Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage

Brain by Daniel Siegel, I began to see my brother with greater understanding and empathy. I

now realize that my role as sister changed from playmate, nuisance, and friend to

nuisance/secure foundation that supports him as he grows and branches out. I hope that writing

this paper will help me by fostering an open mind and heart towards my brother as he develops.

This paper will discuss my interview with and observations of Santiago Espinosa as well as

explore some ways that I might support him, as a counselor, to achieve optimum development.

Developmental Tasks

According to Siegel (2013) adolescents share and navigate four developmental qualities:

novelty seeking, social engagement, increased emotional intensity, and creative exploration.

From interviewing and observing Santiago, I gathered that each of these qualities were

prominent in his development, but for the purpose of this paper I will mainly discuss novelty

seeking and social engagement. Motocross is his passion and an integral part of his development

in both of these realms. When I asked Santiago what called him to motocross he responded, “the

adrenaline, the jumps, the people I meet, the girls.” The thrill that is elicited from riding and

doing jumps (novelty seeking) is one of the major pulls to the activity for him.

Teens generally have a lower dopamine baseline than adults; however, dopaminergic

peaks tend to be higher in teens than adults. This genetic quality is revealed in teens in the form

of increased novelty seeking. Of course, there may be down sides to this, as teens will sometimes

partake in unhealthy risks in order to increase dopamine. Though Santiago craves adrenaline, this

has not yet led to risky behaviors such as drug or alcohol use. For the most part, he chooses
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healthy ways of seeking novelty, such as through motocross, roller coaster riding, snowboarding,

and mountain biking. Our father, his mother, and our stepmother all enjoy participating in

adrenaline-filled activities, and thus provide the equipment needed for him to fulfill his “need for

speed” in a variety of healthy, yet risky behaviors. Identifying healthy risks, therefore, seemed to

contribute to Santiago’s maturity, as he tends to only find reward in those behaviors listed above

rather than choosing unhealthy ones.

I also asked Santiago about the most important aspects of his life at the moment. After

motocross, he listed friendships. This is normal for most teens, because during adolescence the

primary figures of intimacy shift from parents to friends, but Santiago made this transition in a

less conventional way. Though he has friends his age, he feels closest to the ones he met in

motocross, who tend to fall between the ages of twenty and thirty. I asked Santiago what makes

him feel closest to his older friends and he responded, “Well, we have similar interests, they

don’t do immature things, and I always feel like I can learn from them.” Santiago is often

described as having an old soul. Feeling ahead of one’s time may lead an individual to seek

mature friendships, but I also believe there are some environmental factors that contributed to

this. As mentioned, he is my younger brother; we have a seven-year age gap. He used to spend a

lot of time surrounded by my friends and me, thus expanding his ability to communicate with

older people, and perhaps learning from the mistakes he saw us make. Additionally, my dad

expects Santiago and I to be independent. Santiago is fifteen and knows how to make simple and

complex repairs to various vehicles, motivate himself, run a small business, and maintain good

grades. I cannot say I knew many fifteen-year-old boys who knew how to be self-sufficient when

I was his age, which, I imagine, must be lonely at times, and a driving factor for finding older,

like-minded friends.
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Systemic and Environmental Factors Effecting Development

I mentioned briefly that Santiago runs his own small business, Perceptible Productions, a

filming company. Prior to starting his business, Santiago already practiced good business and

marketing skills. Santiago grew up admiring our father, Buddy, in his own business ventures.

Buddy has worked at what is now Toyota of Santa Fe for the past 28 years, starting off at Sauter

Toyota as a car washer, and quickly working his way up to eventually becoming a partial owner

of Toyota of Santa Fe. Santiago grew up observing him and learning how to mimic his

salesmanship. By eight Santiago already knew how to market himself, which I often used to my

advantage in selling raffle tickets each year. At thirteen he decided to start a filming business

with his mom’s boyfriend, Ryan. While Ryan served as a filming mentor, Santiago’s self-

marketing skills landed them jobs filming and editing videos for Grammy award winning artists

Ozomatli and Los Lobos. I asked Santiago how he feels about accomplishing so much at such a

young age, to which he shrugged and said “good” in a humble fashion.

Being a partial owner of Toyota of Santa Fe, our father makes enough to support our

needs and give us a variety of opportunities such as a college education, motocross racing, and

travel. While I remember hard times when my dad did not make much, Santiago has only ever

known years where we had more than enough opportunities to succeed. Having access to so

many resources has allowed Santiago to explore numerous interests. Santiago’s mom, Yvonne,

contributed by enrolling him in a plethora of sports and activities including basketball, baseball,

soccer, hockey, piano, guitar and karate. He took full advantage of each opportunity and is now a

jack of many trades.

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Biological, Neurological, and Physiological Factors

Santiago is fun-loving, easy-going, and charming, which mimic qualities his mom

possesses. I talked to Yvonne and asked her about her experience being pregnant to shed some

light on the biological basis for this. Yvonne is generally a low stress individual. I asked her to

rate her stress level on a scale of 1-10 during her pregnancy and she responded, “About a four.” I

then asked her about Santiago’s temperament, to which she said that he has always been an “easy

baby.”

If Yvonne felt that her pregnancy with Santiago was minimally stressful, it is likely that

she did not release a lot of cortisol. Normal cortisol release mixed with a quick stress recovery

would mean that Santiago’s stress response and recovery are likely average. It is, therefore, also

likely that he has a normal sized amygdala and a “normal” hippocampus, capable of suppressing

the stress response in an average amount of time (Gerhardt, 2015). Likewise, I asked Santiago if

he feels that he experiences an average, a somewhat lower than average, or a high amount of

stress and he responded, “somewhat lower.” Yvonne is low in neuroticism and has a Type B

personality, which means those traits could have been inherited as well.

Santiago is naturally physically intelligent. Since childhood he seemed to pick up sports

effortlessly. Indeed, he admits that the only sport he struggles with is croquet. Our father is also

athletically inclined and seems to have the metabolism, energy, and natural talent for a variety of

sports. This natural ability was likely inherited from my dad and amplified as Santiago has had

access to a wider variety of sports than my dad had at his age. Our father paid for his own

education at St. Michael’s High School and thus could not play sports even though he wanted to

because he consistently had to work. One of my dad’s primary goals in life developed from this

experience; he wanted to give his children all the opportunities he did not have in his youth.
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Therefore, this combination of natural ability, parental support, and a physically opportunistic

environment shaped Santiago’s talent.

Traumas, Disasters, and Crises

Santiago claims not to have had any significant traumas, but we did discuss disasters and

crises. In present circumstances, teens and children have the burden of worrying about school

shootings. Luckily, Los Alamos High School is taking precautions to ward off potential

offenders by increasing security, but even so, the possibility of experiencing a shooting still

remains. I asked Santiago how this toxic environment has affected him and he responded, “The

possibility is there, but what can you do?” I then asked him if it has affected the way he

approaches school. He thought for a moment and replied, “We all consider exit strategies and

hiding places, so I guess I consistently plan those in each class”. Unfortunately, school shootings

seem to be trending, making teens more aware and suspicious of their surroundings. From

Santiago’s response and my own experience, I gather that many teens feel powerless in their

school surroundings, as they have minimal ability to make political changes and thus are left to

cross their fingers and hope nothing occurs.

I also talked to Santiago about where he learned about being a man. Our dad taught him

about what it means to be a man and was often harsh in relaying the message. Buddy faced war,

abuse, and poverty early in life, so our emotional needs, by comparison, look insignificant to

him. While I am at least allowed to have an array of feelings because it is “feminine,” Santiago is

expected to conceal all emotions except anger and happiness to match the “masculine” status

quo. I often worry that Santiago does not feel safe expressing an array of emotions, and I try to

make myself available to listen to his emotional needs. I asked if he feels comfortable expressing

sadness, and he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I then asked him if he knew
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that I am here to listen to his emotional needs, to which he crinkled his nose in disgust, rolled his

eyes, and said “yup,” suggesting the idea of masculinity being unemotional is already deeply

ingrained.

Another hardship Santiago faces is feeling overwhelmed by the amount of activities he is

in. Being talented comes with a downside; he is expected to be in activities and sports year round

with minimal break time. The three activities Santiago actually enjoys are track and field,

filming, and motocross; however, he participates in those as well as basketball, summer college

classes, and other miscellaneous activities his parents enroll him in. Though he has plenty of

outlets, he does not have much time to do the things he really enjoys, and seems to get

overburdened. This is probably the greatest stressor he faces and would be something he would

take into a counseling setting.

Counseling Santiago to Develop Optimum Well-being

I asked Santiago about his relationships to both our dad and his mom and believe that he

likely has a secure attachment to his mom and an avoidant attachment to our dad. I asked him if

he generally feels heard and able to communicate with his mom to which, he said “yes.” Though

he feels comfortable communicating with his mom, he still struggles to convince her that he feels

overwhelmed with activities. Santiago wants to quit basketball in particular, but is under a lot of

pressure to continue, pressure mainly orchestrated by Yvonne. Our dad does not seem to care

whether he is in basketball or not but wants him to remain active and motivated. The times

Santiago has expressed his disinterest in the sport, Yvonne did not hear his needs because she

feels basketball is what is best for his health and drive.

A family therapy session would likely be the approach I would take to help Santiago have

optimum development. It seems that he and his mom generally have good communication. He
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expressed comfort in confronting her with most every other problem he faces but experiences

great rigidity when asking about narrowing down the activities he participates in. Santiago

experienced burn out from attending to too many responsibilities last year, and rebelled as a

result, skipping practice and internalizing a lot of frustration. It would, therefore, seem that as a

counselor, the best way I could help Santiago achieve optimum development is to foster the lines

of communication surrounding sports and activities.

I would try to decrease the tension surrounding the topic by giving Santiago a voice in the

therapeutic environment to express his emotions openly without interruption. Given that

Santiago has been taught to suppress emotion, I would also positively reinforce him for

expressing a wider range of emotion. Next, I would want to hear from Yvonne about her

reasoning for keeping Santiago so active. I would ask what the worst case scenario would be if

he was not enrolled in so many activities. In doing so I would be hoping to establish better

communication about the topic and tap into the underlying rationale behind Yvonne’s rigidity. I

hypothesize that since Yvonne and Santiago generally have good communication skills, she

would be open to being more flexibile if given insight into Santiago’s perspective and her own

rationales. Hopefully, this would create space for Santiago to be more emotionally diverse and

help the family to be more attuned to his emotional needs.

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Works Cited

Gerhardt, S. (2014). Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain. Routledge.

Siegel, D. J. (2013). Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. Penguin.