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Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood

Learner’s Name

Capella University

PSY6015: Lifespan Development

Instructor Name

July, 2020

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Case Study

Sophia is a 24-month-old who lives with her mother and maternal grandmother. She has

never had contact with her biological father. She is a biracial child whose mother is Mexican

American and whose father is African American. Sophia stays at home with her maternal

grandmother during the day while her mother works as a waitress. While there were no pregnancy

or birth complications with Sophia, her mother was exposed to significant pre- and postnatal stress

and experienced notable postpartum depression, which resulted in inconsistent care for Sophia.

When her mother leaves for work, Sophia often cries uncontrollably, but upon her mother’s return,

Sophia ignores her mother or clings to her grandmother. Sophia does not yet use two-word phrases

and primarily communicates through gestures or pointing. Sophia enjoys playing with dolls and

looking at books but rarely engages in play independently and often follows or clings to her

grandmother during the day. Sophia is beginning to feed herself and shows some interest in toilet

training. Sophia’s pediatrician reports that Sophia is overall in good health but has concerns about

lack of language development. Sophia’s family moved frequently within her community in rural

Tennessee during the first years of her life because of trouble securing housing. The family

currently lives in a two-bedroom apartment in which Sophia shares a bedroom with her mother.

Sophia currently co-sleeps with her mother. Sophia has trouble falling asleep on her own and will

wake if someone else is not in the room. Sophia’s mother and grandmother have a contentious

relationship. Her grandmother is often critical of her mother’s parenting skills and thinks that

Sophia’s mother should be more attentive to Sophia’s needs. Sophia’s mother reports feeling

overwhelmed and depressed and is often angry when Sophia cries when she comes home from

work. The family has limited financial resources, and money is a constant source of stress. At times,

there is not enough food in the house and the family has to use local foodbanks. The family has no

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Case Study Analysis: Early Childhood

Sophia is a 24-month old biracial child who lives with her mother and maternal

grandmother. Sophia’s mother was exposed to significant pre- and postnatal stress. She

experienced notable postpartum depression, which resulted in inconsistency in care for Sophia.

According to her pediatrician, Sophia is in good health overall but lacks in language

development. She is very attached to her grandmother but displays a lack of affection for her

mother whenever she is around. Sophia’s grandmother believes that Sophia’s mother is not

attentive to her needs. The family has moved residence multiple times, and limited financial

resources are a constant source of stress.

Sophia’s cognitive development, especially with respect to language skills, is

comparatively slower than that of most children of her age. Sophia has not yet started using two-

word phrases and still interacts using gestures. She also finds it difficult to fall asleep if there is

no one around. She clearly has attachment-related issues when it comes to her mother. Sophia’s

situation can be understood by deducing the causes of the change in her behavior using

Ainsworth’s attachment theory. This theory will help explain Sophia’s behavior with respect to

her development as a child and her issues with attachment. It will also explain the relevance of

Sophia’s environment to her development.

Application of Lifespan Development Theory

In Sophia’s case, there is a clear lack of an emotional bond between her and her mother.

The issue of emotional bond can be understood by applying Ainsworth’s attachment theory.

According to Bowlby’s attachment theory, a child is considered attached to someone when the

child is able to seek proximity with a particular person, especially when he or she is ill, tired, or

frightened. This attachment is seen between caregivers, typically mothers, and an infant. The

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child forms this emotional bond through physical proximity when he or she is around 6 to 18

months of age (Ainsworth et al., 2015).

According to Ainsworth et al (2015), the first category of attachment is secure

attachment. Children are labeled secure when they receive a considerable amount of attention

from their mother. Secure children are social and display confidence in playing independently

after some time, even when a caregiver is not present. The second category of attachment is

avoidant attachment, where children display indifference to the presence or absence of their

mother or caregiver. The third category of attachment is ambivalent attachment, where children

protest and become anxious when separated from their mother but are disinterested in any

contact, and rather resist any contact, on the return of their mother (Ainsworth et al., 2015). An

ambivalent attachment can be noticed between Sophia and her mother as she cries when her

mother leaves for work but is disinterested in making any contact with her mother upon her

return. Sophia also displays some features of a secure attachment with her grandmother, in

whose presence she shows some interest in toilet training and feeding herself. Owing to the lack

of a secure attachment with her mother, Sophia has not been able to develop social skills or play

independently. It is probably because of a lack of attachment and a feeling of insecurity that she

has trouble falling asleep on her own (Singer, 2019).

In Sophia’s case, while she does show interest in feeding herself and in toilet training, her

response to new things in her environment is limited. Although her grandmother is very

affectionate toward Sophia, she does not play an active role in Sophia’s cognitive development

because she believes this is Sophia’s mother’s job. On the other hand, Sophia’s mother’s poor

financial status along with prolonged postpartum depression has led her to neglect Sophia during

crucial developmental stages (Bormanaki & Khoshhal, 2017). Sophia is also the child of a single

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parent, her mother, who spends most of her time working as she is the sole earning member of

the family. Sophia’s father is not involved in raising her. The lack of interaction with her primary

caregiver and the lack of a stable environment due to a constant change of residence has

suppressed Sophia’s ability to assimilate information at her pace and then accommodate it. Since

Sophia has not been able to assimilate the language she could have learned from either of her

caregivers, she has not been able to accommodate or apply language on her own. For her

language skills to grow, she needs to be able to assimilate new words and then accommodate

those words to new scenarios that she comes across.

Cultural and Personal Challenges to Development

One of the cultural challenges to Sophia’s development is her biracial lineage, as her

father is of African American descent and her mother is Mexican American. The other challenge

is the absence of her father during her formative stages to provide any background to the cultural

practices of one half of her lineage. The third challenge is that as a biracial child she belongs to

an ethnic minority in the society she lives. Sophia’s biracial lineage and the fact that she belongs

to an ethnic minority can make her and her family vulnerable to racism. Racism here may lead to

social exclusion, which in turn may cause anxiety, depression, and emotional and behavioral

difficulties in Sophia. A positive aspect of being in an ethnic minority is the development of an

ethnic-racial identity. While this can be fruitful in racial socialization and the development of

cultural knowledge and beliefs, in Sophia’s case, it would not be complete because of the

absence of a caregiver’s attention in her formative stages (Macedo et al., 2019).

Another challenge to Sophia’s development is the fact that she is being raised by a single

parent, who also belongs to a lower economic stratum of society. While racism may cause

exclusion, low economic standing deprives Sophia from availing necessary medical attention and

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enrollment into a decent educational institution. In families of low socioeconomic status, the

prioritization of resources is a challenge. Arranging means for basic survival holds a higher

priority to education and health, and in such cases mental health is of the least concern. In a

family of low socioeconomic status, where a single parent has no time to spare for a child’s

development, the child may feel materially deprived. In Sophia’s case, while she already is

deprived of parental bonding, she may also be deprived of material happiness, good education,

and attention to health. This may lead to Sophia developing aggressive behavior (Jensen et al.,

2017).

An extremely important aspect of cognitive development in a child is language

acquisition. A child’s use of language progresses from one-syllable cooing to babbling and then

to the use of gestures. After this phase, the child starts engaging in actual one-word

conversations in the language he or she has been exposed to since birth. At this stage, language

development requires parental intervention through conversations with the child that involve

statements that are broken down into small phrases or that are easy to remember such as “Give

baby ball” rather than “Give that ball to the baby.” The use of high-pitched voices, facial

expressions, simpler words, and actions helps a child assimilate words and accommodate them to

new situations (Lally & French, 2019). This explains why the absence of her mother has led to

the slower development of language in Sophia, even though her grandmother is around her.

The difficulties faced by Sophia may not be easily resolved if the bond she shares with

her mother is not strengthened and maintained, which may be missing due to her mother’s

prolonged postpartum depression. During pregnancy, mothers are hardwired to tend to any

emergency pertaining to their baby. After child delivery, mothers tend to lose out on the alertness

that they developed during pregnancy because of a high influx of oxytocin (Lally & French,

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2019) This causes stress and anxiety, which is why Sophia’s mother gets anxious and irritable

when she sees Sophia crying upon her return. Sophia is currently severely deprived of parental

attachment, which she tries to fulfill by clinging to her grandmother. Unattended postpartum

depression can cause a mother to neglect her child (Corrigan et al., 2015).

Intervention Using Lifespan Developmental Theories

The main concern with Sophia’s development is the lack of attachment between her and

her mother. The first step that needs to be taken for Sophia’s development is the betterment of

her relationship with her mother. Literature confirms that lack of support to mothers facing

postpartum depression can compromise childcare and attention (Corrigan et al., 2015). Sophia’s

mother must recognize that she still suffers from postpartum depression 2 years after delivery

along with added anxiety from being a single parent and the family’s sole earning member. For

the development of her child, Sophia’s mother must seek help from agencies that offer

emotional, instrumental, and informational support to mothers (Corrigan et al., 2015). This will

help her receive the tangible support she may require to assist in Sophia’s development. It will

also act as a system for providing the encouragement and awareness that she may need to build a

secure base of attachment with Sophia.

Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based approach to treating

children who face issues with behavioral development. It can be used to bridge the deficit in

Sophia’s behavior due to the lack of attachment with her caregivers. This approach is best suited

for children between the ages of 2 and 7 years. The PCIT approach involves two stages: child-

directed interaction and parent-directed interaction. A third party, usually a child psychologist,

helps the caregiver develop interaction skills to effectively interact with the child. The

psychologist also helps the caregiver with the development of the child’s communication skills.

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A review of literature has helped understand that PCIT has helped not only children but also

caregivers and parents by reducing parental stress and improving parenting skills. In Sophia’s

case, PCIT would be beneficial as it would improve her interaction with her caregivers, primarily

her mother, and encourage positive interaction in the family, which is essential for child

development (Lieneman et al., 2017).

Conclusion

The difficulties faced by Sophia are primarily due to the deprivation of attachment with

her mother and the lack of a conducive learning environment. Sophia is still in her formative

stages and does show signs of learning. Early intervention can help ensure that she catches up

with a normal pace of development. While Ainsworth’s pattern of attachment helped identify

Sophia’s problems, their application can also help narrow down the interventions that can resolve

her problems. There are many developmental theories that can help resolve Sophia’s

developmental issues, but the crux here is that every theory will highlight the contentious

relationship between Sophia, her mother, and her grandmother. Equal efforts from both her

mother and grandmother can contribute immensely to Sophia’s growth.

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References

Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. N. (2015). Patterns of attachment a

psychological study of the strange situation. Taylor & Francis Group.

Bormanaki, H. B., & Khoshhal, Y. (2017). The role of equilibration in Piaget's theory of

cognitive development and its implication for receptive skills: A theoretical study.

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(5), 996-1005.

http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0805.22

Corrigan, C. P., Kwasky, A. N., & Groh, C. J. (2015). Social support, postpartum depression,

and professional assistance: A survey of mothers in the Midwestern United States. The

Journal of perinatal education, 24(1), 48–60. https://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1058-

1243.24.1.48

Jensen, S. K., Berens, A. E., & Nelson, C. A. (2017). Effects of poverty on interacting biological

systems underlying child development. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 1(3),

225–239. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(17)30024-x

Lally, M., & French, S. V. (2019). Lifespan development: A psychological perspective (2nd ed.).

http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/LifespanDevelopment.pdf

Lieneman, C. C., Brabson, L. A., Highlander, A., Wallace, N. M., & McNeil, C. B. (2017).

Parent-child interaction therapy: Current perspectives. Psychology Research and

Behavior Management, 10, 239–256. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S91200

Macedo, D. M., Smithers, L. G., Roberts, R. M., Haag, D. G., Paradies, Y., & Jamieson, L. M.

(2019). Does ethnic-racial identity modify the effects of racism on the social and

emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal Australian children? Plos One, 14(8).

https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220744

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Singer, E. (2019). Child-care and psychology of development.

https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315165813

Copyright ©2020 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.