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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

Ellie Morris

PSC 250: Human and Growth Development

Professor Schuette

March 8, 2022
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

Introduction

Child development is mainly defined as the process by which a child changes over time

beginning at birth to becoming a functioning adult. There are five main factors that child

development is categorized in which include the child’s cultural, physical, cognitive, social, and

emotional development. While every child learns and grows at their own pace there are

developmental milestone that gives parents an idea of when a child is supposed to be learning/

doing certain things which help to see if a child is developing at the time they are supposed to be,

this can help detect certain issues the child might have developmentally speaking as well. Many

theorists such as Piaget, Erickson, Vygotsky, etc. have proposed theories about childhood

development. All their theories are on the developmental stages of children and what they predict

is the age children are hitting certain milestones. These theories and three hours of observation

were used to comprehend and recognize the development of a 9-month-old female, Rue Skylar.

All the five development categories were used to see any differences among her development to

properly assess if her developmental growth is within each predicted milestone.

Cultural Development

Cultural development teaches children things such as behaviors that are preferred or

discouraged. Some cultures prefer independence while some cultures prefer co-dependence. For

example, cultural development involves different systems, such as expectations and norms that

channel behavior in particular ways and enable that behavior to occur (“Interpretive Approaches

to Culture: Understanding and Investigating Children’s Psychological Development”, Academic

Journal). Rue Skylar lives with both biological parents along with her 5-year-old biological
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

sister. They are a white middle-class family who lives in a traditional safe neighborhood with

low-risk factors and no risk of instability. Rue’s mother works full-time as a teacher while Rue’s

father owns and works for his own company doing restoration work. Throughout the weekday

Rue is at a learning center/daycare and either Rue’s mother or father picks her up after work.

Both parents dare primary caregivers to Rue. As for Rue’s older sister, her relationship with her

parents is very positive. Both parents are active in her life throughout each day and make it

known how essential she is as a member of the family. Overall, her cultural development seems

normal to other families, white, middle class with no evident danger. All these things will most

likely contribute to healthy development in her life.

Physical Development

Physical development is the growth and development of both the brain and body in

infancy and early childhood. This involves developing control of muscles and physical

coordination. This also involves physical activity which promotes physical development, helps

build a healthier body composition, as well as helps improve things such as cardiovascular

fitness, motor skills, concentration, and thinking skills. Rue weighs about 18 pounds and is about

2ft and 4 inches tall. Her weight is considered appropriate for her age and her height is normal,

but she is a little bit taller than average at her age. Her father and sister are considered tall while

her mother is considered average. Her father is about 6 foot 2 inches, and her sister is about 4

foot 3 inches tall while her mother is about 5 foot 2 inches tall. Girls tend to grow faster than

boys due to different times of puberty. Rue ate during her observation but just like the meal

during the observation her parents always make sure she gets fruit and vegetable in with every

meal along with the other important nutrients she needs. Since Rue can’t walk yet there isn’t
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

much physical activity, she can do so her diet is very important to make sure she is healthy when

it comes to physically. Motor milestones in infancy are important developmental markers for

more widespread social and cognitive development as well as physical development (Motor

skills and later communication development in early childhood: Results from a population‐based

study, Academic Journal). Rue’s motor skills seemed average with her fine motor skills as she

can pick up things such as her toys. Along with her gross motor skills by crawling. Her physical

development is overall healthy, even with her slightly above average height since it doesn’t

affect her physical development.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development involves how children think, explore, figure things out, etc. It is

the development of knowledge, skills, problem-solving dispositions, which help children think

about and understand the world around them. It is important to keep children’s stress levels down

as well because this could have lasting effects on cognitive development (“Salivary cortisol and

cognitive development in infants from low-income communities”, Academic Journal). When

Rue was eating and or playing with her toys, she was showing Cognitive development. It is said

that 9-month-olds should be able to transfer things smoothly from hand to hand. Rue does this

with her toys as well as picks up her food with her thumb and index finger which shows

cognitive development. She also babbles and is learning her voice which is also a part of

cognitive development. We get an understanding of how to measure children’s mental and social

development through theories such as Jean Piaget’s theory on cognitive development.

Throughout Rue’s observation, she showed excitement through laughing and babbling. Her
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

cognitive development seems to be progressing smoothly as she gets older and on task to reach

sophisticated speech throughout the years.

Social Development

Social development is the process through which children learn to build relationships. It

involves things such as learning the values, knowledge, and skills that are needed to understand

how to get along with others. Positive social development is important because it influences a

child’s self-confidence, as well as things like empathy, etc. A child’s social development can be

measured through play, attachment to parents, and interaction with others. For example, when an

infant is crying that is an important cue for mothers to respond adequately, inappropriate

responses to something like this can hinder social development. During observation, Rue loved

interacting with her older sister, as well as could play independently while being content. Her

interaction with others is positive. She loved having her sister pushing her on the swing as well

as going down the slide with her. The only time she showed negative interaction was when her

older sister attempted to read to her to get her to settle down. However, I feel that Rue was just

simply losing interest in this activity. She is given plenty of time to play independently but her

parents do interact with her a lot. Attachment is one aspect of the relationship between a child

and parent with its purpose being to make a child feel safe, secure, and protected. Rue’s

relationship with her parents is very strong and her attachment seems to be loving and stable.

Due to this her social development seems to be on the right track for secure and safe

relationships in her life.

Emotional Development
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

Emotional development means how children start to understand who they are, what they

are feeling, and what to expect when interacting with others. It is the development of being able

to form and sustain positive relationships and healthily express emotions. Most of the time

during Rue’s observation she expressed emotions well for her age, positive and negative

emotions. She smiled and laughed when she was happy and or excited and fussed when she was

upset. This is normal for children Rues age because they can’t talk and let people know how they

are feeling. Therefore, it is important for parents to listen to their infants when they are fussing,

etc. because they are just expressing emotions how they know how to. Overall, Rue is a happy

child who shows certain emotions when she is feeling happy or upset.

Conclusion

For a 9-month-old female, Rue Skylar’s development seems to be progressing on track

within each development milestone. Cultural development will continue to shape her experiences

in life, and with her family active in her life she has a healthy, loving, and stable support system.

Her physical development is average for weight and above average for height, and her motor

skills seem to be advancing the older she gets and are looking like they will continue to do so.

Rue’s cognitive development seems to be average for her age, and she is on track to have

sophisticated speech when she gets older. Rue’s social development within her family is positive

and healthy, with a secure attachment to her mother, father, and older sister, and although we

didn’t observe her with other peers, she is on track to do great with them as well. When it comes

to Rue’s emotional development, she is right on track as well, she is a happy kid and knows how

to show her emotions well for her age. In conclusion, there are these developmental categories to

measure certain milestones the child is predicted to hit at certain ages. But it is important to
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

remember that all children learn and grow at their own pace, and it may take other children

longer than others to hit certain milestones. Rue Skylar appears to be a happy and healthy 9-

month-old who will most likely continue that way through the rest of her developmental years to

come.

References

DiBianca Fasoli, A. (2020). Interpretive approaches to culture: Understanding and

investigating children’s psychological development. Applied Developmental

Science, 24(4), 299–309.

Finegood, E. D., Wyman, C., O’Connor, T. G., & Blair, C. B. (2017). Salivary cortisol and

cognitive development in infants from low-income communities. Stress: The

International Journal on the Biology of Stress, 20(1), 112–121. https://doi-

org.ccproxy.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10253890.2017.1286325

Valla, L., Slinning, K., Kalleson, R., Wentzel, L. T., & Riiser, K. (2020). Motor skills

and later communication development in early childhood: Results from a

population‐based study. Child: Care, Health & Development, 46(4), 407–413.

https://doi-org.ccproxy.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/cch.12765
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

Observation Log #1

3/7/2022 8:30am-9:30am

NAME: Rue Skylar

AGE:9 months old

GENDER: Female

LOCATION: Their Home

Activity:

• Down on the carpet playing gracefully

• Starts to attempt crawling over to get another toy

• Sees her older sister walk by, wants to crawl towards her

• Gets upset when she can’t see her sister anymore

• I pick her up and start talking to her, she finally starts smiling again
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

• I sit her back down on her playmat and she goes back to playing with some toys

• After about 15 minutes of playing she started getting fussy

• Its about nap time so I feed her a bottle and lay her down

• After crying for a little while when trying to get her down she fell asleep

Observation Log #2

3/07/2022 11:30-12:30pm

NAME: Rue Skylar

AGE:9 months old

GENDER: Female

LOCATION: Child’s Home/ Neighborhood Park

Activity:

•Whining after waking up, ready to get out of the crib

• Smiles big when I pick her up

• I put her in her stroller to go to the park in the neighborhood and she’s being content
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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

• Her older sister picked up Rue and put her in the baby swing for the first time and Rue was

confused

• At first Rue didn’t know how she felt when her sister started pushing her

•Rue then started laughing and was having so much fun

• After the swing she and her sister went to the slide and rue had so much fun constantly

laughing

• Rue kept motioning to want to do it again.

• After a little while at the park rue started getting fussy so we went back to the house

Observation Log #3
3/07/2022 12:30-1:30pm

NAME: Rue Skylar

AGE:9 months old

GENDER: Female

LOCATION: Child’s Home

Activity:

• Rue sat at her play area while watching tv, just relaxing while lunch was being made

•She was sat down at her highchair and had mac and cheese, strawberries, and carrots, she

showed excitement for the mac and cheese

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Early Childhood Development: 9-Month-Old Female

• After a little bit when she was done her sister tried to read some books to her to calm her down

for a little bit, but Rue showed no interest in it.

• She began squirming around and wanting to get down off the couch

• I turned on a Tv show for her and laid her down on the couch with her blanket

• She stayed content and started getting a little drowsy and I took her to her crib, and she fell

right to sleep