I chose to do my reflection on the reading from Chapter 6 in the textbook. It was regarding cognitive and physical development in middle childhood. I found this chapter interesting although much of it is theoretical. Physical development is subjective and easy to measure. You can see a child is developing or not developing physically and we can even do genetic testing before the child is born to determine the level of physical development they will attain. The cognitive development is objective which means that you can take all of the genetic, enviroment, sociocultural and biological factors and determine how a child might develop cognitively, but it is not something that can be matter of factly measured. There are studies here and there about if a child grows up in a home with an abusive father, there is a great likelihood they will grow up and become the abuser. If you just look at the numbers, yeah, they tend to be high, but there is no way to quantify ALL of the abused children and follow them to adulthood, so you always have to question the statistics. I also didn't see much on autism in this chapter (unless I totally missed it). Autism seems to be much more prevelant now than it did a couple of decades ago even, but it could be because there are better ways to detect it or diagnosis it now and the spectrum has become broader. I have a friend who has a child who is on the mild end of autism, but he is very much affected. He gets physically ill if there is any changes in his daily routine including going to school, if she cooks something different for him or if she uses different laundry detergent. He is highly sensitive and there isn't enough known about his mental illness to really treat. He definitely will not be able to thrive on his own in society without her support or the support of a group home of some sort and she has been a single parent to him for his entire life. She also isn't able to provide him with the most effective therapies because of the limitations of his insurance (Molina). I do think there are mental illnesses that one can overcome and then there are the ones that one cannot overcome without medication, counseling and lifelong struggle. All in all, I feel proud of my friend for being such a supportive, sometimes enabling, parent given that she hasn't had much help.

I choose to do my reflection this week on the article, "What's the Difference Between Boys and Girls". It wasn't very clear to me whether or not this article was saying there is a difference that is present at birth or if this is something that we are influenced by our environments. I would tend to agree that essentially women and men are the same basically when it comes to biology. I would tend to think we vary differently on our thought processes. It is true that most of the stuff for little girls is pink or colorful, soft and has to do with beauty and that boys stuff is very mechanical and usually has a lot of moving parts and things to tinker with. I grew up with all brothers. My mom was around, but she was busy being a mom more than a woman, so I had to learn how to do all the things that make me a woman. My brothers are all very different. Two out of three actually were more interested in music and computers than working on cars or building things. I have a niece who started exhibiting her tendancies towards being a "girly" girl very early on. When she was 1, she started carry around baby dolls. I thought to myself, "She is still just a baby herself!" I am not sure if there was influence from her mother or not. I also had heard on a radio show once that because girls were always being told they are beautiful or that what they are wearing is so pretty it was actually changing them to think that is they way they need to be instead of what they should be. She was saying that we, as adults, shouldn't do this with little girls. I don't agree. I think a little girl, just as much as a woman needs to hear they are beautiful.

Reflection-Week 2, The Miracle of Life

I decided to post my reflection this week on the chapter reading. I work for a Women's Health clinic and the majority of the patients have issues with infertility. The reading really made me think about how truly amazing the process of conception to birth and development is. There are a lot of things that have to have biologically before a women can get pregnant. The egg has to be released at the right time to be fertilized by a sperm that is the right shape and has the motility needed to fight it's way to through the cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes. Once the sperm has fertilized the egg, there has to be a proper, just right place for it to implant and then the process life begins. I have only been working for a the clinic for a few weeks, but already have seen multiple processes and signs to me that life begins at conception. It is amazing to see the yolk sac on an ultrasound. At 6 wks, you can SEE the heartbeat!! The human body is truly miraculous. I also found out this weekend that one of my best friends is pregnant with her first child and I know what she went through to get pregnant, so it is a blessing.

I also related to the chapter on heredity because I find it so interesting to see how a family member has so and so's nose or eyes and how they get their smarts from another family member. I remember looking at pictures of my family growing up and comparing baby pictures with my parents. I do think that family is the most important thing, second to God, that we have on this earth. I am blessed to be a part of such a great family so that I do have someone to compare myself to. Thanks for reading!

Joy

Week 1 Reflection Post

I decided to do my reflection post on the article "The Identity Dance."  It was really interesting to read how two humans with the same genetic make-up can have two completely different personalities or experience traumatic events in completely opposite ways. I have a friend who has twin girls who are fraternal, but they look almost identical and share a lot of the same interests in clothes, TV, music and so on. They don't have the exact same genetic make-up, but they are more similar than some of the identical twins in the article. I suspect it could be some what genetic since they have the same parents, but also sociocultural because they are both girls of the same age, go to school together, share a room and are basically each others best friend.

The identical twins in the stories seem to share the biological factors such as hair color, body structure, habits and ability to know what the other sibling is thinking. In the case of the Pena sisters, the older sister, Sandra took the role of the big sister because she was born a few minutes before Marisa. She was confident and outgoing. Marisa was more reserved and shy. They both experienced losing their parents subsequently, but Marisa took it the worst and it had a huge impact on her life. She wasn't able to thrive without her counterpart. Sandra took it as an opportunity to change her circumstances, but realized she too felt a void without her sister. She was taking on the role of the nurturer at that point. The story didn't mention how they were brought up by their parents, but it the story made it sound like they were co-dependant.

What I took away from this article, was that the mind, body and spirit are very complex and individual, even in the case of genetics.


Joy

Technological Advances over a Lifetime

I have been witness to many changes in technology over my lifetime. I have been lucky to have parents who always were able to provide us with most of the newest technologies. I started using a computer at age 10. It was a dial-up and I can't believe I was ever able to get anything done because it was so slow. At that time, I didn't know any better and most of the classwork didn't rely on the use of computers. The internet wasn't big until I was in high school and even then, it was of very limited use because of the speed of the browsers. I remember when the VCR was replaced with DVD players and it was the best thing in the world to not have to wait for the tape to rewind if you wanted to watch ithe movie again. I also remember my parents having a car phone which plugged in to the cigarette lighter when I was in middle and high school. Eventually, the technology evolved into wireless. I got my first wireless cell phone when I moved out at age 18, for emergencies only. I also remember a time when there wasn't texting or smart phones. We had to memorize numbers or keep a phone book handy. There is a lot of information at our fingertips which makes it easier to gain knowledge quickly, but I'm not sure how much of that knowledge is retained on a permanent basis. I often times feel like the technology has made us smarter, but it has also made us lazier and not have to use our own minds as much.