Case Study 703
Background Information
Hearing loss is bound to impact the life of a child significantly. This boy is a six-year-old boy that comes from a Jewish observant home. He is the last child of three children following two girls. He is hearing impaired and therefore he is overprotected by his family. He has a good relationship with his family. However, he is extremely spoiled as everything is done for him. Despite the fact that He is very social and very bright, his academic levels are pretty low due to his disability. His reading and mathematical skills are moderate but he requires development in writing skills. The child holds a strong self-esteem that is influenced by the supportive and overprotective family. However the fact that he is spoiled drags his physical, adaptive, communication, emotional and cognitive development downward.
In the typical context, the child has a moderate development. Since the child is hearing impaired he depends on his sight in learning emotional responses. Family attitudes hold adverse implication on the development of a child especially one with hearing impairment (Shaffer, 2009). For this boy, his family is very positive towards him and offers all kind of support. However, the support seems to be off boundary as it limits his opportunities of developing emotionally. The child is thus characterized by distinct features, strengths, and developmental needs.
This child has challenges with an oral expression which is influenced by delayed emotional development. It is obvious for a child with hearing impairment to experience emotional development delays. More than half the population of children with hearing impairments is not at all times able to establish the situation under which certain emotional expression such as surprise and curiosity should be utilized. In an equal nature, the child is not able to describe the particular emotions which for the hearing peers are easy. For the child, this issue is a complex one that is influenced by the language development issue. In order for a child to be able to express emotion flying correctly hearing plays a key role (Shaffer, 2009). In this for the child language is not the central influence of the emotional challenge as his language is well situated which he is able to learn from the supportive family. The child seems to react emotionally in a manner that is less strategic because despite the fact that he is brought up in a hearing family he is not able to recognize the effects of his emotional responses to other individuals. He normally tends to become angry as well as sadness for extended time periods.
The hearing impairment has affected his ability to communicate as it is lower as compared to that of peers. Children normally communicate typically from the period of birth through emotional and physical reactions even if not verbally (Dash, 2007). With the ability to listen they can recognize voices and imitate simple instructions. However for a hearing impaired this is different has their hearing problems hinder them from listening thus making it difficult to communicate (Dash, 2007). This is because communicating involves spoken language. Communication is normally achieved through facial expression, gestures as well as other forms of body language. For this child, his facial expression and body language are poor because of his emotional and cognitive development delays which affect his language. Learning how to effectively communicate with this child with hearing issues is characterized by difficulty. This is because he has selective hearing and his hearing is supported by hearing aids. This means that at times he cannot capture all the sounds or communicating voices that surround him. In addition is family does not give him space to struggle and learn to express because they do everything for him. His basic language skills are a bit delayed but his language is easy to understand as his hearing issue can be characterized as mild-severe. For this child, he is able to develop his language skills based on the supportive family.
It is well recognized that the capability to speak, communicate, develop language and learning depends on an individual’s cognitive ability (Damon, 2006). Cognition development is the procedure of thoughts creation that normally involves remembering things, solving issues and making decisions from when a child is growing to the adolescent stage then to adulthood (Damon, 2006). The ability to reason effectively for a hearing impaired child is always challenged by several things. This is mainly because he is not able to learn communication which feeds the brain. For this child, his cognitive development is delayed and he can rarely make personal decisions. His vocational choices are additionally impacted as he utilizes simple wording. His language deficit is influenced by language and speech delay results into learning and writing issues. His academic achievement can be regarded as low despite the fact that he is very bright in other fields. His cognitive delay affects his ability to write because he is not able to construct complex sentences, for instance, those that are characterized by clauses. Due to the hearing issues is brain cannot develop normally because of the occurrence of misunderstanding due to the mode of selective hearing. In general, the child is very healthy as he has no complications that hinder his ability. His hearing impairment has not affected his general wellness.
Interactions
Caregivers should interact adequately with children with hearing impairment in order to develop their development abilities (Cole, & Flexer, 2011). For this child the caregiver interacts with the child through having long talks, holding, use facial and body language communication as they communicate or play such as smiling at him and ensuring that his needs are well responded to all the time. This, therefore, helps in controlling his emotions as he does not have to get angry in a no systematic form. Children and especially those with impairment require encouragement and care from family as well as caregivers (Cole, & Flexer, 2011). The fact that the caregiver involves more conversations in their interactions to develop language and skills of communication of the child is good. The child appreciates the aspects and that attachment that is created. This, therefore, ensures that the child is a very social person because the interaction works in developing his self-esteem generally. Attachment is an aspect of interactions that influences decisions and conduct of the child thus shaping each level of the general practice. Attachment is both an emotional and a social association that helps children to develop with the support of those that are close to them (Cole, & Flexer, 2011). The child has a good attachment to the family and through interactions an increased communicating activities, this plays part in developing his intellectual, logical thinking, conscience development, perceptions organization , developing coping mechanisms, health as well as lasting relations.
However, the child does not appreciate the fact that the family does almost everything for him. This, therefore, shows his capability to learn things because learning is more effective when one is faced with difficulties. As for the child, he faces no difficult as his family does not want him to be challenged. In general, be overprotected and spoiling him affects his general ability to grow. For the child this form of interaction makes him feel as if he is characterized by a certain disorder that hinders him from doing things as most of his peers. He does not appreciate this tendency because it denies him the opportunity of being himself. It is true that children do not have the capability of developing decisions on their own however at times they require their individual space. It is healthy for children to make individual choices fail and from there learn o how they can do things better. However doing everything for them denies them the ability to understand and gain experiences in certain matters. This form of interaction is not favorable for the child to develop, cognitive, adaptive, physical, communication, emotional and social, skills (Damon, 2006).
However, the interactions of communicating and forming attachment are favorable in the development of cognitive, adaptive,, communication, social, physical, emotional and social skills. This is because they are based on developing the general capability of the child to relate with others, recognize expression thus growing emotions skills and development of intellectual skills (Cole, & Flexer, 2011). This, therefore, permits the child to learn to listen and distinguish when and how some forms of expressions can be utilized. In addition, the child is able to adapt to changes that are bound to occur in his surrounding as he grows up. Through this, the child thinks reasonably and understands the responses of others which helps in developing better relationships with others. These interactions are beneficial to the child as he poses strong social and language skills which have been impacted by participation in constant communication. His physical abilities are adequate because he participates well in social activities despite his hearing impairment.
Summary and Analysis
The bioecological approach of human development is based on the effect that the surrounding in collaboration with biology holds on the development of an individual (Cole, & Flexer, 2011). This approach calls attention on numerous surrounding influences that affect the development of a child ranging from individuals to institutions that immediately surrounds a person to the general cultural pressures. This theory works based on the framework of the process, people, context as well as time (Shaffer, 2009). The process is a representation of the interaction between a person and the surrounding. The person is a representation of an individual or the students with his biological traits. These traits include age, appearance gender, intelligence, skills success drive and perseverance. The context and period part is the section of the theory of Bronfenbrenner that is most important to someone in the classroom (Shaffer, 2009). In this part, there are five organizations that categorize development influences. These are an ecosystem, chronosystem, macro-system, microsystem, and mesosystem. According to the theory, the personality of and an individual is shaped by individuals surrounding them. These events, therefore, begin with direct influence on the child and continue to progress until that period when the event holds minimal and indirect effects (Shaffer, 2009).
Hearing impairment is a minority condition in the society based on the recent statistics as the population in America is represented by 8% (Northern, & Downs, 2002). Despite the issue receiving increased media attention, there are still growing misconceptions in the community in regard to their education and social needs (Northern, & Downs, 2002). In an examination of the child in the light of the bio- ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner, the child is affected in numerous ways. His microsystem affects him both positively and negatively. This is because the family offers adequate support which helps in building his social and language strengths. In this, the child is able to socialize with individuals adequately. However the fact that the family is overprotective and spoils him much by doing everything for him hinders his ability to develop emotional ad cognitive skills.
The child’s macro-system is very sensitive and influential. The macro-system comprises of the distant and largest collection of individuals. This involves values as well as cultural patterns particularly the dominating values and beliefs. The child is from a Jewish family which holds very strong beliefs and values. Children and especially those that are characterized by hearing impairments require company in order to develop into grown humans (Northern, & Downs, 2002). For this child, he develops his skills through observation, working with people around him both young as well as old. Through this, the child is able to discover his abilities and develop them. His macrosystem, therefore, offers him opportunities to interact and develop his emotional, social, adaptive, cognitive as well as emotional skills. However, since the child is subjected to single values and beliefs this denies his general ability of development.
According to Bronfenbrenner’s theory of bio-ecology development normally happens via the progression of complexity exchange amid the kid and another individual (Lokanadha, Ramar, & Kusuma, 2004). The child is not exposed to different complexity since the family does everything for him thus denying him adequate exposure to explore and learn new things. His chronosystem is not characterized by many changes which impact his development positively. This is because the family structure is the same and the parents are in a way stable and this does not, therefore, affect his emotional and social development. On the other hand, the exosystem surrounding of the child is positive as the family and the extended individual's relations with the family are positive based on the fact that the child comes from a religious family that holds strong cultural and religious value of unity and good relations with others. This, therefore, impacts the development of the child in a positive way.
Recommendations
The child has not experienced many transitions in life yet. The child has the needs of developing is emotional, adaptive and cognitive abilities. Due to the fact that the child has a supportive and over protected family he has no need for social development because he feels loved, a sense of belong and he has a high self-esteem. These characteristics can thus be utilized in the development of his skills through the application of a need theory which is based on achieving self-worthiness. The child can thus be engaged in interaction such as per projects which will help in developing, emotional adaptive and cognitive abilities. In addition, the child can be subjected to more observation learning which can be achieved through social and classroom observation of the conduct and interactions with others.
In my opinion, I would recommend that developing the skills of the students requires a modification of teaching strategies and interactions modes. The family should offer him enough support but this does not mean doing everything thus denying him the opportunity to learn. In addition, the interaction period should be increased and developed. This can thus involve activities such as taking notes and engaging in learning challenges which will help in developing his general skills of writing. This will work in the promotion of personal responsibility and the capability of making decisions individually. In addition, this will make it easy for him to understand things around home and how best to handle them through intellectual abilities.
References
Cole, E. B., & Flexer, C. A. (2011). Children with hearing loss: Developing listening and talking, birth to six.
Damon, W. (2006). Handbook of Child Psychology Volume 1. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Dash, M. (2007). Education of exceptional children. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors.
Lokanadha, R. G., Ramar, R., & Kusuma, A. (2004). Hearing impairment: An educational consideration. New Delhi, India: Discovery Publishing House.
Northern, J. L., & Downs, M. P. (2002). Hearing in children. Philadelphia [u.a.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality development. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
