Child Observation Reflection

Child Observation Reflection Brief notes on the venue/situation and age and gender of the child being observed (dont give names use initials or made up names for any individuals if necessary): What I observed: How I felt: Thoughts, reflections : The child was going homework related to concepts of math Felt good and I was happy that she was responsible enough to do her work Responsibility showed and she was able to handle the concepts well. I was happy to see this that she can grasp knowledge so well. She was able to pick up objects like pen I felt that her gross motor skills had come into being as she was able to pick up items This made me feel that she was able to do things independently without any help. Playing with shapes She was able to identify most of the shapes which was good and showed her skills This made me feel that she was able to do things independently without any help. Playing The Piano She was able to play the piano without the help of the babysitter This had shown how independent she is and how in rhythm she could play the piano Child observation This essay will critically examine the role of a social worker to observe a child. This essay will also talk about the ethics and the anti-oppressive practices in relation to care of children. The child I observed was named S who was three and half years old from an Indian Family. She could only talk in English and her national language as those are the languages which were taught to her. This observation took place in one day where I was told to meet her at a friends place. I was a bit curious and yet excited as this was my first time where I had to observe a child. She did not even greet me as she was a very shy girl also she was in the middle of her school homework. She felt very intimidated and scared to say any word. The only thing that was concerning was that S was not aware that I was coming to observe her. Thus here, one of the elements of anti-oppressive practice is to make sure that peoples rights are not violated. All social workers need to put the childs needs first and how to respect their human rights, which is right to liberty and privacy of a family life (Dalrymple and Burke, 1995: 57). I was bit unsure where to start and how I should make it less awkward for her and me. I was anxious to know what S might be feeling inside as a stranger had come in the house. It was good know that her gross motor skills and fine motors skills were in place. She was able to pick a pencil and could write as well. She was able to understand the different key concepts in mathematics (additions and subtractions) as her mother was trying to explain to her using soft toys to demonstrate the concepts, which showed that her cognitive development was probably quite advanced for her age. To understand addition and subtraction the child must already have been able to count and understand the significance of number values. While this was happening, I was looking at her and somehow or the other she got distracted and a bit scared because she was thinking what will I do or what will I say to her. As soon as her mother told her that I was a friend of hers the child had a smile on her face. She was happy, jumping for joy and even understanding why I had come here. She was excited to see me. There was some support given to S by her mother that made me feel comfortable, however I was thinking if I had observed some kind of anti-discriminatory practice where the childs feelings had not been considered. Later during the day, S had said a word to her mum saying what is your friends name?. This suggests that she was curious about who I was and why I was there. The mother sweetly with a smile replied that his name is Mahir and he is a family friend of mine. She smiled and danced. She was so happy and the grin on her face made me smile as well. Crystal (2010) believes that there are five stages of childrens language acquisition and that questioning begins in stage two even though their vocabulary is still small. Chouinard (2007) considers that childrens questions are an important part of their cognitive development and indicated five important points: that their questions must aim at gaining information; that they must receive answers that aid their cognitive development; they must be motivated to ask questions to gain information; the questions must be relevant at that moment; responses must aid their understanding and add to their knowledge. Chouinard (2007) adds that if children rece ive an unsatisfactory answer, they will keep asking. After a small chat took place she had a pacifier in a mouth. She was hungry as well. Sigmund Freuds psychological theory states that children do go through five stages called: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital stages. When she had her pacifier, she was going through her oral stage; also in addition to that this is a stage where the focus is more on the gratification of the mouth. It is also where the phallic stage takes place where there is a formation of superego and genitalia taking place in the child. Freud believed that a child could become fixated if any of these stages were not met (Parrish, 2010:59-62). He also said that a child could have three types of personality that could be ID, EGO and SUPEREGO which could become integrated during the stages (Berk, 2006). This helps to define the basic behaviour formation of an individual. Erik Eriksons theory is actually a step up from Freuds theory, but Erikson actually placed more importance on the psychosocial belief like a parent and siblings or even different cultural backgrounds than Freud did and less importance on the sexual urges to try to explain the childs performance. Eriksons emphasis on the ego adaptive of power was greater than the attention of ID (Parrish, 2010: 62-64). Also at this stage initiative vs. guilt occurs, which is stated by Erikson as being where the children assert themselves more frequently. They begin to plan activities, make games and initiate activities with other people. They can somewhat make decisions. If they receive any criticism or over- control by elders they do feel guilt and they do develop self-initiative as it is lacking in them (Walker and Karin Crawford 2014:31). A few minutes later, she was playing with shapes and she was able to define and tell which shapes they were. Yet, she had confusion between the shape of an oval and circle. She could not define between them and thus she was calling an oval a circle. Then her mother told her the correct thing by giving an example that a bangle is a circle in shape and a pear soap an oval. She then understood the difference between them. Then her mother told her to count the corners of a square and rectangle and she was exact with her answer. The doorbell rang and she had a babysitter who had come to teach her music and play games with her. She tried to call the babysitter by her name but she was unable to recall her name. As her babysitter was trying to give her hints she still was not able to guess her name. This went on for two to three minutes. She then said can I play the piano? The babysitter took the piano from the play room that she had. She was jumping with joy and said can I play Do Re Me?. Her babysitter was so impressed when she started playing the piano and she did so well by playing Do Re Me. She knew the exact tune and notes. This does show the different skills of the child and even how gross motor skills develop in them. Then the babysitter was playing and she was dancing away in one position as she was enjoying the beat of the piano. The babysitter told her to try and close the buttons of a shirt but she was not able to do so as she was not able to match the button with the correct hoop. It did give her a problem as she was not able to follow the instruction, which was simply that the baby sitter demonstrated for her how to close the buttons of the shirt. When she tried to do it again she did manage it finally. The mother and the baby sister clapped and cheered for her which led to a smile on her face. Then the mother gave S some food to eat. She was slightly able to pick up fruits and was able to eat them. As soon as the babysitter left she started to cry and I knew the attachment towards the babysitter was emotional but special so then she stayed for ten or fifteen minutes more, when she heard it she was happy. She does have the emotional touch towards the babysitter so then her mother said that she will be back tomorrow to come and see you again but she said no; she needs to stay. The attachment was strong and unbreakable. She heard a sound of a dog so we took her outside and she said the word dog. In reference to what Piaget said: For this child it was a pre-existing scheme as the child could assimilate the dog being a Labrador by seeing the breed of the dog. She was cheerful and kept pointing at the dog which gave me a smile on my face. The pre-operational stage takes place in the child which happens at Ss present age. This is the cognitive development that takes place in the child. It is the 2nd stage of Piagets theory of cognitive development. There is a phase where the child is ego centric which did show in Ss behaviour. She was decentring where she could not understand the meaning of why the world is a centre and they want to grab attention. They have all kinds of imagination which we cannot know. So the child did have such a kind of imagination which her mother and I were confused about because we could not understand what she was trying to say. Also she did look at the world from her own point of view which is called egocentrism (Parrish, 2010: 118). There is a good knowledge of knowing language that can help the social worker to know and help the child while they are talking. Ss language skills were good and she was able to say words like Mama or Papa. This shows how confident the child is. She was also able to depict and understand the difference when it came to colours, differentiating between black and grey or red and orange. In conclusion to my essay, I can say that this observation was fun and exciting. She was happy to see me after ages and she made me feel so comfortable that I was happy to see her. At the end of the session she had a smile on her face that made me also smile and I really enjoyed observing her. Knowing the different stages and applying the theory was really difficult but interesting to know. This really boosted my knowledge and confidence up. Thus in my essay I have said that anti oppressive practice is a important role for any social worker as to keep in mind that those who work with children need to keep the legislation of the child protection act and human rights in mind as they cannot be violated nor they can be effected in anyones life in any circumstance it is in. References Crystal. D., (2010) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Chouinard, M., (2007) Childrens questions: a mechanism for cognitive developmentMonographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 2007;72(1) 113-26 Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17394580 Accessed: 26/02/2017

Dangers of Consuming Too Much Sugar Essay -- Health Obesity Food

Drinking a beverage remains as the perfect way to quench one’s thirst. Each and every drink holds the feature of being refreshing, invigorating, and most importantly, palatable. Thus, countless people take pleasure in consuming drinks. If drinks were not as enjoyable, people would not be able persevere with the rest of their lives. The human body necessitates a drink every day in order to survive. On the other hand, a human can last several days without food. Multitudinous humans, particularly Americans, relish on self indulging themselves with food and beverages. Once a person stops eating or drinking in ideal proportions, it can lead to health issues. With this gluttonous quality, these Americans are on the verge on becoming overweight, or worst, obese. As more and more Americans find it pleasing and gratifying to consume food and drinks, the more the health issue of America is at risk. In addition to that, it is disadvantageous that companies nowadays are going overboard t o satisfy their customers. They attempt to make their company better than the other company, whether by revamping their food or beverages. Therefore, these foods and drinks are no longer as natu ¬ral or healthy than before. The pros of these new formulas include feeding one’s inner soul and being more succulent, piquant, and toothsome; the cons solely consist of significantly affecting one’s health in a negative manner. Considering there is a higher abundance of pros than cons, Americans simply disregard the cons. By ignoring these misfortunes, the statistical rates for American obesity have drastically augmented in the pass years. The sugar concentration found within these foods, and especially within drinks, prevails as the chief factor that leads to health ... ...wells http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm59e0803a1.htm?s_cid=mm59e0803a1_e%0D%0A http://men.webmd.com/weight-loss-bmi http://www.motts.com/ApplesAndHealth/Glossary/ http://www.motts.com/ApplesAndHealth/Glossary/ http://www.tropicana.com/#/trop_products/productsLanding.swf?NonRefrigerated/92 http://www.monsterenergy.com/products/monster-energy/ http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Products/Red%20Bull%20Energy%20Drink%20--%20Red%20Bull.com%20Products%20--%20Red%20Bull-021242751115866#/product-Benefits http://productnutrition.thecoca-colacompany.com/products/coca-cola http://www.pepsiproductfacts.com/infobyproduct.php?brand_fam_id=1049&brand_id=1000&product=Mountain%20Dew&or=md http://www.sunsweet.com/nutrition/nutrients.asp http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002403.htm http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/853.html

Representation of Women in the Action Film Genre – Marion Ravenwood + Lara Croft

In this essay, I will be looking at the representation of women in the action film genre and study the social messages that are constructed and conveyed by the media. The two media texts I will be comparing from are The Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tomb Raider. The female lead in Raiders of the Lost Ark is Marion Ravenwood who is played by Karen Allen and the male lead; Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones. In Tomb Raider Angelina Jolie plays the female lead, Lara Croft. Marion Ravenwood is seen as a typical action heroine.In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Marion unveils different characteristics about herself; for example Marion tends to be quite feisty. She displays this in the beginning, when we see Indy walking into her bar. Acknowledging that they had a past and that Indy left her, instead of being quiet, she goes and slaps him. Another scene is when she’s trying to escape after she’s been kidnapped and this opens another idea that she does not give up. This suggests that wo men, however stereotypically gentle and calm, can be zestful.However courageous, Marion also has her female traits. For example, when she’s in the Well of Souls and there are dangerous creatures lurking at each angle, she screams and complains. This different portrayal of Marion suggests that she as well as being tough, she can also be a female who’s frightened and needs a man (Indiana Jones) in this case to protect her. She is smart and uses whatever she can find, for example the frying pan, to protect herself and her man with.But at the same time, she’s also always getting into trouble because of her zesty self, for example when she refuses to give the gold medallion to the Nazis and nearly getting killed. Lara Croft is seen more as an unconventional action heroine. In Tomb Raider, Lara plays a British Aristocrat and is seen as a woman who likes to live on the edge and can seem as a quite stonehearted woman as she is very focused in what she does. The fact tha t she does martial arts propose of Lara Croft to be of a manly character by carrying and applying traits that are mostly used by successful.When Lara’s butler tries to get her to put on a dress, she drops her towel to reveal herself, which portrays her a sexual character. I believe that the media wants to convey that women can be seen equal to men and although usually underestimated, they can do a lot more than men can. On the other hand, Lara also is very emotional and we see that this is a great weakness of her, which is used against her. Lara is emotionally unstable by her father’s death and tries to take a big risk in order to fulfill her desire of meeting him once more. We see this when Mr.Powell emotionally blackmails her and offers her By this, we can see that Lara has a very emotional aspect in her, which is mostly seen as a womanly trait is the strongest and only thing which is stopping her to become a man. Lara can be seen as a positive character in the fact that she’s self reliant and successful in it, which Marion doesn’t prove to be. Looking at Marion Ravenwood and Lara Croft, we can see that there have been some major changes in the Representation of Women in the Action Film Genre. In both films, the female character is portrayed in a different way.For example, Raiders of The Lost Ark which is a film that was set in the 1936's showed Marion as a side heroine who was dependent on the Male Lead. On the other hand, Tomb Raider which is much more modern movie depicted Lara to be the main star and was independent and even though had a past, didn't necessarily need a man. As a common stereotype created for them, females were shown as smart but by using their brains – Marion, for example when trying to get Belloq drunk so that she could escape while he'd gone unconscious.In modern times, however women are also shown to be using their physicality and brainpower – Lara Croft could be used as an example as she was known to figure out the correct area to place the triangle and defeated the creatures that came her way. Female leads were much more believable back then as they mostly stuck to the stereotype built for them, however Female leads now are not as believable as they showcase more male stereotypical characteristics, one of them being physical strength.This As times have changed so have women's roles in society, and accordingly their representation in the media. The representation of women has improved as they have moved forward into a more equal society. Hollywood is a reflection of real life, and the point that the representation has improved because of society views, making it easier for the audience to relate in general, has proved this. Also, if an Action film has a male lead, chances are that the majority would be male audience as women are mostly not interested.But if an Action film has a female lead, there's more possibility of both gender audiences, as it would contain a bit of emotional drama that women would enjoy and the female lead would have to be attractive, appealing to the male gaze. This shows that Hollywood imitates what has been going on in the natural world. In conclusion, I believe that women in action films are positive role models if we’re looking only at Marion and Lara. Marion and Lara are both very different placed because of the timings

Phytoremediation Essays - Soil Contamination, Ecological Restoration

Phytoremediation Essays - Soil Contamination, Ecological Restoration Phytoremediation Introduction: In recent years it has become clear that some environmental chemicals can cause risks to the developing embryo and fetus. Evaluating the developmental toxicity of environmental chemicals is now a prominent public health concern. The suspected association between TCE and congenital cardiac malformations warrants special attention because TCE is a common drinking water contaminant that is detected in water supplies throughout the U.S. and the world. There is a lot of concern about the clean up of toxic pollutants from the environment. Traditional methods for cleaning up contaminated sites such as dig and haul, pump and treat, soil venting, air sparging and others are generally harmful to habitats. Some methods strip the soil of vital nutrients and microorganisms, so nothing can grow on the site, even if it has been decontaminated. Typically these mechanical methods are also very expensive. Most of the remediation technologies that are currently in use are very expensive, relatively inefficient and generate a lot of waste, to be disposed of. Cleaning up contamination: Phytoremediation is a novel, efficient, environmentally friendly, low-cost technology, which uses plants and trees to clean up soil and water contaminated with heavy metals and/or organic contaminants such as solvents, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and other toxic compounds from contaminated environments. This technology is useful for soil and water remediation. Mechanisms: Phytoremediation uses one basic concept: the plant takes the pollutant through the roots. The pollutant can be stored in the plant (phytoextraction), volatized by the plant (phytovolatization), metabolized by the plant (phytodegradation), or any combination of the above. Phytoextraction is the uptake and storage of pollutants in the plants stem or leaves. Some plants, called hyperaccumulators, draw pollutants through the roots. After the pollutants accumulate in the stem and leaves the plants are harvested. Then plants can be either burned or sold. Even if the plants cannot be used, incineration and disposal of the plants is still cheaper than traditional remediation methods. As a comparison, it is estimated a site containing 5000 tons of contaminated soil will produce only 20-30 tons of ash (Black, 1995). This method is particularly useful when remediating metals. Some metals are also being recycled from the ash. Phytovolatization is the uptake and vaporization of pollutants by a plant. This mechanism takes a solid or liquid contaminant and transforms it to an airborne vapor. The vapor can either be the pure pollutant, or the plant can metabolize the pollutant before it is vaporized, as in the case of mercury, lead and selenium (Boyajian and Carriera, 1997; Black, 1995; Wantanbe, 1997). Phytodegradation is plants metabolizing pollutants. After the contaminant has been drawn into the plant, it assimilates into plant tissue, where the plant then degrades the pollutant. This metabolization by plant-derived enzymes such as nitrosedictase, laccase, dehalogenase, and nitrilase assimilates into plant tissue, where the plant then degrades the pollutant. This metabolization by plant-derived enzymes such as nitroredictase, laccase, dehalogenase, and nitrilase, has yet to be fully documented, but has been demonstrated in field studies (Boyajian and Carriera, 1997). The daughter compounds can be either volatized or stored in the plant. If the daughter compounds are relatively benign, the plants can still be used in traditional applications. The most effective current phytoremediation sites in practice combine these three mechanisms to clean up a site. For example, poplar trees can accumulate, degrade and volatize the pollutants in the remediation of organics. Techniques: Phytoremediation is more than just planting and letting the foliage grow; the site must be engineered to prevent erosion and flooding and maximize pollutant uptake. There are 3 main planting techniques for phytoremediation. 1.Growing plants on the land, like crops. This technique is most useful when the contaminant is within the plant root zone, typically 3 - 6 feet (Ecological Engineering, 1997), or the tree root zone, typically 10-15 feet. 2.Growing plants in water (aquaculture). Water from deeper aquifers can be pumped out of the ground and circulated through a reactor of plants and then used in an application where it is returned to the earth (e.g. irrigation) 3.Growing trees on the land and constructing wells through which tree roots can grow. This method can remediate deeper aquifers in-situ. The wells provide an artery for tree roots to grow toward the water and form

Nicaragua

During the second half of the 20th century, Nicaragua saw more than its fair share of guerilla movements, of both the Left and Right. Extreme conditions (dictatorship, vicious poverty, foreign intervention) often produced extreme solutions. And women were active participants in the search for solutions in Nicaragua. In the case of the Sandinista guerilla movement of the 1960s and 1970s that would eventually topple the Somoza dictatorship, the role of women is well known. During the course of the Somoza regime, Nicaragua was characterized by a progressively more unequal distribution of resources as peasants were pushed off their land to make room for agro-export production. So many poor farmers were pushed off their land that by 1978, shortly before the overthrow of Somoza, more than three quarters of the economically active population engaged in agriculture could be classified as landless and/or poor (Mason 68). This had the effect of putting downward pressure on wages, especially as the main cash crops (cotton and coffee) were not very labor intensive, except during harvest. Many who had formerly been middle class peasants found that they had become poor peasants, forced to compete for jobs on the plantations of large landowners. A fixed demand for workers combined with a rising supply meant that wages were dropping but food prices were rising, creating an end to the countrys self-sufficiency in food (Enriquez 62). But despite the growi! ng misery of the majority, in macroeconomic terms Nicaragua was a success story. One of the most sustained runs of capitalist growth in the entire postwar period generated some of the periods most widespread and brutal impoverishment. In other words, it was not the failure of capitalist development that provided the economic ingredient for revolution-it was its success (Enriquez 79). Individual women responded to the structural crisis in various ways. One way...

Vietnam war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Vietnam war - Essay Example Evidently, the issue has been viewed differently as the books that will be discussed highlight. Some authors attribute the American to poor decision-making, and lack of support from the congress. Notably, several factors fuelled the failure, as this paper will indicate. Howard Zinn bases his argument on the origin, the course, and the end of the Vietnam War. Zinn sees the Vietnamese as an experienced side that had waged successful wars against the French and the Japanese. In his book â€Å"A People’s History of the United States,† Howard Zinn clearly manifests that even though Americans had the best technology and military artillery during the Vietnam War, America was destined for failure. Before their involvement in the Vietnam War, the U.S government did not seek the opinions of the people whom they represented (Zinn 440). As a result of lack of cooperation between the U.S government with her citizens in the middle of the war with a determined and organized opponent led to the inevitable defeat to America. The American citizens played a central role in the Vietnam War. It is during the war in Vietnam that America saw the greatest antiwar movements. The work of Howard Zinn, Zinn views the war in Vietnam in terms of failure and success. On one hand, Howard Zinn asserts that the American government failed and it was a victory both to the nationalists in Vietnam as well as the American Citizens who were opposed to the involvement of the government of the United States in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was supposed to end in the victory of America, and the spread of American Policy and supremacy. It never came to be. The U.S government, instead, settled for peaceful dissolution of the war (443). By residing in peace to end the Vietnam War, Howard Zinn further argues that the U.S government was sugarcoating defeat by the revolutionary nationalists in Vietnam. An additional author who has sought to discuss the same

Developing Business Processes and Operations Essay

Developing Business Processes and Operations - Essay Example Applying tools such as fishbone diagram, workflow diagram and decision matrix, it was found that appointing an editor will be the most logical and feasible solution to level the situation. Business concept had undergone a major change in 1980s. â€Å"It was the realization by management that the business and manufacturing processes, not the people, is the key to error free performance† (Harrington, 2007). Since then, organisations have been continually striving to escalate the business processes and related operations to the level of perfection as it has been observed through the 1990s till date that â€Å"stockholders are not looking for good quality – they want perfection† (Harrington, 2007). For the purpose of this research I have chosen a start up organisation which consists of three teams each handling a distinct process. Team A performs online journalism and prepares news reports for various websites; Team B prepares international tests preparatory tools and Team C caters management solutions to retail clients. The three teams are autonomous in their functioning and have individual team leaders. A separate business development team headed by the CEO looks after networking and client development. Team wise client allocation is determined through weekly meetings as well as on ad hoc basis. The company has been enjoying considerable reputation in its sector and is also planning to diversify its operations and services in other locations as well. It is in a growth mode and is looking forward to increasing its employee base in terms of the existing units and especially a dynamic marketing department. Following implementation of this plan the workforce is expected to be doubled over a period of 9-12 months. It is also expected that the revenues will be remarkably enhanced in the next quarter. The current business scenario