MY VIRTUAL CHILD

CAIDEN APOLLO AT 24 MONTHS OLD / 2 YEARS OLD

Caiden Apollo wants to do more things himself, so you let Caiden Apollo pick out a colorful new toothbrush and a hairbrush.

You have to help a bit with both operations in order to avoid bad breath and a bad hair day for Caiden Apollo!

1. Caiden Apollo has been fine at the home daycare, but recently a new child started. This child cries a lot and doesn't cooperate with the other children and the caregiver. Whether in imitation, or due to the added stress of the child's behavior, Caiden Apollo has begun clinging to the caregiver, and is sometimes uncooperative.

You talk to the caregiver and she will try to ignore (and extinguish) Caiden's negative behavior (the clinging) and praise the positive (i.e., cooperative) behavior.

• As parents, we will not tolerate Caiden's negative behavior. We are responsible of our child's attitude, with that, we will train him to be cooperative and to be good so that he will grow with a good heart.

Your partner is spending more time with Caiden Apollo lately.

Money is tight, because you are saving to buy a house, but your partner and Caiden Apollo have fun in inexpensive activities like going to the zoo, the petting farm, museums and the park.

2. Caiden Apollo seems now to have a goal of becoming potty trained and makes it to the potty about 60% of the time. A couple of other parents you know were bragging that their 2 year old was already potty-trained.

You try to give Caiden a firmer push in the direction of potty training by scolding him mildly for soiled diapers or an accident on the floor, and providing praise and little stickers when he succeeds.

• It is good for the child to be well trained, if he succeeds, of course we will give him a reward so that he will continue what he has started. If he fails, we will just try to correct him.
  
  

You notice that Caiden Apollo has some new emotions over the past few months. Some things you have noticed are shy smiles when asked to be in photographs, looking guilty when he breaks something, and embarrassment when he has a potty accident.

You realize these new emotions are related to his developing self awareness.

3. Caiden Apollo got scared on a recent visit to his cousin's house, because his aunt and uncle shouted at, and spanked the cousin (age three) for a misdeed.

You talk to Caiden right afterward, explaining that although sometimes parents get mad, they still love their child.

• We chose this because yes, we will explain everything to Caiden about why parents do such thing and also tell him that children should be disciplined so that in the future, they will be good people and that's where the creation of good people usually start, at home.

Caiden Apollo has been riding his "hot wheels" tricycle a lot lately, but recently has avoided it completely because of a scary accident in which he went off a curb in the park and got scratched up.

You don't push Caiden Apollo to get back on the tricycle. You figure he will get back on it when he is ready.

4. Caiden Apollo has a very close relationship with both you and your partner and has been exploring greater and greater distances from you, smiling and running back to share little things with you.

You push Caiden to be more independent by ignoring some of his bids for contact and assistance.

• Not all the time are we going to be there for Caiden and it is better if we teach him that not everything has to be dependent on us, but rather on him. Even without us, he can do such things and that he is capable of being independent rather than dependent.

5. Caiden Apollo doesn't mind the rules very well at home and seems to need constant reminders to carry through on things, such as baths, or picking up toys. A few times, Caiden Apollo has pushed you or yelled at you at home when you insisted on cooperation.

You think Caiden needs more time to learn the rules, so you keep explaining them, but you put him in time out for being aggressive.

• Although it is natural for children to become moody and have shallow reactions, we will still try to discipline Caiden to have respect for everyone, especially adults. It is also good to punish a child from time to time so that he will learn that what he did was not good and that it gave a negative side effect, thus causing him to change it to gain a reward or praise.

6. Caiden Apollo recently has become good at solving problems that he plans out in his head, such as how to get toys or other objects that are hidden or out of reach.

You provide him with lots of construction toys so he can develop greater problem solving skills.

• This is a good way to develop his cognitive skills. Through these simple toys, he will be able to solve the problems with ease and as he grows up, we will give him more complicated puzzles and toys to further exercise the development of his problem solving skills.

7. Caiden Apollo's communication skills are growing. He is speaking mostly in two to three word "telegraphic" sentences. His vocabulary is expanding because of his desire to learn new words.

You converse with Caiden as much as you can and read little books of his choice.

• We will let him read the books of his choice so that he can learn how to choose what he likes and what he doesn't. We will also ask him simple questions such as "What did you learn from the story?" or "What happened in the story?" so that he will be challenged to answer those questions and at the same time, he will also widen his vocabulary.

8. Caiden Apollo is getting much better lately at playing hide and seek and at searching for things around the house. You play lots of hide and seek games. Amusingly, when you find a good spot to hide yourself, Caiden Apollo uses that for himself the very next turn!

You have a clever solution: you will be the seeker and your partner the co-hider who reminds Caiden that he needs to find a NEW place you don't know about.

• Through this, we are teaching Caiden to think outside the box and widen his imagination and creativity. We are also teaching him to think quickly due to the time limit that I am imposing through this game.
  
  
  
  

  You just found out you are pregnant!

  
  

  You are holding off on telling Caiden Apollo for a while until the pregnancy become more noticeable. But sooner or later you'll have to face the inevitable question of 3-year old inquiring minds: "how did the baby get in there?"

  
  

  
  

  Caiden Apollo can remember recent experiences and provide simple descriptions of what happens, such as a trip to the petting zoo or the amusement park.

  You are impressed that his memory is working so well, and you suspect that he has had the ability to remember these experiences for quite awhile, but hasn't had the ability to express it until recently.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Caiden Apollo is toilet trained now, and rarely has any accidents. He is communicating better, but has difficulty understanding other people's perspectives.

  Caiden Apollo knows his gender now, and has begun to categorize behavior and objects as suited to boys or girls. He prefers playing with boys, but gets along pretty well with girls. You figure he is ready for a more structured preschool experience.
  
  

9. As Caiden Apollo will turn 3 in a few short months you "shop" for a preschool. One of your goals is to get to know some children and families in the neighborhood where you eventually hope to live, so that Caiden Apollo will know some kids when he starts kindergarten. This neighborhood also has high-quality public and private schools.

You are interested in high-quality developmentally oriented preschool program, and choose one where Caiden can start off with a morning-only program, but there is an option for an afternoon daycare program to 5 PM if you need it.

• As parents, we want our child to have the best education there is. Morning classes are much more better than afternoon classes because it will train Caiden to wake up early for school and be active at the start of the day. We also chose this program because if ever the both of us cannot pick him up right after his classes, he an always join the daycare program in the afternoon but we will fetch him as soon as possible. If possible, he won't need to attend the afternoon classes so that he can rest and still bond with us for the remainder of the day.

Caiden Apollo is going to be starting a preschool program soon, so you take advantage of the fact that a friend of yours is an early childhood development specialist. You ask her to evaluate Caiden Apollo, who is 2 1/2 years old. The specialist evaluates Caiden Apollo's language, motor and cognitive skills using some developmental scales, and observes Caiden Apollo interacting with other children in a toddler play group. This is her report: 

• Caiden Apollo was somewhat hesitant in the group of children and spent a few minutes watching them before joining in. After a while he latched on to a couple of the other children and had a good time. By the end of the session they were smiling and imitating each other.

• If there was a confrontation with another child about toys, Caiden Apollo could become quite possessive, and once even pushed and hit another child in the group and had to be put in time out. The specialist recommended you go along with Caiden Apollo to places where he can interact with children, and that you monitor the activity and coach or remind Caiden Apollo how to behave when necessary.

• Caiden Apollo handled challenging tasks fairly well except for an occasional need for encouragement.

• Caiden Apollo's scores on measures of language comprehension and production were in the average range, and he was beginning to show more consistent use in conversational speech of grammatical markers such as past tense, plural, etc. The specialist recommended you continue to converse about anything of interest to Caiden Apollo, read favorite books to him and go on outings.

• Caiden Apollo is about average in solving problems with more than two steps, and grouping objects together in categories. The specialist recommended that you help Caiden Apollo "talk through" the steps in solving problems, and that you expose Caiden Apollo to more hands-on learning activities (e.g., at the children's science museum).

• He is below average in copying shapes with a pencil, working with picture puzzles and constructing things out of blocks. The specialist recommended enjoyable and stimulating activities, such as working on coloring books and simple jigsaw puzzles together.

• Caiden Apollo's gross motor skills were typical for his age, and varied from slightly below average (climbing) to slightly above average (throwing and catching a ball). The specialist recommended more outdoor activities and games of all types.

• Caiden Apollo was able to focus on the tasks posed by the examiner, but his attention began to wander after about 20 minutes. The examiner said this was typical for the age, and took a short play break. She recommended that you involve Caiden Apollo in preparation for scripted activities such as bath and meal time to help enhance his ability to listen to and follow directions.

Mary Laurenz J. Barbaton, Ryan Cordova, Edel Rose Rivera

BSPT-2C