RUNNING HEAD: MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

My Virtual Child Paper #3

Steven Clark
Ivy Tech Community College

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

The purpose of this paper is to describe the behavior of My Virtual Child for the early
childhood ages of three to four years old. My Virtual Child is female and I have named her Ava,
which I will refer to her as through the remainder of this paper. Ava is now eleven years of age
and the findings of this paper will be based on the sixth grade report card, the eight year old
psychologist report, fifth grade report card that were completed in the My Virtual Child Program.
Included will be examples from the class textbook and the My Virtual Child program to support
the behavior of Ava at the different stages of her development.
Based on Avas activities from six to eight years of age she has adapted to the social
environment and the peer group at school well. The extent of this adaptation could, in part, be
due to Avas temperament being easy going and quick to sooth when upset. This is both heretical
and environmental in development of any child. Her temperament can be affected directly by her
parents behavior, environment can amplify the genetic effects of temperament (Hane, 2006)
(Leerkes, 2009, pp. 306,307), and temperament may make some children particularly susceptible
to environmental influences whether beneficial or harmful (Saudino, 2012, p. 307). She exhibits
novel behavior to cope with school situations in an observed recess setting. The girls tend to have
small-group or even just one-on-one interactions. What little contact there is between genders
usually involves teasing or chasing. Ava is able to play with both boys and girls, but mostly plays
with girls (California, 2015, p. 12.14).
Ava is an intelligent child and above average in many categories when compared to the
mime intelligences in Gardners theory of multiple intelligences. Referring to her first grade
report card that states she "Demonstrates strength" in reading and writing, "Demonstrates
strength" in the areas of speaking and listening and in content knowledge of social studies and
science, "Demonstrates strength" in the areas of spatial understanding and visual arts, and

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

"Developmentally appropriate" in the areas of mathematical problem solving, understanding of

data and number concepts (California, 2015, p. 12.22). At age eight these were some of Ava's
scores on the Verbal portion of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, (where 7 is one
standard deviation below the mean, 10 is the mean and 13 is one standard deviation above the
mean): Information (15), Vocabulary (17), Similarities (16), and Comprehension (16). The
psychologist said these scores were in the gifted range. Her scores on tests of visual-spatial
ability (spatial rotation, copying of designs, etc.) were well above average, and Ava's scores on
the math concepts, math application problems, and math computation tests were in the average to
slightly above average range (California, 2015, p. 13.24).
Ava has been imitating what Mom does more and more, even down to gestures and turns
of phrase. She wants to hang around whenever Mom is doing anything interesting, like fixing the
computer printer or making a cake (California, 2015, p. 12.9). The text book may explain this as
children, during elementary school years, expand their knowledge of gender-stereotyped traits
and behaviors (Kail, 2015, p. 385). My opinion is that Ava is noticing more the difference of
boys and girls, and is trying to emulate the actions of her like gender role model, her mother. To
the contradiction of the typical female gender profile, she enjoys drawing and designing things of
interest (houses, cars, airplanes, etc.) and loves to work with her hands building models or things
out of clay, Paper Mache, interconnecting blocks, etc. (California, 2015, p. 13.7).These are all
things that are typically considered more suitable to the male gender in our culture. This
particular discrepancy, in my opinion, is due to the way we were raised by our parents and the
influence it has had on our parenting style to promote a goodness of fit for Ava and her interests
and not ours.

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

Ava has been consistent in all areas of her academic development and is above average in
all subjects at age eleven. She has no problems that affect school work, such as dyslexia, ADHD,
or low levels of verbal, mathematical/scientific or spatial ability. Some examples are from her
fifth grade report card that state she "Demonstrates strength" in all areas of reading, and in
spelling and "appropriate for grade level" in writing, in the areas of speaking and listening and in
content knowledge of social studies and science, in the areas of mathematical problem solving,
understanding of data, number concepts, graphical applications, and arithmetic computation, in
the area of art, and "Appropriate for grade level" in the area of music (California, 2015, p.
14.20). To promote healthy academic growth we often read to and with Ava, as well as,
incorporate trips to the museum or library to assist in keeping her interest in academics.
Sometimes Ava and her sister Betsy's squabbles develop into a serious fight and they
progress from screaming at each other, to pushing, and sometimes even hitting. This is normal
sibling rivalry and is easily diffused by parental intervention and discussion when it occurs, in
my opinion. Her fifth grade teacher did state on her report card that occasionally Ava gets upset
during stressful situations inside or outside the classroom, but usually is able to bounce back
quickly (California, 2015, p. 14.20). This again, in my opinion, is normal healthy development in
a child of this age. She does not have outbursts or extended tantrums that would cause any
assumptions of problems socially or emotionally. This could also be a result of the way that Ava
has been raised with a loving strictness that was noted in the My Virtual Child Program. She
stated: you are "nicer" to her than other parents are to their kids. She adds that you have more
"rules" (i.e., you are stricter) than other kids' parents (California, 2015, p. 12.19).
The parenting style for Ava has been a combination of authoritative and permissive. This
would be a definite set of rules for behavior but not entirely strict, with a concentration on

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

warmth and acceptance. This would be corroborated by Avas statement in the previous
paragraph. The teacher reports that our scores on the parenting questionnaire put us in the top
15% in terms of affection and warmth displayed toward our child. The parenting questionnaire
scores put us in the top 15% in terms of control and discipline exercised with our child
(California, 2015, p. 13.24) this would seem to confirm our parenting style from the virtual child
program four year assessment. Parenting technique has only changed since preschool in that now
Ava has to be more responsible with her actions with her sister as she gets older. This can be
used effectively because of this understanding and in discussing what the appropriate, or why the
appropriate, behavior is rewarded or punished causing a lasting more effective outcome.
Avas personality has not changed much since the age of four until now at the age of
eleven. Her personality would still be defined as resilient as defined by the My Virtual Child
program: refers to a child who is cooperative and follows the rules, is friendly, non-aggressive
and outgoing, is able to focus on tasks without being too distracted, has good regulation of his or
her emotions, and is adaptable to new situations (California, 2015, p. 9.1). The traits that Ava has
that resemble mine are certainly on of being athletic, and another would be an enjoyment of art
and building things. This is an environmental influence and possibly a small genetic influence.
Genetically she is healthy with no development or obvious physical problems that give her the
ability to do these activities with no hindrances. The environmental influence is the activities that
we her parents show interest in and she does those activities with us. When she shows an interest
in an activity we nurture that to help develop her interest to see if she would want to continue to
explore each activity further. In my opinion, the things that we show greater interest in may also
have a direct influence on her excitement and interest long term in the activity. I do believe that
the way any child is raised will influence, to some extent, what the children will take a general

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

interest in, and it is how the parents react that determines whether or not the child will pursue the
activity of interest.
The factors that have influenced Avas development from the age of six to ten could be
represented by Bronfenbrenners theory. This is that the developing child is embedded in a series
of complex and interactive systems divided into five components: the microsystem, the
mesosystem, the ecosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 2006, p.
412). For this paper I will use examples of two microsystems, one example of mesosystem, and
one example of exosystem. The microsystem consists of the people and objects in an individuals
immediate environment (Kail, 2015, p. 412). The first example of her microsystem is the
neighborhood play area in which, for no apparent reason some older boys on the block are
picking on Ava. We discover that the boys are brothers and that the parents are getting a divorce
(California, 2015, p. 13.1). This has a direct influence on her development of reasoning and
understanding of other peoples problems that may influence their actions. The second example
would be my partner and I sometimes have arguments over daily issues. You notice that both Ava
and Betsy are aware of these arguments, and seem to be emotionally upset or misbehave for a
couple of hours after the argument. Ava is more sensitive than Betsy (California, 2015, p. 12.4).
This is her dealing with a direct emotional issue at home that affects her development as well.
The mesosystem represents the fact that what happens in one microsystem is likely to influence
what happens in others (Kail, 2015, p. 412). An example of the mesosystem influencing her
would be: Ava's talent and interest in math has suddenly improved. It blossomed under the
instruction of a great 3rd grade teacher who handles math for grades 3 and 4. The teacher has
seen this happen before, and believes it involves bi-directional influences from the child and the
environment (California, 2015, p. 13.8). The exosystem refers to social settings that a person

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

may not experience firsthand but that still influence development (Kail, 2015, p. 412).The final
example of the exosystem influencing Avas development is both parents are working full-time
now, and Ava's sister is in preschool (California, 2015, p. 12.18). This would demonstrate the
outside influences that all of her family members go through that may influence how the act
when at home with Ava. This affects the people in her house directly, but also affects Ava
indirectly depending on the day that they had and their reactions to her at home.

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #3

References
Bronfenbrenner, U. &. (2006). The ecology of developmental processes. Handbook of child
psychology, 793-829.
California, U. o. (2015, February 22). My Virtual Child. Retrieved from My Virtual Child:
http://www.myvirtualchild.com/dashboard.html
Hane, A. A. (2006). Ordinary variations in maternal caregiving influence human infants' stress
reactivity. Psychological Science 17, 550-556.
Kail, R. V. (2015). Children and Their Development. In R. V. Kail, Children and Their
Development (pp. 44-47). Indianapolis: Pearson.
Leerkes, E. M. (2009). Differential effects of maternal sensitivity to infant distress and
nondistress on social-emotional functioning. Child Development, 80, 762-775.
Saudino, K. J. (2012). Quantitative and molecular genetic studies of temperament. Handbook of
temperament, 315-346.