Create and analyze a fictitious case study of a child aged 2–5 with developmental challenges and prepare an evidence-based intervention plan.
Early childhood begins at the end of toddlerhood, at approximately age two, and continues until middle childhood begins with formal school entry at age five or six. During this period, there are greater changes in cognitive development than any other period of life. At the same time, family relationships provide individuals with their earliest social experiences. Attachment patterns developed during early childhood influence an individual’s ability to successfully develop and maintain peer and adult relationships throughout the lifespan.
Two major theories describe cognitive development in early childhood: Piaget’s constructivist theory and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.
Jean Piaget was one of the first theorists interested in cognitive development. Piaget proposed that cognitive development follows a predetermined sequence of four stages. Interestingly, Piaget conducted a substantial amount of his research observing his own three children. In their studies, Piaget and his wife transcribed detailed records of their children’s behavior (Lefmann & Combs-Orme, 2013).
Lev Vygotsky (1962) emphasized the role of culture or society in the transmission of knowledge and offers a sociocultural perspective of lifespan development, integrating social environment and culture. He is well known for the introduction of the concepts of scaffolding, the zone of proximal development, and the private speech transformation to inner speech.
Attachment is an important aspect of human emotional development during early childhood and throughout the lifespan. The family provides individuals with their earliest social experiences. According to Erik Erikson (1950), the key developmental issue in infancy is developing trust. The development of trust is directly related to the quality of attachment patterns. Much of the attachment theory is based on the strange situation, which is a measurement technique developed by Mary Ainsworth and her colleagues (Bretherton, 2013). There are four types of attachment patterns:
- Secure attachment.
- Avoidant attachment.
- Ambivalent attachment.
- Disorganized-disoriented attachment.
Other topics related to attachment include stranger anxiety and separation anxiety, intergenerational attachment patterns, the long-term effects of attachment, and the introduction of the concepts of mutual regulation and social referencing.
At this point, the direct application of attachment theory to the world of work may seem remote to you. However, attachment can affect an individual’s ability to successfully develop and maintain peer and adult relations.
References
Bretherton, I. (2013). Revisiting Mary Ainsworth’s conceptualization and assessments of maternal sensitivity-insensitivity. Attachment & Human Development, 15(5/6), 460–484.
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). Norton.
Lefmann, T., & Combs-Orme, T. (2013). Early brain development for social work practice: Integrating neuroscience with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 23(5), 640–647.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. MIT Press.
Create a simulated case study, relevant to your area of specialization, of a preschool child, 2–5 years of age, who presents developmental challenges related to factors described by Piaget’s or Vygotsky’s developmental milestones and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory.
Your case study should be 1–2 pages in length and it should describe:
- The child’s strengths and challenges.
- The medical, family, and social context.
- The developmental challenges that were evident in the behavior of the child.
- Individual and cultural factors that theory and/or research indicate could impact the child’s development.
- Any other factors you deem appropriate based on your understanding of the theory and related research.
To develop this case, you should:
- Explore theory and research related to early childhood development in the cognitive domain.
- Use either Piaget or Vygotsky to describe those age- or stage-related milestones expected at the age of your selected child.
- Develop your case by creating a challenge for the child in the cognitive domain in early childhood. Describe what the child struggles with not meeting the expected theoretical milestones in the cognitive domain.
- Explore, through theory and research, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of the various systems that can influence development. Describe the typical influences in those systems that would likely be most evident for a child in the preschool years.
- Develop your case study further by creating an environmental context for the child in specific systems in Bronfenbrenner’s theory. Include any specific issues that you want to explore through research, such as influences of a specific culture or ethnicity, specific socioeconomic status, family structure, attachment issues, and neighborhood context.
- Maintain a resource list of the materials you consulted to build your case.
Follow APA guidelines for style and formatting, as well as for citing your resources. Include a reference list of the scholarly resources you use.
Research
Complete the following:
- Research evidence-based interventions that have been effective in meeting the challenges of the child you described in your case study, from the perspective of your own professional specialization (as far as possible).
- Explain how the deficits in the cognitive and other developmental domains affect development in early childhood.
- Explain how the environmental contexts impact development and functioning.
- State the recommended interventions that align with your specialization.
- Include evidence for those outcomes from the professional literature.
- Explore briefly the literature on cognitive development over time, considering that early influences can impact development across the lifespan.
- Explain, from the perspective of your specialization, how the early cognitive challenges could be manifested across the lifespan.
- Explain how (or whether) this might help in understanding and determining an approach to working with an individual who had early cognitive challenges.
Use the APA Paper Template [DOCX] and the following format to structure your report:
- Title page.
- A descriptive title of 5–15 words that concisely communicates the purpose of your report and includes the name of the fictional subject. Be sure to follow Capella’s suggested format for title pages on course papers.
- Introduction.
- An overview of the paper contents, including a brief summary (approximately half a page) of the background information regarding the case study. (The complete 1–2 page case you developed will be included as an appendix.)
- Body of the report.
- The presenting challenges and primary issues.
- An analysis of how lifespan development theory and research may account for the presenting cognitive challenges. Highlight why the child is developing as described.
- A description of your selected child with attention to age-expected outcomes in cognitive development, as well as specific challenges the child has in not meeting those milestones.
- A description of the factors in the child’s environment linked to Bronfenbrenner’s theory that have an impact on their overall development.
- An assessment of the potential impact of individual and cultural differences on development for the current age and context described in the case study.
- Evidence-based interventions that have been effective in meeting the described challenges of your selected child, from the perspective of your own professional specialization.
- An explanation of how the deficits in the cognitive domain or environmental contexts impact functioning in other domains, such as social or emotional development (considering that in developing your case, the theoretical emphasis was on the cognitive domain).
- Recommended interventions that align with your specialization. Include evidence for those outcomes from the professional literature.
- Projections, based on research and/or theory, of possible long-term impacts that the current challenges may produce across the individual’s lifespan.
- Conclusion.
- A summary of what was introduced in the body of the paper with respect to the case study context, challenges, and interventions.
- Reference page.
- A minimum of five scholarly sources from current peer-reviewed journals, formatted in APA style.
- Appendix.
- The simulated case study you created in Part 1.
Example Assessment: You may use the Assessment 2 Example [DOCX] to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.
Your paper should meet the following requirements:
- Written communication: Write coherently to support central ideas, using appropriate APA format, and with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics. Refer to Evidence and APA for guidance.
- Length of paper: 5–7 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page, references page, or case study appendix.
- References: At least five scholarly resources (peer-reviewed journals).
- APA format: Follow APA guidelines for style and formatting, as well as for citing your resources in the body of your paper and listed alphabetically on the references page.
- Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 points.
Note: In graduate-level and professional writing, you should minimize the use of direct quotes. Lengthy quotes do not count toward assessment minimums. It is your interpretation of the material and its application to practice that is assessed.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
- Competency 1: Analyze how lifespan development theories and related research explain aspects of human growth and behavior at different ages.
- Analyze evidence related to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory.
- Analyze evidence related to cognitive theory.
- Competency 2: Assess the potential impact of individual and cultural differences on development across the lifespan.
- Assess the potential impact of individual and cultural differences on early childhood development.
- Competency 3: Identify evidence-based interventions to address specific developmental issues.
- Suggest appropriate intervention processes based on lifespan development theory and evidence from the literature.
- Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the psychological professions.
- Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
- Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
