Family Context and Child Development: Exploring Resilience Factors

Abstract

Assignment #2: Case Study of One Child’s Development within Family Context, 45 points The purpose of this assignment is to explore a child’s development within his or her family context. Within a specific contextual factor, you will be looking to detect potential risk factors or resilient/protector factors that are negatively or positively associated with the child’s family context and how those impact the child’s development. Also, you will identify resources and solutions to support the family—this is called your intervention design. This project utilizes a case study approach designed to deepen your understanding of how family context impacts child development, and how to design an intervention plan using community resources and other supports that can positively impact the child’s development. This Case Study has three parts: Part I: Family Context and Child Development (three sections), 25 points Part II: Intervention Design, 10 points Part III: Conclusion, 10 points Please label each part of your Case Study using the headings listed above. Your Case Study, not including interview questions and transcript, should be approximately 5 pages type written, double-spaced. Part I (25 points): Family Context & Child Development NOTE: There are three sections for Part 1 of your Case Study. See below. Section 1: Family Context In Module 2 (“Identify a Family to Interview”), you selected a family to focus on that has one of the following family contexts: Single-parent headed Low-income families, including Head Start families Having a child with disabilities Teen parents Low maternal education English as second language or comes from a different culture Minority One or both parents having severe medical conditions Family enrolled in public assistance or in social welfare Families with child abuse records Grandparents are primary caregivers Divorced families Re-married families Other Drawing from your assignment submitted during Module 2 (“Identifying a Family to Interview”), please provide the following (NOTE: it’s ok to copy and paste what you wrote for the Module 2 assignment for this assignment): An overview of the family (general characteristics) and which of the family contexts from the list above that the family has. Share a historical overview of the family context (from the list above). Your relationship to the family. The setting within which you interviewed the family. When/how you observed the child. Any other data collection methods used (i.e. interviewed teachers). Section 2: Domain of Development In Module 8 (“Domain Interview & Intervention Brainstorming”) you collated information from your work over the term to be able to describe the child’s development in terms of the domain (cognitive, language, social, emotional, or physical) you chose. In this section, please provide an overview of the child’s development in the specific domain (and how you gathered developmental data--i.e. through the interview, observation, or talking with teachers, etc.). Please plan to use citations and research (from class or otherwise) to support your claims about development. By your estimation, is the child developing typically or atypically? Are there concerns about development? Please describe in full detail your analysis of the data in terms of the child’s development (remember to focus only on the domain you chose). NOTE: It is ok to copy some of the content you used from your Module 8 assignment. Section 3: Family Factor/Context and Impact on Development In Module 4 (“Interview Questions and Focus Domain”), you developed interview questions for your case study. You also chose a developmental domain that you wanted to focus on for the purposes of this case study. For that assignment, you chose a family factor to examine in terms of how it impacts the child’s development (specific to the domain you chose). The factors you could choose from were: Single-parent headed Low-income families, including Head Start families Having a child with disabilities Teen parents Low maternal education English as second language or comes from a different culture Minority One or both parents having severe medical conditions Family enrolled in public assistance or in social welfare Families with child abuse records Grandparents are primary caregivers Divorced families Remarried families Other For this section, please describe the following: What family factor did you choose and why? What did you learn about the factor in terms of this particular family? Review your interview data and describe here how the factor you chose intersects with the family category and how, together, they impact (positively or negatively) the child’s developmental domain. For example, if you chose 1) divorced families as your category, 2) couple relationship as your factor, and 3) language development as your domain of development, you would describe how the parent’s divorce and current relationship appears to be negatively or positively impacting the child’s language development. Maybe one parent doesn’t interact with the child because there is a strained relationship between the parents—how does this appear to impact the child (based on your observations and interviews)? Do you see evidence of an impact on language development? Perhaps the estranged parent is bilingual? You might notice an impact with the child’s bilingualism (or lack thereof). Your questions and observation of the child should have led you to...