Assignment 6

1. Ryann acts differently at home than she does at school. She is very calm, cooperative, and well behaved both at home and at school. I think the behavioral change is because of the separation and fighting between my partner and I. She has increasing anxieties and fears. Sometimes she wakes up frightened and wants to come and sleep in my room. Instead of getting her used to sleeping in my room I stay up with her and read her a story until she falls asleep. She's very helpful at home with her younger sister, she's not as independent as other children her age and she gets nervous about new situations. I provide her with emotional support but I try and get her to do more things on her own and I reward her when she does. At school however she is very friendly and plays well with both boys and girls. She's not the leader of the group but she's well liked by everyone. To encourage her to come out of her shell I have enrolled her in after school group sports. Hopefully my partner and I being separated will make her life a little less confrontational (as she often experienced most of our fights). Ryann does blame herself for the separation so hopefully she will channel her energy into sports and meeting new children at all her afterschool activities.
2. Ryann has improved in her reading and writing. Her ability to focus and not get distracted by her peers has increased. When she was 4 she would get in trouble for talking during carpet time, and now at age 6 she is appropriately quiet adn respect during periods of work in the classroom. Ryann is very good at reading, she is now reading first grade and even second grade books. She's definately gone ahead of the curve in reading. The only thing that she has a problem with is speech and listening. She is in speech therapy and hopefully she will learn to overcome her problems. She still isn't the best at telling the whole storing when explaining it to someone. I start to ask her questions in order to help her fill in the story. To help her improve her language and listening skills we are going to be reading lots of books together and I will start asking her open ended questions to prompt a discussion and help her recall and talk about what is going on in the story.
3. Ryann is definately going through the imitation stage and the make believe stage, which are both novel for her age. She loves following me around the house and sometime immitates me right down to the phrases I say. When we play games she often cheats when she thinks she can get away with it. When she gets caught she realizes that it's not a good thing to be doing and she'll get frustrated and not want to play. She is still consistant with her motor skills. We have enrolled her in sports such as soccer and softball, and I also play catch with her. This helps her with learning gender rolls and knowing that not all things are gender specific. Ryann has always been above average with her motor skills.