An essay on my virtual child by Kara Lamb: The gender of my child is male; I named him Nathan after my real life partner. Like my first attempt the program gave us a girl when Nathan was around the age of 3, of which I named Marley. I did not seek outside help for this trial or have help from my real life partner. The application I wanted to focus on was language and how it develops over the time in my virtual child. In early infancy we start to see reflexive cries. An example of this,” Nathan's crying is rhythmic and moderately loud when he is hungry, wet, or cold. If he is startled” (Manis, 2008). Around three months I started to notice Nathan attending to many sounds “Nathan smiles at familiar people and toys, is able to laugh at surprising or funny things” (Manis, 2008). As Nathan is going in ninth month he begins to show Jargon, Gestures and final by twelve months he shows complete Holo Phrases, “nine months old, Nathan began to understand a few words and point to something he wanted. At twelve months old, Nathan now clearly understands a couple of dozen words. In fact, Nathan just recently pronounced his first clear word and pointed at the object in question”. After Nathan second birthday does he only begin to develop telegraphic speech but still struggles to understand simple directions and test below average even into his third year report card; “He scored below average in language comprehension and production” (Manis, 2008). To help with this I chose many options of reading aloud and talking regularly. In the preschool years Nathan transitions into the new environment and by the end test at an average level for his language comprehension. In the school years Nathan will continue to test above average, “These were some of Nathan's scores on the Verbal portion of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Information (9), Vocabulary (8), Similarities (8), Comprehension (9)” (Manis, 2008). However, after Nathan turns ten he has a serious brain injury in which I choose to keep him in school and have after school tutors which will help him keep on track and in the end test normal for his age in later report cards. The research I wanted to follow was nurture part with reading, imitation and reinforcement. I applied these in many choices, in infancy I would talk normal to Nathan so he would learn to imitate me. As he got older I would have him read aloud to help when scored below. Into the later school years I would apply the reinforcement by setting up strict rules about his school and chores, “You make sure that Nathan doesn't spend too much time socializing by enforcing the old middle school rule that all homework and chores have to be done before any socializing in the evenings or on weekends.” (Manis, 2008). The development of Nathans language skills was not typical in his infancy or preschool years, I few miles stones he skipped over or the program did not show and resulted in slow development but with applying some of the nurture explanations Nathan was able to overcome and become atypical. In my first virtual child I wanted to be an easy going parent and try to choose a lot of choice that I would pick in real life. In the second virtual child I wanted my parenting style to try to be an awful parent but the options do not really apply so I tried to play an authoritarian roll. I would take many options that would have a one way communication, let him know my expectations and also had a punishment if did not comply. In the early years this is was difficult to try this because of the set up of the program but as Nathan becoming a teenager is was easier to enforce. At one point Nathan even points out that I’m stricter than other parents, “Nathan recently said that you are about as supportive and approving of him as the average parent. He adds but you're stricter than other parents.” (Manis, 2008). I wanted to try this parenting style because in lecture we discussed a more positive outcome, “child will turn out more independent, social and less aggressive” (H. Snyder, lecture notes, 11/19/12). I feel as though this parenting style did give me positive response, there were less moments of struggle with school and also with situations outside of my control. Overall in the end I had the same good kid that ended up taking college classes.

Reference:
Manis, F. (2008). My Virtual Child (Version 1) [Online supplement]. Boston: Pearson.
H. Snyder, lecture notes, 11/19/12.