life span psychology

Student Name

Application Essay

PSY 1 – Semester/Year

Chapter: Topic

[TITLE]

Section 1: Observation

I have a cousin named Melissa who is close to turning five years old. She is full of energy and

loves to be near her parents, especially her mom. In the last few years, I have babysat her a number of

times and have been able to watch her grow and acquire new skills. She has always been an early

learner and started to crawl and walk a lot sooner than other children her age. After mastering

crawling, Melissa started to learn to walk with the help of her mom and dad. She was able to pull

herself up on her own to a standing position while holding onto something, such as a low coffee table.

Her parents would take her little hands or hold her under her arms to help hold her while she practiced

the walking motion with her legs. Her parents got her a jumper that had an elastic-like cord that hung

from the top of a door frame in their home; it allowed her to put more weight on her bottom half and

practice balancing without her parents being physically present. Over the course of a few months,

Melissa was able to get stronger and gain enough muscle to walk on her own.

Once she got moving, her parents became even more alert about leaving doors ajar or things

out they did not want her to get ahold of. Now that Melissa is a little older, she is starting to learn to tie

her shoes. She still struggles with completing the full motion of actually tying a bow but she gets close.

Her dad sings a cute song with her about how to tie her shoes and puts one of his fingers on the ties

after she does a basic crisscross before the bow. Sometimes Melissa is able to complete the bow but

not on her own. She gets frustrated, but she is able to do it with help from her parents some of the

time. For now, most of the shoes her parents buy for her are slip-ons or Velcro sneakers.

Section 2: Theory

Vygotsky’s theory of proximal development helps to explain how children learn new skills and

construct the world around them by interacting and receiving aid from a more experienced and

knowledgeable adult. The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is the phrase that he uses to describe

the activities and the tasks that a child cannot achieve on their own but they can do with the aid of

someone guiding them. The ZPD is a sort of a continuum between what a child can accomplish on their

own at the lower limit while the upper limit of the ZPD is what the child can do with the help or

guidance of an adult (Santrock 2012, 132).

Vygotsky also uses the term scaffolding to describe the changing level or amount of support a

parent or more experienced person gives to a child when teaching them. In the beginning, a teacher

may give a great deal of support when for example, teaching a student to read. They may choose to

start off by guiding the child by pointing to a word and helping them to sound it out. After the child

becomes more familiar with a word, or has enough knowledge to sound out the word on their own, the

teacher may help guide them by only pointing to the word. That would be an example of altering the

level of scaffolding; less support is made available to the learner when they are able to do more on their

own (Santrock 2012, 132).

Private speech is an additional concept Vygotsky believed was beneficial for the progression of

children’s cognitive as well as social abilities. Private speech is when a child or adult speaks out loud to

themselves about what they are thinking about; this might include the steps of a task or problem they

are trying to work through or it could be thoughts they have about something. Private speech is also

referred to as making inner speech, or private thoughts public through voicing them (Santrock 2012,

133). Vygotsky observed children who used private speech and found that they were able to work

through problems more easily than those who did not. He also found those who used private speech to

be more socially competent; this is probably due to the fact that the child actually processed a great

deal of their thoughts in their head to themselves before saying them to a peer (Santrock 2012, 132).

Section 3: Evaluation

I believe the observations I have made of Melissa are a perfect example of how her parents used

scaffolding and her zone of proximal development to teach her new skills. An example of the higher end

of Melissa’s zone of proximal development was when she was starting to learn to walk and was able to

take a few steps with the aid of one of her parents holding her up. The lower end of her zone of

proximal development was when she reverted back to crawling or when she was able to pull herself up

to a standing position with the aid of holding on to a table. Without realizing it, Melissa’s parents

assessed her ZPD to figure out how much support to give her so that she was able to get stronger and

eventually walk on her own. After Melissa was able to take a few steps on her own, her parents would

sit a few feet away from each other and encourage her to walk the few feet between them by holding

up one of her toys. They would gradually make the gap larger once Melissa was comfortable. The

adjustments her parents were making in regards to the amount of aid or protection they were providing

their baby with is an example of scaffolding.

The other example of Melissa’s parents assessing her ZPD to help teach her is when her dad aids

her in tying her shoes. The lower end of Melissa’s ZPD is when she physically puts her shoes on her feet

without the help of either of her parents. The higher end of her ZPD is when her dad helps her complete

tying the bows in her laces. Her father guides her with the task of tying her shoes by using a song that

involves the use of private speech. The song that they sing together aids Melissa in remembering the

steps in how to tie the bow. She now uses the song on her own when she practices without the help of

her parents, which is an example of how she can use private speech on her own to complete tasks.

References

Santrock, J.W. (2012). Essentials of Life-Span Development (2nd Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.