RUNNING HEAD: MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #2

My Virtual Child Paper #2

Steven Clark
Ivy Tech Community College

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #2

The purpose of this paper is to describe the behavior of My Virtual Child for the early
childhood ages of three to four years old. My Virtual Child is female and I have named her Ava,
which I will refer to her as through the remainder of this paper. Ava is now about to turn five
years old and has had an early development specialist to do a formal assessment and observation
at three, and assessed by one of the kindergarten teachers at age four, both were done in the My
Virtual Child program. Included will be examples from the class textbook and the My Virtual
Child program to support the behavior of Ava at the different stages of her development.
The activities that we have engaged in with Ava that may be promoting healthy
behavioral practices and an interest in physical activity are things like riding with her on a bike
around the block, playing catch, shooting mini-basketballs, and kicking a mini-soccer ball on the
physical activity side. On the behavioral side, we explain what behavior is deemed wrong and a
time-out is the typical punishment, but when her behavior is good praise and/or a reward is given
with an explanation of why. This is known as operant conditioning, in which the consequences of
behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated, through reinforcement or punishment by B.
F. Skinner (1904-1990) (Kail, 2015, p. 10). The early development specialist from the virtual
child program stated that; Ava was cooperative and friendly with both adults and other children,
and able to focus well on tasks. She was also self-confident in novel social situations and seemed
to be well-liked by several children (California, 2015, p. 9.25).
Avas cognitive and language skills are at age appropriate to above average levels at her
current age. At the age four assessments she has been above average on tests of vocabulary and
above average on language comprehension and production tests at three. This could be due to
making a conscious effort in talking with Ava when reading books to her and asking questions

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during the reading as well. She performed above average in copying designs, solving picture
puzzles, and building block towers to match one made by the examiner (California, 2015, p.
9.25) which could be due to the encouragement of playing with blocks and buildable train sets
that she seems to enjoy doing. Ava's gross motor skills are above average, for example, climbing,
riding on trikes, kicking balls and playing catch (California, 2015, p. 9.25). This would be due to
playing with Ava in games of catch, kicking games, or riding bikes with her. Ava had a real
knack for the art projects the teachers had the students do, and really got interested in the premath activities involving working with blocks and geometric shapes (California, 2015, p. 10.17).
At this time Ava is adapting to social situations outside of the home better than in the
home. This is due to the addition of her baby sister Betsy, whom she is jealous of at times and is
learning to share time with our attention. At this time Ava does not have any behavioral problems
that would not be classified as normal for her age. The teacher thought Ava was doing well with
the peer group and she made several little friends in the kindergarten prep session. She had
several little friends in the preschool and was somewhat of a group leader in free play activities,
such as imaginary play or riding trikes (California, 2015, p. 9.25). She occasionally shows signs
of jealousy, such as taking her sister's toys and is also showing regressive behavior like temper
tantrums and thumb-sucking. This is likely due to attention given to her sister Betsy that she was
accustomed to getting before her arrival. We are addressing this by getting Ava more involved
with helping to care for her sister with us and spending more one-on-one time with her.
The parenting style for Ava has been a combination of authoritative and permissive. This
would be a definite set of rules for behavior but not entirely strict, with a concentration on
warmth and acceptance. The teacher reports that our scores on the parenting questionnaire put us
in the top 15% in terms of affection and warmth displayed toward our child. The parenting

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #2

questionnaire scores put us in the top 15% in terms of control and discipline exercised with our
child (California, 2015, p. 10.17) this would seem to confirm our parenting style from the virtual
child program four year assessment. Parenting technique has only changed since infancy in that
now Ava has a better understanding of reward and punishment of behaviors. This can be used
effectively because of this understanding and in discussing what the appropriate, or why the
appropriate, behavior is rewarded or punished causing a lasting more effective outcome.
At age four Ava has had some changes in cognitive and language ability since infancy.
Some examples of this are things like; blaming her imaginary friend for messes or accidents that
look like her work, or that she now loves to name colors, letters and animals whenever and
wherever she sees them, and Ava is getting rigid about gender roles (boys play with trucks and
girls play with dolls) (California, 2015, p. 10.1). These are three examples of her gaining a larger
ability in her language by naming everything, and cognitively by understanding that boys and
girls are different and using her imaginary friend. Her rigid gender opinion and imaginary friend
would describe her developing a nave understanding of the relations between mind and
behavior, or theory of mind (Kail, 2015, p. 189). The gender opinion specifically would put Ava
in phase two of the shift in theory of mind. This is when behavior is based on a persons belief
about events and situations, even if the beliefs are wrong (Wellman, 2012, p. 189). Her naming
everything could be attributed to joint attention, where children learn new words when they are
used in ongoing conversation and when they overhear others use novel words (Shneidman, 2012,
p. 269).
Avas personality at this age would be defined as resilient. The definition according to the
My Virtual Child program: refers to a child who is cooperative and follows the rules, is friendly,
non-aggressive and outgoing, is able to focus on tasks without being too distracted, has good

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regulation of his or her emotions, and is adaptable to new situations (California, 2015, p. 9.1).
This would be supported by the testing situation and the observations at the preschool when she
was three stating that Ava was cooperative and friendly with both adults and other children, and
able to focus well on tasks. Ava was quite self-confident in novel social situations and seemed to
be well-liked by several children. She had several little friends in the preschool and was
somewhat of a group leader in free play activities, such as imaginary play or riding trikes
(California, 2015, p. 9.25) and the teacher thought Ava was doing well with the peer group, she
made several little friends in the kindergarten prep session at age four (California, 2015, p.
10.17).
Ava has since infancy been generally calm, in a good mood, and is easy to soothe when
upset (California, 2015, p. 2.10), to current, as stated in the paragraph above, being cooperative
and friendly with both adults and other children. This demonstrates the continuity of her attitude
and temperament from infancy until now. An example of discontinuity would be at three months
of age she would cry when introduced to new people or situations (California, 2015, p. 2.3), and
now at four years of age, she enjoys your company, but is also able to play alone or in a group of
other children or adults without needing to check in too often with you (California, 2015, p.
10.11). The reason for the change in behavior would be an effort to have Ava introduced to new
people and situations after noticing standoffish attitude when in new surroundings or situations at
the age of eighteen months (California, 2015, p. 6.8) in the virtual child program. The continuity
of her attitude may be from the nurturing of our parenting style in that the developmental
specialist reported that our scores indicate we are currently somewhat above average in warmth
and affection shared with Ava (California, 2015, p. 9.25) and a later observation that was

MY VIRTUAL CHILD PAPER #2

mentioned earlier in this paper that we were in the top 15% in terms of affection and warmth
toward Ava.
My parenting style is a direct result of how I was raised by my parents and the
retrospection of how other children that I grew up with were raised by differently by their
parents. This would cover a time frame from my age at six until eighteen, or end of high school.
My parents were permissive with a definite disciplinary plan for behavior that was incorrect and
praise for good behavior. I had a friend two houses from mine that had very permissive parents,
and compared to my graduation from high school his situation of no consequence for any of his
actions was, in my opinion, a primary factor for him not completing high school and dropping
out. The friend of mine that lived four houses from me had very strict authoritarian parents with
very little praise and severe punishment for misbehavior. I am very sad to say at the age of
seventeen he took his own life by hanging. I do believe that the parenting style of his parents was
not conducive to him and was the primary reason for his suicide. These three examples are what
I base my parenting style on and are at the forefront of my thinking often when making
important decisions regarding the raising of all my children, including Ava.

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Bibliography
California, U. o. (2015, February 22). My Virtual Child. Retrieved from My Virtual Child:
http://www.myvirtualchild.com/dashboard.html
Kail, R. V. (2015). Children and Their Development. In R. V. Kail, Children and Their
Development (pp. 44-47). Indianapolis: Pearson.
Shneidman, L. A.-M. (2012). Language input and acquisition in a Myan village: How important
is directed speech? Developmental Science, 15, 659-673.
Wellman, H. M. (2012). Theory of mind: Better methods, clearer findings, more development.
European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9,313-330.