Social and Moral Development Case Study

1. The second paragraph lists a number of strategies that Ms. Knowles and Ms. Brophy have tried to teach social skills. Which one do you think might be most effective and why?

Even though a child leaves the 1st state of Erickson's model, there is always a need to be trusted. These students are young and need to be trusted by others around them. If a child feels self-worth it can be easier to trust others. In this case the teachers are trying to engage the children in Social Development, they are giving tasks to help the children interact between the environment and emotions, even if some children's emotional growth is stunted. This is why asking those children who are more advanced socially will ask a less advanced child to play. This activity only strengthens both parties being discussed. The more socially apt child is going to have a great Sense of Self and will not be uncomfortable asking the other student to play. If the opposite were to happen, the Self-Worth of the first child would inhibit social interaction, he or she would not feel comfortable in asking the other child to play. Having the psychosocially developed ask would help the other in turn develop just by the interaction between the two children socially.

2. The teachers occasionally use storybooks to promote discussions about social skills and making friends. How might children's literature also help them resolve one of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development?

A child has the ability to be shamed very easily due to the lifestyle he or she lives. Each child has a different temperament that affects the way they engage social interaction. Using children's literature a child can learn that characters in the story had to confront a situation and how that character learned and developed from the situation, they can bring imagination into play to aid in problem solving. In hearing the story and seeing the story develop a child will develop schema, schema will eventually aid in social development at a later time as they are confronted with a similar situation in real life. This could all be summed up with Marcia's Theory of Identity Development, it is an identity achievement when the child takes on the commitment to explore the realistic option and choose to pursue it. It could have all started from hearing a story when he or she was in the first years of school.

3. How might children's literature help them develop moral reasoning?


So many children's books have a moral to the story. Think for example: Where the Wild Things Are, A child is mad at his mother so he hides from her in the closet. He falls a sleep and goes to a land where he sees monsters and interact with them in a fairytale land. The Moral of the story is, Mom knows what is the correct thing to do and children should follow what parents tell them to do, even if it is something the child does not want to do. Children's books are the best way to enter into a child's imagination, but entering in the mind through a story, a child can develop morally without knowing what has taken place. Morality intertwined and weaved within each of us everyday without us knowing what is actually right and what is wrong. This is an heteronomous morality discussed by Piaget, in which a child views morality as rules set by others, Kohlberg believes this to be Moral Internalization; a process of gradually incorporating external moral codes as our own, this drives moral development. The external moral codes are given to the child in a book as it internalizes and grows into moral development.

4. The teachers read the children a letter they claim has been written by their friend Mr. Stone. What are potential cognitive, social, and moral advantages of this strategy? Incorporate ideas from Chapters 3 and 4 in your response.

Accomodation and Disequilibrium can be demonstrated in this situation. Children can't think logically about the situation so they have to search for schema they have already experienced in their lives to help solve the issue of the girl not having any friends. It is interesting what some of the students said to help solve the issue. Some said she needed to be nice, this is a typical answer for a young child because this is how they make friends, being nice is an assimilation, it just makes sense. It is a good way of helping a child reach Disequilibrium by forcing the child to understand different issues in life. A child forms an assimilation in assuming that by asking someone to play they will find friends, but if the child still doesn't have friends by following this schema then an accommodation occurs which will lead to disequilibrium which will force a cognitive growth. These students who are mentioning the things that Mr. Stone should do are most likely those who have passed the trust vrs. mistrust stage of Social development becuase they trust that by being nice to another child will undoubtably turn into a friendship. They are most definately learning the iinciative vrs. guilt stage of Erikson's theory in setting goals to be accomplished in obtaining friendship. We can see that the interaction between the teachers and the children are helping these children to grow and develop in many ways, they are forcing a cognitive development while mentoring the children in social growth.