Amber Perrine
PSY 1100
Kwan
Ebony's Story 2
During Ebony's early childhood, she spent most of her waking hours discovering, creating,
laughing, and imagining. When Ebony turned three, Aimee and Josh realized that she didn't have
any siblings to play with and it was time to make friends with other 3 year olds. Aimee and
Josh's friends had children of their own that were around Ebony's age. So they planned on having
play-dates three times a week. Ebony's motor skills developed naturally from her active
playmates and space to play. One day, Aimee noticed that Ebony was drawing with her left hand
but would eat with her right. This was the sign of lateralization (CHAP 5, PG 167 Lateralization:
"sidedness"- certain functions are caused by either side of the brain, with one side dominant for
each activity.) For about a week, Ebony would constantly sing "Elmo's World", her favorite T.V.
show. This perseveration (CHAP 5, PG 168 Perseveration: When a child sticks to one thought or
action for a long time.) also had a negative effect. When someone would interrupt her watching
Elmo's World, she would throw a tantrum. As Ebony's prefrontal cortex began to mature,
Ebony's sleep became more regular, was able to pay better attention, and her temper tantrums
subsided. One thing that Josh thought was exceptionally cute was when Ebony would think lions
and tigers were not cats, just because the family cat did not look like that. This was centration
(CHAP 5 PG 171 Centration: Focusing on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others.)
Ebony's static reasoning was off as well. (CHAP 5 PG 171 Static Reasoning : When a young
child thinks nothing changes and whatever is now, will always be.) Whenever looking at younger
pictures of her parents, she did not believe that was them. When Aimee and Josh took Ebony and
her playmates to go see Barney in person, Ebony started crying because she believed "it wasn't
the Barney she knew." Based on focus of appearance (CHAP 5 PG 171 Focus On Appearance :
When a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent.) Barney wasn't the same Barney
Ebony knew because he was a lot bigger than on T.V.
At age 3, Ebony was a talkative and bubbly child who's language learning aided fastmapping and lead to overregularization (CHAP 5 PG 180 Fast-Mapping : speedy, sometimes
imprecise way where children learn new words by placing them in mental categories according
to their perceived meaning. Overregularization: Applying certain rules of grammar when they
should not.) She also was constantly asking questions about everything: "Why does it rain?",
"Why is daddy laughing", "Why is the sky blue". Aimee and Josh were providing scaffolding for
Ebony. (CHAP 5 PG 174 Scaffolding: Temporary support, to enable the learner to move through
their zone and learn new skills.) From this, Ebony learned how to look both ways when crossing
while holding her parents' hands, and learned how to tie her shoe from the traditional "bunny
goes in the hole" trick. Ebony developed a private speech when playing "tea time" with her
stuffed animals (CHAP 5 PG 176 Private Speech : When people talk to themselves, developing
new ideas.) Because Aimee was Japanese, Ebony was learning two languages at the same time
right after her naming explosion. So by age 4, Ebony was able to keep each language distinct.
Aimee and Josh then enrolled her into preschool. A year later, Ebony was diagnosed with
Asthma and because of this, Aimee and Josh took tertiary prevention (CHAP 5 PG 189 Tertiary
Prevention: Limits damage after an adverse even occurs to reduce the harm.) Ebony mastered
emotional regulation at home from the help of her parents so during school, she was friendly to
new acquaintances and had taken disputes with other children over toys pout fully. (CHAP 6 PG
197 Emotional Regulation : Ability to control when and how emotions are expressed) Even
though Ebony had a disadvantage with playing sports because of her asthma, the kids still
accepted her for who she was. Her self-esteem was high and she eventually gained self-concept.
(CHAP 6 PG 198 Self Concept: Understanding who he/she is, incorporation self-esteem,
physical appearance, personality, and personal traits.) By age 6, Ebony was interacting in
cooperative play and playing games with turns and rules. She also loved sociodramatic play
whether it was being Cinderella, or Captain Hook. (CHAP 6 PG 207 Sociodramatic Play:
Pretend play-acting out various roles and themes in stories.) Aimee and Josh had a great childparent relationship and quickly developed a sense of authoritative parenting. (CHAP 6 PG 210
Authoritative Parenting: Parents set limits and enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their
children.) Because of this, they were usually forgiving when Ebony would make a mistake and
there were great signs of Ebony maturing quickly.
Ebony's family was quite big and Josh and Aimee would have frequent family gatherings.
This limited time for television and more interaction with people for Ebony. With increasing
social experiences, Ebony developed empathy. (CHAP 6 PG 215 Empathy: Ability to understand
other people's feelings and concerns.) When Ebony did throw tantrums or do something bad,
Aimee and Josh did take many methods of discipline, such as psychological control, (CHAP 6
PG 218 Discipline technique by threatening to withdraw love and support and relies on the
child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents.) that overall taught Ebony moral lessons.
Ebony also had identified herself as a girl by copying her mother: playing "kitchen" and wearing
frilly dresses.
When Ebony turned 7, Aimee and Josh decided to move to California from their home in
Florida. Ebony had to leave all of her friends and move to an unknown place. She was enrolled
in Kindergarten and the first day of school was very nerve-racking for her. The first couple
weeks, she was very shy and didn't make a lot of friends. Aimee and Josh found out that two of
Ebony's classmates lived in the same neighborhood as her. When Ebony found out, she felt
relieved and started to play with them. One boy actually spoke Japanese too! So from then on,
Ebony wasn't shy anymore and played with her friends almost every day after school. During
school, Ebony showed a strong sense of selective attention by being able to listen, take notes,
and focus on the task at hand. (CHAP 7 PG 243 Selective Attention: Ability to concentrate on
one thing while ignoring others.) Automatization led Ebony to write her name quickly and
reading became easy as soon as she was aided by her mentors in "tracking the finger". (CHAP 7
PG 243 Automatization : When a sequence of thoughts and actions are repeated until it becomes
automatic, or routine.) Ebony's memory also became more efficient. She also learned how to
read by the whole-language approach (CHAP 7 PG 254 Whole-Language Approach: Teaching
reading by encouraging early use of all language skills-talking and listening, reading and
writing.) Because Ebony's Japanese friend was an ELL child, Ebony was able to help him learn
English and make him feel comfortable during school. (CHAP 7 PG 251 ELL: A child who is
learning English as a second language.)
Ebony was maturing and mentally developing very well. Aimee and Josh were happy to
see Ebony taking responsibility and exercising self-control. Not only was she able to feed
herself, but also make her own food. Ebony had chores at home and got a weekly allowance for
doing those chores. Social comparison was evident in Ebony and would come home telling
mommy and daddy about all of the kids who are in a sport. She felt inferior because she wasn't in
one, so Aimee and Josh put her in dance and soccer. (CHAP 8 PG 275 Social Comparison: When
someone judges themselves on the bases of what they see in other people.) Even though Ebony's
asthma conflicted with soccer and frustrated her, she grew resilience from it. (CHAP 8 PG 276
Resilience: Being able to adapt well despite significant adversity and to overcome serious stress.)
She overcame adversity from the support of her friends and parents and because of her
experiences as a bully-victim because of her asthma; she was friendly to the other kids who
would get bullied. Culture of children encouraged Ebony's brain development such as, jumprope rhymes and the "step on a crack, you break your mother's back" superstition. Ebony hardly
ever wanted to wear the clothes that her parents bought her and would sometimes come home
spouting curse words or slang because they heard it from their friends.(CHAP 8 PG 291 Culture
Of Children: The habits, styles, values, and behaviors that are passed down to younger children
from slightly older ones.)
By 10, Ebony was forming close friendships and seeking friends who shared her interests
and values. Most of her friends were from her soccer team or from dance class. Because of the
culture that Ebony was in, it was OK to lie if your fingers were crossed, but not if your swore on
something serious such as "my parents" or "my grandma". Through Aimee's and Josh's
parenting, they were able to teach Ebony right from wrong and Ebony was deliberately avoiding
racial categorizations.
So far, Ebony was a healthy and happy child. When she had bad experiences, she was
taught to overcome it as much as possible and if there was something wrong, to talk about it.
Aimee and Josh see that Ebony is gaining a great sense of morality and with involving their child
in sports; it has helped Ebony overcome any self-esteem problems. These years were a joyful
time not only for Ebony but for Aimee and Josh.