Nutrition

Nutrition

During teenage years body needs special nutrition. According to the textbook a teenage girl should consume about 2,200 calories per day and a teenage boy should consume 2,700 calories in a day. These calories depend on many factors such as body consumption, growth rate, and activity level. Today kids hate vegetables and salads but they love French fries and burgers. Due to these unhealthy habits mostly kids get way too much fat than needed and very little calcium and iron. Calcium is the most important part of the food that teenagers should be taking because their bone growth requires proper amount of calcium in the body, which can be taken by drinking milk regularly.

Fast food is the main reason for obesity, which can be seen quite often in our country. Parents don’t have time to cook food at home, so they like to stop by a fast food place and grab a burger for their kids. Today’s busy life is alternating the way we live our lives. People are busy in their careers and jobs; they don’t care what their kids are eating. Eventually, obesity is becoming the serious problem worldwide.

Friendship

       The most interesting topic to me this week is friendship. Friendship is a voluntary relationship between two people involving mutual liking (definition from the textbook). According to the text book children get understanding of having "best friend" by the age of 4 or 5. Two young children become friends when they like each other's company and like playing together. As time goes by, a friendship becomes deeper. Most of the children feel that they can get help from their friends whenever they need anything. They think their friends will keep their secrets, will help them when they need something and will do what was expected out of them as a friend. Children want their friends to be there whenever they need somebody.

         As children grow older more personal thoughts and feelings are shared with friends. Teenagers are likely to express their happiness over getting A grade and sadness for not getting good grades. Girls are more likely to have "best friend" than boys. Because girls are more likely to be worried about faithfulness of their friends and they don't ever want to be rejected by their friends. This is why most of the time they get dressed up like their other friends so they can all look alike.

         A friendship also provides emotional support. When kids are small, they usually depend on family members, when they are worried about something.  When kids grow up they also share their problems with their friends.

 

Creative Children

This is the most interesting topic for me in this week. The definition of giftedness is being good at music, dance and creative writing etc. It is necessary to provide supports from parents and teacher to the talented kids to make their talent even better. They need inspiration from elders constantly. According to Luther, Ziegler and Goldstein talented kids become much more mature than other kids and they also have less emotional problems.

In order to be even better at their talent, kids need encouragement from their parents. For example: A kid, who is good at drawing, spends a lot of his time at doing that and doesn’t like doing his homework. If his parents help him to take out some time for homework without scolding him, then he will develop a skill to do two things (homework and time) in his childhood. On the other hand, if the same kid gets pressure from his parents to be good only at getting good grades, then he will probably lose his talent as he will get older.

Parental influence on child development

Parental influence on child development

I think parents affect child development deeply. Most of the kids behave like their parents. They develop many qualities just by watching their parent’s actions. If they hear their parents arguing about some family matters, kids become aggressive and they don’t like socializing with their peers. If the parents are cooperative kids tend to become more supportive to their friends.

After reading the textbook (chapter 5), I learned that if the bond between child and parents is strong, then child becomes really good at keeping up with other relationships in his/her life. This is how kids learn how to behave well in society.

It is better for child development if parents take out some time for their kids. Today, parents are so busy that they drop off their kids at the care centers in the morning and take them to the baby sitter in the evening time. It is important to spend time with kids. When parents watch their kids playing with their friends, they get to see if their kids are behaving nicely with other kids. By watching these little actions of their kids , parents get to know their children even better and they can direct them  to the right direction on the right time.

Temperament

Temperament

         Temperament is mostly because of heredity but environment and experience can change it throughout the life. Many habits in our lives come by heredity. For example- twins share many characteristics of personality such as being active and responsible; on the other hand kids who are from two different families have different traits from each other. Someone told me if parents have good genes, in other words if they are punctual and social then most likely their kids will turn out like them. At first I didn’t believe in the impact of heredity on temperament. After taking psychology at high school, I realized that genetic transition happens due to heredity. I have actually seen that in my own family. My uncle who was very outspoken and social guy, his kids are talkative and they perfectly know to adjust with other kids. On the other hand, kids who are shy and reserved most likely their parents are shy too. Sometimes we can see the chain of same traits over many generations, which is quite interesting. Even though heredity plays a huge role in temperament, environment and experience impact it deeply too. If we look back in time, history tells us that mostly people who are successful they suffered through a lot of problems in their lives, have really fascinating tolerance to live through obstacles and have perfection in dealing with difficult conditions. In contrast, people who never had many problems in their lives, they get scared and give up due to lack of courage to fight with the storm of problems. If we talk about the stability of temperament it is different in every person. Mostly temperament depends on the heredity but can be impacted by environment easily. For example: if a kid is aggressive at younger age, then he is more likely to stay aggressive for the rest of his life. Parents treat kids based on their temperament. If a child is quieter then parents play indoor games with their children. Parents play outdoor games with those children who are active. Every child has its own unique personality and is different in his own ways.