Pamela is a Caucasian girl, 3 years of age who lives with her parents in a bungalow house. Their neighborhood is quiet and away from any distractions. She lives with her American mother who teaches at daycare and her half-American, half-Irish father who is a corporate lawyer in a local bank. They are a middle-class family with enough resources in life. Pamela is the youngest of three siblings. Her parents believe that they need to space their family so that each can get the necessary attention and love in their formative years. I was granted an interview by her mother who happens to be a high school friend of my mother. I consider her like a real Aunt and she has been close to our family since we were small. In fact, Pamela is known to me since birth and her mother readily agreed to this child observation and testing when I brought up the idea. This happened at their house where I was free to observe her for three straight hours.
I observed Pamela be a strong and healthy child for her age. She possesses long arms and legs although she wasn’t eating much. She is able to “exhibit talents that children her age have been previously nurturing. Even if her physical development has slowed down a bit during this phase of childhood, she is encouraged appropriate physical activities by her mother to go out and play with the other kids her age during the day. Yet, she just loves to play almost exclusively with the other girls. She is a little awkward with the way she walks and this is evident as we come to understand that children at this stage have trunks that become thinner and longer—which explains the awkward movement.
Pamela is demonstrative by nature and she responds to the people around her with warmth and love. Pamela is an observant girl. She is also articulate enough to express her opinions on several subject matters. She is sufficiently aware to understand the need for cooperation. Pamela displays a growing cognitive ability. She is becoming more objective in her observations of her surroundings. Erikson emphasizes many of the social conflicts and personal dilemmas that people may remember, are currently experiencing, or can easily anticipate or observe in people they know. According to Erikson, at this age, children attempt to act grown up and will try to accept responsibilities that are beyond their capacity to handle. They also try to handle activities that conflict with those of parents and other family members. The successful resolution requires a balance requiring the child a sense of initiative with a maturity not to impinge on the rights, privileges, or goals of others. The family is the key social agent.
Pamela now had gone back to the house and was back at teasing her mother. In a minute, she ran out of the house again and kept playing with her remote-controlled toy car with the other girls her age in the neighborhood. I could hear their hearty laughter. They took turns in handling the remote and engaging in cooperative play. Andrea, her playmate, began to engage her in a rough and tumble play that made their remote car crash on the fence.
Though languages are highly complex, symbolic systems, children acquire the basic sounds, structure, and meanings of their native language in the first three years. All children follow a similar sequence in the acquisition process, which suggests that there is strong innate programming in human beings for language development. As I leave and say goodbye, Pamela at this point is practicing the word airplane as she holds a toy plane given by her mother.