Weaver Girls Cognitive Development

Four young girls that I babysit for, Mackenzie, Maggie, Meredith and Morgan, are sisters of varying ages and developmental levels. Mackenzie is eight years old, Maggie is six years old, Meredith is three years old and Morgan is sixteen months old. Each girl is at a different stage in cognitive, physical, mental, social and emotional development. I have babysat for the girls for four years now and was able to watch them grow and change in many different ways. Since they are from the same family, I was also able to see how nature and nurture played into their development. Different ages of children will be at a different stage of development and the four Weaver girls display it the different stages.

The oldest sister, Mackenzie is a very active, playful, intelligent and talkative young girl. Mackenzie appears to be tall, for an eight year old, with long legs and seemingly proportionate body. She has a much more mature face, less chubby and is more defined. She has lost several baby teeth and her adult teeth have grown in. Her physical development is right on target and continuing to develop.

Mackenzie’s cognitive skills are really good. Her mother homeschools the two older children, and Mackenzie retains a great majority of the information she is taught. There have been numerous times Mackenzie was able to teach me something new because she could remember the lesson her mom taught. She also has an exceptional vocabulary and can have very intelligent conversation. Mackenzie structures her sentences very well and understands certain aspects of grammar.

She has amazing social skills and can get along with almost anyone. The display of empathy is great from this child. She is aware of what others are feeling wants ...

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...ll continue to increase as she grows older.

Meredith’s cognitive development is not nearly advanced as her two older sisters. Sometimes Meredith can recite a story to me about something that has happened, but most of the time she talks about things she likes. The vocabulary Meredith has consists of very simple words and she can form simple sentences. Meredith has a fairly decent memory and loves to tell people things her mother tries and teaches her.

Meredith has adequate social and emotional development. She is very shy and does not talk to many strangers. She is slowly becoming adapted to allowing strangers to comfort her and not always have her mother do so. She is starting to express her feelings and understand other people’s feelings. Meredith does not have a great sense of empathy yet. She throws many temper tantrums if things are not going her way.