Kelly will turn 5 this summer and will be a bit on the young side in the fall when he starts kindergarten. The school where Kelly will attend kindergarten has started a kindergarten prep session over the summer that lasts for a couple of weeks and involves group as well as individual work on letters, numbers, etc. You enroll Kelly at the age of 4 years, 10 months. He is assessed by one of the kindergarten teachers, who observes him during free play and tests Kelly one-on-one. Then the teacher sits down with you and your partner and gives the following report:
The teacher thought Kelly was doing well with the peer group. He made several little friends in the kindergarten prep session.
He could read a few short words and write his name and could name most of the letters on sight at the time of testing. He also showed an age-appropriate understanding of phonological awareness (e.g., deciding whether two words started with the same sound, picking out the two words that rhymed from a list of three words). The teacher recommended continuing to enjoy reading and writing activities - Kelly was well-prepared for literacy activities in kindergarten.
The teacher noted that Kelly had no difficulty adapting to the "practice" kindergarten activities the children were asked to do. Kelly was generally cooperative, avoided getting distracted, and stayed on task. Kelly did not get upset when mild stress occurred (such as an instruction to hurry up). The teacher recommended that Kelly be given more and more responsibility for self management and care at home and at the preschool in preparation for kindergarten.
He performed in the average range on tests of vocabulary e.g., naming a picture and providing an antonym or synonym for a word), and the ability to retell a story. The teacher thought you should engage in more reading aloud, and encourage Kelly to tell stories, perhaps so that you could write them down and read them back to him.
Kelly is a bit behind where the teachers would like him to be in terms of being able to count, understand quantitative relationships, and classify objects. The teacher recommends computer math games, board games or dice games involving the use of numbers.
Kelly had a real knack for the art projects the teachers had the students do, and really got interested in the pre-math activities involving working with blocks and geometric shapes.
The teacher reports that your scores on the parenting questionnaire put you slightly above average in terms of affection and warmth displayed toward your child.
The parenting questionnaire scores put you slightly above average in terms of discipline and control exercised with your child
6years…Your job has been taking you out of town repeatedly in the last two months, and Kelly has been missing you. Your partner has been irritable because of all the extra family responsibilities during the absences

5 years old……
You all have a good time at Kelly's birthday party with other soon-to-be first graders. The kids enjoy traditional birthday games, such as pin the tail on the donkey, a scavenger hunt, and a treasure hunt with a map that you made up, and clue notes in various places around the house.
There are a variety of approaches to the study of individual differences in cognitive ability. Three areas that are commonly assessed by current cognitive abilities tests are verbal ability, spatial ability, and logical-mathematical ability. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences approach added additional domains of intelligence based on developmental and neuropsychological evidence: musical ability, physical/athletic ability, intrapersonal skill (understanding of the self or emotional intelligence), interpersonal skill (social competence), and more recently, naturalistic intelligence (understanding of the natural world). In the program, levels of verbal, spatial, logico-mathematical, musical and bodily-kinesthetic ability are preset to random values at birth. These abilities can be changed slowly by a large number of environmental factors. The behavior of the child at any given point is consistent with the child's developmental level. For example, a child with high musical ability in middle childhood will be enthusiastic and talented in the school instrumental program, a child with average musical ability will take up an instrument, learn something about music, but not become accomplished at it, and a child with low musical ability will be uninterested in playing an instrument and unable to carry a tune.
The student parent has choices whether to push the child in each ability domain, and in some cases this can result in steady progress. However, it is unlikely that a child at the bottom level of musical ability will attain the highest level by the end of the program. To cite another example, children who are low in verbal ability go through the language milestones (such as speaking in grammatical sentences) at a slower rate, and have lower interest in reading and lower reading comprehension later in childhood, than children of average or above average ability. Intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence are captured by underlying variables in the program such as attachment security, emotionality, peer competence, self control, and the three personality types. These aspects of the child can change somewhat more than the cognitive abilities in response to cumulative effects of social experiences and parenting choices.
Kelly is communicating in grammatically correct sentences for the most part, and has a vocabulary that's steadily expanding……You observed at school and were impressed by how well Kelly's teacher read stories. You find some books of interest to Kelly and read them aloud, using different voices to make the story more dramatic. You pause occasionally (like the teacher) to ask questions and get Kelly talking
Kelly really knows the routines now in restaurants and only occasionally gets rambunctious. Now you need to work on Sammy! Fortunately, she now has a well-behaved older sibling to imitate, so perhaps your task will be easier this time around.
Kelly cheats at games when he can get away with it. Sometimes when he gets caught, he gets upset and doesn't want to keep playing the game. You realize that Kelly hasn't developed a strong sense of morality yet. You say to Kelly, "I think you forgot the rules." Then, you remind him of the rules and keep playing. If he cheats again, you say, "It's not as much fun for me if you cheat," but you still keep playing.

You and your partner sometimes have arguments over daily issues. You notice that both Kelly and Sammy are aware of these arguments, and seem to be emotionally upset or misbehave for a couple of hours after the argument. Kelly is more sensitive than Sammy. You explain to Kelly that sometimes you and your partner disagree but you still love each other and love Kelly and Sammy

You occasionally help out in Kelly's first grade classroom. One thing you notice during recess is that the boys usually engage in physical activities in fairly large groups and keep the girls out. The girls tend to have small-group or even just one-on-one interactions. What little contact there is between genders usually involves teasing or chasing. Kelly is able to play with both boys and girls, but mostly plays with boys
You are contented with Kelly's current behavior because it fits in well with the peer group norms, but you also make sure he is aware of alternaKelly impresses everyone who hears him with his singing ability and ability to play songs by ear on the portable keyboard. The school doesn't provide instrumental music lessons until 3rd grade. You decide to start Kelly on piano lessons with a neighbor who is a music teacher and charges a reasonable price. You like this teacher because she is teaching Kelly to read music, to use correct fingering on the piano as well as to sing some of the songs by sight reading of the notes. Piano and voice lessons all rolled into one - and best of all- Kelly seems to love it.tive roles that males and females can play in society.
Kelly gets along well with other children and has several friends at school and in the neighborhood. He is one of the most popular kids in his class and gets invitations to other children's homes for parties and other activities.

-------------------------------------------------
Top of Form
You invite children over as well and they seem to have a great time. Sometimes you take them on outings as well.
Kelly's memory is getting better. He can beat you on certain memory games such as Concentration because he remembers where the cards are located. But when he tells people about things that happened to him, he leaves a lot of details out and sometimes gets the order wrong. You join in the retelling of the experience, prompting Kelly with questions, rather than just butting in and telling it yourself.
Kelly learned the letters and their sounds very quickly in kindergarten, and started to read some easy rhyming books in the latter half of the year. In first grade, he really seems to be taking off, and is reading first and even second grade booksBottom of Form

Kelly learned the letters and their sounds very quickly in kindergarten, and started to read some easy rhyming books in the latter half of the year. In first grade, he really seems to be taking off, and is reading first and even second grade books./////// You know that Kelly needs to have really good phonological awareness and decoding skills to be a good reader, so you buy a computer program that is a lot of fun and help Kelly practice these skills.///// You recognize this is part of the normal process of building up immunities, and do nothing special other than to care for Kelly when he is ill.//////////
Kelly is working a little below grade level in math and isn't particularly interested in science at school or at home.

-------------------------------------------------
Top of Form
You figure not everyone can be good at these topics, and focus on reading and writing and other academic skills
Bottom of Form One day Kelly's pet fish dies and you do the whole backyard burial ceremony. A few days later Kelly asks if you will die, and whether he will die as well.

-------------------------------------------------
Top of Form
You tell Kelly that all living things eventually die, but you also talk about how long people live compared to fishes, and how much older they look before they die.

Kelly has been imitating what you do more and more, even down to gestures and turns of phrase. He wants to hang around whenever you are doing anything interesting, such as trying to repair the plumbing (without cursing), or going to the store
You see Kelly's focus on the masculine role as a normal development and you go along with it, but point out as often as you can examples of variety in gender roles, such as female firefighters, male preschool teachers, etc.
Kelly seems to be generally very responsible and helpful, but sometimes he is busy playing when it is time for homework, dinner, bath or bed, and he doesn't want to stop the activity. You have usually given him "5 minutes" to finish up and he has been very cooperative about it.////// You are so confident that Kelly will follow the rules that you allow him to set his own schedule for homework, TV, bath, reading and bedtime. You feel this encourages Kelly to be more independent.
Kelly is physically active, enjoys exercise and seems to have some athletic talent. Based on Kelly's interest, you enroll him in:

-------------------------------------------------
Top of Form 1
Soccer and baseball.

Kelly grows serious one day and says something to the effect that you are about as "nice" to him as other parents are to their kids. He adds that you have about as many "rules" (i.e., you are about the same in strictness) as other kids' parents. You are a little surprised that Kelly is so aware of how other parents behave.
Kelly is about ready to finish first grade. Both parents are working full-time now, and Kelly's sister is in preschool.

You went to a teacher conference and the teacher went over Kelly's first grade report card. The report card uses developmental categories rather than traditional grades. Some of the results were expected, but some of them surprised you, and you decide Kelly's behavior must differ somewhat at home and school.

highlights of the first grade report card were the following ratings:
Consistently works cooperatively in groups, consistently respects rights and possessions of others, and consistently demonstrates appropriate peer social interaction.
"Demonstrates strength" in reading and writing.
In the comments section the teacher wrote: Kelly occasionally gets upset in stressful situations but usually calms down fairly quickly.
"Demonstrates strength" in the areas of speaking and listening and in content knowledge of social studies and science.
"Requires additional support" in the areas of mathematical problem solving, understanding of data and number concepts.
"Demonstrates strength" in the areas of spatial understanding and visual arts.
Kelly was usually appropriately active during recess and physical games, and appropriately quiet during periods of work in the classroom setting. He did not show an unusual amount of impulsive or distractible behavior.
Sometimes works independently, sometimes listens attentively and follows directions, and sometimes follows classroom rules
At 8 years:
Although you love your children, you sometimes find it helps your sanity at home if you have some down time or alone time. You know some other parents who say the same thing 1. Kelly has been taking piano lessons for two years and reads and plays well by ear. He also sings in a choir. Now he wants to take part in the instrumental music program at the school. You and Kelly try out the available instruments at the music store.///// You decide on the saxophone.////// Event Future

Kelly spends a weekend with the family of a new friend at their home in the mountains. They went sledding and snowboarding. Kelly came home and asked "can we buy a house in the mountains"? You smile at Kelly's ignorance of the family finances and answer, "No, but we can go sledding and snowboarding sometime soon."
Kelly enjoys drawing and designing things of interest (houses, cars, airplanes, etc.) and loves to work with his hands building models or things out of clay, papier mache, interconnecting blocks, etc./////// Because he seems genuinely excited about it, you sign Kelly up for drawing and painting classes at a local store/
Kelly has enjoyed soccer and baseball over the past two seasons, and wants to continue in both. You are serving as assistant coach on the soccer team and both parents practice with Kelly and alternate taking him to practice and games during the week and on weekends. Kelly seems to be healthier and more resistant to colds this year, perhaps because of the exercise
Along with his regular diet of Saturday morning cartoons, G-rated videos, and old sitcoms, Kelly has been watching some prime-time shows in the evening, and getting invited by friends' families to see PG-rated movies.///// You let Kelly watch game shows, sitcoms, and some police and medical shows, even though the latter are fairly violent or upsetting. You figure Kelly needs to know about some of these things. However, you hold off on the "reality" shows and rock videos for now
Kelly does very well in language arts at school. However, he doesn't spontaneously write outside of school assignments/////You praise Kelly for his success in school and help him to find magazines or books in his areas of interest
Kelly has a real sense of what is expected of him at home and at school, and follows the rules quite well. He gets along well with you, your partner and Sammy, and seems to have good friends at school, in after-school activities and other situations. Kelly's best friend is also a real likeable kid.///// You allow Kelly to set his own schedule at home for playing, homework, chores, TV and reading, within certain limits set by you
Since second grade, Kelly has been able to sound out almost any word, and now only occasionally gets stuck when reading aloud. He enjoys reading and looks forward to taking turns reading the story for the night with you.///// You look forward to reading aloud with him yourself and are always looking for interesting books. Sometimes Kelly declines because he is wrapped up in a book and can't wait to continue on his own.
Kelly is generally pretty good about homework and chores, but sometimes forgets, or leaves them unfinished. You don't come down too hard on Kelly for not doing the chores, as you are placing a priority on homework completion.
Kelly seems to be able to eat a lot without gaining any weight./// You figure Kelly is too young to learn about diet and nutrition, so you control what he eats at home, making sure it is balanced and not too fattening.
Kelly is usually cheerful and in good humor. He uses humor to deal with stress or just shrugs off life's little upsets. Very rarely, he runs across a problem that gets him really upset. At these times you///////sympathize, give Kelly a hug, and show that you will listen to Kelly whenever he wants to talk about these problems./// share a similar experience you or someone you know had in the past, and then listen to Kelly if he wants to talk about it.
You decide it is time for a family pet, so you:

-------------------------------------------------
Top of Form
Go to the animal shelter and pick out a puppy named Max
Bottom of Form

Kelly and his friends spend a lot of their time playing sports, roughhousing, or roaming the neighborhood on bikes and skateboards. They rarely play with girls, but Kelly seems more tolerant of girls than many of the other boys.////// You ask that Kelly reserve some of his free time to play with Sammy, and he generally is willing to play with her in the evenings and sometimes on weekends if none of his friends are around.
Kelly likes the role of big brother and plays with Sammy quite a bit in the yard on the weekends when friends are not available. It's usually a construction project (such as building a fort or cabin out of old boxes), or whatever sport Kelly is most interested in playing (little sisters don't have a lot of choice!).//// Sometimes if they seem bored on the weekend, you suggest a trip to the park, a hike to the nearby creek, or some other outdoor activity.
Kelly is struggling in 3rd grade math and whenever you try to help, seems to get frustrated and angry.//// You figure that successful experiences with math are the ticket to improving Kelly's attitude, so you work through the practice problem to show Kelly how to do it, and then encourage him to do all of the problems in the chapter or section assigned.
Kelly is cheating less often at games (or has gotten sneakier about it!), but recently he has been lying about things that happen at school, or blaming messes on his sister. You realize that Kelly is still at the preconventional level of moral development. You tell Kelly stories or fables about people who lied ("The Boy Who Cried Wolf"), and talk about how people feel when other people lie to them. When Kelly does occasionally confess, you praise him for telling the truth
Kelly is very busy this summer. He starts a lot of activities, null
Both parents are looking forward to the upcoming summer and spending more relaxing time with the kids. Both kids are also getting anxious for school to end. You get a call from a long lost friend from college. He visits and his two kids have fun playing with your two kids! Both parents were interested in having a relatively complete psychological test report done on Kelly some time in middle childhood and this seems like a good time. You take advantage of the local university's service of providing inexpensive psychological testing and counseling by psychology interns who are supervised by an experienced clinical psychologist. You have the report done toward the end of summer, just before Kelly turns 9.
Kelly has one friend who seems to be pretty free to hang out this summer and a couple of others who are available from time to time./// You let the friends come over, as long as Kelly promises to straighten up (over the weekend) the areas of the house they have used during the week.
Psychologist's report at age 8;11:
His scores were in the average to above average range in word reading, reading fluency, phonological awareness and spelling.
He was friendly to the examiner and remained calm and cheerful during the IQ and achievement tests even when some of the questions became difficult and frustrating.
These were some of Kelly's scores on the Verbal portion of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (where 7 is one standard deviation below the mean, 10 is the mean and 13 is one standard deviation above the mean): Information (11), Vocabulary (12), Similarities (11), Comprehension (13).
Kelly's scores on the math concepts and math application problems were below average, and the math computation score was slightly below average.
Kelly's scores on tests of visual-spatial ability (spatial rotation, copying of designs, etc.) were well above average, and the examiner recommended that you seek out drawing, design and building experiences for Kelly, depending on interest level.
The psychologist gave you and the teacher a questionnaire on behavioral and attentional problems, and reported that Kelly did not have unusual problems with impulsivity, inattentiveness or hyperactivity. He was very focused and maintained concentration throughout the IQ and achievement testing.
The psychologist interviews you using a standard set of questions about parenting attitudes. According to your scores, you are above average in warmth and affection toward your child.
Your scores on the parenting questionnaire indicates you are in the top 15% in discipline and control toward your child.
At 10 years: kelly is already adept at social networking. He adds photos to the family page every so often and sends messages to his friends.
Kelly is slow to grasp concepts in math or to work math problems in homework. As a result, he is developing some significant anxiety about math.//// You buy some math programs for the computer that help Kelly move along at his own pace, and give him privileges or rewards for sticking with the programs for at least a half hour per day.// You try to help Kelly see examples of how math is important in the world, so the two of you take a field trip to a friend's building site and talk to the surveyors and architects.
You and your partner still occasionally have an argument once in a while that the kids happen to overhear, despite your best efforts. Later, one of you talks to the kids about arguing - you say it's a normal thing for people to have arguments but then they need to apologize and make up.

Sometimes Kelly and Sammy's squabbles develop into a serious fight and they progress from screaming at each other, to pushing, and sometimes even hitting. If this happens, you///intervene and stop the children immediately. You make sure they apologize to each other before resuming play.
Kelly's fifth grade class is just about to leave on the fifth grade science camp trip (a week spent in cabins in the mountains). The fifth grade teachers have been preparing the kids for the adventure for weeks. So that the kids know each teacher, they have been alternating in the teaching of science units on ecology, astronomy, geology, botany and zoology. You seem to be more enthusiastic about the science trip than Kelly. He is more concerned about getting into a cabin with his friends than any of the activities they would do. You hope that Kelly will be inspired by the hands-on nature of the trip.
Kelly's 5th grade teacher left for the rest of the year on maternity leave, and the student teacher has replaced her. Kelly really likes the enthusiastic young man, but he doesn't seem to have control of the class. You feel the class will not cover enough material to prepare the kids for 6th grade (the start of middle school).//// You don't want to make waves at the school, so you arrange for Kelly to get some after school tutoring in math and science. You try to encourage his reading and writing on your own at home.
Lately, Kelly has become pretty conscientious about doing homework, except for occasional lapses. The teacher reports that Kelly is a cooperative and enthusiastic student///You provide a lot of praise for Kelly's hard work and continue to monitor his schedule to make sure he doesn't get overcommitted and tired. You ignore the occasional lapses or just provide a mild reminder
Kelly has shown some talent and interest in drawing and constructing things, and always seems to be drawing interesting cartoons and sketching faces or scenes. The art teacher even wants him to prepare a special work of art for the county art fair!///// You encourage Kelly's efforts by increasing his allowance, and giving him the option of spending the money on art supplies. This way, you can make sure he is really motivated to do it.
Kelly is getting quite good atbaseball and really looks forward to it, while soccer has become sort of humdrum for him. Kelly played on the "All Stars" team for baseball last year. Kelly's coach recommends pitching & batting lessons and joining a travel team as a way of advancing faster……
Kelly only has a few years before he would have to try out for a high school team. You take the coach's advice and dive into travel baseball, but you encourage Kelly to play all kinds of sports informally, such as tennis, basketball, etc.
Kelly and his friends spend a lot of time playing sports or roaming the neighborhood, but you've noticed they are a little more tolerant of girls lately, and more willing to allow them to be part of their soccer or basketball games in the neighborhood or at the park or school ground///ou good-naturedly ask Kelly if he likes any of the girls and he says "NO!" and makes a face. But you've noticed he is grooming a little more before going to school these days.
Kelly is able to concentrate longer on tasks than at age 8, although he has occasional lapses.////// You encourage Kelly to develop his own time management skills to get the chores and homework done.
Kelly seems to soak up information like a sponge, and has an excellent vocabulary. He can tell a really good story too./////// You encourage Kelly to write some stories and read them aloud to you and the family. Some of them are really insightful and funny (for his age).
Kelly is continuing to be a strong reader, and always seems to have a fiction book he is reading//////You sometimes read the same books as Kelly, and converse about some of the funnier or more interesting moments in the book. Sometime you suggest a book to Kelly that you think he'd like.
Kelly gets along very well with most people, is popular with other kids, and has a lot of social and other after-school activities.//// You encourage Kelly to join more after-school clubs, as he appears to enjoy the social opportunities.
Kelly has really become resistant to colds in the past year or so, thankfully, so you figure he has finally built up a lot of strong immunities. There is a bad flu going around, but Kelly has managed to avoid it, even though his sister had a moderate case of fever, body aches and sore throat./////// You talk to Kelly about how to avoid germs in the cold and flu season and Kelly seems to understand.// During the cold and flu season, you start giving Kelly some products that are supposed to strengthen the immune system, just in case.
Over the summer, Kelly wants to earn more money than the usual weekly allowance because he wants to save for a cool new mountain bike. You come up with a list of major chores that he can work on during the summer, such as pruning the bushes, washing the car, painting the fence, etc, and agree to pay him the prevailing minimum wage. You think this will be a good experience (if he will stick with it).

For his 11th birthday, Kelly asks for the latest multi-player 3-D video game system. You are amazed at how sharp the graphics and audio are once it is hooked up to your home entertainment system
Toward the end of 5th grade, the school began to transition the kids to middle school. This included registering for 6th grade classes, a trip to the middle school to meet the 6th grade core teachers (English & Social Studies combined classes), and a tour of the school. Kelly is very excited about the transition, but nervous about being a "scrub
Kelly is talking a lot during the early part of the summer about going to 6th grade. There are several urban legends about what happens to 6th graders. Kelly is afraid he'll be dumped into the trash can by 8th graders or tripped by 8th graders if he ever runs across campus. You laugh because there were very similar legends when you were in middle school! You reassure Kelly that none of these things will happen
Some highlights of the 5th grade report card (the one that is being sent on to middle school with Kelly's portfolio of writing samples, and standardized test scores) were as follows:
Consistently works cooperatively in groups, consistently respects rights and property of others, and consistently demonstrates appropriate peer social interaction.
"Demonstrates strength" in all areas of reading, and in spelling and "appropriate for grade level" in writing.
In the comments section the teacher wrote: Occasionally Kelly gets upset during stressful situations inside or outside the classroom, but usually is able to bounce back quickly.
"Demonstrates strength" in the areas of speaking and listening and in content knowledge of social studies and science.
"Appropriate for grade level" in the areas of mathematical problem solving, understanding of data, number concepts, graphical applications, and arithmetic computation.
"Demonstrates strength" in the area of art.
"Demonstrates strength" in the area of music.
Sometimes works independently, sometimes listens attentively and follow directions, and sometimes follows classroom rules.
Some highlights of the 5th grade report card (the one that is being sent on to middle school with Kelly's portfolio of writing samples, and standardized test scores) were as follows:
Consistently works cooperatively in groups, consistently respects rights and property of others, and consistently demonstrates appropriate peer social interaction.
"Demonstrates strength" in all areas of reading, and in spelling and "appropriate for grade level" in writing.
In the comments section the teacher wrote: Occasionally Kelly gets upset during stressful situations inside or outside the classroom, but usually is able to bounce back quickly.
"Demonstrates strength" in the areas of speaking and listening and in content knowledge of social studies and science.
"Appropriate for grade level" in the areas of mathematical problem solving, understanding of data, number concepts, graphical applications, and arithmetic computation.
"Demonstrates strength" in the area of art.
"Demonstrates strength" in the area of music.
Sometimes works independently, sometimes listens attentively and follow directions, and sometimes follows classroom rules.

Bottom of Form 1
Bottom of Form