Free General & Demographic Information Essay Sample

Brain and psycho-social development seems to be more prone during infancy. In the initial months, an infant’s actions reflect the “discrepant labeling paradigm” by looking at a different object and not the one being pointed at. However, by the eighteenth month, a toddler should already have the ability to seek out clues through gaze direction, in order to know the speaker’s intended referent (Reddy, year, p.253). They should already have genuine intentional inference, as they can already detect underlying intentions of simple and complex actions. This “action analysis” is the first step of development witnessed in toddlers, as 18-month toddlers should already be aware of the intentional actions of people upon objects, as they try to imitate. However, there are toddlers who seemed to develop slower than the other normal ones. This is the case of “Matt”, who was diagnosed with deletion syndrome from the day of his birth.

Matt is an eighteen-month-old toddler, who was the second son of his father, Alex, and his mother, Melissa, next to their five-year-old son, Alex. They lived somewhere in California, about 200 miles away from Premier Medical Center. They had many friends within their community, and were supported well, either financially, socially or emotionally. Melissa labored for Matt for about ten days until he was born, and it was then they saw that his skin had a bluish color, and he was having difficulty breathing. He was diagnosed to have heart problems, particularly deletion syndrome, mainly because a portion of the 22nd chromosome was lacking (Florida International University, 2015, p.2). This will have caused heart abnormalities, which may lead to problems within the immune system, not to mention breathing problems, abnormalities in the kidney, as well as calcium insufficiency within the blood. There is likewise possibility for low blood platelets count, some difficulties in feeding, loss of hearing, skeletal differences, deformities in the spinal bone, as well as gastrointestinal problems. The deletion syndrome is usually associated with developmental delays and learning disabilities, which are emphasized in delayed speech and growth development during the years of infancy.

Developmental & background information

Melissa is a part-time parent trainer while her husband, Clay, was a police officer having several promotions and excellent insurance benefits. They lived close to their hometown, so that they had all the support from their families—both social and emotional support. They also had many friends around the community, who offered them a $500 financial help for the heart treatment of Matt (Florida International University, 2015, p.1). They received financial gestures of goodwill and support, which overwhelmed the couple. They also received supreme medical assistance from the hospital, although the couple disagreed for Matt to have a genetic analysis. Still, although Matt survived the treatment, he would still face the symptoms of the disease, and by the eighteenth month, he was lagging in his motor and language development.

Needs, priorities, and concerns

Having some heart problems and the deletion syndrome, Matt would need all the support of his family, their friends, and the community. This includes the education department, since he would have experienced some delay in his brain and psycho-social development and/or his skills and motor development. Matt would also need some assistance to his health as he grows up, since people who have had the deletion syndrome were usually victims of schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and/or anxiety. Matt’s needs should be well provided for, either in terms of food, nutrition, medicines, as well as financial, social, and emotional support. The basic priority should center on Matt, so he may totally recover from his illness as well as survive.

References:

Florida International University. (2015). Matt case study. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from [website address].
Genetics Home Reference. (2015). 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/22q112-deletion-syndrome.
Reddy, V. (2001). Mind knowledge in the first year: Understanding attention and intention. In G. Bremner & A. Fogel’s (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of infant development (pp. ). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.