San Diego State University Parent Child Relations Essay

Finish reading the whole Siegel & Bryson book and Ch. 8 & 9 of the Bigner & Gerhardt book before you work on this paper because these are where your cited course knowledge needs to come from.

Then interview a parent who has (or used to have) a child aged between five to 12. This can be your own parent. The interview should be about 40 minutes so you get enough data. Provide the interview questions ahead of time so the parent has more to share during the interview.

The interview data will serve as the basis of your assessment while you write up the paper, so make sure you take good notes during the interview (or record it).

Parent interview questions:

1. What is your first name and what is your child’s first name, age and grade? (Fake names can be used in the paper if necessary.)
2. How would you describe your child (now or when s/he was between ages 5 to 12)? 10 min

-Give the parent some prompts during the interview so the three developmental domains can be covered in their answers. (See pages 173 & 198 of the Bigner & Gerhardt book)

-Physical domain: nutrition, health, physical abilities, high or low activity level, etc.

-Cognitive domain: problem solving abilities, thinking/planning/organization skills, general reasoning and understanding, decision making, ability to concentrate on work, school achievement and abilities, creativity, etc.

-Socio-Emotional domain (general mood, personality, self-control, sense of responsibility, relationship with family members, friendships, etc.)

1. What is/was/are/were positive about your relationship with your child? Mention one thing from EACH developmental domain. 10 min
2. What is/was/are/were challenging while parenting your child? What have you learned from/about parenting your child? 10 min

-l Encourage the parent to give you several specific examples or incidents on the top of their head. Ask questions if there is anything unclear to you, as long as the parent is comfortable answering and sharing.

-l Ask about the child’s specific behaviors and the parent’s responses/behaviors during the incidents.

5. If you were able to redo it, what and how would you change about your parenting behaviors? Please give specific examples. 10 min

Please reference and cite:

1. Bigner, J. J. & Gerhardt, C. (2014). Parent-Child relations: An introduction to parenting (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
2. Siegel, D. J. & Bryson, T. P. (2011). The whole-brain child. New York, NY: Random House.