As a public health major, I have gotten to learn about many different fields of health, as well as how important health education and prevention in school are. I have also learned about how socio-economic factors play a large role in people’s health and a child’s development. One of my favorite and most beneficial classes I got to take as a cognate for public health was PSYCH 420: Survey of Developmental Psychology. 

What I found so beneficial and important about this class is that I got to learn how to people develop through the life span and how it affects people daily. Throughout college, I worked at an after-school program for Charleston County School District. I found many of the concepts I learned in this class could relate back to many of the kids I worked with at school. One concept we discussed that I found I was able to relate back to the children I worked with was Erikson’s psychological stages of development. During my job, I was able to work with third through fifth-grade children (ages 8-11). Erikson discusses how in elementary school-age (ages 5-12 years) they enter a stage called Industry versus Inferiority. In this stage, school-aged children must learn new skills in both the academic world and the social world. They compare themselves to others to measure their success or failure. I saw this very often in my job where children were already beginning to compare their grades, outfits, or actions to others. In this stage when children are successful with dealing with the crisis, they develop a sense of industry, making them feel more competent and improving their self-esteem. When children feel they have failed in learning these skills, they feel inferior when compared to others. 

In my job I was able to help be a leader to children and help them cope with this. One thing we did was write at least 4 “excellence sheets” every week for 4 different children. (artifact 1) We would highlight a child’s name when we completed theirs. This would help each student get at least 1 a month, even one’s that maybe struggled a lot. It is important to help children see the good in themselves. Often times we dealt with many children struggling at home and their accomplishments weren’t noticed. We also had them complete a “choice sheet” (artifact 2) if they made a poor decision. In this choice sheet, we would have them write what they did wrong, why it was wrong, and what they could do better next time. These helped kids reflect on their poor behavior and how to fix it versus just having them sit there in time out. We did our best to ensure children were able to deal with the crisis they were facing, while also helping them feel loved and improving their self-esteem. 

In this course, we also learned about James Marcia’s theory of identity formation. In a response to a short essay prompt about this (artifact 3) I discuss how one’s sense of identity is determined largely by the choices and commitments made regarding certain personal and social traits. In my job, I was able to help children make positive choices that would later form into their identity. I was able to help foster children onto a good path while helping them have fun along the way. 

It is important to foster young children to be the best versions of themselves possible, and how to help them make the right choices as they become leaders of their generation. This is something I will take into my career. I hope to someday be able to educate young people on how to make better choices. As a nurse when I go through pediatrics I will know to be an example to young patients and how to treat them properly. I also plan to educate my peers on how to be an example to a younger generation and why it is important. I plan to treat my pediatric patients with the utmost kindness and respect, especially because when I do so it may even make them want to go into health care and become a leader in their field.