¶ … infant (birth-12 months old).
The observation is of Julie, the child of a friend who is 6 months old. Her parents are Jewish, the father is a Rabbi in the local Temple, the mother works as a physical therapist. The parents combine American and Jewish values in raising the child, and in comparison to any particular American child of her age, I do not expect to see nor do not see any particular cultural differences emerge as yet.
The family may be described as lower to middle class; it is difficult to make distinctions. They do have a large family -- ten children, with both parents involved in parenting and maintenance of the household. It is a warm, cohesive family with both sets of grandparents living close by and with close family and communal ties.
The observation was conducted last week and occurred during the duration of one and a half hours (2.00pm-3.30pm).
Notes
Julie is in the center of the living room sprawled on a lilac blue crocheted blanket while her mother is reading a book. One of the sisters, as well as the sister's friend, are in the room watching a movie, inoccasionally smiling to Julie and teasing her, but mostly ignoring her. It is the grandmother who came in whilst I was conducting and writing this observation who was according Julie the most attention primarily oohing and aahing over her. Frankly, she saw more wonders in her than I have been able to assess and our judgments have verged in correspondence on several minor...
Chubby, but not plump and seemingly quite energetic for her age. I forgot to ask details of her heights; she seemed short.
Julie can sit up quite well by now. Insistent at times on sitting up, she pulls herself into some sort of hunching position, then loses her balance frequently and tips over. At one point, she began to tip toward her side as she stretched sideways to attempt to clutch her grandmother's outstretched finger. The grandmother rapidly moved in closer so as to catch her in case she fell and as to make her finger make accessible. It was interesting to note that Julie, when looking at her smiling grandmother began likewise to smile and purr, even at times to kick her feet excitedly, but when she, during one occasion, saw the anxious look of her mother who feared that she would hurt herself, her lips began to pucker, she pouted and began to cry. The child can sense emotions and reflect them. I found that fascinating.
Julie's transition of moods affected all. As long as she was happy and content, the others in the room seemed to. However, with time she began to feel fretful. Possibly hungry, perhaps her diaper needed to be changed. The mother briefly attempted to see to her before passing her on to the grandmother. The grandmother changed the…
