Examiner's report (she is 2yrs old)

Vivian has been riding her "hot wheels" tricycle a lot lately, but recently has avoided it completely because of a scary accident in which she went off a curb in the park and got scratched up. You don't push Vivian to get back on the tricycle. You figure she will get back on it when she is ready.Vivian wants to do more things herself, so you let Vivian pick out a colorful new toothbrush and a hairbrush.You have to help a bit with both operations in order to avoid bad breath and a bad hair day for Vivian!You notice that Vivian has some new emotions over the past few months. Some things you have noticed are shy smiles when asked to be in photographs, looking guilty when she breaks something, and embarrassment when she has a potty accident.You realize these new emotions are related to her developing self-awareness.

Vivian is going to be starting a preschool program soon, so you take advantage of the fact that a friend of yours is an early childhood development specialist. You ask her to evaluate Vivian, who is 2 1/2 years old. The specialist evaluates Vivian's language, motor and cognitive skills using some developmental scales, and observes Vivian interacting with other children in a toddler play group. This is her report:

Vivian was somewhat hesitant in the group of children and spent a few minutes watching them before joining in. After a while she latched on to a couple of the other children and had a good time. By the end of the session they were smiling and imitating each other.

If there was a confrontation with another child about toys, Vivian could become quite possessive, and once even pushed and hit another child in the group and had to be put in time out. The specialist recommended you go along with Vivian to places where she can interact with children, and that you monitor the activity and coach or remind Vivian how to behave when necessary.

Vivian handled challenging tasks fairly well except for an occasional need for encouragement.

Vivian's scores on measures of language comprehension and production were in the average range, and she was beginning to show more consistent use in conversational speech of grammatical markers such as past tense, plural, etc. The specialist recommended you continue to converse about anything of interest to Vivian, read favorite books to her and go on outings.

Vivian is above average in solving problems with more than two steps, and grouping objects together in categories. The specialist recommended that you respond to Vivian's interests, whether it be building things, learning about animals, going to the children's science museum, etc, and that you encourage Vivian to think about things by asking questions (e.g., at the zoo, you could ask "what is the monkey doing", to get Vivian to focus on and talk about the animal's behavior).

She is below average in copying shapes with a pencil, working with picture puzzles and constructing things out of blocks. The specialist recommended enjoyable and stimulating activities, such as working on coloring books and simple jigsaw puzzles together.

Vivian's gross motor skills were typical for her age, and varied from slightly below average (climbing) to slightly above average (throwing and catching a ball). The specialist recommended more outdoor activities and games of all types.

Vivian was able to focus on the tasks given by the examiner for the entire 40-minute session. The examiner said this was unusually good for the age. She recommended that you ask Vivian to carry out more and more complex daily tasks (such as getting dressed) and read longer stories in preparation for preschool.

Question 1: How is your child progressing on typical toddler issues, such as learning household rules, learning to follow routines, listening to you, developing self-control and learning to get along with other children?

Question 2: On a scale of 1-10, rate yourself as a virtual parent (with 1 being "Worst Virtual Parent Ever" and 10 being "Virtual Parent of the Year)! ) Provide specific examples of what you are doing well and what areas you feel that you could improve. Discuss any challenges that you have experienced related to raising your virtual child.