Case Study #2
Middle childhood

Billy and Chris are 10 and 8 years old, respectively. They are brothers and the oldest in a family of four children. Although Billy is older, he is very small for his age, and Chris is larger and stronger. Billy is smaller than his peers, too. Billy does above average work in school. Billy seems to like school; he pays attention in class, and gets his work done.
Although Billy is more successful in school than Chris, he seems to have some developmental problems. He gets upset easily, and picks on his two younger sisters (6 and 4 years old), especially the 6 year old. He gets in to fights with Chris, but because he's smaller, Billy stops fighting quickly, usually crying and appealing to his parents to intervene.
When both boys were younger, they were involved in team sports. Billy recently quit the sports team he and Chris were on, but Chris has continued and has done well. During play activities after school, Billy sometimes becomes upset and is unwilling to cooperate with other kids. He is also inconsiderate of the feelings of others, although his own feelings are easily hurt. Billy seems to be a loner, while Chris has many friends. Discuss what the parents could do to help Billy.

• Sign up for a group in the case study 1 discussion area.
• Please create a google/northseattle document to answer the case study completly on your own.
• Share this completed documente with your team and the instructor (bholt@northseattle).
• Create a consensus paper (one of you should create a 'group' document and share it with everyone).
• Once you have completed the consensus paper, share it with your instructor.

1. In each case, the first issue you will write about will be an Erikson's stage of psychosocial development. Don't choose previous stages. Find and read about the appropriate Eriksonian stage in you book. Do not spend energy summarizing Erikson's stages in your paper (although you should be able to.) Once you understand the stage, explain why this stage is relevant to the discussion case, other than simply referring to the age of the child. The stage might be important to consider because of the unique circumstances of the case, or because of what the person does that shows he/she is struggling to resolve the crisis of development articulated by Erikson.

2. In addition to an Erikson stage of development, use your textbook to identify one other important developmental problem/issue that specifically applies to the case, or is clearly illustrated by the case. Only pick one other issue in addition to an Erikson stage. Be specific! "Psychosocial development" is too broad and general, as would "family relationships" because every case has a psychosocial development issue and a family relationship, so you must be specific while using your own words. Don't re-define the issue (that's already done in the case). You have limited space to convey a large amount of information, so you should spend your time and energy on relating the text to the case.

3. Suggest actions that would help with the case. The 2nd half of your paper will be to provide ideas in dealing with the developmental issue based on the analysis of the first part of your analysis of the developmental issues and stages relevant to the case comprising the first part of your paper. Each developmental issue (including Erikson's) is a problem, or crisis, that can be handled in a variety of ways with specific actions. Self-esteem might be an issue, so a suggested action would address how to deal with someone's self-esteem. Be specific and NOT vague. "Love the child more" does not cut it.

4. Once you have suggested an action, you must explain how the suggestion will effect the situation. You must spell it out and not rely on my powers of mind reading (however powerful they are) to help you.

4a. Should Billy be encouraged to rejoin the same team, or encouraged to join a different sports team? Explain your answer, in terms of your understanding of the case and the developmental issues you selected per the guidelines.