Principle 4 Invest time and energy to build a total person (concentrate on the "whole child"). Don't focus on cognitive development alone or look at it as separate from total development.

Cody is 26 months old and the caregivers in his toddler program marvel at him. As the only child of two professional parents, he talks like an adult, using big words and complex sentences. He knows the words to many songs he has heard on the radio and enjoys telling everybody about the latest video he has seen. He seems to be trying to teach himself to read, and he is already a whiz at number concepts. He seldom pays attention to the other children and spends most of his time showing off his many skills to adults or else by himself. He doesn't seem to know how to enter into the play of others or even play close to them in a parallel way. He has so entranced the caregivers that they seem blind to his need to learn social skills so he can connect with his peers. Nobody is worried about Cody.

1			Do you see a reason to worry?
2			If you worked in that program, what might you do to help Cody become interested in other children and want to learn to relate to them?
3			If you see Cody's development as lopsided, how might you approach the parents to talk about what you perceive?
4			Why do you think Cody seems to need so much attention from the adults?
5			What other ideas do you have about Cody?
6			What would you want to know more about?