She went on further explaining that even though Joe’s grandparents live only few doors away but it is like we live under one roof. She mentioned that Joe’s grandparents have played a very important part in Joe’s development and are still playing a very important role in his development. She carried on by saying that Joe’s grandparents are always willing to share things with him, take great part in his physical and social development. She explained that Joe’s grandparents are always concerned with his diet which is obviously good for his physical development. She also mentioned that they are more than happy to take Joe out for a walk, play with him and so on. She continued by saying that she believes this helps Joe a lot in terms of coping with things and this plays an important role in his social development.
She then explained some of the important role of herself in Joe’s life. She explained that when she found out that Joe had brain tumor at the age of 2, she wanted to find out every single thing about it. She explained that Joe is not just my son but is my life. She got a bit emotional then which I noted down and that was one of the advantages of me doing an in-depth interview with her. She explained that, she gave nearly all her time to Joe when she discovered that Joe had a brain tumor. She told me that he is very close to me and always has. Joe’s mum mentioned that because he is like her life therefore she has played very important roles in his physical, intellectual, emotional and social development.
Joe’s mum then told me that Joe’s dad has also played a positive role in Joe’s development. She explained that even though there was separation between her and Joe’s dad but they never let this have any sort of negative affect on Joe’s life. She explained that Joe’s dad always use to come and see Joe and still does. She mentioned that Joe’s dad therefore has played a very vital role in Joe’s physical, emotional, intellectual and social development as well.
Environmental Factors
When I started speaking to Joe’s mum about the environmental factors that might have affected Joe, the first issue she raised was related to housing. She explained that they use to live in London when Joe was little and they use to live in a busy area of London which meant that noise, pollution and humidity were the normal factor’s affecting every one’s lives in the area. She mentioned that there was a lot of noise at times on the streets in the area where they lived and housing was also very expensive there which meant that they had small house with Joe sleeping in his mum’s bedroom. She explained further that after few years we decided to move to Derby and that was a big life event in Joe’s life and he was around 3/ 4 years old then. She also told me that when she moved here with her children, it was much easier for her to afford a house and therefore they had much bigger three bedroom house which then meant that Joe had his own bedroom.
She explained that moving here affected Joe’s physical, emotional, and especially social health very positively. She went on further explaining the factors in detail. Joe’s mum explained that Joe was able to sleep well at night which had positive affect on his physical development because when they lived in London, there was a lot of noise and vandalism at night time which meant that Joe use to get disturbed sleeps at night. Joe’s mum then told me that Joe now feels much relaxed and fresh in the mornings because he has relaxed sleeps at night. She then told me that this has affected his emotional development in a very positive way because he does not get mood swings and can consternate better during the day because of full relaxed sleeps at night times. Moreover, Joe’s mum explained how the moving houses affected Joe’s social development in a positive way. She mentioned that Joe now has room to himself which means that he has more space to play, study, and call his friends around to play or for sleep over. She told me that this has really helped Joe in his social development and he can now socialize more because he has his room which he likes to have.
Psychological and behavioral problems
When I started speaking to Joe’s mum about any psychological or behavioral problems that might have affected Joe’s development, she explained that Joe was never one of those stubborn boys who always want every thing they could possibly think of. She explained that although Joe use to have one of those tantrums like ones a week which probably every child gets. However, tantrums are part of child’s development and they are normal however if they continue to go on for long time this shows that there is something wrong with the child. She explained that Joe is a very friendly boy and never had one of those behavioral problems that some children have. Joe’s mum also mentioned that Joe still has some what some people would call behavioral problems but she said she would not call them behavioral problems at all. She mentioned that because of Joe’s brain tumor his development was quite slow compared to most of the children in his class. She mentioned that he takes time figuring even normal things out and sometimes he gets really annoyed and walks out of the class when the other pupil in the class tell me to “hurry up” especially when reading a bit slow or even doing small things concerned with child’s gross motor skills such as gluing and sticking.
She explained that other than this, Joe has never had any other sort of behavioral problems such as fighting and so on. She mentioned that he does have an element of jealousy in him which I would say is normal in every child. She continued explaining that when his oldest brother’s girl friend comes around to their house, Joe gets a bit jealous because his brothers have been so close to him since he was born that he can not afford any one going close to them or building relationship with some one else. I personally assume that jealousy is part of human nature and I would not say it’s a bad thing or a good thing as it is part of human development.
Additional factors which Joe’s mum told me about in the interview
Joe’s Condition;
She told me that Joe had brain tumour since the age of two, although I did knew about it but I did not knew how this had affected Joe’s development. She mentioned that Tumour affected a lot of Joe’s physical, Intellectual, emotional, social, language and cognitive development. She started off with telling me how it affected Joe’s physical growth and development. She told me that since the age of two it was very hard for Joe to balance on two legs and hardly walk. She explained that as he grew older, it was getting a bit better for him but he still had problem with balance. She said as he got to the age of five, he was walking but it was hard for him to balance on one leg and it is still a problem even though he is eight years old. She went on describing how this had affected his social development. She explained that Joe was unable to do the physical activities his friends would do like hopping, jumping and so on which lead to social exclusion for Joe for the first few years as he was not able to fit in with other children. This also lowered his self esteem and self concept in several ways. She explained that Joe was unable to do activities such as riding a bike as it was hard for him to balance, she explained although he can ride a four wheeler bike with a stand but even now he can not ride a two wheeler bike. She also told me how this had affected his social development as all his friends could ride a bike since very small age and he could not and even now his friends can ride a two wheeler bike and he can not. She explained how this has lead to social exclusion and sometimes he feels left out because he can’t not do the physical activities that his friends do as most of the physical activities require balance which he tries hard to obtain but fails at times and feels left out some of the time. She explained that social exclusion leads to low self esteem and how his low self esteem affects his intellectual and emotional development. She mentioned that this might also be the case of peer pressure and fitting and confirming with friends which Joe had difficulty doing. She told me that when he feels a bit down then he is very stressed and sometimes has mood swings and this effects his emotional development. Joe’s mum explained that with his low self esteem, at times he does not want to concentrate on his home work which affects his intellectual and cognitive development. However, she raised another important point that his condition has created a very close bond between him and herself. This raised his self esteem in a positive manner and helped him with his social development. She mentioned, that she personally paid a very vital role in his development and explained that she was a role model for him through out his life who always encouraged him to do better and stood by him rather than discouraging him.
She explained further how Joe’s Tumour from very little age affected his Language development. She told me that since the age of two Joe hardly spoke a word and after few months they discovered that he had speech problems because of his Tumour. She explained that as Joe grew older he was having difficulties speaking so he had a speech therapy. She explained that although he did start to speak after the speech therapy but still struggled to say some of the words. Joe’s mum mentioned that being an educated mum she helped Joe quite a lot with his Language development and taught him to say words he could not say. She told be that although Joe has recovered since he was little and has made progress but even now he misses the pronunciations of certain words when speaking, she told me that for example he pronounces the word “butter” as “buer” with missing the pronunciation of the two “tt“ in the word “butter“. She told me that he misses certain alphabets when saying words but he does not pronounce them not because he does not want to but he finds it very difficult to pronounce certain alphabets. Joe’s mum told me that it takes Joe quite a while to pronounce some of the words correctly but she explained that he tries hard but sometimes gives up on it.
She also explained that Tumour had also effected Joe’s intellectual and Cognitive development form very little age. She told me that it was very hard for Joe to read from very little and he also started late because of his Tumour operation. I asked her whether the operation made any positive changes to his development. She explained, it did make few changes and he felt a bit better but the Tumour did not go away and but made his life little easier to live. After that, I told her to carry on with what she was saying about how Tumour effected his Intellectual and Cognitive development. So, she went on and explained that from a very little age Joe had difficulty holding a pencil/pen and had reading difficulties. She told me that this had affected his Intellectual and Cognitive development in a very negative way. She explained that his reading skills were not as good compare to the other children of his age and this was mainly due to his Tumour. She said this slowed his intellectual and Cognitive development.
Diet in Childhood
When I started asking Joe’s mum about Joe’s diet in childhood and how this affected his development, she explained that because of the Brain tumour, Joe’s sensory skills such as taste and smell were not developed as much. She mentioned that Joe could not taste sweetness and liked savoury foods as his taste buds were not fully developed. She explained that she noticed this her self when he refused to eat foods containing sweetness and felt that something was wrong with his taste senses because children in fact like sweetness and she mentioned that therefore I knew something was wrong with Joe. She explained that in other words Joe had to learn to eat after his Brain tumour operation because before the operation he could not taste sweetness and liked savoury foods. However, she explained that it took long time to develop his taste buds back and he had difficulty chewing things and still does. Joe’s mum also explained hat Joe also sometimes chocks on the food because the lack of chewing of the food. She explained that other then that Joe was more than happy to eat what he was given to eat and even eat fruits and vegetables which some children might find not very nice in taste. At last she explained that Joe’s sensory skills have improved so much since his operation.
Birth weight and Heredity
When I raised the issue of birth weight front of Joe’s mum. She started off with explaining how big Joe was at birth. She said this was because Joe’s dad and she are quite big which means that Joe has inherited and therefore his weight was quite a lot at birth which was no surprise for her at birth. She mentioned that as he grew older his weight increased. She continued by saying that this affected his physical health. She explained that Joe was quite healthy at birth and always finished all his food.
Alcohol conception during pregnancy/Drugs taken during pregnancy/ Smoking during pregnancy
When I raised the issue of misuse of substance during pregnancy front of Joe’s mum, she mentioned that she did not take any types of drugs during pregnancy. She also mentioned that although she smokes but during pregnancy she stopped smoking completely for the health of her coming baby. She continued by saying that there was very little alcohol conception during her pregnancy. She mentioned that this had a positive impact on Joe’s physical health. Joe’s mum told me that Joe was quite healthy after birth, she backed her point up by saying that he always ate well and there were no problems at all. However, she mentioned that after about 1 year there were problems and at first we did not know what was wrong with him and we only started figuring it out when he was about 2. She mentioned that, this is when we found out that he had brain tumour which later on affected his physical, emotional, intellectual, social, cognitive and language development which I have mentioned in the start underneath the title “condition”
