Summary of Relevant Biographical Information Monique was born on February 23, 1961 in Port-A-Prince, Haiti. She has six sisters and one brother. The beginning of her life was with her siblings and her parents. Her siblings either attended an all boys’ or an all girls’ school, but she attended a school that had a mixture of students. Even though she got into fights often, she really enjoyed going to school. Half of her time as a child in Haiti she spent with and without her parents. When Monique was eight years old, her father moved to the United States to work, so he could bring the rest of the family. When she was ten years old, her mother moved to the United States with her older brother. During this time, she lived with her grandmother and aunt in Haiti, with the rest of her sisters. This was very common in her culture during this time period. Even though she lived without her parents during an important time period in her life, it did not affect her. She kept herself busy with school, she joined the choir, the theater, and she attended church on Sundays. After church she participated in something called kemese, it is similar to a festival. Without her parents there, she was still able to enjoy life, even financially she and her family were not affected. Her family was seen as having a high SES in Haiti, her grandmother owned a grocery store. She was fortunate enough to be left in Haiti At the age of fourteen, in 1975, Monique moved to New York with the rest of her family. She was placed one grade behind when she moved here. In Haiti she was going to be placed in high school, but when she moved to New York she was placed in eighth grade. Life for her in the United States, in the seventies, as a foreigner, was pretty easy. During that time teachers and counselors provided a tremendous amount of support to students that were from other countries. She watched a lot of television shows to help her learn English faster. Coming here at a younger age also gave her an advantage when it came to learning English. She was able to learn basic concepts that they teach at younger ages as opposed to high school. During that time American students made fun of any kid that came from another country. …show more content…
“The cognitive growth that takes place during middle childhood enables children to develop more complex concepts of themselves and to gain in emotional understanding and control” (Papalia & Martorell, 2015, p. 295). Although during this time many children are spending less time outside of the home and more time with their peers and at school, the home and people children live with still play a very important role in their lives (Papalia & Martorell, 2015). The structure of the family, what goes on in and outside of the family, and how they handle stress will help shape the child during development. Parents’ work and socioeconomic status and societal trends such as urbanization, changes in the family size, divorce, and remarriage, help shape the family environment and, thus, the child’s development (Papalia & Martorell, 2015). The culture of the child will also have an effect on the shaping of the child. Any type of violence or conflict in the home can have an effect on the development of a child, even if the conflict is between the parents in the home. Children that experience this can end up exhibiting internal and external behaviors. Internalizing behaviors are anger turned inward, such as anxiety, fearfulness, and depression, and externalizing behaviors are anger turned outward, such as aggression, fighting, hostility and