Prenatal to Early Childhood 51
Monday and Wednesday 9:00-10:15am
Fall 2009
Zina Rosen-Simon
Telephone 424-1178
Office 2174 Office Hours
Mon. 12:30pm-1:30pm Tues. 2:00pm-4:00pm
Wed. 12:30pm-1:30pm Thurs. 11:00-12:00pm
email:
Additional office hours available by appointment Requirements and Evaluation
Catalog Description
Development of the child from prenatal life to early childhood; developmental characteristics, influences affecting development in prenatal life and infancy; individual differences; physical, emotional, intellectual and social development. Emphasis on scientific method, research strategies, historical overview, social and cultural context, methods of observing children, and theories.
3 units
Text:
A Child’s World Infancy through Adolescence
Authors:
Diane E. Papalia, Sally Wendkos Olds, and Ruth Duskin Feldman
Requirements:
1. Read the assignments in the text and other sources.
2. Attend class regularly.
3. Four quizzes
4. One Descriptive Narrative Observation of an Infant (0-18mths.) or Toddler (18-30mths.)
5. Anecdotal Records (depicting one child between (3 - 6 years of age) in a childcare setting
6. One Research Report
7. Class Participation
Evaluation:
1. 4 Quizzes (3) X 30 = 90 pts. (the lowest quiz is dropped)
2. Infant or Toddler
Observation 25 pts.
Grading:
3. Early Childhood A 171-190
Anecdotal Records 25 pts. B 152-170
C 133-151
4. Topical Interest 25 pts. D 114-132
Report F 113 or below
5. Participation 25 pts.
190 pts
Date Topic and Assignments Reading Assignments
Theory & Research in Child DevelopmentAug. 17th
Aug. 19th / Introduction
Observation Discussed
Aug. 24th
Aug. 26th / Historical Perspective
Theories and Theorists / Chapter 1
Aug..31st
Sept. 2nd / Theories and Theorists
Library Orientation
Sept. 7th
Sept. 9th / NO CLASS – LABOR DAY HOLIDAY
Approaches in Studying Children / Chapter 2
Sept 14th
Sept. 16th / Approaches in Studying Children
Quiz 1
Sept. 21st
Sept. 23rd / Foundations of Development
Heredity and Environment
Heredity and Environment / Chapter 3
Sept. 28th
Sept. 30th / Prenatal Development
Prenatal Development / Chapter 4
Oct. 5th
Oct. 7th / Birth and the Newborn
Birth and the Newborn / Chapter 5
Chapter 6 (the section on reflexes and sensory abilities)
Oct. 12th
Oct 14th / Research Presentations
Quiz 2
Oct 19th
Oct. 21st / Infant and Toddler Development
Physical Development
Intellectual Development / Observation Due / Chapter 6
Oct. 26th
Oct. 28th / Intellectual Development
Personality & Social Development / Chapter 7
Nov. 2nd
Nov. 4th / Personality & Social Development
Research Presentations / Chapter 8
Nov 9
Nov.11 / Research Presentations
Quiz 3
Nov. 16th
Nov. 18th / Early Childhood Development
Physical Development
Intellectual Development / Chapter 9
Nov. 23rd
Nov. 25th / Intellectual Development
No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday / Chapter 10
Nov. 30th
Dec. 2nd / Personality & Social Development/Anecdotal Record Due
Personality & Social Development / Chapter 11
Dec. 7th
Dec. 9th / Research Presentations
Research Presentations
Dec. 14th / Final - Quiz 7:30-9:20am / 7:30-9:20am
Course Policies and Procedures:
1. Complete all assignments on time as scheduled. Late assignments will be marked
down 25% each day they are late. There are no makeup tests, if you miss a test that is the one you
you would drop. If you take all four quizzes you can drop your lowest grade.
2. Identify a buddy in class who will fill you in on course content and pick up any handouts. If you
miss a class session it is your responsibility to get missed material from a classmate, or from the
instructor during office hours or appointments.
3. Your participation is important in this course. It will be reflected in the participation aspect of your
grade. Participation includes classroom contributions and attentiveness. Distracting from the
learning of others will also result in a deduction of participation points.
4. If you are no longer attending the class it is your responsibility to drop. The instructor is not
required to drop students, even if you stop attending. The last day for you to withdraw is November
6th via the Class Web.
5. All papers are to be typewritten.
6 Plagiarizing will result in a zero on the assignment and you will be required to meet with the
Dean of Student Services to discuss the infraction and consequences. We will discuss in the
definition of plagiarism in class.
General Information:
A majority of questions in each quiz are multiple choice and true and false. The questions are taken from the text, mini lectures and other course content
There will also be one or two short answer questions with each quiz.
- If you miss any quiz you need to complete your study guide fully from the chapters you are being quizzed on, within a week after the quiz was given. If it is not thorough 1-10 points will deducted proportionately from your participation tally.
Group Activities during class will involve collaborative tasks that require analyzing, synthesizing, and applying course content.
Research Topics are selected by partners. Each person will write their own paper which
focuses on a different aspect of the subject matter than their partner. There will be 6 groups
presenting each date. There will be sign-up sheets by the third week of class. All topics
are to be chosen by the September 14th.
Assignments Date due
Quiz 1 (Chapter 1&2) Sept. 16th
Quiz 2 (Chapters 3, 4, 5, and part of 6) Oct. 14th
Observation (Infant or Toddler) Part 1 Oct. 21st
Observation (Infant or Toddler) Part 2 Nov. 2nd (done in class bring your text)
Quiz 3 (Chapters 6, 7, and 8) Nov. 11th
Anecdotal Record Nov. 30th
Research Presentation/Report (Based on topic - sign-up sheet in class)
Quiz 4 - Final (Chapters 9, 10, and 11) Dec. 14th
Infant or Toddler Observation
The child to be observed is 30 months of age or younger
There are two parts to this assignment
Part 1
Observe an infant or toddler, in a natural environment (comfortable setting that the child is accustomed to, with familiar objects and the individuals are interacting in their everyday way). Observe a setting where the child has freedom of movement, objects for exploration, and preferably with another child or adult in the environment. You are to first record the child’s initials, age in years and months, time, description of the setting, the number of adults, their roles, along with the number of children present. See below how the headings are to be set up.:
Child’s Initials:
Age:
Time:
Setting:
Number of adults and their roles:
Number of children present:
Then complete a 30 minute narrative observation on an infant (birth – 18 months) or a toddler (18-30 months)
Put the information in paragraphs and type up the 30 minute narrative observation.
Attach your notes. No more than 3 pages. Take the sections that flow and convey the greatest degree of insight into the child’s temperament and skills.
Part 2 will be done in class on Nov. 2nd (bring your textbook to class that day for the work)
Analyze the descriptive narrative
The instructions of Part 2 will be explained the day that the assignment is being carried out.
Descriptive Narrative Observation
In producing a descriptive narrative of a given child's behavior, the observer begins by writing the child’s name, (we will be using initials), the child’s age in years and months, the time you began your observation, and the setting. You will then proceed to write down in as much detail as possible what the child does, including responses to the actions of others...... In recording behavior in descriptive narrative format the goal is to describe actual behaviors and to exclude statements of inference or evaluation. Describing actual behaviors is often referred to as reporting. It is important that you learn to clearly differentiate between reporting, inferring and evaluating. Reporting is simply focusing on what is before you in as much detail as possible. Inferring is going beyond what you actually see and trying to guess at the underlying feelings, goals, or causes that might explain the behavior. Evaluating is making a judgment about the behavior you see, whether it desirable, positive or negative, mature or immature. It is useful to clearly differentiate between these processes and especially to develop the habit of relating each inference and evaluative statement to the actual behavior observed.
****In this observation include only reporting statements. Evaluation comments such as “advanced", "good", ‘mature", “delayed for his/her age"... are not to be included. You are not to guess or interpret what you think is going on or the reasoning. Just report by objectively focusing on what the child is doing before you without forming conclusions in your report.
GUIDELINES (from Becoming a Teacher of Young Children by Lay and Dopyera)
*Children will be less distracted by your presence if you sit or kneel...
*Be as unobtrusive as possible and do not become involved in the children's activity...
*If a child tries to talk with you, asks for your help (non-emergency) or asks what you are doing, reply that you are doing your work, that you are learning about what children are like, but do not encourage further
conversation.
*Try not to laugh, frown, or in any way react to either the child you are observing or the other children in the
Setting.
*Never talk about a given child to other adults if either that child or the other children are within hearing...
* Observe only with permission, keep names and data confidential.
Early Childhood
Anecdotal Records
The anecdotal records contained in your report are to be on one child. An anecdotal record recognizes important developmental events in individual children’s lives as they occur. The recording is brief and gives a clear account of the behaviors. It is stated in an objective and descriptive manner. It captures an incident that may be a few seconds or may last minutes. It tells when, where, who, and what. It does not answer why this is called an inference. An inference is an informed judgment or conclusion based on the observation. Inferences are not to be within your anecdotal record. There will be a comment section where you will compare what you witnessed with what is expected for a child that age in each area of development.
Anecdotal Record
The child observed is to be between 3 and 6 years of age. The same child is to be observed displaying four varying areas of development. There are to be 2 anecdotal records for each area of development. Each record though is recorded separately. A fifth area can be observed for additional points. (with two records from that area included).
So you are to have 8 anecdotal records from at least four of the following developmental areas. Or for extra credit you will need 10 anecdotal records from all 5 developmental areas
The areas of development to include are:
Social
Emotional
Cognitive
Physical
Language
Comment Section
In addition to the anecdotal record you will also include a comment section where you will compare what you observed in that area of development with one of the two sources that I will bring to class. If those handouts don’t apply to what you witnessed you are to locate other sources that note what is expected for certain ages in the area of development that you observed and noted. Make sure you cite the sources.
Anecdotal Record
Format and Example
Format
First state the area of development being observed
General Information
-The Date of Observation & Time
-The Child’s Initials or a fictional name
-The Age of the child
-The Context / Setting - (what is generally happening and where)
For example, the children are at free play and the child is being observed in the
dramatic play area where a hospital theme is set up. There are three children in the
area.
-The Anecdotal Record - is a short observation that is detailed and objective
that depicts development. If more than one area of development is depicted you can
use the same record for two different developmental areas.
The Comment/Analysis section of the anecdotal records
For each record tell what you learned about the child’s capabilities in that area and
also mention areas in need of strengthening if this is what you witnessed. Write a concluding paragraph that compares what was observed (be specific) with the
information cited in one of the two sources that will be given out in class. You can also find your own sources that depict developmental milestones by age. Cite the source, and author, and page of the resource that you used.
Example of Anecdotal Record
General Information (just state this information in the beginning of the record)
Date: 11/19/07
Time: 8:30 am
Child’s initials: K.M.
Age of child: 4 years 5 months
General setting: Co-Op playschool (all day care). In this class room, there are 11-15 four-year-olds, one teacher, and at least one teacher aide. .
Specific Anecdotal Record
Area of Development: Physical / Gross Motor Skills
Area setting: All children are outside and all just got called to line up to go inside for circle time.
Anecdotal record/event: K.M. and one of her friends, Katie, are chasing each other around the playground when they got called to get to their class lines to go back inside for circle time. Both girls immediately stopped chasing each other and began to skip, alternating feet, over to the other side of the playground, where their classroom is located. .
Comment Section/Analysis: According to The Portfolio Book, four-year-olds run well but skip unevenly. K.M. showed she is a bit more advanced for her age in this area because she had the ability to skip smoothly
Each anecdotal record should only take approximately a ½ of page.
Topical Interest Report
Research on a topic related to child growth and development
Two requirements: *Your own written report
*Oral presentation with a partner
Procedure: *Find a partner that you know, or a person who has the same
topical interest as yourself.
*No two groups are to have the same topic
*Sign-up for the date of your presentation
*The date of your presentation is based on your topic and
where it fits best with the course content being discussed.