2024-2025 Catalog 
    
    Nov 21, 2024  
2024-2025 Catalog
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ECDV 110 - Child Development: Infants & Toddlers

3 Credit: (3 lecture, 0 lab, 0 clinical) 3 Contact Hours: [PSYC 120 ]


This course provides students with knowledge of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development in the prenatal, infancy and toddler periods. Basic theories, developmental principles, safety issues, nutrition and guidance techniques are presented. Students spend 16 hours observing infants and toddlers in the field.
Semesters Offered: spring semesters

Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
Goal 1:  Demonstrate understanding of developmental theory, research design, and social laws/expectations regarding the care and education of young children.

  1. Articulate what developmentally appropriate practice is and how it is determined.
  2. Summarize key historical theorists and researchers in the field of child development.
  3. Identify modern theoretical perspectives on child development.
  4. Compare different types of study design and what can be learned from them.
  5. Summarize assessment approaches used to document child development and behaviors.

Goal 2:  Demonstrate understanding of factors that can impact the health and early development of infants including family factors, prenatal care, issues during prenatal development, the birth process, and the impact of birth upon the existing family.

  1. Explain family factors that predict infant health and development.
  2. Summarize basic concepts of inheritance and genetic/chromosomal abnormalities.
  3. Articulate the primary developmental processes in each stage of prenatal development.
  4. Summarize factors that can cause harm to the developing embryo/fetus.
  5. Identify primary events and risk factors related to human birthing process.
  6. Articulate the type of impact an infant’s arrival can make upon existing family members.

Goal 3:  Demonstrate an understanding of physical, emotional, and social development during infancy.

  1. Explain how early experiences help to shape the neural connectivity and function of the brain.
  2. Summarize normative physical development and factors that can aid or hinder healthy physical development.
  3. Articulate the impact and regulation of stress upon the infant brain and emotional system.
  4. Summarize primary theories related to infant social and emotional development.
  5. Articulate the impact of early interactions upon infant social and emotional development.
  6. Describe normal and abnormal patterns of early social and emotional development.

Goal 4:  Demonstrate an understanding of cognitive and language development during infancy and physical/perceptual development of toddlers.

  1. Summarize the primary theories related to infant cognitive development.
  2. Explain the processes of normative patterns of language development in infancy.
  3. Summarize normative physical development patterns of toddlerhood.
  4. Articulate factors related to the development of self-awareness and self-care skills.
  5. Explain health risks faced by toddlers and best strategies to maintain healthy physical development.

Goal 5:  Demonstrate an understanding of emotional, social, cognitive and language development in toddlers.

  1. Describe normative development of toddler self-awareness and factors related to self-regulation of emotion.
  2. Explain the development of moral perceptions and behaviors in toddlers.
  3. Describe normative patterns of peer interactions during toddlerhood.
  4. Articulate normative cognitive abilities and limitations expected in toddlers.
  5. Describe normative patterns of language development.
  6. Explain the development of literacy awareness during toddlerhood.

Goal 6:  Apply course concepts regarding optimal care techniques and normative development to a real-world context.

  1. Conduct observations of actual child care services.
  2. Demonstrate the ability to apply content from the course to the real-world observations that have been conducted.



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