EDUC& 115 Child Development (5 credits)

1. Discuss child development research and theories guiding parenting and caregiver practices.
2. Describe the child development domains (physical, social, emotional, and cognitive) from conception to early adolescence.
3. Describe brain development stages that influence child development.
4. Implement techniques to conduct and document observations of children to assess and communicate growth and development.
5. Explain the impact of innate individual differences that influence child development.
6. Identify how environmental factors including family, community, culture, and trauma influence child development.

1a: Understand the developmental period of early childhood from birth through age 8 across physical, cognitive, social and emotional, and linguistic domains, including bilingual/multilingual development.

1b: Understand and value each child as an individual with unique developmental variations, experiences, strengths, interests, abilities, challenges, approaches to learning, and with the capacity to make choices.

 1c: Understand the ways that child development and the learning process occur in multiple contexts, including family, culture, language, community, and early learning setting, as well as in a larger societal context that includes structural inequities.

1d: Use this multidimensional knowledge—that is, knowledge about the developmental period of early childhood, about individual children, and about development and learning in cultural contexts—to make evidence-based decisions that support each child.

STANDARD 3 Child Observation, Documentation, and Assessment
Early childhood educators (a) understand that the primary purpose of assessments is to inform instruction and planning in early learning settings. They (b) know how to use observation, documentation, and other appropriate assessment approaches and tools. Early childhood educators (c) use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, culturally, ability, and linguistically appropriate to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child. In partnership with families and professional colleagues, early childhood educators (d) use assessments to document individual children’s progress and, based on the findings, to plan learning experiences.

3a: Understand that assessments (formal and informal, formative and summative) are conducted to make informed choices about instruction and for planning in early learning settings.

3b: Know a wide range of types of assessments, their purposes, and their associated methods and tools.

3c: Use screening and assessment tools in ways that are ethically grounded and developmentally, ability, culturally, and linguistically appropriate in order to document developmental progress and promote positive outcomes for each child.

3d: Build assessment partnerships with families and professional colleagues.

Paraeducator Program Outcomes:
1. Support educational outcomes
2. Demonstrate professionalism and ethical practices
3. Support a positive and safe learning environment
4. Communicate effectively and participate in the team process
5. Demonstrate cultural competency

Core Ability - Intercultural Engagement
Graduates demonstrate self-efficacy in intercultural engagement to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion through reflections and expressions of cultural humility, empathy, and social and civic engagement and action. Further, graduates examine how identities/positionalities such as races, social classes, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and cultures impact perceptions, actions, and the distribution of power and privilege in communities, systems, and institutions.

Fundamental Area of Knowledge - Social Science: Graduates analyze and interpret social phenomena using social science theories and methods.

Lecture Contact Hours 50
Lab Contact Hours 0
Clinical Contact Hours 0
Total Contact Hours 50

Potential Methods
Presentation
Critique
Small group assessment
Quizzes and exams
Peer evaluation
Essay
Research paper
Roleplay
Self-assessment
Group debate
Art/poster or media display
Instructor / Student interview