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Welcome to Child Development

Instructor: Dr. Parkinson

Office: 229 AC Building

Phone: 589-2070

I.     Overview of Course

This course is designed to provide you with a scan of theories and issues relating to child development. We will use three main perspectives 1) psychological 2) social 3) biological. We will also discover the interactive nature of these perspectives in accounting for learning, change, and growth in children. Being an introductory-level course, the material will cover considerable breadth across a number of areas, rather than depth in any one particular area.

The text for this course is Child Development by Laura Berk. It is assumed that everyone will purchase this text, since readings are required for many class meetings.

II.     An Important Message

As the instructor for this class, I will take the responsibility of being prepared each day, and I will sincerely try to make the material interesting and challenging. However, it will be difficult for me to keep things stimulating if you come in continually unprepared, unmotivated, or unresponsive. I expect each of you to take the same responsibility as students that I have taken as the instructor--to be prepared for class, and to be interesting and challenging. I strongly believe that all of us should be interested in making this a good class. If you don't want to be bored, get involved!

If, at any time during the semester, you need help with any part of the course, please see me during office hours, or make an appointment for another time if my office hours aren't convenient for you. If you aren't doing as well as you would like to be, please don't wait until the last week of the semester to stop in. . .monitor your grades as the semester progresses, and see me if you need help as soon as the situation looks discouraging.

III.     Grading

Exams: There will be four exams throughout the semester, including the final exam. Dates are listed in the Daily Schedule. These dates may change by one day in either direction (earlier or later). I will give you ample notice if this occurs.

Written Assignments: Throughout the semester, you will read two articles concerning issues related to child development, which I will have on reserve in the library. You will then answer questions about these articles which will be provided for you. Dates for these assignments are in the Daily Schedule. On the days which these assignments are due, I will accept them in class at the beginning of the class period. Do not tack them on to my door, or attempt to slide them under my door, or send them through campus mail, or have a friend hand them in for you. You must attend class and hand the assignments in on the day they are due in order to be eligible to receive full credit. The only exception to this is an excused absence from the Dean's Office. In that case, you must make arrangements with me prior to the assignment due date for alternate completion times.

If you do not hand in an assignment on the day it is due, you can hand it in during the next class meeting. You will, however, have points deducted from your grade.

Attendance: I will not "take attendance" in any legalistic sense. Officially, you are required to attend class on all exam days, and the days on which written assignments are due. However, considering the expense of tuition, and assuming that you are at Thiel to benefit from knowledge acquisition and new learning experiences, I think that minimal attendance is of minimal benefit, for you, me, and your fellow students. Don't enroll in this class if you don't intend to be here!

A lack of "legal" attendance policy is not meant to imply that you can cut class freely. You must monitor your own attendance - if you want to benefit from class and receive a good grade, you must attend on a regular basis.

Class Participation: Even though I will not take attendance, in a class this size I can get an accurate idea of each student's general pattern of attendance over time. The same is true for your level of class participation. A good level of participation will add points to your grade, which can be especially helpful if you are borderline between letter grades at the end of the semester. Consider these to be bonus points, easily available to everyone.

When you take the final exam, you will be asked to provide an honest evaluation of your efforts in relation to class participation.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Date	Assignment	Topic
Jan 11		Introduction
Jan 13-29	Ch. 1 (to bottom of page 7) Ch. 2 (all)	Basic Issues and Methodology
	Ch. 3 (all)	Biological Origins and Prenatal Development
	Ch. 10 (p. 397 "Temperament" to bottom p. 404) Ch. 4 (omit p. 134 "Learning Capacities" to p. 140 "Motor Development")	Early Development
	No reading assignment	Language Development
Feb 1 or 3	EXAM I
Feb 5-Mar 10	Ch. 4 (p. 134 "Learning Capacities" to p. 140 "Motor Development") Ch. 1 (p. 18 "Social Learning Theory" to p. 19 "Piaget")	Behavioral Theories of Development
	Ch. 1 (p. 14 "Mid 20th Century" to p. 16 "Behaviorism")	Psychodynamic Theories of Development
	Ch. 6 (omit p. 241 "Formal Operational Stage" to p. 244 "Larger Questions")	Cognitive Development
	Ch. 8 (all)	Intelligence and Creativity
Mar 12 or 15	EXAM II
Mar 17-Apr 7	Ch. 10 (p. 405 "Development of Attachment" to p. 414 "Multiple Attachments")	Social Development in Infancy
	Ch. 15 (to p. 590 "Peer Groups") Ch. 14 (p. 553 "Family Lifestyles" to p. 559 "Divorce")	Social Development in Early and Middle Childhood
	Ch. 13 (p. 508 "Gender Stereotyping" to end of chapter)	Gender Role Socialization
	Ch. 12 (omit p. 482 "Moral Reasoning to p. 489 "Other Side of Self Control") Ch. 15 (p. 597 "Television" to bottom p. 604)	Moral Development & Aggression
Apr 9	EXAM III
Apr 12-27	No reading assignment	Experiencing Parenthood
	No reading assignment	Father-Child Relationships
	No reading assignment	Parenting Styles
	Ch. 14 (p. 565 "Maternal Employment" to p. 570 "Vulnerable Families")	Working Mothers and Day Care
	Ch. 14 (p. 559 "Divorce" to p. 565 "Maternal Employment")	Divorce
	No reading assignment	Child Abuse
	No reading assignment	Normative and Non-Normative Development
Apr 29 8:30 a.m.	EXAM IV

Written Assignments

Written Assignment #1	Handout on Feb 12th	Due on Feb 19th
Written Assignment #2	Handout on Apr 16th	Due on Apr 23rd