Week 1 · Readings & resources

Week 1 — Readings & Resources

Child Development Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 1 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 52–66 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–23 min total)

① What the field studies, in three domains

Chapter 1, Section “Sort change into three domains that work together” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The three domains” · Remember: the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional domains are a sorting tool, and a change in one always moves the other two.

What Is Developmental Psychology — Ken Tangen — a four-minute overview of the field as the study of how people change, decline as well as growth, and of how researchers narrow it by topic or by period of life; it covers the whole lifespan, so notice where this course draws its line at the end of adolescence. It closes by inviting viewers to help shape a fictional character followed across a life, an idea close to the course's running case. Use it while working through the Week-1 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)
3 Domains of Child Development — Maria George — a short explainer of the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial (social and emotional) domains, with examples of what influences each and the point that some influences fit more than one domain; it frames nature and nurture as a question of which has the bigger influence, so compare that with the chapter's position that the two always work together. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Supporting Children's Development — ChildCare.gov — a federal family-information page that defines child development, names its areas (brain, language, physical, and social-emotional development), and says the areas build on one another; notice that it gives language its own area, where this course places language inside the cognitive domain. (reading, 5–8 min)

② How nature and nurture work together

Chapter 1, Section “Ask the core questions every week returns to” · Session 2, Segment 4, “The core questions” · Remember: genes and experience always work together, and some change is gradual while some comes as a new step.

Nature vs Nurture — FuseSchool — a short animated explainer that defines nature as inherited genes and nurture as the environment, sorts traits into genes, environment, or both, and closes on twin studies showing that most characteristics come from genes and environment together; it calls the question a debate, so compare its ending with the chapter's position that the two always work together. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Is height determined by genetics? — MedlinePlus Genetics — the National Library of Medicine's plain-language page on how many inherited gene variants and a child's surroundings, such as nutrition and health care, shape height together; read it as a worked case of nature and nurture acting at once. (reading, 5–8 min)
Teaching Developmental Psychology: Continuity versus Discontinuity — Sara Sohr-Preston — a short explainer that sets slow, gradual gains (continuity) against stages that differ in kind (discontinuity) and notes that many characteristics show a combination of both; it names several stage theorists in passing, so hold on to the two views for now. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Dr. Steve Suomi: Genetic and Environmental Connection — National Institutes of Health (NIH) — a three-minute clip from the National Institutes of Health in which a researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development describes following monkeys from infancy through adolescence to see how genes and experience work together. In one example, a young monkey that plays too roughly gets avoided by the others, the isolation changes its brain chemistry, and the researchers check whether such differences show up in which genes are switched on. Watch it as a case of nature and nurture acting at once; its findings come from monkeys, not children, and they are the video's own, not results this course teaches. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

③ The settings around a child

Chapter 1, Section “Map the settings: Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Ecological systems” · Remember: a child sits inside nested systems, and settings the child never enters can still change the child's day.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory — Soulcial Good — a short narrated explainer from a social-work angle that defines each of the five systems and then lists many examples for each one; notice that it counts neighbors and a sibling's workplace among exosystem settings and puts poverty and wealth in the macrosystem, so compare where it draws each line with the chapter's definitions. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory — Simply Psychology — a long explainer; read the five systems and the critical evaluation, which lists limits such as the theory being hard to test, and skip the bioecological model and the applications sections. (reading, 15–20 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Child development, Continuity and discontinuity — Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia's article on child development, deep-linked to its continuity and discontinuity section; read that section and skip the theory and risk-factor sections. Its opening draws the period lines at different ages from this course's, a reminder that periods are conventions. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com