Week 6 — Where Did the Toy Go? Reading Infant Thinking, First Words, and Checklists — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Assignment 6 of the term — count the running case's hidings, work the two substage windows and the checklist rule, read records R2 and R3 against them, and explain a milestone checklist to a worried parent.

This week you met Piaget's schemes and his sensorimotor stage, object permanence and the A-not-B error, deferred imitation, the later looking-time research, early language from cooing to two-word combinations, and the CDC's 2022 milestone checklists. In this assignment you work four short problems, interpret each one, and explain a milestone checklist to a parent who reads it as a verdict. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Child Observation Workshop practice the same ideas from other angles. It builds on Week 3's habit of keeping what a child did apart from what it might mean, and on Week 5's rule that every age is a range, never a deadline.

The task

The running case is an illustrative, unnamed child built for this course; it describes no real child. Record R2 was written at 9 months in the family home, with a parent present: the infant finds a toy twice under the left cloth, watches it hidden under the right cloth, then searches under the left cloth again, and babbles "ba-ba-ba". Record R3 was written at 14 months at a childcare center's morning drop-off: the toddler says "ball", "up", and "more". Dataset D, the standard Piaget tasks, gives the typical earlier and later responses on the A-not-B task. The CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." checklists were revised in 2022 so that each lists what most children (75 percent or more) do by an age.

A parent of a 14-month-old (illustrative) reads the CDC's 15-month checklist early, sees an item the toddler does not do yet, and says, "So my child is behind." Your job is to answer the way a child development student would, starting from a few plain numbers.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic:

1. In record R2 of the running case, the toy is hidden 2 times under the left cloth and then 1 time under the right cloth. How many hidings are there in all?
2. In Dataset D, Piaget's fourth sensorimotor substage, whose typical A-not-B response is to search under A, runs from about 8 months to about 12 months. How many months wide is that approximate window?
3. In Dataset D, Piaget's fifth sensorimotor substage, whose typical A-not-B response is to search under B, runs from about 12 months to about 18 months. How many months wide is that approximate window?
4. The CDC's 2022 milestone checklists list what most children (75 percent or more) do by an age. If at least 75 of every 100 children do a listed milestone by that age, how many of every 100 children may not yet do it?

Beside each count, add one brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: name cloth A and cloth B and identify R2's search under the left cloth as the A-not-B error, writing what the infant did apart from what it might mean, and explain that finding the toy twice already shows object permanence, which grows in steps rather than all at once.
• Problem 2: place record R2's search at 9 months inside the fourth sensorimotor substage, and explain that Piaget's stage names and their order are fixed while the ages are approximate, never a timetable.
• Problem 3: state the typical fifth-substage response on the A-not-B task, and explain what the later looking-time research adds to Piaget's account, as a refinement rather than a refutation.
• Problem 4: state the CDC's 2022 checklist rule as the body states it: each checklist lists what most children (75 percent or more) do by that age, and checklists were added for 15 and 30 months.

Explain it to a non-expert

Write a 3–5 sentence message to the parent. Explain, in everyday words, what a checklist item means under the CDC's 2022 rule, how many of every 100 children may not yet do a listed item, and that a missed item is a reason to talk with the child's health professional, never a diagnosis. You may add that understanding words usually runs ahead of saying them, as R3's 3 first words remind you. Name one limit, such as that this course never judges whether a real child is behind and that questions about one child belong with that family's health professional. Be respectful: the parent is paying close attention, which is a good thing. More than one good message is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a friend whose library hold notice says "most holds arrive within two weeks," and it has now been sixteen days. Model message: "The notice describes what usually happens, not a promise for every hold, so a hold that takes longer is not lost. A few extra days is not a sign that anything went wrong. The useful next step is to ask the library desk, because the notice cannot tell you about your one book."

Use that pattern for the parent, with your own wording and evidence.

Your reflection. After you check your draft, write two or three sentences on one of these, your choice: (a) which problem changed how you would describe a baby's thinking or talking, and why; or (b) which word or phrase in your first draft you replaced, and what the new wording gets right.

Deliverables

Submit a single report containing:

• the four counts, each with the two values and the arithmetic shown, and the brief interpretation the task names for that problem;
• your message to the parent, explaining the CDC's 2022 checklist rule and that a missed item is a reason to talk with a health professional, with one limit;
• your reflection, on the option you chose; and
• a one-line restatement of the values you used, so your counts can be checked.

Keep it to roughly one page. Clear and correct beats long.

Choose how you show it. Present your report as written text, or as a recorded audio or video explanation of about three minutes with a transcript, or as a labelled sketch of the two substage windows with a short explanation. Every form is graded by the same scoring criteria. Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

This version is designed to be completed without AI: do the counts, the interpretations, and the writing yourself, without any AI tool. You may use a calculator or a spreadsheet for the arithmetic. Describe records R2 and R3 only as the course describes them, name people only by role, write every age as an approximate range rather than a deadline, never judge a real child as ahead or behind, and state the checklist rule only as the CDC states it. Submitting AI-generated work as your own, or copying another student's work, is an integrity violation under the course policy.

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