Week 6 · Readings & resources

Week 6 — Readings & Resources

Child Development Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 6 (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 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 51–64 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 (17–22 min total)

① Where did the toy go?

Chapter 6, Section “Find the hidden toy: object permanence and the A-not-B error” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Object permanence and the A-not-B task” · Remember: object permanence grows in steps, and searching under the first cloth after watching the toy move is the A-not-B error.

Sensorimotor Stage — Simply Psychology — a long explainer that walks through schemes, assimilation, and accommodation, then gives one section to each of the six substages, with object permanence and the A-not-B error along the way. It gives a month range for every substage; this course pins only the fourth and fifth, so read the others as approximate. Read the substages and the critical evaluation, which describes looking-time studies, and skim the rest. (reading, 10–15 min)
Teaching Developmental Psychology - Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage — Sara Sohr-Preston — a short talk on learning through the senses and movement, the infant as a little scientist, mouthing as exploration, and object permanence, with peekaboo as the example. It says object permanence shows up toward the end of the first year; the chapter's reading is that it grows in steps, and the video itself closes by noting that newer research questions how it develops. Use it while completing the Week-6 module overview. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Violation of Expectations Experiments: Babies know more than you think! — Psy vs. Psy — an explainer on the looking-time method: show a baby the same event again and again, then a surprising one, such as a toy put into one box coming out of another, and measure how long the baby stares. The video calls this an attempt to better define or even upend Piaget's theory; this course reads the same work as a refinement of his account, not a refutation. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)

② From babbling to first words

Chapter 6, Section “Hear the first words: receptive and expressive language” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Receptive and expressive language” · Remember: understanding words usually runs ahead of saying them, and babbling practices the sounds a baby hears.

Speech and Language Developmental Milestones — National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) — a federal health page that traces early communication from crying and cooing to speech-like babbling and then babbling in long and short groups of sounds, and that separates receptive language (understanding what others say) from expressive language (sharing one's own thoughts). Read its checklist through the first birthday as typical ranges, not deadlines: its age groups are the page's own, not figures this course pins, and its talk of critical periods for language uses the older term for what Week 2 called sensitive periods. (reading, 5–7 min)
Teaching your Baby to talk — HSE Ireland — a speech and language therapist from Ireland's national health service walks through how a baby moves from different cries to gurgles and sounds, makes the point that babies begin to understand words long before they can say them, and shows how an adult's babbling and exaggerated mouth movements draw a baby's looks, smiles, and, later, imitation. Stop at about 3:45, before the section on starting solid foods, which goes beyond this course; its tips are the video's own suggestions for families. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
Why Baby Talk Is Good for Babies — SciShow Psych — a science explainer on infant-directed speech: the higher pitch, the wider sing-song range, and the slower, exaggerated vowels, and why they seem to help babies pay attention and pick words out of a stream of sound. Listen for the point that this speech stays grammatical and that most cultures use some form of it. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)

③ Two languages, and reading checklists fairly

Chapter 6, Section “Read a milestone checklist: a reason to talk, not a diagnosis” · Session 2, Segment 8, “Milestone checklists” · Remember: a checklist lists what most children (75 percent or more) do by an age, and a missed item is a reason to talk with a health professional.

Dual Language Development: Double the Benefit — ZERO TO THREE — a short article for families that takes on the myth that learning two languages slows development: it says dual-language learners reach the same early milestones, that their words are divided across two languages, and that mixing languages is a normal stage. Read the section on the big bilingual myth closely. (reading, 4–6 min)
How Do Babies Become Bilingual? — SciShow Psych — a science explainer on how young infants tell apart speech sounds from many languages and then tune in to the languages around them, and on the finding that bilingual children do not develop more slowly. This builds on Week 5's synaptic pruning: the video explains the tuning as the brain keeping the connections it uses. Its claim about equal exposure to both languages is the video's own. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Milestones by 1 Year — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." page for 1 year, which says milestones are things most children (75 percent or more) can do by that age; its cognitive list includes looking for a toy the child saw you hide, and its language list includes understanding "no". Stop here before the social and emotional milestones; next week takes those up. (reading, 3–5 min)
Milestones Matter for Families! — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — parents describe using the CDC's checklists and app to follow a child's milestones and to bring questions to the pediatrician. When one parent worries about a child "lagging behind", recall the course's reading: a missed item is a reason to talk with a health professional, never a verdict on a child. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

CDC's Revised Developmental Milestone Checklists — CDC Stacks — the CDC authors' short account of the 2022 revision, opening as a PDF from this record page; read the paragraph on the change to milestones most children (75 percent or more) reach and the new 15- and 30-month checklists, and skip the screening-tool names. (reading, 4–6 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.

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