Week 8 · Readings & resources

Week 8 — Readings & Resources

Child Development Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (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 48–57 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 (19–24 min total)

① Play, in six categories

Chapter 8, Section “Watch play: Parten's six categories” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Parten's six categories” · Remember: each of Parten's categories names what a child is doing at a moment, and parallel play is a common, social form of play.

Mildred Parten and her six stages of play — Community Playthings — an article in an early-years furniture maker's free learning library that describes each of Parten's six categories, from unoccupied behavior to cooperative play, and compares parallel, associative, and cooperative play with one sandbox example that matches this week's hook. Notice that it reports her method as one-minute observations of children's free play, and that it notes some scholars question whether the stages hold or whether play depends on the setting and the other children present, close to the point this course makes with Dataset C. Skip the product links. Use it while completing the Week-8 module overview. (reading, 6–8 min)
The role of play in child development — Raising Children Network — a short talk from an Australian parenting-information network that calls play not a side activity but the way children develop: it builds fine and gross motor skills, social and emotional connections, and links in the brain that grow stronger each time a child repeats something. Use it for play as a window on development across body, mind, and relationships; its timing for when the brain prunes unused connections is the speaker's own, not a figure this course pins. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
How Children Learn to Play: Partens 6 Stages of Play — Foundation First — a teacher's explainer that takes the six categories one at a time and makes two points this week's chapter makes too: solitary play is natural rather than a sign of loneliness, and watching others is a way of learning. It describes the categories as stages children move through in order; hold onto the course's reading that a category names a moment, not a step. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
The Power of Play: How Fun and Games Help Children Thrive — HealthyChildren.org — the American Academy of Pediatrics' family page summarizing its clinical report on play, with ideas by age from birth to 6, including peekaboo as practice for object permanence. Read it for play as a window on development across body, mind, and relationships; its advice to families is the Academy's own. Stop here before pretend play; next week takes that up in early childhood. (reading, 6–9 min)
Milestones by 30 Months — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — one of the CDC's milestone checklists, which list what most children (75 percent or more) can do by that age; its social milestones include playing next to other children and sometimes playing with them. This builds on Week 6's work with the 2022 checklist rule: a checklist is a reason for a family to talk with a health professional, never a test you give a child. (reading, 3–5 min)

② Goes together, or causes?

Chapter 8, Section “Separate going together from causing, and description from interpretation: Week 3” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Correlation and description” · Remember: a correlation shows that two things go together, and only an experiment with random assignment can test a cause.

Correlation Doesn't Equal Causation: Crash Course Statistics #8 — CrashCourse — an animated statistics episode that builds up to the four reasons two things can go together: one causes the other, the other way around, a third thing drives both, or chance. Its comic news segment about air conditioners and drownings is a memorable third-variable example. The middle stretch on regression lines and correlation coefficients goes beyond this course; skim it and watch the last third closely. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)

③ Organs before growth

Chapter 8, Section “Tell the embryonic period from the fetal period, and total the Apgar signs: Week 4” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Before and at birth” · Remember: the major organs form in the embryonic period, about weeks 3 to 8, and the fetal period is growth and refinement.

First Trimester: 3D Animated Pregnancy Guide — Dr. Paulien Moyaert — a physician's animated guide whose first half shows the amniotic sac and the yolk sac forming, the neural tube that becomes the brain and spinal cord, the first beats of a tiny heart tube, and the buds that grow into arms and legs, and then says that by the end of the third month all organs and limbs are present. Watch to about 2:30 and stop before the section on changes in the mother's body. It counts weeks from the last menstrual period, about two weeks before conception, and it calls the developing baby a fetus in the second month; this course says about weeks 3 to 8 for the embryonic period and about week 9 until birth for the fetal period. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

④ Moving and talking in the first years

Chapter 8, Section “Read a window as a range: Week 5's motor distinctions” · Session 2, Segment 1, “Motor skills and first words” · Remember: gross motor skills use large muscles, fine motor skills use small ones, and children usually understand more words than they say.

Gross v Fine Motor Skills — Teacher Gerard — a preschool teacher's short answer to the question of what separates the two: large body movements such as throwing, kicking, and jumping against small movements such as holding a pencil or threading beads. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
When will my child start talking? (12 to 30 months) — NHS — a health visitor from England's National Health Service explains that a child's first step toward talking is understanding the words around them, then traces babbling and sounds such as mama or dada, pointing and gesturing, following requests such as fetching something, and short sentences. Following a request shows receptive language and saying words shows expressive language; the ages it gives are the video's own, and its closing advice to speak to a health professional about a concern matches this course's reading of milestones. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Parten's stages of play — Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia's short article on Parten's categories; read its descriptions of the six and its paragraph of criticisms, which notes that researchers question whether children pass through a fixed sequence, the same point this course makes with Dataset C. (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.

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