Week 9 · Readings & resources

Week 9 — Readings & Resources

Child Development Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 9 (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 63–75 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 (19–21 min total)

① Busy hands and first symbols

Chapter 9, Section “Use symbols: the preoperational stage” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Symbolic thought and pretend play” · Remember: the great gain of the preoperational stage is symbolic thought, letting one thing stand for another, and pretend play is symbolic thought in action.

Stages of Play from 24–36 Months: The World of Imagination — ZERO TO THREE — a short guide from an early-childhood nonprofit on how imaginative play takes off between about 2 and 3, with a block used as a birthday cake and a pillow used as a pizza. Read the section on playing pretend as examples of symbolic thought, and notice its advice to follow the child's lead and build on the play. (reading, 4–6 min)
Teach Your Toddler How To Draw (Developmental Stages of Drawing + Tips/Tricks from a Pediatric OT) — The OT Guide — a pediatric occupational therapist walks through six stages of drawing, from scribbling to controlled scribbles, pre-writing strokes, and then shapes and stick figures that stand for people and houses. Watch the opening on the stages for fine motor growth and for drawing as a symbol; the ages she gives are her own rough guide and vary from child to child, and the tips after the stages are optional. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
Milestones by 4 Years — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC's milestone page for 4 years, which lists things most children (75 percent or more) can do by that age, such as catching a large ball most of the time, holding a crayon between fingers and thumb, drawing a person with three or more body parts, and pretending to be something else during play. Use it while completing the Week-9 module overview, and read every item as a range, never a deadline. Its social and emotional list belongs to next week's social-emotional topic; stop before it. (reading, 4–6 min)

② Seeing from somewhere else

Chapter 9, Section “See from another place: egocentrism” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Egocentrism and the three mountains task” · Remember: egocentrism in Piaget's sense is difficulty taking another person's point of view, a limit on seeing from another place, not selfishness.

The Growth of Knowledge: Crash Course Psychology #18 — CrashCourse — a fast-paced explainer whose middle section covers the preoperational stage: egocentrism, pretend play, animism, centration, and conservation, with a story about moving a toy fish while someone is not looking. Watch it with two checks in mind: its line that for kids this age it is all about them makes egocentrism sound selfish, and its description credits scaffolding to Vygotsky, while the chapter credits the term to Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976). It also folds the moved-fish test of other minds into Piaget's stage; the chapter credits the false-belief task to Wimmer and Perner (1983). (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Piaget’s “Three Mountain Task” Explained — Psychology Exposed — a short explainer of the three mountains task: the model's three peaks, the doll placed on another side, the picture choices, and the typical preoperational choice of the child's own view. It also names the criticism that the task may be too unfamiliar for young children. Its "younger than seven" is an approximate stage age, not a rule, and the task is Piaget and Inhelder's together. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Help that steps back

Chapter 9, Section “Learn with others: the zone and scaffolding” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The zone of proximal development and scaffolding” · Remember: scaffolding is support adjusted to the learner and withdrawn as skill grows, and the term comes from Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976).

Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development in Social Relationships — Sprouts — an animated explainer of the zone of proximal development as the space between what you can do alone and what you can do with a more knowledgeable other, and of inner speech growing out of spoken speech. Its twins example uses a community with different expectations for boys and girls to show what support changes; read that as the video's illustration, and notice that its line that Vygotsky rejected Piaget's ideas is stronger than the chapter's comparison of the two theories. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students — Edutopia — a teaching article that lists six classroom moves, such as giving time to talk and pausing to ask questions, and separates scaffolding from changing an assignment. Compare its definition, breaking learning into chunks with a tool for each, with the chapter's: the chapter adds that support is withdrawn as the learner's skill grows. (reading, 4–6 min)
Making the Most of Reading Aloud: Practical Strategies for Parents of Young Children — PBS KIDS for Parents — an article of six read-aloud strategies for families of toddlers and preschoolers, such as giving a child a part to say in a predictable book, reading the pictures, and pausing to ask questions. Read the strategies as early literacy in action; the study figures in its opening are the page's own, not numbers this course pins. (reading, 6–8 min)
Dialogic Reading (Dogs!) — Cincinnati Children's — a children's hospital's short animated guide to dialogic reading: asking a child questions during a story, responding to what the child says, adding words, and inviting the child to repeat. Watch how each prompt gives a little support that the child can take over, which is scaffolding during early literacy; its opening reference to a pediatric recommendation is the video's own statement. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Knowing what someone else believes

Chapter 9, Section “Understand other minds: false belief” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Theory of mind and the false-belief task” · Remember: theory of mind is understanding that other people can believe things that are not true, and most children pass false-belief tasks at around age 4.

What is Theory of Mind? | Psychology 101 — Psyched! — a narrated explainer that defines theory of mind, walks through the classic two-doll false-belief skit with a marble moved while one doll is away, and says children typically pass such tasks at around age 4. This builds on Week 6's looking-time research: its second half describes a 2005 looking-time study suggesting that much younger children show some sensitivity to false belief, which goes beyond what this course pins. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Preoperational stage — Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia's article, deep-linked to its section on the preoperational stage and its two substages; read that section for symbolic play, egocentrism, centration, and conservation, and stop at the heading for the concrete operational stage. (reading, 8–12 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