Description should include
- listing the developmental stages
- infant
- toddler
- preschooler
- school-age child
- adolescent
- explaining the characteristics of physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and creative development at each stage (e.g., completing a developmental timeline for growth patterns and needs)
- knowing the work of developmental theorists, such as
- Piaget
- Vygotsky
- Maslow
- Erikson
- Bowlby/Ainsworth
- Kohlberg
- knowing the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Developmental Milestones (e.g., social, emotional, cognitive, physical, language).
Teacher Resource:
Virginia’s Early Learning and Development Standards, VDOE
Process/Skill Questions:
Thinking
- Why should parents be aware of the developmental needs of children?
- What would happen if developmental needs were unmet? What happens when developmental needs are fulfilled?
- What can parents do to ensure that the developmental needs of children are met?
- Why is it important to understand the science of the brain and its development?
Communication
- What is the importance of communication between parent and child in terms of child development?
- Where do individuals acquire beliefs about child development? How might parents have unrealistic expectations of their child's social or intellectual growth? What happens when parents' expectations are unmet?
- What factors influence a child's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development? Which of these factors can parents control?
Leadership
- What information do parents need to have realistic expectations of child development?
- Why do children progress through each stage of development at the different rates?
- Why does human development progress through stages in a certain order?
Management
- How can parents help their children build on earlier learning?
- How are physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development related? How can parents manage children's activities so that no type of development is neglected?
- What parental behaviors are helpful to a toddler's emotional development, to a preschooler's social development, and to a teenager's intellectual development?