ASSIGNMENT DUE IN 16 HOURS

INTRODUCTION TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Learning Outcomes

1. Apply knowledge of developmental domains and milestones.

2. Justify the importance of play as a developmentally appropriate practice.

3. Identify ways to support the physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive growth of a child.

Week 3 Overview

Play in early childhood education has been a much-debated topic. Within the field, you will be planning for

experiences to facilitate play among the children, model play, and allow children to engage in unstructured play.

During this week, you will connect play to theory and defend the importance of play.

With much of our culture being focused on academic success, the

importance of play is oftentimes overlooked and undervalued. Play, is

a fundamental part of childhood and many lessons, values, and

quality learning takes place in the form of play. Play contributes to a

child’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being and

offers peer-to-peer enjoyment, interaction, creativity, and enjoyment (Ginsberg, 2007). Here is a view of play

from children’s perspective that will put a smile on your face!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sby38BbLZuY" frameborder="0"

allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Weekly Vocabulary

1. Play: Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, especially by children. 2. Typical Development: The term "typical" development is more accepted by parents than the term "normal" development. Development not only includes similar skills of peers, but also entails such developmental concepts as maturation, achievement of developmental milestones (significant points of accomplishments in various skill areas), developmental sequence of skills, and age level expectations.

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

Discussion 1: Importance of Play Interactive Newsletter

Many skills are developed in a play-based curriculum. Setting up centers in the classroom provides the

opportunity for you to plan for learning experiences to strengthen skills in each domain. In addition to

this type of structured play, there are also many opportunities for children to learn through play through

unstructured activities. However, you may come across parents or other professionals who do not

understand the importance of play in supporting early childhood growth and development.

Think about your own experience of play – what was your play

like? Who did you play with? What did you play with? What did

you learn from your play-based experiences? Now imagine if all of

those experiences were either taken away or told that they weren’t

meaningful. Structured play, noted above, is more along the lines

of forced learning through “play” while unstructured play is free,

creative, exciting, and authentic. It is a vital part of childhood and learning and as a professional you

may encounter situations with parents who do not believe in the benefits of play and you will need to

educate them on the power of play.

For this discussion: Imagine that you are a teaching assistant for a 3-year-old classroom, and are helping

the lead teacher with the yearly open house. As families are touring the classroom, you overhear several

conversations regarding how much playing children do in this school, and the concerns families have

about the academic growth of their children. After everyone has gone, you talk with the lead teacher about

what you overheard. The teacher comes up with a plan to send home a one page informational letter that

highlights the importance of play, and why it is essential to this classroom. The teacher has asked that

you take the lead on this project and create the letter.

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

To prepare for this discussion:

• Read Chapters 7 and 8

• Read Why is play so important?

• Review your post from the Developmentally Appropriate Practice: The Key discussion in Week 2.

For your initial post:

� Develop a one-page informational newsletter. You may use the Weekly Food for Thought

template provided or you can create your own using Word Newsletter Templates or another

format of your choice. Your newsletter must include the following:

� A brief introduction that explains play as it pertains to early learning

 Instructor Tip: Give an overview of the relationship between play and early

learning. Use research from a scholarly article to support your ideas.

� A general quote or saying about play

 Instructor Tip: You can google a quote from someone famous or you can create

your own quote or saying. Make it relevant to play and children.

� Research that supports play being a developmentally appropriate practice for young

children

 Instructor Tip: This research needs to be obtained from google scholar or the

Ashford Library. You will need a scholarly article that is supported by research.

Type terms such as “play and development” and “importance of play” into the

search line.

� Specific examples of how you use play your classroom (what types of activities children

engage in)

 Instructor Tip: What specific strategies, games, or techniques do you use OR

will you use in your own classroom? Be specific and give an example.

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

� A quote or saying that supports your classroom activities

 Instructor Tip: You can google a quote from someone famous or you can create

your own quote or saying. Make it relevant to play, children, and classroom

activities.

� Discuss how play is integrated into learning by showing how your above classroom

examples of play specifically meet the needs of children in this age group (age 3) in each

domain of development (include at least one example for each domain)

 Instructor Tip: This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate how your classroom

strategy meets the need of each of the domains of development (social, cognitive,

linguistic, etc). Be very specific and use research to support your ideas.

� Please uploaded your newsletter to the discussion board as an attachment

 Instructor Tip: You can upload your newsletter as a PDF or Word Document. A

PDF is easiest to read and looks most professional.

Guided Response: Please respond to at least two of your peers.

� Imagine you are one of the parents concerned about play and have just received this newsletter.

What would you say to the teacher in response to the information? Was the letter convincing

enough to change your mind about play? Provide a rationale.

 Instructor Tip: Discuss how you would respond to the teacher after you have read

this newsletter. Did your views change? Why or why not?

� What are two questions/concerns you have about play, or what are two important things you

learned about play from this letter?

 Instructor Tip: What questions or concerns do you still have? What is something

new that you learned from the research supporting play?

Though two replies are the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are

encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you (including

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

the instructor) before the last day of the learning week; this will further the conversation while also

giving you opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world

experiences with this topic.

Assignment: Child Development Observation

As you discovered in week two of this course, formally observing

children’s behavior is an important step in determining their current

stage of development and supporting our ability to support and

foster growth in areas where children may not excel. Chapters 7 and

8 of your textbook describe stages of physical, social, emotional,

cognitive, and language development in children 4 -5 years of age

and 6 -8 years of age. Use the textbook in addition to the video

provided with the instructions for this assignment as resources.

Here are a few additional resources both videos and website information from the CDC on children’s

developmental milestones at 4-5 years old and 6-8 years old.

4-5 Years old

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-4yr.html

<iframe width="560" height="315" src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/H_nrKUm2phw

frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/glzWl0qOTww"

frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

6-8 years old

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/middle.html

<iframe width="560" height="315" src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/ulnPW5mfFvc

frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

To Prepare for This Assignment:

• Review Chapters 7 and 8 of your textbook.

• Review 10 Effective DAP Teaching Strategies.

• Review and download the Week 3 Exemplar Template.

• Choose one of the below age ranges and corresponding video to use for this assignment.

Age Range Corresponding Observation Video Corresponding

Developmental Checklist

Early Childhood: 4 – 5 Years of

Age

Samantha and Sara Building Towers

and Castles

Developmental Checklist: 4 To

5 Years

Early Childhood: 6 – 8 Years of

Age

Asia and Lyric Building a Road

Together

Developmental Checklist: 6 To

8 Years

In your 3 -4-page paper or 6-8 slide Power Point Presentation,

� While watching your chosen video, complete the corresponding observation checklist, including

the summary section. Be sure to include this as the first page of your assignment (after your title

page)

 Instructor Tip: Be sure to include this as your first page of your assignment. You

also need a title page that will go before this checklist and summary. Here is an

example: http://libguides.uta.edu/apa/titlepage

� Discuss the typical development that you observed in the child (i.e. the areas that you were able

to check off on the checklist).

 Instructor Tip: What aspects of the child’s development appeared typical? Why?

Be specific as to what behaviors were typically developing.

� Explain any developmental concerns you have for this child based on your observation (i.e. the

areas that you were not able to check off on the checklist).

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

 Instructor Tip: What aspects of the child’s development did not appear typical?

Why? Be specific as to what behaviors were not typically developing?

� Explain, based on your observation and your desired future professional role, how you might

support this child using developmentally appropriate practices.

 What are some developmentally appropriate activities you can do with this child that will

support at least two different developmental domains?

 Instructor Tip: Try to answer this question differently from the previous week

and/or add to what you discussed in Week 2. What are 2 different domains that

you can focus on that you didn’t last week? Try and expand on your thinking from

Week 2.

 What are one or two considerations or suggestions that should be included into the

classroom environment to support the needs of the child?

 Instructor Tip: These two suggestions or considerations can be specific

accommodations or modifications that can be done inside the classroom

environment. Discuss how these specific considerations would impact these two

developmental domains.

The Child Development Observation #2 paper:

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length or 6-8 slides in length (not including title

and references pages, but including the completed observation checklist) and formatted

according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

• Must include a separate title page with the following:

o Title of paper

o Student’s name

o Course name and number

o Instructor’s name

ECE 205 Week 3 Guidance

o Date submitted

• Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.

 The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources table offers additional

guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a

specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor.

Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for

a particular assignment.

• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in

the Ashford Writing Center. Must include a separate references page that is formatted according

to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Thank you for a great third week!

“Play is the work of childhood” -Mr. Rogers

References

Ginsberg, K. (2017). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong

parent-child bonds. Retrieved from: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182

All images used under license from istock