Characteristics of Child Development

Through your readings this week, you learned about basic developmental characteristics and how each can serve as a window through which to contemplate and more fully understand child development. Review your readings, and focus specifically on the five developmental characteristics discussed in the Berger text (i.e., development is multidirectional, multidisciplinary, mulicontextual, multicultural, and plastic) and on the additional characteristics described in the Smidt text (i.e., development is embedded in history, culture, and economy). As you review, reflect on the following questions:

• Which of these developmental characteristics are familiar? Which are new?
• Which of these characteristics would I like to explore more closely?
• In what ways are any of these developmental characteristics important to prenatal development?

Next, select three developmental characteristics (with at least one from the Smidt text) and respond to the Discussion prompts below.

By Day 3

Post your responses to the following questions:

• In what ways does each of the characteristics you chose apply to the study of prenatal development?
• Based on your professional experiences and what you have learned in the program so far: Which, if any, of the developmental characteristics presented, do you consider important to understanding child development?
• Based on what you learned this week, what assumptions, if any, did you bring to this course?
• Have any of these assumptions been dispelled, and if so, in what ways?

By Day 7

Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in any of the following ways:

• Ask a question to learn more about your colleague’s ideas.
• Build on something your colleague said.
• Ask a probing or clarifying question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.
• Ask for evidence that supports the posting.