Child Development Class: from Theoretical Learning to Practical Applications

Child Development was far and wide one of my favorite classes I have taken this semester. We have learned everything about prenatal development, child care, keeping kids safe, and much, much more. Taking this class has helped me to grow as an older sister, older cousin, and as a babysitter. I have learned so much about caring for kids through all stages of life.

One of my favorite projects that we did was “Baby’s First Year of Life”. In this project, we had a chart of items that a baby needs to live well through their first year.

This included a crib, diapers, and formula. We found the prices and added them up. The total came up to almost 20,000 dollars. It was very impactful to see how much money my mom spend three times over, for my two siblings and I. And that was just in each of our first years! Imagine how much they spent on all of us so far! I really enjoyed picking out cute, affordable outfits for my imaginary children, and picking out the essentials.

Tying into the baby prices project is the RealCare baby project. We took a fake baby doll home that simulated a real baby's schedule. The baby cries and requires care from the student. The four types of care the baby needs are feeding, rocking, burping, and diaper changing. Diaper changing is the quickest, but feeding, burping, and rocking can take quite a bit longer. Sometimes, the baby will coo or make breathing noises. Cooing means that the baby is awake. I also figured out that if you tickle the baby after leaving it alone, it will giggle (could be a random fluke, but I really hope it is real). If the baby makes breathing noises, it means it is sleeping. Some of the babies have a super sensitive neck, meaning you have to be more careful about head drops. Head drops happen when you let the baby’s head fall backward. Babies don’t have the same amount of neck strength as we do, so they can’t keep their heavy head at a safe level. The baby woke me up more on the first night than the other two, but you really do get used to it and can even tell what the baby needs based on the different types of cry.

It may sound odd, but I also truthfully enjoyed notes days. My favorite part of any class is absorbing knowledge like a thirsty sponge. I love notes days especially in this class because child development is something that will relate to my everyday life. I enjoy learning things about what I did in my past and seeing why I actually did them. I also enjoy hearing other people’s stories about their childhood. I really enjoyed getting to know the other people in my class. I learned so much on the notes days. We always got skeleton notes packets to fill in while going through the slides, and would sometimes follow notes up with a fun activity the next day.

After we learned more about a toddler’s mindset, we got to finger paint. We learned how little kids are very much process-oriented people. When they paint or draw, they are more focused on how they do it that what they do. We also did a project on how the fine motor development of a preschooler is very limited. We colored and cut a piece of paper with our non-dominant hand. Everyone found this task to be difficult and frustrating. Another analyzation project we did was finding movies that were appropriate for kids to watch. We got a worksheet and watched five-minute clips of different movies to see if there were positive role models, poor role models, violence, or content that would interest parents. We decided that the movies made more recently typically were targeted toward older children. We also played with toys and decided whether they would be easy to keep clean if they were a choking hazard, and if they would interest the child. Duplo blocks were one of the tops of our good toys list.

My final favorite activity was play school. We brought in real kids, and the best part was that this childcare project didn’t have to go home with us! We got into groups of two and planned our day. We had to include large motor, small motor, arts/crafts, and a story. My group chose to do paper plate ice skating, cookie decorating, either a snowflake or christmas tree with popsicle sticks, and a story called One Mitten. On days that we were not teaching we were given different roles during class. Players would follow along with the kids and do the activities that they are doing. Helpers would help clean up after an activity and prepare for the next one. Observers were given a sheet that helped us to analyze three of our kids’ physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.

This next one really does fall into place with notes days, but when we started to learn about the different types of development (physical, intellectual, emotional, social, AKA PIES). Mrs Quintus brought in different flavors of pie to make sure that we remembered the different types of development.

All in all, I loved this class, and would recommend it to anyone looking to be a better older sibling, cousin, or babysitter. It is also a good class to take if you spend a lot of time around kids or plan on having kids in your future. 

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