Teaching Outline For KEY #3 Know How Your Child Develops Learning objectives. # Parents will be able to observe and interpret their baby s or toddler s growth and behavior in relation to the natural rules and areas of development. # Parents will choose and use age-appropriate play materials and activities to help along their child s physical/motor, social, emotional, and intellectual development. Recommended supplies. T Copies of Key #3 and Developmental Growth Chart for all participants. T One copy of Developmental Profiles: Pre-Birth Through Age Eight (3rd Ed.), 1999, by Allen and Marotz, suggested for the leader. Delmar Publishers, ISBN: 0-8273-8605-2. Phone: 1-800-347-7707, or www.delmar.com. Three copies are available for Extension professionals to check out from the CYFAR Resource Library. Phone: 859-255-8640, in Lexington, Kentucky. T Cassette tape or CD of nursery rhymes, lullabies, or light classical music. T Cassette tape or CD player. T The Amazing Talents of the Newborn video produced by the Pediatric Institute of Johnson & Johnson (running time: 30 minutes)(optional resource needing extra time in the session). The video may be purchased for $12.50 plus shipping and handling by phoning 1-877-565-5465, faxing at 1-877-565-3299, or writing to the Pediatric Institute of Johnson & Johnson at P.O. Box 140097, St. Louis, Missouri 63114-USA. Two copies are available for check out to Extension professionals from the CYFAR Resource Library. Phone: 859-255-8640. T VCR/TV, if you use the video listed above. T Flip chart and easel. T Felt tip markers. T Pencils, enough for all participants. T Masking tape. T Copies of A Daily Observation Record for all participants. T Copies of How Am I Growing And Changing? chart. T Copies of Problem Solving Through Encouragement: Lev Vygotsky=s Theory of Social Learning for all participants, if appropriate for the literacy and interest level of your group. T Sample collection of developmental playthings, suggested in Key #3 in the sections, Physical Development and Social Development, pages 6-7. T Supply table for the collection of playthings for physical and social development.
Know How Your Child Develops Page 2 T Copies of Healthy Personality Development: Erik Erikson=s Theory of Psychosocial Development for all participants (optional). T Copies of two, one-page temperament checklists, Your Temperament Assessment Scale, and The Temperament Assessment Scale for Children, enough copies of both checklists for all participants. T One copy of The Importance of Sensory Experience for Learning: Jean Piaget s Theory of Intellectual Development, for the group facilitator s information. T Copies of the half-page Skill Builder Action Plan form, enough for all participants. T Participants Skill Builder Log Sheets. Bring a few extra new log sheets for newcomers. Be sure to read Using the Skill Builder Log Sheet: A Guide for Program Evaluation before beginning the session if necessary for your full understanding of the evaluation process. Sharing Time (about 20 minutes) A. Welcome: Welcome participants with relaxing music that they and their children might enjoy, such as the examples suggested in the List of Recommended Supplies. Encourage stretches, deep breathing, shoulder rubs, and other comfortable movements. B. Personal happenings: Suggest that participants might describe ways they have found to care for themselves since the previous session. Invite them to share stories of play and learning times with their baby or toddler. This group sharing is an important learning time. C. Revisiting session on Key #2: Ask participants to show and explain to the group the examples of their toddlers scribbling and writing that you asked them to bring to this meeting during the session on Key #2, Cuddle, Talk, and Read With Your Child. D. Skill building: The primary goal of the Keys to Great Parenting program is to help parents of babies and toddlers build and strengthen their positive parenting skills. Your role in this part of the session is to lead participants in sharing their successes and challenges in following through on the Skill Builders Action Plan that they completed at the end of the previous session. Instructions for this guidance, including the use of the Skill Builder Log Sheet, are found in the Introduction to the Teaching Outlines. Part 1: The Natural Rules and Areas of Development. (about 20 minutes) A. Introduction. 1. Briefly mention these points: (To the leader: Do not hand out Key #3 and Chart yet.) a. Observing our children as they grow is a lifelong privilege. b. Wondering about development is OK; it s a natural part of parenting. c. Nature has programmed children all over the world to grow and develop according to predictable rules, or principles, of development. d. Understanding development brings us more confidence to be our child s first and most important teacher. e. Understanding development helps us have more realistic expectations, relaxation, and peace in our teaching role. B. Learning about development. 1. Hand out copies of Key #3 and the Developmental Growth Chart.
Know How Your Child Develops Page 3 2. Point out the three natural rules and the four areas of development on pages 4-5 while participants follow in their booklets. Permit participants to freely comment with examples from their own development or that of their children. 3. Tell the group that heredity provides the blueprint, or genetic potential for optimal development. Recent research on brain development shows that the blueprint needs a loving, stimulating environment to make the most of the inborn potential. Most brain cells are present but unconnected to each other (except for basic survival reflexes) until environmental stimulation begins at birth. 4. If you have extra time and wish to do so, you may show all or part of the video, The Amazing Talents of the Newborn, to point out how newborns use their inborn skills. 5. Emphasize that all areas of development work together every moment in every child. We just separate them so that we can learn how each area operates within human nature. 6. Point out that the achievement of new skills and abilities, or milestones, are signals that show us when windows of opportunity (that is, periods when certain areas of the brain are especially programmed for development) in our children s brains are occurring. We need to help along these new abilities right then and there with close attention. 7. Refer participants to their copies of the Developmental Growth Chart, found loose within Key #3. The Growth Chart can be used to highlight examples of milestones that are windows of opportunity. Ask participants to quickly scan the Growth Chart for characteristics that their babies or toddlers are currently showing. 8. Call attention to the paragraph on page 5 in Key #3, titled Can I make my child smarter? Emphasize that each child is unique and valuable and develops at his or her own rate. C. How we can tell that children are developing: Basic observation skills. 1. Tell the group that it is useful to separate what we actually see and hear, which is called observation, from what we think or feel about the action, which is called interpretation. 2. Interpretation includes our ideas, feelings, and values. For example, we may see and hear our child wriggling, waving her arms, and making crying sounds. We interpret our observation as, Oh, my, she must be hungry! The child might actually feel lonely or bored and need someone to play with. We must look carefully for the reasons for behavior. 3. Hand out copies of A Daily Observation Record. Explain how to use the two sections. 4. Suggest that participants try writing at home, for a few minutes at a time, an observation and an interpretation for their child s actions, but not to worry about doing it perfectly. 5. Emphasize the importance of making a large number of observations over a long period of time before jumping to the conclusion that an individual child is smarter than another child or exceeds or falls behind the rate listed on developmental charts. Part 2: How Does Your Child Grow? Physical and Social Development. (about 15 minutes) A. Physical development and motor coordination. 1. Tell the group that babies give us clues if we are watching and listening about their
Know How Your Child Develops Page 4 physical abilities and motor skills. What are some clues to watch for in physical development and motor coordination? 2. Explain that physical development is the growth and functioning of the parts of the body, such as height, weight, energy level, sleeping and eating patterns, etc. 3. Explain that motor coordination is the way large and small muscles work together to permit increased skill in movements and strength for play and work. 4. Ask two participants to describe what their babies or toddlers are doing right now in the area of physical and motor development. Suggest that the group find those characteristics of development and skills on the Developmental Growth Chart. 5. Hand out copies of the height-weight-motor activities chart, How Am I Growing and Changing? to participants. a. Encourage participants to use the chart to list their baby s or toddler s height and weight changes, motor accomplishments, and the ways in which they encourage their child to exercise large and small muscles during active play times. b. Emphasize that very young children should be encouraged to master basic movements such as grasping, dropping, creeping, crawling, walking, running, jumping, kicking, throwing, etc. They are generally not ready to play team sports that require more advanced coordination of basic movements. c. Refer participants to Key #3, pages 6-7, for ideas about motor development playthings and activities. B. Social development. 1. Young children learn most easily through friendly contact with others, while at the same time using all their senses in discovery play. 2. Go over the points and examples in Key #3, page 7. 3. Hand out and briefly review Problem Solving Through Encouragement: Lev Vygotsky=s Theory of Social Learning, if appropriate for the literacy level and interests of your group. Lead participants in brainstorming examples of how they could help a baby or toddler solve a problem when she indicates a desire for help. 4. Point out the importance of bathing children in language to help them solve problems with people or things. Suggest that participants listen to their words and observe their body language when they interact with their babies or toddlers. 5. Emphasize the importance of teaching children to appreciate a diversity of cultures and abilities. Research shows that children begin to notice differences in people s appearance as early as 2-22 years of age and begin to imitate adults attitudes. 6. Call attention to the collection of playthings you brought. Encourage the group member to play together with the items. Ask them to discuss the value of the playthings. Part 3: Emotional and Intellectual Development. (about 20 minutes) A. Emotional development.
Know How Your Child Develops Page 5 1. Point out that the bonds of love we feel toward parents and other family members give us feelings of trust and security. Feelings of trust, security, and independence help babies and toddlers to have the courage to explore and learn about the world around them. 2. Hand out copies of A Healthy Personality: Erik Erikson=s Theory of Psychosocial Development, if appropriate for the literacy level and interests of your group. You may use the material word for word, explain it in your own words, or suggest that participants read it later. 3. Temperament, or emotional makeup: Refer participants to Key #3, pages 8-9, which describe Chess and Thomas=s three basic temperament types and their combinations. Read the first paragraph under each of the three headings out loud. 4. Mention the following findings from Chess and Thomas=s research. Write the percentages on the flip chart: a. Within the general populationc $ About 40% are flexible, calm, and easy-going. $ About 15% are energetic, intense, enthusiastic, and moody. $ About 10% are cautious, quiet, and thoughtful. $ The other approximately 35% are combinations of temperaments. They often tend toward one type, with some characteristics of others. b. All three temperament types and combinations of types are normal and OK! 5. Hand out pencils and the two-sided handout with the two temperament assessment checklists. Encourage participants to complete both checklists of nine factors that help us to understand the temperaments that we and our children have. 6. Ask participants to notice differences and similarities between themselves and their children on each factor. Ask them to think about how those differences and similarities play out in their daily lives with their babies or toddlers. 7. Discuss the temperament checklists with the whole group. a. Ask for volunteers to report any discoveries they have made about their own temperaments and the match or mismatch with temperaments of their babies or toddlers. b. Brainstorm some ways of working with babies and toddlers who tend toward one or another temperament when the parent is basically of the same temperament. Ask how participants would work with a baby or toddler of quite a different temperament. How might the differences in temperament affect the bond between parent and child, the parent s ability to care for herself or himself, and the child s learning abilities? B. Intellectual development. 1. Tell the group that Jean Piaget, a well-known Swiss psychologist, taught that learning occurs when people interact with their environment and solve practical problems. They learn through two basic intellectual processes: taking in new information and adding it to what they already know. changing their ideas when they discover new concepts about how the world works. 2. Both processes need a sense of trust and independence to fire up the mind to learn in the best way. (Please refer to the fact sheet The Importance of Sensory Experience for Learning: Jean Piaget s Theory of Intellectual Development.)
Know How Your Child Develops Page 6 3. The advancements in research about brain functioning show that emotions play a highly important role in making smooth, speedy brain cell connections or in slowing the connections down. Please refer to the teaching outline for Key #2 for more information on early brain development. Also refer to the diagram A Brain Cell (Neuron). 4. Please refer participants to Key #3, pages 10-11, for a brief summary of ways that younger babies, older babies, and toddlers take in and use information. Summarizing the Session. (about 15 minutes) 1. You may say, Today we have learned something about nature s rules and areas of development. We have learned about observing and interpreting the behavior of our little ones, and we realize that each of our children is a special individual who grows and develops at her own speed. We have two charts to help us keep track of the fascinating development going on before our eyes. We have come up with some activities that we can try out with our babies and toddlers in each area of development. Being our child s first teacher may now be even more interesting than it was before! 2. Tell participants that the next session will center on Key #4, Be Playful with Your Child. You may say, We will learn more about how we can have fun playing with our babies and toddlers. We know that play is the key to helping development along in all four of the areas we have discussed. Skill Builders. (about 15 minutes) As an educator, one of your important goals is to help members of your group apply what they have learned. Your tools for accomplishing this are the half-page action plan form called Skill Builders and the Skill Builder Log Sheet. This goal-setting plan is an essential part of the learning process for participants, in which they indicate their intention to apply their knowledge to their work with their baby or toddler. Please refer to the Introduction to the Teaching Outlines for specific instructions. (If you have a children s program that runs along with the parent meeting, you may say, In a little while we will go to the children s room. As you play, remember to observe how your child responds to your relaxed manner, warmth, smiles, and attention. Pay close attention to the skills your child shows in the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual areas of development. Write notes about what you observed in your developmental record as soon as you can after you arrive home. Practice kindness and courtesy in your play and departure with your child. As you treat yourself and your child with respect, you are teaching important lessons in peaceful living. ) Wrap Up A. Continue using How Am I Growing and Changing? and A Daily Observation Record to record your child s abilities. Bring your charts with you to the next meeting for sharing time. B. Notice when your baby or toddler communicates that he or she needs your help to solve a problem. Be prepared to tell us the story. C. Bring a playful activity that you enjoy using with your baby or toddler (bubbles, puzzle, ball, book, push-pull toy, busy box, etc.) to the next meeting.