HDFS 229Infant and Child Development

3 credits · Human Development and Family Studies · Penn State

Theory, research, and methods of social/behavioral/biological sciences related to developmental processes and intervention during infancy and childhood. HD FS 229 Infant and Child Development (3) (GS)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course introduces students to the study of children from the prenatal period to (not including) adolescence. Students will become familiar with the most prominent theoretical ideas about child development. The latest research on prenatal development, infancy, early and middle childhood will inform the discussions, and students will become familiar with key studies. The major domains of children's functioning covered include social interactions and emotional development, cognitive changes and acquisition of language, physiological growth in infancy and biological changes that underlie the transition out of childhood into adolescence. A key feature of this course is how processes in these different domains interact to influence children's overall adaptation. Finally, informed by a life course developmental framework, this course will place these developmental processes in context. Students will become familiar with the theoretical and empirical literature that locates children's growth and development in the context of families and family change, peer groups, neighborhoods and communities, and the larger cultural context within which they are embedded.