The purpose of the course is to provide the student with a comprehensive understanding of the methods, theories and main concepts related to child development. The course offers scientific and practical guidance to those who:
1) work with, care for, or raise children,
2) design prevention and health promotion programs for children and
3) provide opportunities for children to thrive.
There will be a special emphasis on the theories of development, offering descriptions and explanations of cognitive, motor, social, linguistic, emotional, personality, and moral development. The conditions and environments within which
development takes place will be discussed, including an emphasis on those factors which promote positive development. A major goal of the course is for students to demonstrate an understanding of the interaction between the developing child and a continually changing world.
This Open Educational Resource has been adapted for Northern Virginia Community College’s PSY 235 Childhood Psychology Course. The original resource was created by Professor Bill Pelz of Herkimer County Community College’s Center for Global Learning and has since been adapted by Laura Overstreet to reflect current trends in Developmental Psychology. These materials were originally published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution License (you can review the license at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). The original version of the materials as published as Psyc 200 Lifespan Development may be accessed for free at http://opencourselibrary.org/econ-201/.
