EC-K1: Awareness of the basic developmental stages within domains of motor, cognitive, communication, and social-emotional development for infants and young children ages birth to 5.

	1	1R	2	2R	3	3R	4	4R	5	5R	5a	5aR	6	6R

Facilitator Supplement

Worksheets in this Unit

All worksheets are Adobe pdf files. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view and print the worksheets.

Lesson 6: Development of Adaptive Behavior

• Strategy To Practice

Facilitated Activity

The activity in this unit draws upon the knowledge that paraprofessionals gained throughout all lessons within the unit. After learning about the five different domains of child development, paraprofessionals will conduct observations of two young children at different developmental levels. They must complete an observation worksheet on which they record their observations regarding each child’s motor, cognitive, language, social/emotional, and adaptive skill development.

The observation activity is designed to help paraprofessionals integrate the knowledge they gained from the various lessons while observing child development in action. Although the activity does not occur until the end of the unit, the facilitator can guide paraprofessionals to think critically and discuss topics related to the different developmental domains throughout the unit. The facilitator can also lead a guided reflection discussion after all paraprofessionals have completed the final observation activity.

Discussion Ideas

Lesson 1 - Basic Principles of Child Development

• What are some examples of the principles of child development that you have seen in your own experiences?
• Why might it be important to know the basic principles of child development even if you do not work primarily in an early childhood setting?
• What are some factors that might impact a child’s rate of development?

Lesson 2 - Motor Development

• One example of early perceptual-motor development is when a child “learns” that ovens are hot when she touches them. The child’s memory of ovens being hot reminds her not to touch the oven again. This is just one example of perceptual-motor development provided in the lesson. Think of other examples of perceptual-motor development in young children.
• How could you promote the development of a young child’s fine motor skills?
• How could you promote the development of a young child’s gross motor skills?

Lesson 3 - Cognitive Development

• Why would it be important for paraprofessionals and other educators to know about Piaget’s stages of cognitive development when working with children in an early childhood setting?
• How does cognitive development affect a child’s behavior?
• What could you do, as a paraprofessional, to facilitate and promote the cognitive development of the children you work with?

Lesson 4 - Language Development

• How could you facilitate and promote the development of young children’s expressive language skills?

Lesson 5 - Social-Emotional Development

• How do you think a child’s language development could impact his/her social development?
• Break up into three groups to discuss infants, toddlers, or preschoolers. Each group should first discuss the different emotional “tasks” and social skills that usually develop during the stage the group has chosen (infancy, toddlerhood, or early childhood/ preschool). Then the group should brainstorm how paraprofessionals could promote and encourage the development of those tasks and skills.

Lesson 5a - Play and Social Development

• Which of the six types of play have you seen in your own experiences with children? Describe what that type of play looked like, including how the children related to one another.

Lesson 6 - Development of Adaptive Behavior

• What could you do to promote and facilitate the development of each of the following adaptive behaviors: social responsibility, self-help skills, community self-sufficiency, and social adjustment?

Observation Activity - Follow-up Discussion

• Break into groups of two or three and discuss what you saw during your observations. How did your observations differ for children of varying ages? What did you find surprising during your observations? What difficulties did you encounter?
• Which domain of development was most difficult to observe? What types of behaviors did you observe and record within that domain? How did observations vary within the group for that domain of development?
• Discuss the observations you recorded about the children’s social/emotional development. Did you observe any of the emotional “tasks” or social skills covered in the lesson?

The Para eLink is sponsored by the Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education, located at the Institute on Community Integration in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.

E-mail us with questions and comments about this site.

© 2001-2007 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
This page last modified
URL
Online Privacy Statement