Infant DnD...

Prenatal

1. Place

The first letter of your last name = The first letter of the country or city (anywhere in the world) where the infant will be born.

  • Look up this city/country, and make sure you can find information about its demographics online. If not, choose a different place.

2. Racial/Ethnic Identity

Based on your (cursory) online research, select a locationally-relevant racial/ethnic identity for the parents of your infant. Try to make this different from how you or anyone in your family identifies. Consider possible intersections with immigration status, if relevant.

3. Socioeconomic Status (SES)

The second digit of your area code × 10 = the percentile of the place-specific income/education distribution where your family falls.

4. Cultural Microsystems

Identify 2 cultural microsystems (based on Veléz-Agosto et al.’s 2017 revision of Brofenbrenner’s Bioecological Model) relevant to prenatal or immediately postnatal experience.

  • Find representative photos of these two microsystems, based on your answers to 1–3.

Infancy

Informed by both the context that you have developed, Bush et al. (2017), and lecture, identify:

1. Prenatal Exposure

The last digit of your phone number is the month of gestational age at which your infant’s parent is exposed to the first stressor.

  • Write a few sentences about the stressor and its impact on the pregnant person and on prenatal development. Talk with your partner about how to take into account the full prenatal developmental context.

Generate a random number

  • If it is even, parent/prenatal infant are exposed to the second stressor.
    Write a few notes about the stressor and its impact.
  • If it is odd, parent/prenatal infant are not exposed.

Again, generate a random number

  • If it is greater than 4, you are exposed to the positive life event.
    Write a few notes on your slide about the event and its impact/the experience.
  • If it is 4 or lower, the event does not happen.

2. Birth

  • Find a photo of your infant and/or the context in which they might have been born.

3. Postnatal Stress

Generate one more random number

  • If it is even, parent/infant are exposed to the postnatal stressor.
    Write a few notes about the stressor and its impact. Talk to your partner about how the stressor interacts with the broader developmental context, and with the preceding events you have determined.
  • If it is odd, there is no postnatal exposure.

Optional: The ACEs Game

1. Your child and their context (~100-150 words)

Introduce your Infant DnD child (including their name!), and describe the relevant microsystems and broader context of their birth and early development. Thinking of the readings and our discussions in class, what are the relative risks, challenges, and opportunities that they face, by virtue of this context? 

2. ...as it pertains to physical development (~100-150 words)

Next, use the resources collected and maintained by UNICEF (e.g., the datasets, country profiles, publications, etc.) to inform your selection of at least two relevant contextual factors for your infant's physical development (these factors can be relevant pre- or postnatally). Describe and explain the factors you have identified, being sure to cite your sources. 

3. Recommendations to combat poverty (~250-300 words)

Now, imagine that you are invited to help leaders (local administrators, community organizers, or other officials) in the context of your Infant DnD child to boost the physical development (e.g. physical health and well-being) of their young children.

The leaders want:

Finally, how do (or can) your recommendations take biological sensitivity to context into account?


Submit your write-up as a pdf, making sure to include your name in your submission. Your reflection should be no longer than 2 pages.

Please be sure to use APA citation format (you do not need a reference page, but should use in-text citations where relevant).

Toddlerhood

1. Temperament

Use the below table to discover your child's relative levels of nine traits of temperament.
For all dimensions:

  • If the number is between 0 and 3, your infant is Low
  • If the number is between 4 and 5, your infant is Mid
  • If the number is between 6 and 9, your infant is High

Activity Level The second-to-last digit of your cell phone #
Adaptability The first number of your cell phone #
Approach/Withdrawal The fifth digit of your student ID number
Distractibility The last digit of your student ID number
Intensity The first digit of the zip code of your home town
Mood The last digit of the zip code of the earliest home address you can remember
Persistence The last digit of the number of your street address (2627 Main St → “7”)
Regularity The last digit of your birthdate day (If you were born on the 19th → “9”)
Sensitivity The last digit of your birth month (If you were born in October → “0”)

Considering your child's scores on the nine dimensions of temperament, do your best to classify them according to the three-part classification system of “Easy/Flexible,” “Active/Feisty,” and “Slow to Warm/Cautious (you may want to refer to Understanding and Adapting to Individual Temperaments).

  • Easy or flexible: Children with this temperament tend to be easy-going, happy, calm, and adaptable, and have regular sleeping and eating habits.
  • Active or feisty: Children with this temperament may be very active, fussy, and have intense positive or negative reactions to a variety of situations. They may also have irregular sleeping and eating habits.
  • Slow to warm or cautious: Children with this temperament may be hesitant or fearful in unfamiliar situations, move slowly, and prefer to watch a situation for a while before joining in. They may have a difficult time with changes, such as having a new caregiver or a shift in the daily schedule.

2. Attachment

Roll a D10 dice.

  • If the number is between 1 and 6, your child's attachment pattern is Secure
  • If the number is between 7 and 8, your child's attachment pattern is Avoidant
  • If the number is 9, your child's attachment pattern is Resistant

Flesh out your child's temperamental profile and attachment behaviors: what does this mean for your child and their development? What are some things your toddler likes to do? Find 1–2 photos of relevant activities or contexts.

Preschool

1. Your Child's Social-Emotional Profile (~150-200 words)

Describe your child's social-emotional profile, including:

What do these mean for the child in their context? What sorts of activities do they enjoy? Expand on this profile to give context for your child's history, family, and environment, including a characterization of risks or stressors relating to their social-emotional development, as well as protective factors or buffers.

2. Ensuring Goodness of Fit (~100-150 words)

Now think about yourself or an imagined caregiver for your child. Reviewing these reflection questions, consider:

3. Preparing for School/Daycare Entry (~200-250 words)

What kind of educational or classroom context do you think would be ideal for your child?

First, research relevant school or daycare formats for the context of your child (along with those we've covered in class), and select one that you think would be either realistic or best for your child.

Next, address the following questions, drawing on your work in parts 1-2, and on the material covered in class up until this point. 

Your reflection should include at least two citations.


Submit your write-up as a pdf, making sure to include your name in your submission. Your reflection should be no longer than 2 pages.

Please be sure to use APA citation format (you do not need a reference page, but should use in-text citations where relevant).

School

You received preparation for this assignment via the Bridging Informal and Formal Learning small-group discussions, brainstorming, and presentations that you did. It will also be helpful to think about the Rogoff lecture we watched, the Sitabkhan article, Vygotsky review, and How People Learn chapter that you read, as well as our discussions in class. 

Your DnD child is now in elementary school.

Think about their everyday experiences, in their context. 

Select at least one everyday experience that supports a specific capacity, skill, or mode of learning that is infrequently valued in formal education or schooling. Your assignment should address the following:

1. Your child's everyday experiences and informal learning (~100-150 words)

2. ...brought into formal learning (~250-300 words)

Now think about how this skill could be integrated into formal learning spaces. 


Submit your write-up as a pdf, making sure to include your name in your submission. Your reflection should be no longer than 2 pages.

Please be sure to use APA citation format (you do not need a reference page, but should use in-text citations where relevant).

In your assignment for this week, you will be thinking about your child's experience with language, literacy, and the digital world outside of school, and how that connects to their experience of language and literacy inside of school. 

Do your best to ground your writing in research about the place your child is from. For example: 

Your write-up should address the following:

1. Your child's language environment (~150-200 words)

Describe your child's language environment outside of school, including:

2. ...and language skill, knowledge, and identity (~100-150 words)

Describe your child's language knowledge/skill, including:

3. School language environment (~200-250 words)

Now, given the context that you have developed in the previous two sections, think about how your child's language experience, knowledge, and skill relate to language use and knowledge in your child's school environment. Questions to think about:


Submit your write-up as a pdf, making sure to include your name in your submission. Your reflection should be no longer than 2 pages.

Please be sure to use APA citation format (you do not need a reference page, but should use in-text citations where relevant).