The Human Spark Video Assignment

Use this template as your guide for gathering information to represent in your
breakout session. You will need two documents:
● Developmental Trends Handout (Material link in Classroom)
● Class notes
*Remember, these boxes expand as you type. Be sure to answer each section
completely.
Video Selection: #1 Language Development

Domain of Development: (Refer to class notes. Which do you think this video
addresses?)
- I think this falls under Cognitive Development because we are learning
how to communicate and identify certain objects or words.

Developmental Trends addressed in video: (Refer to Developmental Trends

handout- you can list these in bullet points here)
- Use of words to name people, things, needs, and desires(“eat” “cat” “ball”)
- Growth in communication
- Speak to infants regularly to enrich their language development.
- Ability to initiate simple gestures with a model present, moving to complex
initiation of actions and patterns from memory
- Growing ability to remember people and things out of sight

Discussion Questions: Copy and paste questions from the webpage. Write your
answers below for each.
#1 What does Dr. Elizabeth Spelke believe about how the abilities of
human infants compare to that of other animals?
- When we look at 4m or 6m old would do there are many similarities of the
same ages with other species
- Learning first words 9-10 months that's when we start seeing unique
human capacities emerging
#2 Discuss what Dr. Spelke says is responsible for the development of
uniquely human abilities.
- When you tell them and show them they are able to comprehend it and
understand
- They have the ability to understand because they are already
 manipulating symbols in language
- Doesn’t develop at birth, it is something they learn towards the end of their
first year
#3 According to Dr. Spelke what changes occur in a child as they
approach one year old?
- They start to understand language and speak it themselves
- They start learning words that stand for objects in the world
- Repetition of objects allows them to understand most
- They learn sounds that are unclear and then they start learning words
stand for objects(nouns like ball, cat), then
- they get verbs like eat
- And then at about 1 ½ year they start to put sentences together
containing about 2 words (mommy up/down)
#4 Describe the experiment using the maps, Kermit and the buckets.
Describe what the first child did when prompted. What did the second
child do when prompted? What differences did you observe between the
two prompts? What differences did you observe in the outcomes? How
did each child relate the map to the real world?
- For the first child, she was told the green dots are buckets in the room, so
she was able to match them up with the paper ones and put kermit in his
favorite bucket
- For the second child, he was not told that the paper dots represented the
buckets in the room, the instructor asked him to place kermit in his favorite
bucket and the boy put kermit on a green dot on the paper, and then once
he was told that the paper dots represented the buckets next to them he
was able to put kermit in the bucket
- Some differences were the instructions and details given to the children,
the first girl was told about the paper representing the buckets in the
room, and the second child was not
- Due to this, there were different outcomes in the children's reactions. The
girl put kermit in an actual bucket in the room, the boy put kermit on the
paper
- Children in the real world can relate by putting their toys in a toy chest or
something in a pencil/coloring box.
#5 According to Professor Neville, what discovery does a child tend to
make around one year old?
- Around one year old children start to learn words with objects and usually
these are nouns first like “cat” or “ball”
- Then comes verbs such as “eat”
 - And then at about 1/12 years of age they learn to put small amounts of
words in the sentences like “mommy up/down”

Short Answer Response (paragraph minimum)

Talk about a skill you learned in early childhood. HOW did you learn it? Apply
concepts from our class materials and/or vocabulary in your response. Let’s
use our developmental psychology terminology here.
A skill I learned in my early childhood was walking. I learned this skill by
watching all 3 of my siblings. The pediatrician told my mom that because I was
the youngest of 4 and was always around my siblings, I would either begin to
walk early and try to keep up with my siblings or I would walk late because my
siblings would carry me everywhere and I wouldn’t need to walk or have the
experience. My mom says I took the advanced route and began walking at 9
months old. This was so shocking because of how tiny of a baby I was. I was in
the 3 percentile for weight and I was a little thing so whenever anyone would
see me walking at such a young age they would be shocked because of my
size.