Utrecht University - Understanding child development: from synapse to society
- Offered byCoursera
- Public/Government Institute
Understanding child development: from synapse to society at Coursera Overview
Duration | 28 hours |
Total fee | Free |
Mode of learning | Online |
Difficulty level | Beginner |
Official Website | Explore Free Course  |
Credential | Certificate |
- Overview
- Highlights
- Course Details
- Curriculum
Understanding child development: from synapse to society at Coursera Highlights
- Earn a shareable certificate upon completion.
- Flexible deadlines according to your schedule.
Understanding child development: from synapse to society at Coursera Course details
- In this course, we dive into the topic of child development. You will learn that child development is complex and is influenced by a surprisingly rich number of factors at many different levels of organization. You will see that development can be studied in various domains and at various levels of understanding, from different angles and disciplines. Importantly, you will come to understand that processes within and between the various domains and levels of organization continuously interact to shape development. This implies that understanding development requires taking an interdisciplinary approach.
- In order to help you organize your thinking about this complexity you will learn more about the developmental systems approach and theories related to that. We will look, amongst other things, at the brain and motor development, cognitive, language and social-emotional development and all the factors that have an influence on development.
- To illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach helps to understand child development you will see how researchers from various disciplines and backgrounds study child development at Utrecht University. These scientists will give a look in their field of knowledge and their collaboration with colleagues, to illustrate how the theory you will learn translates to practice.
- In sum, we invite you to follow us on a journey to understand child development from synapse to society!
Understanding child development: from synapse to society at Coursera Curriculum
Introduction to Dynamics of Youth
The developmental systems approach
What it takes to study development from a developmental systems approach
Introduction to Dynamics of Youth and the cohort studies
General introduction
Introduction
Applying the developmental systems approach to well-being
Optional readings on the developmental systems approach
Introduction
The YOUth cohort studies
What do you know already?
Test your knowledge on the developmental systems approach
How can you make it happen?
What do you think of Dynamics of Youth and the cohort studies?
Brain and motor development
The early developing brain
Growing synapses - Interview with a brain researcher
Developing motor skills
Interview with a human movement scientist
WEIRD science
Introduction
Brain plasticity and behaviour
Optional reading on the developing brain
Optional reading on brain plasticity
Introduction
The development of motor behavior
Test your knowledge on brain development
Test your knowledge on motor development
What did you learn about brain and motor development?
Cognitive development
The emergence of thinking and understanding
Playing (with) rats - Interview with a neurobiologist
Rats and synapses - Interview about interdisciplinary collaboration
Experimenting teenagers - Interview with a psychologist
Applied geography - Interview with a social geographer
Embodied cognition, culture and geography
Introduction
More on cognitive development
Test your knowledge on cognitive development
What did you learn about cognitive development?
Communication
Speech and language development
'Talking' Zebrafinches - Interview with a biologist
Talking to babies - Interview with a linguist
Language and machine learning - Interview with a brain imaging expert
Language, (embodied) cognition and culture
Introduction
Cracking the code of language
Media literacy
What do you know already about language development?
Test your knowledge on speech and language development
What did you learn about speech and language development?
Social-emotional development
Developing emotions and sociability
Language and behavior problems - Interview with a linguist
Social-emotional problems - Interview with a developmental psychologist
Ethnic and socio-economical influences - Interview with an interdisciplinary social scientist
Integration
Introduction
Culture and the development of emotions
More on social-emotional development
Test your knowledge on social-emotional development
What did you learn about social-emotional development?
The big picture
The case of prematurely born children - Interview with a clinical child and family researcher
Zooming out - Interview with a biologist
Introduction
Final survey
Acknowledgements
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