Course | Early Childhood Development

Price

The price listed reflects the course price of $79 plus a monthly membership fee of $99, as access to the course requires an active membership.

For further information, please visit StraighterLine website.

Description

In Early Childhood Development, you’ll investigate what childhood development is and explore the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes that occur throughout a child’s life. You’ll also learn how theories inform developmentally appropriate teaching and learning practices.

What You’ll Learn

In this Early Childhood Development course, take a deep dive into what childhood development is and how the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes begin at conception and continue throughout their lives.

• Discuss the development of the brain and compare the cognitive developmental theory, and identify the key features of language and the typical growth of the child’s language.
• Describe socioemotional development and discuss how the social contexts of families, peers, and schools are linked with young children’s socioemotional development.
• Define learning, compare classical conditioning and operant conditioning, and apply behavior analysis to early childhood education.
• Characterize attention and summarize how it changes during development, and discuss memory in terms of encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Explain the social constructivist approach and how teachers and peers can jointly contribute to young children’s learning through the structuring of small-group work.
• Explain how reading and writing develop and discuss some useful approaches to teaching reading and writing, and characterize how mathematical thinking develops and identify some issues related to teaching mathematics to young children.
• Identify important forms of teacher-centered instruction with the important forms of learner-centered instruction, and summarize how to effectively use technology to help children learn.
• Discuss the important processes in motivation to achieve, and explain how relationships and sociocultural contexts can support or undercut motivation.

Course Details

ECE102

Through Early Childhood Development, you’ll come to understand the different learning theories and theorists, and how those theories inform developmentally appropriate teaching and learning practices.

• ACE-Recommended
ACE Code: OOSL-0117

• Flexible Schedule
25-day average course completion

• Transferred 162,000 Times
165,200,000 USD saved on tuition

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to take Early Childhood Development.

Course Text

The required eTextbook for this course is included with your course purchase at no additional cost.

Santrock, J. W. (2021). Educational psychology (7th edition). McGraw-Hill.

Course Checkpoints

• Checkpoint 1: Cognitive and Language Development
Watch and Learn: Child Development
Textbook Reading: Chapter 2: pp. 29–35
Textbook Reading: Chapter 2: pp. 35–57
Textbook Reading: Chapter 2: pp. 58–65
Supplemental Activity: Language Development (Optional)
Supplemental Activity: Language Development Graphic Organizer (Optional)

• Checkpoint 2: Social Contexts and Socioemotional Development
Textbook Reading: Chapter 3: pp. 71–77
Textbook Reading: Chapter 3: pp. 77–92
Textbook Reading: Chapter 3: pp. 92–108

• Checkpoint 3: Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches
Textbook Reading: Chapter 7: pp. 220–222
Textbook Reading: Chapter 7: pp. 222–227
Supplemental Activity: Cognitive Approaches (Optional)
Supplemental Activity: Cognitive Approaches Graphic Organizer (Optional)
Textbook Reading: Chapter 7: pp. 228–236
Textbook Reading: Chapter 7: pp. 237–250

• Checkpoint 4: Social Constructivist Approaches
Watch and Learn: Cognition Part 1
Textbook Reading: Chapter 10: pp. 335–337
Textbook Reading: Chapter 10: pp. 338–347
Textbook Reading: Chapter 10: pp. 348–350

• Checkpoint 5: The Information-Processing Approach
Watch and Learn: Cognition Part 2
Textbook Reading: Chapter 8: pp. 256–257
Textbook Reading: Chapter 8: pp. 259–264
Textbook Reading: Chapter 8: pp. 264–277
Supplemental Activity: Memory Matrix (Optional)
Supplemental Activity: Memory Matrix Graphic Organizer (Optional)
Textbook Reading: Chapter 8: pp. 277–284

• Checkpoint 6: English Language Arts (ELA)
Textbook Reading Assignment: Chapter 11: pp. 358–372

• Checkpoint 7: Math, Science, & Social Science
Textbook Reading: Chapter 11: pp. 373–380
Textbook Reading: Chapter 11: pp. 374–377
Textbook Reading: Chapter 11: pp. 383–386

• Checkpoint 8: Planning, Instruction, & Technology
Watch and Learn: Teaching and Learning
Textbook Reading: Chapter 12: pp. 393–407
Supplemental Activity: Teacher-Centered Instructional Strategies (Optional)
Supplemental Activity: Teacher-Centered Instructional Strategies Graphic Organizer (Optional)
Textbook Reading: Chapter 12: pp. 407–414
Textbook Reading: Chapter 12: pp. 414–423

• Checkpoint 9: Motivation, Teaching, & Learning
Textbook Reading: Chapter 13: pp. 428–431
Textbook Reading: Chapter 13: pp. 432–448
Textbook Reading: Chapter 13: pp. 449–454

Credit

3 credits.

Credit may be available for this course and may vary by country or institution. Please verify eligibility with StraighterLine.

Assignments & Grading

Your score provides a percentage score and letter grade for each course. A passing percentage is 70% or higher.

Assignments for this course include:

• 9 checkpoints
• 8 benchmarks
• 3 capstones

This course has an open-book Cumulative Benchmark.

What You'll Need:

A reliable computer or laptop
Stable internet connection
Web browser
Basic computer skills
Any required course materialsWhat You'll Need
A reliable computer or laptop
Stable internet connection
Web browser
Basic computer skills
Any required course materials

A Strong Start in Your Education Career

A strong foundation in child development is essential for success as an early childhood educator. Whether you’re preparing to work in preschool or with older students, Early Childhood Development will help you gain the knowledge and tools you need to best support the growth and learning of your students.

Why it matters:
• Education is one of the most impactful and stable career fields, with teachers in demand nationwide.
• Educators earn a higher wage when compared to the national average.

How this course sets you up for success: Elementary School Teacher, Middle School Teacher, High School Teacher, Special Education Teacher, Instructional Coordinator, and School Counselor.

How this course sets you up for success: Understanding early childhood development will give you tools to nurture children’s growth during their most critical years of learning.

Your Academic Team

• Your Faculty Team
StraighterLine is not just a platform — they're a team of professional educators committed to your success. StraighterLine's courses are built by academic professionals who are leaders in higher education, and your assignments are graded by real people who provide meaningful feedback so you can keep progressing.

• Support Team
At StraighterLine, there are real people working behind the scenes to guide you through every course, quiz, and “I’m stuck” moment.

Enrollment Services
On-Demand Tutors
Academic Advisors
Tech Support