1. Immunization regulations and practices vary, partly for social and political reasons. Ask at least two faculty or administrative staff members what immunizations students at your college must have and why. If you hear, “It’s the law,” ask why.

2. Observe three infants (whom you do not know) in public places such as a store, playground, or bus. Look closely at body size and motor skills, especially how much control each baby has over legs and hands. From that, estimate the age in months, then ask the caregiver how old the infant is.

3. Many educators recommend that parents read to babies even before the babies begin talking. How would advocates of each of the three hypotheses about language development respond to this advice?

4. Test an infant’s ability to search for a hidden object. Ideally, the infant should be about 7 or 8 months old, and you should retest over a period of weeks. If the infant can immediately find the object, make the task harder by pausing between the hiding and the searching or by secretly moving the object from one hiding place to another. Describe this experiment in detail.

>>ONLINE CONNECTIONS

To accompany your textbook, you have access to a number of online resources, including LearningCurve, which is an adaptive quizzing program; critical thinking questions; and case studies. For access to any of these links, go to www.worthpublishers.com/launchpad/bergerinvitels2ecanadian. In addition to these resources, you’ll find links to video clips, personalized study advice, and an e-Book. Among the videos and activities available online are the following:

• Language Development in Infancy. How easy is it to understand a newborn’s coos? Or a 6-month-old’s babbling? But we can almost all make out the voice of a toddler singing “Twinkle, Twinkle.” Video clips from a variety of real-life contexts bring to life the development of children’s language.
• Infant Reflexes. Do you have trouble distinguishing the Moro from the Babinski? Video clips will help clarify what they look like in newborns.