Assignment 1

1. How would your life be different if your parents were much higher or lower in SES than they are? Consider the three domains of opportunities, health and abilities.

2. 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?

3. Keep a food diary for 24 hours, writing down what you eat, how much, when, how and why. Then think about nutrition and eating habits in early childhood. Did your food habits originate in early childhood, in adolescence, or at some other time? Explain.

4. Children’s television programming is rife with stereotypes about ethnicity, gender, and morality. Watch an hour of children’s TV, especially on a Saturday morning, and describe the content of both programs and the commercials. Draw conclusions about stereotyping, citing specific evidence, not generalities

5. Internet sources vary in quality on any topic, but this is particularly true of Web sites for parents of children with special needs. Pick one disability or disease and find several (3 or more) Web Sources devoted to that condition. How might parents evaluate the information provided.

6. How would your childhood have been different if your family structure had been different, such as if you had (or had not) lived with your grandparents, if your parents had (or had not) gotten divorced, if you had (or had not) been adopted?