Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

Psychology I: Bases of Preschool Psycological Development

• code 10616
• course 1
• term Semester 1
• type FB
• credits 6

Main language of instruction: Catalan

Other languages of instruction: English

Head instructor

Dra. Maria CERRATO - mcerratolara@uic.es

Office hours

The tutoring schedule will be agreed according to the student's needs and by appointment through email (mcerratolara@uic.es). 

It is highly recommended to attend the tutorial for the preparation of your presentation. By that time, you should be able to have done 80%-90% of your work. Tutorials will take place from 11.30 to 12 in our class (D202) and each team should attend them the previous class of their presentation.

The sense of this subject is related to the need that the future teacher knows the foundations of the evolutionary psychology and of the development of the child of or to 6 years to be able to understand better his nature and to favor to his ideal development. About this form could know the elements that characterize the development of the child in the different evolutionary stages of the different areas of development: cognitive, physical, affective and social.

-know the personality of children 0-6 years, evolutionary and psychological characteristics.

-Recognize the identity of the stage and their cognitive, psychomotor, communicative, social and emotional characteristics.

-Learn about the main features of early stimulation, authors and relevant programs

-characterize the different stages of development from an evolutionary psychological perspective and analyze the educational implications

-reflect on the relationship between psychological development and education

• CEM-02 - To become familiar with developments in the evolutionary psychology of childhood in the 0-3 and 3-6 year age periods.
• CEM-03 - To become familiar with the basics of early care.
• CEM-04 - To recognize the characteristics of the stage and its cognitive, psychomotor, communicative, social and affective features.
• CEM-05 - To know how to promote the acquisition of habits concerning independence, freedom, curiosity, observation, experimentation, imitation, acceptance of rules and limits, and symbolic and heuristic play.
• CET-5 - Collaboration with colleagues in the profession: to have the knowledge and skills required to make a professional contribution to the teaching environment in the school, in professional relationships, and to achieve a good school organization.
• CET-6 - Collaboration with the professional environment at the school: to have the knowledge and skills required to establish good relations with the people and institutions dedicated to child welfare or belonging to the school's professional environment.
• CET-7 - To promote responsibility in terms of professional development: to analyse, reflect on and develop points of view about the profession and teaching skills, to know how to make these clear and how to bring them up to date.
• CG-01 - To integrate information and communication technologies in teaching and learning activities, teaching management and professional development.
• CG-02 - To communicate clearly and correctly in the language of instruction (Catalan and Spanish), orally and in writing, in accordance with level C1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR).
• CG-05 - To be familiar with the elements that make up analytical thinking, the different levels of proficiency and how to develop this skill as much as possible.

Known psychological, evolutionary and personality characteristics of the children of 0-3 and 3-6 years. (1)

Know, knows and appreciates the early stimulation in early childhood education (3)

recognizes the cognitive, psychomotor, communicative, social and affective characteristics of students from 0 to 6 years and know how to identify its possible deficit or sobredotacion. (4)

Offers information on students, parents and other stakeholders and used properly the information obtained from these (12) in their personal and professional development uses information obtained from students and their colleagues, as well as their colleagues in the form of advice or supervision, to direct its action towards the constant improvement (15)

 has one sufficient knowledge of the behavioral psychology to analyze and understand their own behavior and on the other (16)

knows the mental processes to follow to develop an exhaustive analysis of the cases studied (17)

 known as take into account the characteristics of the environment both to understand the characteristics of a case and to provide for the supply of its intervention (18)

identifies and analyzes the processes of interaction and communication in the classroom.Integrates and brings together the foundations of early childhood education and its development in the classroom (30)

recognizes the need to work individually to achieve the goals of the educational community (33)

Introduction: The concept of Developmental Psychology

Historical approach to Developmental Psychology

Development in the first two years, early childhood and middle childhood: 

• Physical development

• Cognitive development

• Language development

• Social development

Lesson 1: Introduction (1 session + Activity 1)

Lesson  2: Historical approach  (3 sessions + Activity 2)

Lesson  3: First two years (4 sessions + Activity 3+ Test 1)                                                      

Lesson 4: Early childhood (4 sessions + Activity 4)         

Lesson 5: Middle childhood (4 sessions + Activity 5 + Test 2)

The student will be assessed in group (point 1 and 2) and individually (point 3) 

1. Class exhibition                                                     35%* 

2. Elaboration of one activity + sheet of answers      15%*

3. Tests                                                                     50%

*English skills are considered as well: 17,5% for the class exhibition (the fluency component) and 7,5% for the activity (the writing). This means a 25 % of the subject.

- Palacios, J., Marchesi, A., & Coll, C. (2004). Desarrollo Psicológico y Educación (vol 1): Psicología Evolutiva. Alianza Editorial. 

- Stassen Berger, K. (2016). Developing Person Through Childhood & Adolescence. Worth Publishers.

Additional readings:

- Harris, M., & Butterworth, G. (2002). Developmental Psychology: A student’s handbook Hove: Psychology Press.  

- Harris, M., & Westermann, G. (2014). A Student's Guide to Developmental Psychology.Hove: Psychology Press.