After looking through the Society for Research on Child Development website, comment on what you found. Were there any Social Policy reports or Monographs that interested you? Tell us about it! Do you think that SRCD has information that would be helpful if you want to find out about children who are developing atypically, or is the focus on typical development? It is essential that you demonstrate deep exploration of this website and not just a superficial glance. I think you will find it very useful, now and in your future career!

By exploring the Society for Research on Child Development website, I realized that the SRCD not only promotes and publishes research on child development for both typical and atypical development, but they also offer grants and have conferences on Early Childhood Research. The SRCD website has extensive information about the society, what it is, who can become a member (including a membership for graduate students), and its history from the beginning, until what it is now. I liked the fact that SRCD develops, and enforces ethical guidelines for research in early childhood. Kids are more vulnerable to physical and psychological harm than adults (Berk, 2012). Therefore, it is important to follow ethical guidelines, and be precautious when working with children.
The SRCD website also has a link to access the SRCD newsletters called Developments from the current year as well as the past year (2012). I really enjoyed looking through those newsletters, specifically the “Teacher’s Corner” section. Some issues use this section as a way to communicate information of programs the SRCD is offering, like the Teaching Mentorship Program. Others issues have articles about some methodologies teachers are using in their classrooms, like the one on the latest newsletter “Creative and Applied Learning Assessments”.
The SRCD has a “Publications” tab in which you could find publications of research papers in different journals. The Child Development Perspectives Journal appears to be the more useful for parents and teachers since it publishes articles that are written in accessible language for a varied audience. Even though I was not able to see any of the articles on this journal through the SRCD website, I was able to see a list of the top 10 articles downloaded. From those top 10 articles, the one that got most my attention is Preparing Early Childhood Teachers to Work With Young Dual Language Learners, since I am a bilingual PPCD teacher. It is on my list of readings I will do this school year.
There is another section for Social Policy reports, and those articles are available to view without a membership. The article that interested me the most is Home Visitation and Young Children: An Approach Worth Investing In? by J. Astuto