In broad terms, serve and return research refers to the idea that children “serve” adults opportunities to “return” a response to the child in a way that supports development, especially brain development.

DIRECTIONS:

In broad terms, serve and return research refers to the idea that children “serve” adults opportunities to “return” a response to the child in a way that supports development, especially brain development.

For more information on this research, navigate to Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child and search for “serve and return.” Locating the 5 steps of brain-building interactions is a great place to start your research on this website.

For your initial post, reflect on a scenario in which a child served an opportunity to interact that was not returned by the adult. This scenario could be hypothetical, one you observed, or even one you directly experienced. Describe the scenario by offering details of the serve (what did the child do and/or say?). What was the missed return (what did the educator do/say or not do/say)?

In your response post, choose at least 2 serve and return steps the adult could have used. Describe how the steps could have been implemented and how this return would have supported the child’s development.

Due dates for your initial and response posts can be found by checking the Course Syllabus and Course Calendar.