| Course | PSYC 290N Lifespan Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post |
| Length | About 380 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN general education |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PSYC 290N Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
Does Walking Arrive on Its Own Timetable? One Claim Staked on a Named Study of Infants in Free Play, a Concession About Maturation and One Behavior at One Age
The Question
Is learning to walk mostly a matter of maturation, arriving on its own schedule, or mostly a matter of practice?
The Claim
Practice plays a much larger role than the "timetable" picture suggests.
By "much larger," I mean that the quality of walking in the months after the first steps depends mostly on how much and how variably a child walks, not on age alone. That is narrower than saying practice controls everything about walking.
The Study Behind It
Adolph and colleagues recorded infants aged 12 to 19 months during free play and counted their steps and falls. The infants averaged 2,368 steps and 17 falls per hour. After walking began, they took more steps, traveled farther and fell less, and better walkers walked more (Adolph et al., 2012). That is an enormous amount of varied, spread-out practice, and walking improved with it.
What makes the study persuasive to me is where it was done. The infants were not on a treadmill or in a lab task; they were playing, and the counting captured the ordinary messy practice children get in a day.
The Concession
Maturation still matters: a newborn cannot walk however much practice is offered, and most children start walking within a broad window around the first birthday. The study shows that once walking starts, practice drives improvement; it does not show that practice sets the age of the first step.
The concession limits the claim to how walking improves, which is where the evidence is strongest. The timetable picture survives for the start of walking; it loses ground on what happens after.
One Behavior, One Age
My nephew, at 13 months, took his first independent steps in August and fell constantly, often laughing. By October he walked across the park. The study suggests those falls were part of the learning, not a sign of a problem.
Two Answers I Would Accept in Replies
A reply that says maturation sets the start and practice sets the pace. Or a reply naming a study where practice did not change the timing.
References
Adolph, K. E., Cole, W. G., Komati, M., Garciaguirre, J. S., Badaly, D., Lingeman, J. M., Chan, G. L. Y., & Sotsky, R. B. (2012). How do you learn to walk? Thousands of steps and dozens of falls per day. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1387-1394. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446346
The Chamberlain PSYC 290N Week 1 instructions
Choose one question about development that pits maturation against experience for a single behavior at a single age. State it in the first line. Make a claim and define how far it reaches. Support it with one named study, describing what was measured, in whom and what was found. Explain why the study persuades you, such as where or how it was done. Concede what the study does not show and what the other side still explains. Then tie the claim to one child or person you know, at one age, without identifying details. Replies should either offer a different division of labor between maturation and practice or name a study where practice did not matter.
How this PSYC 290N Week 1 example is built
The question section asks whether walking is mostly maturation or mostly practice. The claim section says practice plays a larger role than the timetable picture suggests and limits that to how walking improves after the first steps. The study section reports that infants aged 12 to 19 months averaged 2,368 steps and 17 falls an hour in free play, citing Adolph et al. (2012), and explains why counting during play persuades. The concession section grants that maturation sets the start of walking within a broad window. The example section describes a nephew at 13 months falling often and walking across a park two months later. The close lists two replies the writer would accept.
Reading the PSYC 290N Week 1 grading rubric
Graders look for one question, one claim and one study described accurately. A post that surveys nature and nurture in general terms loses the most. A strong post offers a question stated first, a claim with limits, a study with its sample, measures and findings, a reason the study persuades and an honest concession. Tying the claim to an ordinary child at one age shows application. The study should be cited in APA with its DOI. Replies earn credit for proposing a different division between maturation and practice or for naming evidence on the other side, with a source. A post that limits its claim to what the study measured, rather than to development in general, shows careful reading.
PSYC 290N Week 1 help from the desk
Posts most often lose points by asking a question too broad to answer, such as is development nature or nurture. Another common gap is citing a study without saying what it measured. Some posts overclaim, saying practice controls everything. Others skip the concession, which makes the claim look unexamined. If you have no child to observe, describe a published case or a family story and say where it comes from. A post that names exactly what its study did and did not show gives classmates firm ground to argue from rather than opinion. Write the concession before the claim; knowing what you are giving away keeps the claim the right size.
Get a PSYC-290N Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 1 instructions along with whatever posting checklist your classroom publishes, and a custom PSYC-290N post is written to them and returned inside 24-48h, the first one free. Say which theorists your section has covered by that point, since the post is built around one of them rather than around all of them.
More PSYC 290N papers and BSN general education samples
- PSYC 290N Week 2: Infancy and Toddlerhood Analysis
- PSYC 290N Week 3: Early Childhood Domain Paper
- PSYC 290N Week 4: Middle Childhood Write-up
- PSYC 290N Week 5: Adolescence Stage Paper
- PSYC 290N Week 6: Child Observation Write-up
- PSYC 290N Week 7: Adulthood and Aging Paper
- PSYC 290N Week 8: Caregiving Implication Write-up
- PSYC 110N Week 1: What Psychology Asserts Post
PSYC 290N Week 1 questions, answered
My section says the post needs a citation. Where does it belong?
Under the published claim, not under your own reasoning. If you say a trait carries a heritability figure, or that a capacity has a window, that sentence needs a reference behind it. If you say a kind of study cannot settle something, that is your argument and it carries itself. A citation parked beside a judgment reads as decoration and collects nothing.
Do I have to name a theorist in the first week?
Commonly yes, and one is usually enough. The mark is not for the count but for whether the account does any work: the term used, the claim the account actually makes, and the place where it stops. Naming four accounts in a sentence each is worth less than one carried the whole way through a short post.
The week asks about continuity and about stages. Is that one question or two?
Treat it as one, because the answer to either constrains the other. If development runs as a smooth build-up, the bands in this course are filing conveniences; if it runs in ordered jumps, the bands are real things. The post that scores picks a side, names the account holding it, and says what would count against it.
Where can I find a free PSYC 290N Week 1 sample paper?
The whole PSYC 290N Week 1 post, one claim about walking and practice staked on a study of infants in free play, is printed further down this page.
What does the study show in the PSYC 290N Week 1 sample?
Infants aged 12 to 19 months took about 2,368 steps and fell about 17 times an hour in free play, and walking improved with that practice once it had started.