A favorite resource for child development milestones

One of my favorite quick and dirty references for what's appropriate at what age is the PBS Parents Child Development Tracker at http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/. Of course, I might be slightly partial since I worked at pbskids.org, but still, I've continued to use the tracker, despite leaving PBS three years ago. That must count for something.

One of the reasons I like it so much is because it's so comprehensive. For example, for three-year olds, you can look at guidelines for language, literacy, math, physical health, and social and emotional growth. (And note that I still left out a few categories.) It's just not your puny table that you find in a lot of basic child dev books.

Bookmark it. Use it well. But remember, they're guidelines... not absolutes!

Kids Singing in Rock Band

I love poking around YouTube for videos of kids using games. Since I briefly talked about kids and singing games in my GDC presentation, I thought I'd share some of the more amusing videos I've found.

Remember that the research says that kids around 3-4 years of age will generally follow the melodic contour, but they won't always hit the right notes and often won't pronounce words intelligibly.

Jonny T singing Blitzkreig Bop - Rock Band - Easy - 85%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63_jYrRsXY

He's actually quite good (better than me...) but it also makes me laugh when he swings his arms out and takes the microphone away from his mouth.

3 year old Rock Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAaWJIfeoXA

She's good too, although I really can't understand any of the words. (I think that might be a product of the song more so than about the child's skills!)

Rock band 2 Three year old Danny sings More than a feeling by Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-w7C7Ugt38

I looooove when he sings "I close my eyes..." Be sure to check out around 3:30 in the video, too. Totally rock star!