This subject provides students with an understanding of the discipline of developmental psychology and associated basic principles. The subject engages students in a systematic examination of human growth and development as they apply to early and middle childhood. It demonstrates the link between education and development, and it equips students with basic data-gathering skills which they are expected to apply within the subject, and in their practice as developing primary teachers. In doing so, this subject develops a professional knowledge base about children in the early and middle childhood years which assists the student in making sound educational decisions.