Research Guides: Child Development Overview: Start Here

Background Information

You might need to learn a little bit more about your topic before you start researching it.

Gathering some background information can help you:

Become more familiar with your topic.
Identify keywords you can use for searching.
Think of ways you can refine and focus your topic.

Start Here

Where do I start?

Start with your assignment

Read over your assignment and make sure you understand what it is you need to do. See if you can answer the following questions:

What is the assignment? Are you creating a presentation? Are you writing an essay? If so, what type of essay (descriptive, cause-effect, etc.)?
Did your instructor provide a topic or do you have to come up with one yourself?
What types of works (journal articles, books, etc.) can you use as sources and how many sources do you need?
What style do you need to use to cite your sources?

Choosing a Topic

Where to get ideas

If you are picking your own topic, you might get ideas from:

Class materials or discussions
Current events or news
Topics you are interested in

Check your assignment to see if there are any guidelines related to what your topic can be. Check with your instructor if you have questions about whether a certain topic is acceptable for an assignment.

Keywords

When choosing keywords to use for searching, think about your topic. What are the main ideas that you are interested in? What words could be used to describe these ideas?

Try different words and phrases:

biracial, "multi-ethnic", "racially mixed"