Student Testimonials

Learn from students using MyDevelopmentLab about how it has helped them save time and improve results.

“Using the practice exams helped me prepare for my exams—they were so helpful!”
—Lindsey, student at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, PA
Read Lindsey’s MyDevelopmentLab Success Story (PDF)

 

"My Virtual Child works on several levels. It illustrates principles covered in the textbook, but in a "showing" versus "telling" manner. It demonstrates the relation between action and consequences for real parents, providing an illustration of the impact of "nurture" (as opposed to "nature") that really hits home. In addition, because the user of the program becomes engrossed and wrapped up in the progress of their virtual child, they (we) make special efforts to concretely use the most important points we derive from the textbook as parenting strategies. The textbook studies and conclusions don't appear abstract any more. Instead, they are tools to move towards a goal. In other words, the effective virtual parent probably studies the course material in greater depth, on behalf of their virtual child.
— Christian Schaubel, MATC

 

MyVirtualChild is a fun program that gives you a realistic sense of child development. It allows students to see how the theories taught in class can be applied to real life.
— Michael Clarke, Champlain College-St. Lambert (Using Boyd/Bee, Lifespan Development, 5e)

 

...a game that requires responsibility and serious decision making. It's a great experience and I believe it will help with future decisions for those of us who are going to be future parents.
— Neil MacDonald, Champlain College-St. Lambert (Using Boyd/Bee, The Developing Child)

 

Understanding what I've done right is nice, but knowing what I'm doing wrong so that I can correct it is priceless. It's very helpful and fun.
— Tina Emberlin, Indiana University South Bend (Using Boyd, The Growing Child, 1e)

 

As a parent we know the "dumbed down" terms its nice to know and understand the actual concept.
— Tina Berg, Indiana University South Bend (Using Bee/Boyd, The Developing Child, 12e)

 

It helped apply the concepts that my professor lectured about. I loved this program!
— Amy Manning, Cal State University Fullerton (Using Cook/Cook, Child Development Principles & Perspectives 2/e)

 

You can look at a textbook and memorize all the definitions all you want but until you have seen it 'in person' you have not really grasped the concept. Fun learning experience.
— Lauren Hirata, Cal State University, Fullerton (Using Cook/Cook, Child Development Principles & Perspectives 2/e)

 

I though it was very interesting to see how much I had learned throughout the course and to see it reflected in my parenting style!
— Heather Plummer, Cal State University, Fullerton (Using Cook/Cook, Child Development Principles & Perspectives 2/e)

 

Interesting and a good learning experience. The various factors caused me to really think about the concepts in the text and how to best apply them to the program to help my child. The feedback enabled me to see how my parenting style affected my child and I learned to adjust my decisions to help my child develop.
— Amy Callas, Wake Technical Community College (Using Feldman, Discovering the Life Span, 1e)

 

I loved the virtual child. I was unsure at first about what was going to happen but the more I worked with the program the more I got excited about it. I think that it was an excellent interactive tool for teaching this class. I think that I learned a lot, based on the fact that I am not a parent in real life, with this program because I now know what it is like to have to make decisions for my child. I think that MVC should be used in future classes because it was a great learning tool for the type of class that this is. Finally, I think that the assignments were great. They helped me to really think about what I wanted to become as a parent but also how what we are studying is applied to real life and not just something that is in a book.
— Ashley Johnston, MATC

 

I really enjoyed seeing the physical changes in my baby. I also learned a lot by relating the reading material to the questions in each phase (sub-stage) of her life. The real life experiences, like the separation of my partner and me, made the assignment easier to relate to and then write about.
— Carla Crump, MATC

 

I really liked how the virtual child progressed; it really allowed you to see the whole growth process for someone like me who hasn't had a personal experience in raising a child.
— Joshua Checkai, MATC

 

I must admit that it was a very different but positive activity. I was not very sure of what to expect at first, but once I started it I realized it was going to be more challenging than what I thought. The fact that I do not have kids of my own made it a lot more difficult and interesting to go through the whole process of racing a child. One thing that surprised me about this experiment was to see how it deals with social problems that affect young people these days, like alcohol and drugs, I had a hard time answering those questions and making a decision, but I think that these situations made the process more realistic and practical. I really enjoyed it.
— Jennifer G., Miami Dade

 

I enjoyed the virtual child experiment and felt that it was interesting and insightful. It also reinforced the fact that environmental factors and parenting style significantly contribute to development in addition to genetics. It was not too demanding in addition to the coursework and it was definitely worth my while to complete it. I thought it was really interesting to see how my virtual child was developing according to path that I was choosing for him and, because I actually have children, it was neat to parallel what I have done with them to what I did with my virtual child. I only hope they turn out as well as he did! Anyway, it was a fun and insightful assignment and I definitely recommend keeping it in future classes!
— Stephanie B., Miami Dade

 

I greatly enjoyed doing the assignment. It was different from all the other assignments I get in my classes and I really enjoyed doing it. I actually felt like a real parent having to make real decisions for my child. And let me tell you it wasn't always easy. I highly recommend you keep this assignment for your future classes because I feel students will enjoy doing it and will actually learn a lot from it and see that parenting really isn't a piece of cake.
— Stephanie S.,Miami Dade

 

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