Bottom lineThe 60-second version
This is a strong, unusually complete cradle-to-grave course with a rare virtue: a consistent, funny, human voice that will keep undergraduates reading. The biological grounding (genetics, teratogens, brain development, aging biology) is a real strength, and you've already pulled in current material most textbooks lag on — the 2020s youth mental-health picture, David Sinclair on aging, the AWARE II study.
The gaps cluster in four places: (1) missing modern theory — the course teaches the grand old theories but skips the frameworks that actually organize contemporary developmental science (Bronfenbrenner, information-processing, the lifespan/SOC perspective); (2) a thin culture/diversity thread — much of the evidence is drawn from WEIRD samples without saying so; (3) a few units resting on dated or one-sided science — the "Bell Curve" framing of intelligence, Kohlberg without his critics, and the classic "five stages of grief"; and (4) legal/empirical facts that have shifted — most urgently the post-Dobbs abortion landscape in the prenatal unit.
None of this requires a teardown. Most fixes are a slide or two, or a reframing sentence. The table below prioritizes them, and the three built companion pages (Units 01, 07, 18) already demonstrate the fill.
Gap content that's missing entirely Update content that's dated or one-sided Add a worthwhile enrichment Sequencing an ordering/structure note
The priority listGaps & updates, ranked
| Unit | Type | What to change | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Prenatal & Birth | Update | The "Adolescent Abortion in the U.S." slide almost certainly predates Dobbs v. Jackson (June 2022). Reframe around the current state-by-state legal patchwork and its documented effects on prenatal care access. | This is the course's most legally outdated slide. Post-2022 the facts changed structurally, and students will notice. | High |
| 01 Theories | Gap | No Bronfenbrenner ecological systems, no dynamic systems (Thelen), no lifespan/SOC (Baltes), no information-processing model. (Filled on the companion page.) | These are the frameworks contemporary researchers actually use. Without Bronfenbrenner especially, "context" stays abstract all semester. | High |
| 10 Middle/Late Childhood | Update | The intelligence unit built around the "Bell Curve" needs guardrails: the Flynn effect, stereotype threat, the scientific critique of Herrnstein & Murray, and modern models (CHC theory, Gardner). Present the Bell Curve as a controversy to analyze, not a finding to accept. | Teaching hereditarian IQ claims without the counter-evidence is both scientifically dated and a classroom-climate risk. | High |
| 18 Death & Dying | Update | Retire the "five stages of grief" as a model of grief. Add the Dual Process Model, Continuing Bonds, and Prolonged Grief Disorder (DSM-5-TR, 2022). (Filled on the companion page.) | DABDA is the most over-taught, empirically unsupported idea in the course. Correcting it is high-impact and easy. | High |
| 11 Moral Development | Gap | Kohlberg without his critics. Add Gilligan (ethic of care / gender critique) and Haidt's social-intuitionist model & moral foundations (we feel first, reason after). | Modern moral psychology has largely moved past pure Kohlbergian rationalism; students should see the debate. | Med |
| 08 Early Childhood | Gap | Add Theory of Mind and the false-belief task (Sally-Anne / Wimmer & Perner). It's the signature cognitive achievement of this age and pairs naturally with Piaget's egocentrism. | ToM is arguably the preschool cognitive milestone and is missing from an otherwise solid unit. | Med |
| Cross-cutting | Gap | Add a recurring culture & diversity thread: name the WEIRD-sample problem early, and revisit it at attachment (cross-cultural distributions), parenting, adolescence, and aging. (Seeded on the attachment page.) | Much of the cited evidence is Western; saying so once and threading it builds real scientific literacy. | Med |
| 12 Adolescence | Update | Your 2020s mental-health slide is current — strengthen it by presenting the social-media debate as a debate: the Haidt/Twenge "rewiring" thesis and the Odgers/Orben "effects are small" counter-position. | Evenhanded treatment models scientific reasoning and inoculates against the loudest headline winning. | Med |
| 09 Self, Gender & Parenting | Update | Ensure the gender/transgender content maps to current APA guidance and distinguishes gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation cleanly. Add developmental data on gender-diverse youth. | Fast-moving, high-scrutiny area; anchoring to APA positions keeps it evidence-based and defensible. | Med |
| 03 Genetics | Add | You already teach epigenetics (great). Add a short note on polygenic scores and CRISPR to connect the classic Mendelian material to how genetics is practiced now. | Bridges the sickle-cell/Punnett-square content to contemporary genomic reality and ethics. | Low |
| 13 Emerging Adulthood | Add | Name Arnett's "emerging adulthood" explicitly as a proposed life stage (and note the debate over whether it's universal or class/culture-bound). Add how online dating has reshaped the "factors influencing attraction" material. | Frames the whole unit and modernizes the attraction content students live daily. | Low |
| 16 Aging Biology | Add | The Sinclair material is engaging and current — add a one-line hype caveat (much is animal/early-human data) so students calibrate. | Keeps the excitement while modeling healthy skepticism about longevity claims. | Low |
| Structure | Sequencing | Internal slide numbering drifts (repeated "14"s; units jump 11→14→16). Consider renumbering to a clean 1–18 spine so the companion site, your notes, and the LMS line up. | Purely cosmetic, but it reduces student confusion and makes the arc legible at a glance. | Low |
The shape of the courseStructural read
What's working — keep it
The voice is your superpower; don't sand it off. The biology spine (genetics → teratogens → brain → aging → death) is more rigorous than most intro-lifespan courses. Your instinct to teach real studies (Harlow, Rovee-Collier, the Strange Situation, AWARE II) over textbook summaries is exactly right and is what the companion pages lean into.
The one theme to add
If you add nothing else, add a resilience / developmental-psychopathology thread. You already touch it (attachment isn't destiny; most people are resilient in grief). Naming it explicitly — "risk, protective factors, resilience" — gives students a single lens that recurs from teratogens to elder abuse and ties the whole arc together.
What I already didWhere these fixes live on the site
The three built companion pages double as worked examples of how to fill the gaps without spoon-feeding your slides:
- Unit 01 — Theories: adds Bronfenbrenner (all five systems), dynamic systems, and Baltes/SOC; reframes Freud and Piaget with the modern critiques.
- Unit 07 — Language & Attachment: adds the fourth (disorganized) attachment style, cross-cultural distributions, adult attachment measures, and the usage-based view of language.
- Unit 18 — Death & Dying: replaces the five-stages myth with Dual Process, Continuing Bonds, and Prolonged Grief Disorder; states the AWARE II findings carefully.
Each page cites its additions in APA 7 at the foot, so anything new is traceable to a source you can vet.