ABSTRACT
Many introductory psychology texts and most developmental texts include a description of prenatal development. The texts attempt to explain how basic body shape is established and organ systems are formed during the embryonic period, but students in my developmental psychology classes often have trouble understanding how a “disc-shaped embryo forms a more cylindrical appearance as it folds on cephalo and caudal ends and on right and left sides” (Bukatko & Daehler, 1992, p. 134). Photos, drawings, and transparencies of developing embryos and fetuses highlight and clarify steps in the process of embryogenesis, but students still have difficulty understanding the process.
