Child Development, Fourth Edition

"This book describes child development and how it can be applied to practice with children. Developmental knowledge provides a framework for understanding children in relation to the tasks and issues relevant to their age. These, in turn, are determined by physical, social, emotional, and neurodevelopmental norms that transform in meaningful ways from birth through adolescence. Only with a sound grounding in this knowledge can we determine whether a child's emotions, thoughts, or behaviors fall within normal expectations. Part I, "Contexts of Development: A Transactional Approach," introduces the idea that the child's development is the outcome of the interplay of normative developmental maturation and the context within which it occurs. Part II, "The Course of Child Development," represents the core of the book, looking at childhood through the lens of discrete expected stages"--