Understanding Children's Development

This second edition of "Understanding Children's Development" provides an overview of child development for those new to the study of psychology. Revised and updated to take account of new research, it includes two completely new chapters - "Becoming Socially Aware" and "Learning in Social Context". Its opening section orientates the reader to the way in which psychologists study developmental processes and surveys the biological and evolutionary background of behavioural development. Substantial new material in Chapter Two reviews the recent work in "mindreading" in primates, which links to similar work on theory of mind in children (discussed later in the book). "Understanding Children's Development" goes on to consider all of the major aspects of development including social, moral and cognitive development. Emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of psychological research, the authors give a sense of developmental psychology by describing in each chapter particularly important and revealing case studies. They also include ideas for classroom discussion and examples of practical exercises.