How Children Develop

by Robert S. Siegler, Nancy Eisenberg, Judy S. DeLoache

In its first edition, this highly anticipated textbook for the topically-organized child development course provided a fresh, non-encyclopedic approach, offering the latest, straight-from-the-research understanding of child development without overwhelming the student with inessential detail.

The new edition brings those hallmark features forward, again providing a thoroughly contemporary, streamlined introduction to the study of child development that emphasizes fundamental principles, enduring themes, and important recent studies. Student-friendly pedagogy, a new chapter on gender, and an enhanced media and supplements package further enrich this accessible, engaging, and informative text.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Child Psychology, School, Science, Academic

635 pages, Hardcover

First published December 2, 2002

Reviews

[Iselin]

Here it is, my vine review of this textbook of 600 pages I had to read in under 8 weeks.

Chapter 1: Introduction
honey, youve got a big storm coming

2: Prenatal:
baby changing station? baby hanging station

3: biology and behavior
chris, is that a weed?? I’M CALLING THE POLICE!

4: cognitive development
is there anything better than pussy? yes, a really good book

5: perception, learning
uhm, jared, could you read number 3 for the class? no i cannot. what up, i’m jared, i’m 19, and i never fucking learned how to read.

6: language
you know what, i’m about to say it ... i don’t care that you broke your elbow

7: concepts
kylie jenner to the foiae, i have a little surprise for you. IS THAT A CHICKEEEEN?

8: intelligence
what i wanna tell you is school’s not important. be whatever you wanna be. if you wanna be a dog, ROOOF, you know?

9: social
when will you learn! that your actions have consequences

10: emotion
if you fucking put a hand on me i’mma fucking rip your face off BITCH

11: attachment, the self
i wanna be a cowboy, baby

12: family
and they were roommates. oh my god they were roommates.

13: peers
what the fuck is up, kyle? no, what did you say? what the fuck, dude. step the fuck up, kyle.

14: moral
welcome to bible study, we’re all children of jesus. kumbaya my lord...

15: gender
hey i’m lesbian. i thought you were american.

16: conclusion
we all die, you either kill yourself or get killed

[Chloe]

This was the assigned textbook for my Developmental Psychology course, and I joked with Mimi that I would put it on my Goodreads since it is the first time I have actually read a textbook for a class. I decided to actually add it because I deserve to for finishing it. It was actually a really engaging textbook, and I learned a lot more from it than I had expected.

[Jayden Salmon]

this book was so long and for what (it was my dev sci textbook and yes i read the entire thing)

[•]

had to read this for my developmental psychology class and actually ended up really enjoying it! The content was interesting and really easy to follow.

[jade]

How Children Develop is a tome of a textbook, with an incredibly appealing and structured design, making it both readable and easy to look things up in. It’s an extensive, interesting and comprehensive book about developmental psychology, and manages to cover all relevant topics in the field adequately.

This is book is, unlike some others on the subject, not structured chronologically, i.e. beginning at a child’s conception and growth, and ending as soon as it becomes an adult, but instead topically. It covers the following topics: prenatal development and the newborn period, biology and behaviour, cognitive development, infancy (seeing, thinking, and doing), language development, conceptual development, intelligence and academic achievement, social development, emotional development, attachment to others and development of self, family, peers, moral development, and gender development. After each chapter, there’s room for a summary, a list of key terms, and some critical thinking questions.

Even though I have used this book academically as an introduction to developmental psychology, I would seriously be devaluing the scope of it if I were to say that it can only be used as such. It’s an excellent textbook on the subject, perhaps the best I’ve encountered up until now, and it never gets truly boring (even for someone like me, who doesn’t appreciate developmental psychology as much as other fields of psychology).

In short: interesting, engaging, informative, and extensive. A definite recommendation for anyone looking for a good book on developmental psychology that touches upon all its aspects, covers many interesting case examples, is well-organized, and still quite easy to read.

[Josie]

As textbooks go, this one is engaging and I appreciated how it was set out with coloured subheadings and pictures to break up the text. It covers the field of developmental psychology fairly comprehensively, and the second edition includes a chapter on gender that wasn't part of my course, but I read it anyway (which I think is proof of how good a textbook is!). I only wish I'd had more than two weeks to read it in, because some of it was really interesting and I'd have liked to take my time.

[whitney]

psych is such a busy course 💔

[Dani]

each chapter was longer than it needed to be

[Michi]

Hat mich gut durch 2 Prüfungen gebracht🤷🏼‍♀️

[Madison Jones]

I got this book for a college course I was taking. I actually wanted to keep this, however I rented it. This is a great introduction to childhood development. Lots of pictures and it was a very easy read with a lot of information.

[Maria]

Interesting book for those interested in learning more about child development. Understanding the studies that have been conducted over many years on child development can possibly provide insight into your own life's journey.

[Fatima]

Read this for my Developmental Psychology class. Super interesting! Definitely learned a lot, the writing was simple to understand and sometimes even humorous, which could be unusual for a textbook. Overall a great read.

[Lizzy Li]

AYE YUH DONE PSYC251

well written and interesting with random anecdotes and commentary from the authors lol

too long.

[McKellen O.]

I read this for my intro to dev psych class and found it accessible and very well-written

[Teigen Barber]

I don't know how much I can say that I really "read" this book, because it's a textbook so I didn't read it cover to cover. But as far as textbooks go, it was pretty good and interesting.

[Isaac]

I read the entire curriculum for developmental psychology, I’m counting it towards my reading goal.

[Steph]

hope this helps me pass my final

[Adam]

Stop that. Stop it

[Adrian]

Read for school

[Anne]

lwk interesting to figure out what tf went wrong in my childhood

[Stephabue]

3/5 ⭐️

Hated my class more than I hated the textbook

[Hannah Duerr]

*fifth edition

[Sarah]

I'm using this book for my class next semester.

[Kate]

Infant development bores me, but I read this thing through and through. Ridiculous.

[Steffi]

Sehr informativ und auch gut erklärt. Doch das Lesen ist eher mühsam und man braucht deutlich länger als bei trivial Literatur. Somit ist es teilweise ganz schön frustrierend. Trotzdem wirklich gut.

[Scott Shepard]

I read this textbook for my Principles of Child Development class. It is pretty good as far as textbooks go, well written and full of supporting research.