A Child's World: A Unique Insight into How Children Think

by Sarah Brewer, Alex Cutting (Introduction)

A Child's World is a major Channel 4 TV tie-in, which examines the development of children between the ages of 2 and 12. Focusing on behavior and the mind, it charts the achievement that mark the journey to becoming a fully fledged person. Illustrated with photographs, the book examines how children gain a sense of self; navigate the social world; learn the vital skill of lying; make sense of the physical world; come to understand life, death and sex; and finally reach full independence.

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2001

About the author

Doctor Sarah Brewer

Reviews

[Rose]

Interesting & informative overview of child development, brought to life by examples and little anecdotes from parents, although it's not an academic book and doesn't cite sources. I liked the descriptions of experiments that show particular aspects of a child's development and was particularly interested to read about some aspects of development that I, and other teachers (and those who write the guidance for teachers), are guilty of expecting in our young charges but that do not typically appear in children of that age.

I would have liked some inclusion of non-typically-developing children in the anecdotes - for instance, children with disabilities, especially those who might be at a much younger developmental age in some areas but close to normally-developing in others. One of the book's messages is that although children might spend different periods of time in each stage, they cannot generally skip them (no walking without crawling), and it would have been interesting to see how this is manifested in developmentally-delayed children who might go through similar stages but at much later stages.