Long considered the gold standard, the Seventh Edition of this best-selling topical approach to child development continues its tradition of being the most current and comprehensive text available. Laura Berk, renowned professor and researcher in the field of child development, has revised her Child Development text, adding new pedagogy, a heightened emphasis on the interplay between biology and environment, expanded coverage of culture, and an enhanced focus on education, health, and social issues, including many social policy topics addressed throughout the text. Berk’s revision provides contemporary and cohesive coverage on contexts for development, including but also extending beyond the family to peers, schooling, media, neighborhoods, communities, and societal values and priorities.
I never paid attention to this book while in University 10 years ago, so figured i'd read it before retiring it.
I must admit, I'm surprised at how well its written. usually books are my last choice as opposed to articles. However, the information is quite detailed and relatively concise. The structure of the book feels very streamlined with appropriate examples, illustrations and summaries at the end of each Chapter.
Would definitely suggest to people who want to understand themselves/how they grew up and also people interested in children/having a child.
There seems to be a lot of very good information in here which would help in relation to parenting.
This textbook is terrible. It's so insanely boring and dense. Holy shit. Honestly, I only got through reading three full chapters considering every chapter is like 60 pages long.
A really nice intro/revival. Structured, orderly, straight-forward and simple language. Lay-out a bit messy and too many colour schemes, but serves its purpose. Next level: Allan Schore.
I've read the international edition, and it was so much about the US, and how systems worked there. In the beginning it was interesting, but then I started to realize that this is not applicable to where I inted to "work", (central and northern Europe).
There was also a lot about mothers, when they do this and when they do that, this happeneds to the child. Maybe a lot has happened in the field of equality and shared responsibilities of the upbringing and the responsibilities in the home (!!!) since the edition I read came out (10 years ago). Or maybe scientists have only studied mothers' interactions with their kids and are just moving in on exploring the fathers' part in the outcome of kids? Or maybe is it so much more common in the US that it is the mother who, in nearly all cases, is responsible for the home and to bring up kids. So, the book felt a bit unmodern, and not fully applicable to where I am heading.
FS: "Not long ago, I left my Midwestern home to live for a year near the small city in northern California where I spent my childhood."
LS: "Pilot apprenticeship projects are under way, in an effort to solve these problems and build bridges between learning and working in the United States."
As far as a textbook goes, this was a pretty good one. The whole book only has fifteen chapters, so they're really long. But the content was easy to understand and very informative.
The best child development book there is! If you are needing it for class, or required to read it, you need to buy it and keep it. Tons of great information in here!
This book was very informative. It had a lot of great information about child development. One thing that I really appreciated about this text were the tips that it shared on how to apply a lot of these principles in daily interactions with children and teens. I also really enjoyed the milestone charts that put these developmental stages into a bigger picture.