Ronnie Carr – författare

The final reader in the Child Development in Social Context series shows how the study of child development is inevitably bound up in more ephemeral cultural ideas about the nature and needs of children and in the educational practices that rise from these ideas. Some readings point to the dangers which can arise from the meeting of science and cultural values, using for illustration studies of the role of psychological theory in reinforcing social attitudes to child care inside and outside the family. Other readings look at children's initiation into that relatively recent cultural invention, the school, and the relationship with their learning at home. There are studies of their social development in classroom and playground, with particular emphasis on ethnic relationships.

How can psychologists contribute to the development and well-being of children in practical ways? Do the practicalities of psychological work with children in clinical, educational and legal settings allow us to evaluate competing psychological explanations? Dealing in turn with a range of issues in applied developmental psychology, the contributors to Influencing Children's Development examine the impact of psychological research in contributing to strategies of interventions, as well as to the understanding of some of the conditions of childhood. The topics covered include some where development is affected by sensory or intellectual impairments and others, as for example in education, where the lives of the great majority of children have been influenced by the work of psychologists.In presenting these topics as a collection, this book provides the opportunity to identify the impact of the most influential psychological perspectives over a wide range of specific services for children.