William E. Tunmer – författare

First published in 1986, this authoritative book contains a selection of original, research based, reports of studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand in the field of Child Development. The topics have been arranged into four major sections – cognitive issues in development, language and reading development, perpetual motor development and social aspects of development. Both pure and applied research issues are presented, and the chapters cover child development from infancy to adolescence.

The book’s special strength lies in the diversity of topics tackled and the range of developmental research represented. Theoretical viewpoints are raised and empirical questions answered in the studies reported. The editors have systematically drawn together important contributions which reflected contemporary topics in child development at the time. Although no one common theoretical or empirical theme unites either each section or the whole book (which reflects the general scope and diversity of child development in the 1980s), the contributors in general see the child as developing through active interaction with his or her environment. This interactionist position is clearly preferred by most researchers, who realised that simplistic genetic or environmental models are inadequate to explain the complex development of the child.

The editors were all active researchers in the area of child development at the time and each co-authored a chapter in the book. All published regularly in national and international journals and books, and were aware of current developments in their main areas of expertise.

All those interested in issues in child development will find this book important reading, as it provides the reader with an excellent and diverse selection of studies, bearing on a wide range of empirical research.

First published in 1986, this authoritative book contains a selection of original, research based, reports of studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand in the field of Child Development. The topics have been arranged into four major sections – cognitive issues in development, language and reading development, perpetual motor development and social aspects of development. Both pure and applied research issues are presented, and the chapters cover child development from infancy to adolescence.

The book’s special strength lies in the diversity of topics tackled and the range of developmental research represented. Theoretical viewpoints are raised and empirical questions answered in the studies reported. The editors have systematically drawn together important contributions which reflected contemporary topics in child development at the time. Although no one common theoretical or empirical theme unites either each section or the whole book (which reflects the general scope and diversity of child development in the 1980s), the contributors in general see the child as developing through active interaction with his or her environment. This interactionist position is clearly preferred by most researchers, who realised that simplistic genetic or environmental models are inadequate to explain the complex development of the child.

The editors were all active researchers in the area of child development at the time and each co-authored a chapter in the book. All published regularly in national and international journals and books, and were aware of current developments in their main areas of expertise.

All those interested in issues in child development will find this book important reading, as it provides the reader with an excellent and diverse selection of studies, bearing on a wide range of empirical research.

This book serves as a succinct resource on the cognitive requirements of reading. It provides a coherent, overall view of reading and learning to read, and does so in a relatively sparse fashion that supports retention. The initial sections of the book describe the cognitive structure of reading and the cognitive foundation upon which that structure is built. This is followed by discussions of how an understanding of these cognitive requirements can be used in practice with standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, to advance the teaching of reading and the delivery of interventions for students who encounter difficulties along the way. The book focuses on reading in English as its exemplar, but shows how its framework can be adapted to understand the broad cognitive requirements for reading and learning to read in any phonologically-based orthography. It provides a way for reading professionals tothink about reading and its development and gives them mechanisms that, coupled with such understanding, will help them link what children must know to become strong readers to what teaching can best provide through the competent use of available tools. In this way, the book will help reading professionals be both efficient and effective in what they provide all their students and be much better equipped to support those students who struggle to learn to read.