Tavistock Clinic - Understanding Your Child – serie

How does the world look to a one-year-old? When your child doesn't have words to explain things to you, how can you begin to understand how she feels? How do you support and understand your very young child as his independence increases and he starts to become a toddler, beginning to learn to dress himself, share toys and play with other children? Acknowledging the crucial role of relationships and parenting, Sarah Gustavus Jones offers guidance and reassurance in this sensitive exploration of the issues central to your child's developing physical and emotional needs.

Why do some mothers and babies take to breast feeding while others don't? And what are the emotions involved for mother and baby when the baby rejects a feed, or when breast feeding stops? What happens when parents and their babies have to negotiate separations, or deal with night-time crying? What if your baby's distress makes you feel that you cannot cope? This book takes the reader through the entire first year of a baby's life, anticipating parents' questions and covering topics ranging from parental feelings during pregnancy to a 10-month-old's sociability and deepening relationships.

What changes when a young child begins to leave toddlerhood behind? How do you keep track of your child's good and bad experiences at nursery and kindergarten and support her through them? What is the best way to cope with temper tantrums, and why do they happen?Louise Emanuel presents practical tips and a great deal of emotional reassurance for both the first-time and the experienced parent. She offers helpful guidance on a range of topics, from managing sibling rivalry and ensuring everyone in the family gets a good night's sleep, to encouraging conversation and imaginative solitary and social play.

What makes children in their 'terrible twos' behave as they do? How can parents decide when their child is ready for day care, and manage their child's transition to a trusted child minder? Lisa Miller guides parents through their two-year-old's development, from how to deal with a 'bossy boots' to understanding the central importance of toys, and the development of language and nonverbal communicative skills. She describes ways in which parents can help a young child express or resolve difficult feelings or jealousy, come to accept and welcome a new-born sibling, and negotiate friendships.

How much independence should parents allow teenagers who claim rights and privileges, show excessive confidence and test the boundaries of discipline? How can parents handle the physical and emotional changes in their adolescent child?This book offers helpful advice to parents whose children have reached the turbulent teenage years. From conflict management to issues of bullying, stealing and smoking, it guides parents as their children alternate between maturity and immaturity and develop their own identity. It explains the impact of school life, group pressures and close friendships on 12-14-year-olds' development and helps parents to offer their child support, while accepting his or her increased need for privacy. Alongside these challenges, the author reveals the rewards of sharing in these young people's enthusiasm and ambitions, as they grow more confident and responsible.This book provides practical and sensitive advice for parents to help them relate to and communicate with their child at a difficult time of transition, while being prepared to question what they thought they already knew about their son or daughter - and about parenting.

What challenges do 6-7-year-olds face as they learn new skills and face different social situations? How do their perceptions of the world change? How can we best support them in their move towards greater independence?This accessible book provides a wealth of information to help parents, educators and carers better relate to children at this exciting, yet demanding, stage of development. From the new-found sense of rivalry between siblings or classmates, to the anxieties children feel when making new friends, Corinne Aves offers guidance on encouraging children's development and helping them to cope with changing expectations of their behaviour. She discusses the various struggles in these children's lives – such as the conflict between a child's continuing desire to please his parents and the pressure to follow the leads of his friends – and gives tips for supporting children's increasing understanding of morality. Chapters on both school and family life explain the need for discipline and order in 'middle childhood', while specific areas of development such as reading skills and learning difficulties are addressed with sensitivity and insight. Understanding 6-7-Year-Olds will prove an enlightening read for anyone hoping to better understand children at this important stage of their lives.

Understanding Your Young Child with Special Needs explores the developmental impact of disability on normal stages of child development, and examines the complex nature of the emotional bonds between parents and their children with special needs.Placing the child and his or her personality, family life, feelings and behaviours in the foreground, Bartram addresses all the 'ordinary' challenges and tasks of parenting, such as sibling relationships, nursery and school, toilet training, and healthy aggression, as well as those that are of particular relevance to the parents of young children with special needs.This accessible book will provide a wealth of information to help parents of a child with special needs understand his or her development and their own relationship with the child, and will also be of interest to professionals working with babies and pre-school children with special needs.

Understanding 4-5-year-olds gives a thoughtful overview of the challenges that children face as they gradually move away from a strong attachment to their families and turn towards the wider world of school and life outside the family.Lesley Maroni discusses the critical social and emotional developments at this age, including identity, independence and sibling rivalry, the transition to school and friendships with peers, coping with illness and loss, and gender differences. The author also shows how 4-5-year-olds explore real issues using the protective safety of pretend play and their imagination.This accessible book provides valuable insights and a wealth of case examples that will help parents, educators and carers better understand and relate to children at this demanding, yet exciting, stage of development.

Understanding 8-9-Year-Olds describes how children grow and change as they move further away from reliance on home and family, out into the world of school and community.Children of this age develop preferences as well as opinions based on their experience of new relationships and activities. For many children, it is a period of relative calm as they develop through new skills while accumulating knowledge. Biddy Youell looks at the ways in which eight and nine year olds experience their world and highlights some of the difficulties that may hinder their emotional, social or educational development.This accessible book provides valuable insights that will help parents, educators and carers better understand and relate to children during these middle years of childhood.