A textbook textbook

AN INTRODUCTION TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT

by Thomas Keenan

SAGE (2002) ISBN 0761962204 £17.99 304pp

This is an admirable, modern textbook on child development, which is compact, beautifully organised and laid out and hence is easy to read and use. It also incorporates all the pedagogic methods which one expects in good textbooks nowadays, such as stating the aims of each chapter in bold at the beginning, together with a useful summary in a text-box and a glossary at the end of each chapter.

The volume is well referenced and has a very functional index. It is intended for undergraduates and other similar students and from the 'Foreword' onwards the reader is aware of the benign influence of the author who gives lucid and straightforward explanations of some complex ideas.

There are sections at the beginning on 'The structure of the book' and 'How to use this book' and throughout the writing has the personal feel of all good teaching, in which the reader feels directly addressed and personally taught by the author, who is clearly excited by his subject and transmits this with very clear exposition.

I was also very pleased, in reviewing this book, to find that Keenan had included much of the modern thinking about child development which so many other university-level 'introductions' seem, so far, to have neglected. Thus, although he includes coverage of Piaget, Freud, behaviourism or psychosocial theory, which is necessary to understand the history of the subject, he tells us about the ethological perspective, the evolutionary basis of developmental theory and Bronfennbrenner's bioecological model.

Furthermore, he tackles the exciting recent thinking on Dynamic Systems Theory in a very clear and understandable account and, clearly due to his enthusiasm for the field, in the 'Afterword' he introduces the theoretical framework of Developmental Science as a basis for understanding all-age developmental processes.

Similarly the topic of 'Research Methodology in Developmental Psychology' is treated with an elegant simplicity - all the relevant topics and ideas are there, in simple and straightforward paragraphs. The chapter on 'Emotional Development' is also covered in an up-to-date manner, with due emphasis on the biological foundations and consideration of temperament as an influence, and other chapters cover 'Perceptual', 'Cognitive', 'Language-and-Communication' and 'Social' development very lucidly.

In all sections Keenan takes care to have a section on critique or criticism of a theory, to help the student be aware of limitations and problems. Finally, I was delighted to find the last chapter was on 'Developmental Psychopathology', which is one of the key new, up-and-coming fields in our understanding of the origins of psychological and emotional disorders in children and adults.

This is definitely a book to recommend very highly for undergraduates and others who may need an introduction or overview, since I think that it embodies the 'feel' and ethos of developmental psychology extremely well and explains every topic so clearly. I suspect that some more experienced people would also dip into it, since it provides a good basic review of some important emerging fields in developmental psychology and clear critiques of others.

TERENCE GAUSSEN

Terence Gaussen is a consultant clinical psychologist working in community and developmental paediatrics at Belmont House in Leeds, as part of Leeds Community Child Health Services

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