Child Development: A Practitioner's Guide

By Douglas Davies

Book Overview

Now in a revised and updated fourth edition, this trusted text and professional resource provides a developmental framework for clinical practice. The authors examine how children's trajectories are shaped by transactions among family relationships, brain development, and the social environment. Risk and resilience factors in each of these domains are highlighted. Covering infancy, toddlerhood, the preschool years, and middle childhood, the text explores how children of different ages typically behave, think, and relate to others. Developmentally informed approaches to assessment and intervention are illustrated by vivid case examples. Observation exercises and quick-reference summaries of each developmental stage facilitate learning.

New to This Edition Incorporates a decade's worth of advances in knowledge about attachment, neurodevelopment, developmental psychopathology, intervention science, and more. Toddler, preschool, and school-age development are each covered in two succinct chapters rather than one, making the book more student friendly. Updated throughout by new coauthor Michael F. Troy, while retaining Douglas Davies's conceptual lens and engaging style.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1462542999
• ISBN13: 9781462542994
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Guilford Publications
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Child Development: A Practitioner's Guide

This good is a good read with valuable information. It made learning about Child development a joy.

The best textbook in my social work education

Douglas Davies's text is lively, intelligent, and somehow manages to be grounded in developmental/attachment theory AND the narrative, real-life details of case studies. His case studies bring the factual elements to life and make this a memorable read. In all honesty, I probably know 100 people who all agree that Davies's text was the finest textbook we have ever read. Highly recommended!

Best Child Develoment Text Available

As a clinical psychologist and professor in a Clinical PsyD program I thoroughly endorse this book. This is a graduate level text and I can say with certainty that professors that utilize this book will produce students grounded in the topic. I have used this text in eight consecutive semesters and my students really love this book. It is easy to read, but sophisticated. Each chapter on a developmental stage is followed by case examples whereby developmental concepts are applied. Your students will have a thorough grounding in latest findings in child development and be able to translate this into their clinical work. I cannot say enough about the superiority of this text. Kim Vander Dussen, Psy. D., RPT-S Licensed Psychologist Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor Associate Professor, Argosy University, Orange County

Highly recommended!

As a school psychologist (ages 4 - 13), I have been looking for a book like this for years! It's much more elaborate than the standard books on child development and it's based on the latest research rather than on theories. It provides me with a rich fund of information that I use when assessing a child, especially younger children with social or emotional issues. One thing that appeals to me in this book, is the emphasis on psychological processes. Diagnoses like ADHD are briefly discussed but Davies explains also how for example an environmentally based language delay can lead to problems with impulsivity. Highly recommended!