By Audrey Curtis and Maureen O'Hagan
(Routledge Falmer, 16.99, ISBN: 0415225957, 01264 343071)
Reviewed by Denni Morrison, lecturer in psychology and child development at Hertford Regional College
Everything your students need to know about working with children in just under 220 pages! Not in great depth, but enough to cover most areas of just about every early years syllabus.
It is aimed at level 4 students, but it is so clearly written that I've used it with level 3 BTEC National Diploma students and in a simplified form with my brighter CCEs. It would work well as a course textbook for HNC and HND programmes, and students new to the Foundation degree would welcome its easy language and layout.
Of the 12 chapters, ranging from 'Principles of effective practice' to 'European perspectives', there were two that I found particularly interesting. 'How children learn' includes all the usual suspects (Piaget, Bruner and Vygotsky) as well as a short introduction to emotional intelligence which seems to be flavour of the month at present.
'Communication and communication disorders' not only discusses the development of verbal and non-verbal skills and how social and cultural factors can affect this process, but also takes a straightforward look at dyslexia and how it impacts on learning.
