Child Development : Myths and Misunderstandings

“A wonderful way to look more deeply into issues in child development.”
-Sarah Jane Anderson, Mount Ida College

“With its emphasis on critical thinking about child development, Mercer’s text is unique and timely. . . . Mercer has done an admirable job in selecting and tackling the topics that she does.”
-Nancy Dye, Humboldt College

In Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings, author Jean Mercer uses intriguing vignettes and questions about children and families to guide readers in thinking critically about 51 common beliefs. Each essay confronts commonly held misconceptions about development, encouraging students to think like social scientists and to become better consumers of media messages and anecdotal stories. The book is organized so that essays can be assigned to parallel either chronologically or topically organized child development texts.

Listen to a recording on Jean Mercer's book here.

Features and Benefits:

• Presents 51 short essays about child development that challenge readers to reconsider their pre-conceived notions
• Includes critical thinking questions at the end of each reading
• Offers examples of research to help students make the connection between research designs and conclusions
• Shows students how to approach research reports
• Provides reference lists, including links to relevant SAGE publications

Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings is intended for use as a supplementary text in courses in Child Development, Child and Adolescent Development, and Developmental Psychology.

"Mercer offers an excellent, basic, jargon-free guide to the common myths and misconceptions underlying principles in child development.  Designed to supplement textbooks covering child development, the book s intended to enable its target audience-specifically, beginning students of developmental psychology and related fields--to fine-tune logical arguments that support or refute basic beliefs concerning early infancy, youth and adolescence." (D. J. Winchester )

"Jean Mercer has put together a wonderful resource. This book provides an interesting look at myths surrounding child development."

(Stephanie L. Brooke )