Child Development, Third Edition: A Practitioner's Guide (Social Work Practice with Children and Families)

This widely used practitioner resource and course text provides an engaging overview of developmental theory and research, with a focus on what practitioners need to know. The author explains how children's trajectories are shaped by transactions among early relationships, brain development, and the social environment. Developmental processes of infancy, toddlerhood, the preschool years, and middle childhood are described. The book shows how children in each age range typically behave, think, and relate to others, and what happens when development goes awry. It demonstrates effective ways to apply developmental knowledge to clinical assessment and intervention. Vivid case examples, observation exercises, and quick-reference tables facilitate learning.

Douglas Davies, MSW, PhD, until his death in 2015, was Lecturer at the School of Social Work, University of Michigan. An infant mental health specialist, he published numerous clinical articles on intervention with toddlers and parents, traumatized children, and child cancer survivors. Dr. Davies's practice was devoted to reflective supervision of mental health clinicians and child care consultants, consultation to agencies, and training of clinicians on topics in child development and child therapy. He was inducted into the National Academies of Practice as a distinguished social work practitioner and received the Selma Fraiberg Award from the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.