Parents and Grandparents as Teachers: Supporting Child Development from Infancy through Age 8

A guide for families in teaching infants through age 8, this insightful book showcases how both parents and grandparents can support greater family success, and how creative collaboration can produce benefits for each generation.

Having developed the nation’s first curriculum for grandparents and field-tested the intervention program with support from the American Association of Retired Persons, the authors explore topics like trust in infancy, family conversations and child language, praise and encouragement, alone time, peer influence, resilience, and cultural diversity. To bring family members closer together and support child development, each chapter includes principles for application, ten key concepts and questions for reflection. Readers can benefit from the Generational Perspectives Activities presented at the end of each chapter, and available online, that recommend topics for family conversations and self-evaluation for parents and grandparents.

This book will be invaluable for parent and grandparent readers and may also be of interest to students majoring in family studies and developmental psychology and those preparing to become early childhood or elementary school teachers.

Paris S. Strom is Professor of Educational Psychology at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He currently teaches child, adolescent, and adult development courses to undergraduate and graduate college students and has worked with high school students in the public schools. In addition, he has published over 100 journal articles and books about learning and teaching throughout the lifespan.

Robert D. Strom is Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at Arizona State University and Director of the Office of Parent Development International. He taught in public schools of Minnesota and Michigan before becoming Professor of Psychology and Education at Ohio State University. His teaching, writing and research have focused on the lifespan and mental health. He is the author of over 400 publications.