Wiggling a pencil so that it looks like it is made of rubber, "stealing" your niece's nose, and listening for the sounds of the ocean in a conch shell- these are examples of folk illusions, youthful play forms that trade on perceptual oddities. In this groundbreaking study, K. Brandon Barker and Claiborne Rice argue that these easily overlooked instances of children's folklore offer an important avenue for studying perception and cognition in the contexts of social and embodied development. Folk illusions are traditionalized verbal and/or physical actions that are performed with the intention of creating a phantasm for one or more participants. Using a cross-disciplinary approach that combines the ethnographic methods of folklore with the empirical data of neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology, Barker and Rice catalogue over eighty discrete folk illusions while exploring the complexities of embodied perception. Taken together as a genre of folklore, folk illusions show that people, starting from a young age, possess an awareness of the illusory tendencies of perceptual processes as well as an awareness that the distinctions between illusion and reality are always communally formed.

This book is intended to be a guide to the burgeoning literature on the history of childhood. Harry Hendrick reviews the most important debates and the main findings of a number of historians on a range of topics including the changing social constructions of childhood, child-parent relations, social policy, schooling, leisure and the thesis that modern childhood is 'disappearing'. The intention of this concise study is to provide readers with a reliable account of the evolution of some of the most important developments in adult-child relations during the last one hundred years. The author draws his material not only from historians but also from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and children's rights activists. Thus he successfully shows how much of our 'modern' understanding of childhood and of children results from both an historical and a social scientific understanding.

Clinicians continue to be anxious about the assessment and treatment of dysfluency, but all the evidence suggests that early intervention is of primary importance in preventing long-term chronic stuttering. This practical programme aims to provide the means to assess the child's speech and language and the family life-style, to identify the children at risk and to plan appropriate treatment for the child concerned.

Protecting Children in Time provides a highly original analysis of the origins and development of the taken-for-granted notion that it is possible through social intervention to protect children from avoidable harm and even death, to protect children in time . By using case-studies which span the past 120 years of 'modern' practices and drawing on the work of leading social theorists of modernity and risk society it provides a new way of thinking about constructions of child abuse as a social problem and child protection as a late-modern expert system and experience. It proposes new ways of conceptualizing relationships between professionals, children at risk and families and deepens our understanding of what effective interventions have to involve.

Protecting Children in Time provides a highly original analysis of the origins and development of the taken-for-granted notion that it is possible through social intervention to protect children from avoidable harm and even death, to protect children in time . By using case-studies which span the past 120 years of 'modern' practices and drawing on the work of leading social theorists of modernity and risk society it provides a new way of thinking about constructions of child abuse as a social problem and child protection as a late-modern expert system and experience. It proposes new ways of conceptualizing relationships between professionals, children at risk and families and deepens our understanding of what effective interventions have to involve.

This title is a must-read for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of the behaviours of children and adolescents. It focuses on measurement issues related to the subjective well-being of children and adolescents as opposed to current objective measurements. The volume contains eight chapters that represent a significant advancement in our understanding of life satisfaction in specific age groups, behavioural context, and cultures. The first chapter provides a synthesis of assessment research directed at children and youth. The subsequent chapters offer an in-depth look at subpopulations of youth and specific behaviours. Together the chapters demonstrate the importance of considering the role of life satisfaction across age groups and situations. This volume will be of interest to researchers in government and academia, social psychologists, those working in the prevention sciences, and others who focus on assessing the quality of life and well-being of children and adolescents.

- Theoretical foundations, explanations and practical guides for implementation of social and emotional programming in early childhood settings

- Review of all extant programming for both in-class and parenting applications to further social and emotional development during early childhood

- Chapters presenting the major components of emotional competence are followed directly by another chapter detailing applications, or "lessons from the field."

Are children today growing up too soon? How do they - and their parents - feel about media portrayals of sex and personal relationships? Are the media a corrupting influence, or a potentially positive and useful resource for young people? Drawing on an extensive research project, which investigated children's interpretations of sexual content in films, TV and print media, this book considers how young people (ages 9-17) use such material to understand their experiences and build their identities; and how they and their parents respond to public concerns about these issues. The book offers a clearly-written and entertaining insight into children's and parents' perspectives on these difficult issues - perspectives that are often ignored or trivialized in public debate.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book presents a broad ranging enquiry into various methodological issues associated with contemporary youth research. Chapters cover a variety of topical areas, including youth transitions, youth in care, drugs, consumption and music. Featuring studies by new and established youth researchers, this book will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and also those carrying out more advanced research, in the fields of sociology, social policy, health studies, cultural and media studies.

During World War II, American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers, and many of them relied on federally funded child care programs. At the end of the war, working mothers vigorously protested the termination of child care subsidies. In Citizen, Mother, Worker , Emilie Stoltzfus traces grassroots activism and national and local policy debates concerning public funding of children's day care in the two decades after the end of World War II. Using events in Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and the state of California, Stoltzfus identifies a prevailing belief among postwar policymakers that women could best serve the nation as homemakers. Although federal funding was briefly extended after the end of the war, grassroots campaigns for subsidized day care in Cleveland and Washington met with only limited success. In California, however, mothers asserted their importance to the state's economy as ""productive citizens"" and won a permanent, state-funded child care program. In addition, by the 1960s, federal child care funding gained new life as an alternative to cash aid for poor single mothers. These debates about the public's stake in what many viewed as a private matter help illuminate America's changing social, political, and fiscal priorities, as well as the meaning of female citizenship in the postwar period. |Stoltzfus traces grassroots activism and national and local policy debates surrounding public funding of childcare services for working parents in the two decades after the end of World War II. Using case studies from Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and the state of California, she explains why we still don't have adequate child care in America. The book helps illuminate America's changing social, political, and fiscal priorities, as well as the meaning of female citizenship in the postwar period.

This volume contains a diverse set of chapters that offer a good balance of quantitative and qualitative methodologies; focus on children, youth, or both children and youth; and come from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Two prominent themes of the volume are adolescents' transition to adulthood and children's time-use issues. Several chapters address each of these issues, including one examining children's labor in Senegal. Two ethnographic studies are included: one analyzes student-teacher interaction in an urban high-school math class, while the other examines friendship development and maintenance of early elementary-aged African American girls. The volume also includes a policy analysis of medical insurance provision for low income children, and a response to an earlier chapter on children's rights that appeared in Volume 8.

According to the study conducted by Gallup Organization, only a minority of Americans experience consistent normative motivation for engaging with other people's children. Social norms theory suggests that adults are more likely to get deeply involved if that involvement is viewed as highly important, and if they perceive a social expectation to do so.

This volume examines the nature of social norms in general and in relationship to children and adolescents. The book examines the complex dynamics of understanding the appropriate roles of parents and other adults in young people's healthy development. The volume also presents the study's findings in detail, including numerous areas of consensus among American adults, differences among American adults, and the gap between perceived importance and actual engagement. A wide-ranging literature synthesis suggests implications for both personal and collective actions with potential to change norms that inhibit engagement and to strengthen values that encourage engagement.

In 1994 a group of researchers and decision makers met to discuss the state of child welfare. Also present were a few practitioners and two youth in care. Six years later, when they met again, the number of practitioners and youth had grown considerably and were joined by a strong contingent of foster parents. Thus the findings and insights presented were affirmed or challenged by those most affected -- those on the front line. It was an exciting event, worth capturing in book form. Kathleen Kufeldt and Brad McKenzie have gathered the papers presented at the 2000 Symposium and have organized them under four themes: incidence and characteristics of child maltreatment; the continuum of care; policy and practice; and future directions. An analysis and synthesis of the work informs each of these themes, while an eight-point research agenda developed in an earlier symposium is used to assess developments to date and provide guidance for the future. Contributors include many well-known researchers such as Claire Chamberland, Jim Anglin, Sally Palmer, Darlene Sykes, Cindy Blackstock, Nico Trocme, Fay Martin, and Richard Budgell. The richness of the information will interest all helping professionals, researchers, and students. It will also appeal to those whose interest has been piqued by the highly publicized failures of the system.

Henry Giroux continues his critique of the US political and popular culture 's influence on the lives of our children.

In his controversial new book, Giroux argues that the US is at war with young people. No longer seen as the future of a democratic society, youth are now derided by politicians looking for quick-fix solutions to crime and demonized by the popular media. This perception of fear and disdain is being translated into social policy . Instead of providing a decent education to young people, we offer them the increasing potential of being incarcerated. Instead of guaranteeing them decent health care, we serve them more standardized tests. There's a war on in the US these days, and Giroux sees our youth as the target.

ALLISON JAMES Globalization seems to be the word on everyone's lips, with politicians as much as academics extolling its benefits as well as its contradictions. For some, globali- tion means, in practice, that whether in Bangkok or Boston, in London or Rio, as travelers from wealthy countries they can be sure to find the beer, the pizzas, and the jeans that they can at home; they can be both at home and away simulta- ously. For others, though, globalization has had rather different, often less bene- cial, consequences. In their everyday lives people have come to find themselves tied in, albeit in often unseen ways, into larger economic and political systems over which they have no control; yet these systems cause radical changes-often for the worse rather than the better-in the pattern of their daily lives. And it is those who have least voice whose lives are usually affected the most. In this book attention is drawn systematically-really for the first time-to a consideration of how processes of globalization variously impact upon the lives of children. Such an approach is not only most welcome in the field of childhood studies, but also long overdue. It will, at last, enable us to begin to contextualize in a broader framework some of the many issues to do with ch- dren's rights and participation which have long been discussed as separate and discrete issues within childhood studies.

Impoverished young Americans had no greater champion during the Depression than Eleanor Roosevelt. As First Lady, Mrs Roosevelt used her newspaper columns and radio broadcasts to crusade for expanded federal aid to poor children and teenagers. She was the most visible spokesperson for the National Youth Administration, the New Deal's central agency for aiding the needy young, and she was adamant in insisting that federal aid to young people be administered without discrimination so that it reached blacks as well as whites, girls as well as boys. This activism made Mrs Roosevelt a beloved figure among poor teenagers and children, who between 1933 and 1941 wrote her thousands of letters describing their problems and requesting her help. ""Dear Mrs Roosevelt"" presents nearly 200 of these documents to open a window into the lives of the Depression's youngest victims. In their own words, the letter writers confide what it was like to be needy and young during the worst economic crisis in American history. Revealing both the strengths and the limitations of New Deal liberalism, this book depicts an administration concerned and caring enough to elicit such moving appeals for help yet unable to respond in the very personal ways the letter writers hoped.

Each generation of American children across the tumultuous 20th-century has come of age in a very different world. How do major historical events - such as war or the depression - influence children's development? Children in Time and Place brings together social historians and developmentalists to explore the implications of a changing society for children's growth and life chances. Transitions provide a central theme, from historical transitions to the social transitions of children and their developmental experiences. The book has two stories to tell, one about children growing up and coming of age in various times and places, and another about how collaboration worked across the disciplines of history and psychology. Children in Time and Place begins with studies that link historical and life transitions in children's lives, with an emphasis on wartime experience. It turns to studies of historical variation in the effect of life transitions, from the onset of sexual experience in girl's lives to the transition to fatherhood in boys, and it concludes by introducing the reader to the collaborative efforts involved in the workshop that led to the volume.

Nourish Your Child for Optimum health and well-being

All parents want to do the very best for the long-term health and well-being of their children, and nutrition plays a major role in that process. This book shows you where to start. Drawing on the latest medical and dietary research, Healthy Eating for Life for Children presents a complete and sensible plant-based nutrition program that can help you promote and maintain excellent health and good eating habits for your children throughout their lives.

Covering all stages of childhood from birth through adolescence, this book provides detailed nutritional guidelines that have been carefully drafted by an expert panel of Physicians Committee doctors and nutritionists, along with 91 delicious, easy-to-make recipes to help you put these healthy eating principles to work right away. Healthy Eating for Life for Children contains important information on:

• Eating for two–nutrition in pregnancy
• Worry-free breast- feeding and bottle-feeding options
• Nutrition for hyperactivity and attention problems
• Eating disorders and body image issues
• Achieving healthy weight and fitness levels
• Healthy eating for young athletes
• And more

Whether you are a new or experienced parent, this book will give you the crucial knowledge you need to take charge of your child’s diet and health.

Also available:

Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Cancer (0-471-43597-X)
Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Diabetes (0-471-43598-8)
Healthy Eating for Life for Women (0-471-43596-1)

Diverging Pathways follows the careers of a British birth cohort into early adulthood, presenting a detailed picture of the family backgrounds and the school and early labour force achievements of the cohort. The study portrays how the social arrangements of society's institutions deflect people's achievement patterns. Different kinds of schools, ability groups within schools, and differences between industries and firms lead comparable individuals to achieve at very different levels in society and the book shows that the cumulative effects of being placed in advantaged or disadvantaged locations make their achievements highly divergent in adulthood. The study reports on major career differences between men and women and describes how the interface between post-secondary education and the labour force alters some of the outcomes of elementary and secondary schooling.

Continuing his ongoing social critique, Henry Giroux looks at the way corporate culture is encroaching on the lives of children by exploring three myths prevalent in our society: that the triumph of democracy is related to the triumph of the market; that children are unaffected by power and politics; and that teaching and learning are no longer linked to improving the world. Looking at childhood beauty pageants, school shootings, and the omnipresent nihilistic chic of advertising, Giroux paints a disturbing picture of the world surrounding our children. Ultimately, he turns to the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Stuart Hall for lessons on how we can reinstitute a realistic childhood for our children.

Today, any regular newspaper reader is likely to be exposed to reports on manifold forms of (physical, emotional, sexual) child abuse on the one hand, and abnormal behavior, misconduct or offences of children and minors on the other hand. Occasionally reports on children as victims and children as offenders may appear on the same issue or even the same page. Rather seldom the more complex and largely hidden phenomena of structural hostility or indifference of society with a view to children are being dealt with in the press. Such fragmentary, ambiguous, incoherent or even contradictory perception of children in modem society indicates that, firstly, there is a lack of reliable information on modem childhood, and secondly, children are still treated as a comparatively irrelevant population group in society. This conclusion may be surprising in particular when drawn at the end of The Century of the Child proclaimed by Ellen Key as early as 1902. Actually, there exist unclarities and ambiguities about the evolution of childhood in the last century not only in public opinion, but also in scientific literature. While De Mause with his psycho-historic model of the evolution of childhood, comprising different stages from infanticide, abandonment, ambivalence, intrusion, socialisation to support, underlines the continuous improvement of the condition of childhood throughout history and thus rather confirms Key's expectations, Aries, with his social history of childhood, seems to hold a more culturally pessimistic view.

The new edition of this well established handbook provides up-to-date information on a topic of increasing importance across a range of disciplines and practices. It covers:
* the debate concerning children's rights and developments in rights provision over the last twenty years
* the impact of recent British legislation on children's rights in key areas such as education, social and welfare services and criminal justice
* the key provisions of the Un Convention and Human Rights Act
* recent policy proposals and initiatives in the British setting intended to establish and promote rights for children and young people
* the rights claims of particular groups of children, for example children who are carers or children who are disabled
* children's claims for particular rights such as the right to space, to sex education and citizenship
* the ways in which the voices of children and young people are or might be articulated more clearly in policy debates and other arenas
* issues and developments in Europe, Scandinavia and China.
The New Handbook of Children's Rights offers a comprehensive and radical appraisal of the field which will be invaluable to students and professionals alike.

Dickens and the Children of Empire examines the themes of childhood and empire throughout Dickens' ouevre. The prestigious group of contributors initiate and extend debates on the subjects of post-colonialism, literature of the child, and present childhood as an apt metaphor for the colonized subject in Dickens' work.

The book begins by offering a historical analysis of feminist awareness of abuse by considering some of the early challenges and the emerging recognition of the connections between women, children, and abuse. The book then divides into three sections. Section One focuses on contemporary issues and debates such as the protection of children, satanic ritual abuse, and prostitution. Section Two considers practice issues, in particular, conferencing, children, in care, sexuality, work with abusers, and effective communication with abused children with learning difficulties. The book concludes with a suggestion for a new model of practice.

Children--white and black, northern and southern--endured a vast and varied range of experiences during the Civil War. Children celebrated victories and mourned defeats, tightened their belts and widened their responsibilities, took part in patriotic displays and suffered shortages and hardships, fled their homes to escape enemy invaders and snatched opportunities to run toward the promise of freedom. Offering a fascinating look at how children were affected by our nation's greatest crisis, James Marten examines their toys and games, their literature and schoolbooks, the letters they exchanged with absent fathers and brothers, and the hardships they endured. He also explores children's politicization, their contributions to their homelands' war efforts, and the lessons they took away from the war. Drawing on the childhoods of such diverse Americans as Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt, and on sources that range from diaries and memoirs to children's ""amateur newspapers,"" Marten examines the myriad ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. ""An original-minded, skillfully and suggestively presented history, haunting in its detailed unfolding of a war that put so many already vulnerable youngsters in danger, but elicited from some of them, as well, impressively sensitive, responsive thoughts, gestures, and deeds in what became, as this extraordinary book's title insists, their civil war.""-- Journal of American History ""James Marten's thoroughly researched and engagingly written study . . . stands as one of the most exciting studies to emerge in the last dozen years. . . . Marten has taken a topic ignored by both Civil War historians and historians of childhood and crafted an engaging, masterful, nuanced, and readable study that will not quickly leave the reader's mind or heart.""-- American Studies ""The first comprehensive account of Civil War children. . . . Thoroughly researched and nicely illustrated, The Children's Civil War will be a touchstone for historians and generalists who seek to gain a fuller understanding of life on the home front between 1861 and 1865.""-- Civil War History The Children's Civil War is a poignant and fascinating look at childhood during our nation's greatest crisis. Using sources that include diaries, memoirs, and letters, James Marten examines the wartime experiences of young people--boys and girls, black and white, northern and southern--and traces the ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. --> |Adding an important dimension to the literature on the Civil War, this book examines the wartime experiences of children--white and black, northern and southern. Marten examines letters, games, books, and toys of the period, and includes the experiences of some famous individuals including Booker T. Washington, Jane Addams, and Theodore Roosevelt to reveal the war's impact on children's lives.