Kathleen Berger's breakthrough text tells a compelling story of life-span development via a topically organised approach. As always with Berger, her text is distinguished by an engaging narrative voice, wide-ranging cultural perspective, up-to-date research, and an emphasis on relating universal themes to students' own lives. This edition is also available with LaunchPad which offers a variety of engaging activities including: * Data Connections: From interactive maps showing rates of breastfeeding and immunization, to manipulatable graphs showing trends in adolescent risk-taking behaviours, this feature lets students take a hands-on approach to understanding the data in life-span development themselves. * Visualizing Development: These assessments link together graphics, text, and photographs to tell a visual story about an important concept in life-span development. * Developing Lives: Loaded with interactive features and pedagogy, this remarkable online experience asks students to "raise" a virtual child through the teenage years, making crucial decisions and responding to events. LaunchPad also combines an interactive e-book with high-quality multimedia content and activities, including interactive tutorials, videos, and the LearningCurve adaptive quizzing system.

Kathleen Berger's acclaimed introduction to childhood and adolescence development weaves together classic and cutting-edge research, contemporary topics (especially neuroscience and culture), and relatable real stories and personal experiences. LaunchPad for the text offers additional ways to engage students, including Data Connections, which lets students explore the data behind high-impact research; and Developing Lives, an interactive online experience in which students "raise" a virtual child through adolescence.

Contemporary grandmothers are often marginalized from extended family life because social institutions and grandmothers themselves do not understand that they could be vital for working parents, for overactive children, for suicidal youth, indeed for many of the problems of modern grandchildren. The genetics and hormones of older women have designed them to be vital family members, with patience and perspective that come with age and experience. In addition, biology helps directly via menopause. The grandmother hypothesis explains that human women, unlike almost any other living creature, experience decades of life after menopause, in order to make grandmothers available to their descendants. Here, Kathleen Berger explores he role of grandmothers in the lives of their grandchildren. She uses real life examples to illustrate how grandmothers can best integrate themselves into the lives of their children’s families without overstepping. She explores the particular needs of each stage of childhood as they relate to grandmother involvement and input. Before a child is born, grandmothers need to attend to building a strong relationship with the future parents. In infancy, attachment and feeding are crucial. In early childhood, grandmothers need to follow the parent’s lead, remembering that a parental alliance is essential. In childhood, children need to be safe but not isolated, and both bullies and victims benefit from a grandmother’s support and assistance. In adolescence and emerging adulthood, grandmothers need to build direct connections and not avoid the difficult topics of sex, drugs, death, disease, and money. Throughout, elders need to learn technology, insuring that it fosters, not impedes relationships. Problems in relationships are explained honestly and with insight. Among these are issues when three generations share a home, when parents get divorced, and when grandchildren rebel against parental authority. Throughout the work, both the joy and the complications of effective grandmothering are described. Whether you’re a biological grandmother, a trusted step-grandmother, or just a warm and trusted older woman with young ones in your life, you can be a vital force in the lives of future generations.