Child and Adolescent Life Stories
Perspectives from Youth, Parents, and Teachers
- Katherine H. Voegtle - The College of Saint Rose, USA
- Marguerite G. Lodico - The College of Saint Rose, USA
The twelve cases in this book were compiled from interviews and observations done with youth, their parents, and their teachers. The cases were then written from multiple perspectives, allowing the reader an opportunity to understand the influence of family, school, and society on the youths' development. Each case tells a youth's life story, including the events and relationships that have influenced the child and his or her cognitive, social, and emotional development. The youth in these cases represent a cross section of ages and socio-economic levels and exhibit diversity in their ethnic backgrounds, religious/spiritual beliefs, gender, family structures, and disabilities.
The cases are intended to elicit discussion on a wide range of issues in development. To this end, this book explores many critical (and sometimes controversial) topics, such as teen pregnancy, sexual orientation, disabilities, child abuse, domestic violence, death of a parent, and more. This will allow instructors the greatest possible flexibility in supplementing their courses with life histories and cases. These cases are the perfect illustration of the complexity of a full life history.
This collection of stories provides some of the rich descriptive detail needed to put the complex process of development into perspective.
I think this is an excellent endeavor—well conceptualized and well executed. I would most definitely like to use this text in my undergraduate development classes.
These case studies allow the reader a glimpse at the individual, family, and community dynamics that go into making each child who he or she is. This text will make a wonderful supplement for courses dealing with child development, educational psychology, families, communities, and parenting.
This book is a welcome addition to the literature. As a reader one gets the sense that these cases are real. The authors do a great job of providing enough detailed information without overloading the reader. Such details allow the reader an opportunity to apply theory to real life examples. And, as a course instructor, these cases will provide me an opportunity to assess whether my students have a firm grasp of the concepts.
"The reader gains a full spectrum picture of child/adolescent development through to the colorful case examples presented in this book. It was a pleasure to discover that this book provides case examples that represent various racial/ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, religious preference, sexual orientations, and family backgrounds. Both students and teachers will gain a basic foundation in human development from this book as they read through the stories of these wonderful children and relate their cases to different developmental theories."
This seems like a great text, but I have decided to select something similar from a different publisher.
