Books
Over his career David Elkind has published more than a dozen books, most with a focus on child and adolescent psychology.
The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally
In modern childhood, free, unstructured play time is being replaced more and more by academics, lessons, competitive sports, and passive, electronic entertainment. While parents may worry that their children will be at a disadvantage if they are not engaged in constant, explicit learning or using the latest "educational" games, David Elkind's The Power of Play reassures us that unscheduled imaginative play goes far in preparing children for academic and social success. Through expert analysis of the research and powerful situational examples, Elkind shows that, indeed, creative spontaneous activity best sets the stage for academic learning in the first place: Children learn mutual respect and cooperation through role-playing and the negotiation of rules, which in turn prepare them for successful classroom learning; in simply playing with rocks, for example, a child could discover properties of counting and shapes that are the underpinnings of math; even a toddler's babbling is a necessary precursor to the acquisition of language. An important contribution to the literature about how children learn, The Power of Play suggests ways to restore play's respected place in children's lives, at home, at school, and in the larger community. In defense of unstructured "down time," it encourages parents to trust their instincts and resist the promise of the wide and dubious array of educational products on the market geared to youngsters. Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-7382-110-7 ISBN-10: 0738210536
The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon
With the first edition of The Hurried Child, David Elkind emerged as the voice of parenting reason, calling our attention to the crippling effects of hurrying our children through life. He showed that by blurring the boundaries of what is age appropriate, by expecting--or imposing--too much too soon, we force our kids to grow up too fast, to mimic adult sophistication while secretly yearning for innocence. In the more than two decades since this book first appeared, new generations of parents have inadvertently stepped up the assault on childhood, in the media, in schools, and at home. In the third edition of this classic (2001), Dr. Elkind provided a detailed, up-to-the-minute look at the Internet, classroom culture, school violence, movies, television, and a growing societal incivility to show parents and teachers where hurrying occurs and why. And as before, he offered parents and teachers insight, advice, and hope for encouraging healthy development while protecting the joy and freedom of childhood. In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the book, Dr. Elkind delivers important new commentary to put a quarter century of trends and change into perspective for parents today. Publisher: Cambridge, MA Da Capo Press, (1981) 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-7382-1082-7 ISBN-10: 073821082X
Reinventing Childhood. Raising and Educating Children in a Changing World
Today's children are being raised and taught in new ways that make childhood far different than it was just a few decades ago, according to Reinventing Childhood and Teaching Children in a Changing World by David Elkind, Ph.D. Like the author's landmark, The Hurried Child, this major new work presents a clear and convincing overview of profound changes that are now having far-reaching consequences for students, parents and teachers. A combination of trends and new technologies - ranging from the increase in working mothers to the use of computers and videos in kindergarten - are changing the experience and perception of key aspects of childhood, including language development, socialization, personality, intelligence and special needs. Reinventing Childhood devotes a chapter to each of these aspects, and the book's structure enables dr. Elkind to provide detailed information and advise about a variety of timely topics, such as out-of-time child care, different methods of reading instruction, and the effects of television viewing. Publisher: Rosemont, NJ. Modern Learning Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56762-0698-069-8-
Ties That Stress: The New Family Imbalance
What has happened to the American family in the last few decades? And what are these changes doing to our children? David Elkind, renowned child psychologist and author of The Hurried Child, has devoted his career to these urgent questions. This eloquent book puts together all the puzzling facts and conflicting accounts to show us as never before what the American family has become.Publisher: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1994. ISBN0-674-89150-3
Parenting Your Teenager in the Nineties
Dr. David Elkind, child psychologist and author of the renowned child development classic "The Hurried Child," draws on his extensive knowledge of adolescent development to provide practical, sensible advice on all the tough challenges and choices that teenagers and their parents face in the 1990s. Publisher: Rosemont N.J. Modern Learning Press. ISBN 1-5676-015-9
Perspectives on Early Childhood Education
This essay examines the ramifications of some new lines of thought that challenge prevailing ideas about the applicability of child development knowledge to early childhood education. Although the connection between child development (along with its home scientific base of psychology) and education is in many ways becoming ever stronger, there are at the same time strong sentiments of skepticism, disillusionment, and in some cases outright rejection, directed at this well established alliance [Bloch, 1992; Goffin, 1996; Lubeck, 1996; Katz, 1996; Stott & Bowman, 1996]. Publisher: Washington, DC. National Education Assoc 1991. ISBN 0-8106-0351-9
Grandparenting: Understanding Today’s Children
With emphasis on the kinds of situations and problems grandparents are often exposed to, this book helps its readers understand the differing demands and associated stress on children growing up in today's society. Publisher: Glenview IL, 1990 Scott Foresman & Co. 1990. ISBN 0-673-24929-8
Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk
Designed to help parents avoid the miseducation of young children. Dr. Elkind shows us the very real difference between the mind of a pre-school child and that of a school age child. Publisher: New York: Knopf, 1987. ISBN 0-394-75634-3
All Grown Up and No Place to Go: Teen-agers in Crises.
Once our society set aside time for adolescents to grow from children to adults, to become accustomed to their expanding bodies and minds. Now the markers that defined passage—differences in dress, behavior, and responsibilities—have vanished. The institutions that guarded adolescence, such as family and schools, now expect “young adults” to deal with adult issues. Those trends leave teens no time to be teens. All Grown Up and No Place to Go spotlights the pressures on teenagers to grow up quickly. The resulting problems range from common alienation to self-destructive behavior. Quoting teenagers themselves, Elkind shows why adolescence is a time of “thinking in a new key,” and how young people need this time to get used to the social and emotional changes their new thinking brings. Many of his ideas, such as the “imaginary audience” that makes teens so self-conscious, have become seminal in adolescent psychology. Already there are more than 175,000 copies of All Grown Up and No Place to Go in print. In this thoroughly revised edition, Elkind also explores the “post-modern family” in which teenagers are growing up. He helps parents and those who work with youth and understand teens in crucial ways, because the root of so many adolescent frictions is the gap between what teenagers need and what our culture provides. Publisher: Cambridge, MA Da Capo Press (1984) 2001. ISBN 978-0201483857
Child Development and Education: A Piagetian Perspective.
A collection of essays covering a broad range of topics, including day care, the roots of homosexuality, generational conflict, and children's concepts of life and death. "Richly suggestive." --Contemporary Psychology. Publisher: New York, Oxford University Press, 1976. Library of Congress Number 75-46361
A Sympathetic Understanding of the Child: Birth to Sixteen
This unique book is an accessible, "child-centered" introduction to child growth and development. It presents the most up-to-date information in descriptive terms to inform readers about how children look, sound, and behave. Practical and research-based, without being research oriented, it looks at children over small time periods to reveal patterns of growth and development. Courses in Child Development, Educational Psychology, Introduction to Early Childhood Education, Child Psychology, and Parenting courses. Publisher: Boston, MA. Allyn & Bacon, (1974) 1994. ISBN 0-205-06015-3
Images of the Young Child: Collected Essays on Development and Education
This collection of essays reflects the notion that perceptions of children and childhood shape approaches to education and child rearing. The essays include: (1) "The Child Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," on how children have been regarded throughout recorded history; (2) "Piaget and Montessori in the Classroom," examining the different ways these renowned figures in early childhood education viewed the development and education of young children; (3) "Work Is Hardly Child's Play," on children's play and how it has been conceptualized by different investigators; (4) "Development in Early Childhood," summarizing contemporary scientific knowledge about child growth and development; (5) "Humanizing the Curriculum," on educational reform; (6) "We Can Teach Reading Better," about better understanding of the process of reading; (7) "Resistance to Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Case Study in Educational Inertia," on the relationship between educational change and educational philosophy; (8) "The Hurried Child: Is Our Impatient Society Depriving Kids of Their Right To Be Children?" about early academic pressure on children; (9) "Overwhelmed at an Early Age," a further discussion of the effects of hurrying children academically; and (10) "Questions Parents Ask," providing answers to frequently asked questions. Eight of the essays include references. (TJQ). Publisher: Washington, DC NAEYC 1993. ISBN 0-935989-58-7
Children and Adolescents: Interpretative Essays on Jean Piaget
The latest edition of this widely used introduction to Piaget's ideas includes new essays on the approach to beginning reading, Piaget's theory of play, the informal programs of the British infant schools, and the education of adolescents. The author emphasizes practical applications of Piagetian theory in education and clinical diagnosis. Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-19-502821-X
The Child and Society
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press. 1979. ISBN 0-19-502371-4
Development of the Child
Publisher: New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1978. ISBN 0-471-23785-X
The Child’s Reality: Three Developmental Themes
Publisher: Hillside New Jersey Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1978. ISBN 0-470-26376-8
Child Development: A Core Approach
Publisher: New York, John Wiley & Sons. Inc. 1972. ISBN 471-92571-3
Studies in Cognitive Development: Essays in Honor of Jean Piaget
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press. 1969. Library of Congress Number 69-10493
The Truth About Toys for Infants
Toys are the child's means of discovering both self and the world. Infant learning can be damaged by too many toys, or by toys that are not developmentally appropriate for your infant's age and stage. View eBook »
