By Sandra Smidt
(Routledge, 16.99, ISBN 9780415385701, 01264 342926)
Reviewed by Jennie Lindon, psychologist and early years consultant
Sandra Smidt offers a generous array of description to bring alive children's experiences in different parts of the world. The book prompts reflection on the different ways in which children learn through childhood.
Practitioners will find material to broaden their professional perspective beyond an overly UK or Western orientation.
The author gives a strong sense of children who are physically and intellectually active in their own social world. Her discussion of theoretical concepts alongside examples provokes readers to think beyond their own childhood, culture and adult assumptions about play and learning.
Questions at the end of each chapter invite the reader to make links to their own thoughts and practice. I would have preferred all the questions to be open-ended; some imply that there is one right answer.
I enjoyed the book until I reached chapter 9, in which the author considers research into brain development. While studies in neuroscience do not deliver the certainties that are sometimes claimed and there is significant misinformation for commercial reasons, I think the author's fact-fiction critique is too dismissive, based on the social constructivist suspicion of what is labelled as scientific. Here, readers are told what to think, rather than given even-handed information and references to reflect on for themselves.