Development is best understood as a fusion of biological, social, and psychological processes interacting in the unique medium of human culture. [In this text, the authors] have tried to show not only the role of each of these factors considered separately but also how they interact in diverse cultural contexts to create whole, unique human beings.-Pref.

`Colin Harrison's knowledge of the research on reading processes and comprehension is encyclopaedic.... This is essential reading for all those committed to improving literacy attainment at all levels' - Professor Greg Brooks, University of Sheffield

Reading Development and Difficulties is a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the development of the two core aspects of reading: good word reading skills and the ability to extract the overall meaning of a text. Unique in its balanced coverage of both word reading and reading comprehension development, this book is an essential resource for undergraduates studying literacy acquisition Offers wide coverage of the subject and discusses both typical development and the development of difficulties in reading Accessibly written for students and professionals with no previous background in reading development or reading difficulties Provides a detailed examination of the specific problems that underlie reading difficulties

Part of the authoritative four-volume reference that spans the entire field of child development and has set the standard against which all other scholarly references are compared. Updated and revised to reflect the new developments in the field, the Handbook of Child Psychology, Sixth Edition contains new chapters on such topics as spirituality, social understanding, and non-verbal communication. Volume 4: Child Psychology in Practice, edited by K. Ann Renninger, Swarthmore College, and Irving E. Sigel, Educational Testing Service, covers child psychology in clinical and educational practice. New topics addressed include educational assessment and evaluation, character education, learning disabilities, mental retardation, media and popular culture, children's health and parenting.

The essential reference for human development theory, updated and reconceptualized The Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, a four-volume reference, is the field-defining work to which all others are compared. First published in 1946, and now in its Seventh Edition, the Handbook has long been considered the definitive guide to the field of developmental science. Volume 2: Cognitive Processes describes cognitive development as a relational phenomenon that can be studied only as part of a larger whole of the person and context relational system that sustains it. In this volume, specific domains of cognitive development are contextualized with respect to biological processes and sociocultural contexts. Furthermore, key themes and issues (e.g., the importance of symbolic systems and social understanding) are threaded across multiple chapters, although every each chapter is focused on a different domain within cognitive development. Thus, both within and across chapters, the complexity and interconnectivity of cognitive development are well illuminated. Learn about the inextricable intertwining of perceptual development, motor development, emotional development, and brain development Understand the complexity of cognitive development without misleading simplification, reducing cognitive development to its biological substrates, or viewing it as a passive socialization process Discover how each portion of the developmental process contributes to subsequent cognitive development Examine the multiple processes – such as categorizing, reasoning, thinking, decision making and judgment – that comprise cognition The scholarship within this volume and, as well, across the four volumes of this edition, illustrate that developmental science is in the midst of a very exciting period. There is a paradigm shift that involves increasingly greater understanding of how to describe, explain, and optimize the course of human life for diverse individuals living within diverse contexts. This Handbook is the definitive reference for educators, policy-makers, researchers, students, and practitioners in human development, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and neuroscience.