Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades seeks to convey the wonder and awe of child development. Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda aims to inspire students to understand the process of change and to think about change through the eyes of a developmental scientist.
This is a new child development text that presents a contemporary understanding of development today. Written by an active researcher, this text is informed by the importance of socio-cultural context, the interconnectedness of developmental domains, and a focus on contemporary research.
To appreciate child development requires understanding the basics: What is changing and why? Accordingly, each chapter describes changes in a select domain of development at a specific time in childhood (the what), and considers the many forces that spur changes in children (the how). Within and across chapters, students will learn about interactions between biology and environment; the role of contexts (e.g., family, school, community, and so on) in development; and how cultural views and practices infuse children's everyday lives.
Finally, because the path of a river is affected by the flowing waters that preceded it, students will come to appreciate how small changes can exert downstream effects on development in the process of developmental cascades. Changing children swim in ever-changing waters. However, beyond providing the fundamentals of child development, the ultimate message of this book runs much deeper than words on a page. Students will see that answers to the "whats" and "hows" of change are both fundamental to science and hold a key to improving the lives of children and families around the world.
Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda is Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Department of Applied Psychology at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, where she directs the Play & Language Lab. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society and has served in various capacities (past and current) including President of the International Congress of Infant Studies; member of the Governing Council of the Society for Research on Child Development; associate editor of Infancy and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; and reviewer on editorial boards of several journals and panels of federal and foundation funding agencies.
Tamis-LeMonda's research focuses on infant and child language, communication, object play, literacy, and motor skill, and the roles of language input, home experiences, parenting, and culture in infant learning and development across domains. Tamis-LeMonda's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, the LEGO Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Robinhood Foundation.
Dr. Tamis-Lemonda has more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books. She co-edited the volumes
Child Psychology: A Handbook of Contemporary Issues, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Editions (1999, 2006, 2016), the
Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2002, 2013),
The Development of Social Cognition and Communication (2005), and the
Handbook of Infant Development (2020). Her husband Richard, children Brittany, Christopher, and Michael; grandchildren Lila and Zoe; and dog Lucy are a constant source of joy and continual reminder to always find the time to take a break, go for a walk, host a holiday, do some cooking, and relish time with family.
