The Whole Child: Developmental Education for the Early Years [Hardcover]

“If we offer the young children we teach rich and appropriate learning opportunities combined with enough time for them to enjoy and experience those opportunities to the fullest, we will enhance childhood, not violate it.”

 

The Whole Child is a practical methods book that explains how to teach young children in ways that foster healthy development.  This text focuses on the "whole child" and what they need from the learning environment in order to thrive. It pictures the child as being made up of "selves" - emotional, social, physical, creative, and cognitive--and then examines each of those selves in turn.  The physical self includes not only large and fine muscle development, but also the handling of routines because such things as eating, resting, and toileting contribute much to physical comfort and well-being. For the emotional self, the book considers ways to increase and sustain mental health, to cope with crises, to use discipline to foster self-control, to cope with aggression, and to foster self-esteem. Included for the social self are ways to build social concern and kindliness and learning to value the cultures of other people. The creative self covers the areas of self-expression through the use of art materials and creativity as expressed in play and applied in thought. Finally, the cognitive, or intellectual, self is considered in terms of language and literacy development--the development of reasoning and thinking skills via the emergent approach, and the development of specific reasoning abilities.

 

New To This Edition:

 

NEW! — Presents the content in a new 16-chapter format.

• Chapter 6 is a new chapter on Assessment and Planning–Helps students understand the current emphasis on standards-based education and how to maintain ”best practices” while meeting school requirements.
• Chapter 15 is a new chapter, Fostering the Creative Self–Discusses what creativity is, how it develops, and what teachers can do to enhance children’s creative growth.
• Chapter 16 is a new chapter, Developing and Implementing Curriculum for the Whole Child–Helps students pull together the different elements of early childhood education into a cohesive program for the whole child.
• Other chapters were combined and streamlined for more practical use by instructors. (The content from Chapter 7, Tender Topics, has been integrated into other chapters.) 

NEW!  Discusses the integrated curriculum–Helps students understand the importance of meeting all of the children’s developmental needs across the curriculum spectrum. 

 

NEW!  Presents new information about the ecological theory of human development as outlined by Urie Brofenbrenner. 

 

NEW!  Includes content on children in elementary grades 1-3 in each chapter–Expands the usefulness of the text to primary school teachers.

With an exciting new chapter on the emergent approach to fostering cognitive skills, the new edition of this text continues a tradition of offering future teachers of children ages 2 to 5 a complete, developmental approach to early childhood education...giving them the specific skills they need to function effectively with the children in their care. Rather than stressing such curriculum topics as "art" or "science," this text focuses on the "whole child" and what he/she needs from the learning environment in order to thrive. It pictures the child as being made up of "selves" - emotional, social, physical, creative, and cognitive...examines each of those selves in turn...and recommends methods and materials for enhancing growth in each area. This popular text is unique in that it combines a practical, realistic approach with a firm foundation in pertinent research topics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Preface Overview

The Whole Child is a practical methods book that explains how to teach young children in ways that foster healthy development. It shifts the attention of the teacher away from "art" or "science" to what the child is and what he needs from the learning environment in order to thrive. For that reason, it focuses on the child and pictures him as composed of a number of selves: the physical self, the emotional self, the social self, the creative self, and the cognitive self.

The physical self includes not only large and fine muscle development but also the handling of routines because such things as eating, resting, and toileting contribute much to physical comfort and well-being. For the emotional self, the book considers ways to increase and sustain mental health, to cope with crises, to use discipline to foster self-control, to cope with aggression, and to foster self-esteem. Included for the social self are ways to build social concern and kindliness and learning to value the cultures of other people. The creative self covers the areas of self-expression through the use of art materials and creativity as expressed in play and applied in thought. Finally, the cognitive, or intellectual, self is considered in terms of language and literacy development; the development of reasoning and thinking skills via the emergent approach, and the development of specific reasoning abilities.

The Whole Child is based on the premises that physical and emotional health are fundamental to the well-being of children, that education must be developmentally appropriate if that well-being is to prosper, and that children need time to be children—time to be themselves, to do nothing, to stand and watch, to repeat again what they did before—in short, they need time to live in their childhood rather than through it. If we offer the young children we teach rich and appropriate learning opportunities combined with enough time for them to enjoy and experience those opportunities to the fullest, we will enhance childhood, not violate it.

Inviting Features of This Textbook

New to This Edition

• New information on the development of the brain and the implications of those findings for early childhood education is included in relevant chapters.



• Additional new material is as diverse as discussions of asthma, obesity, and universal precautions and revised charts on the development of block play and Reggio-inspired examples of emergent curriculum.



• The basic tenets of Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories are explained, as well as their implications for early childhood education.



• The chapters on cognition have been reformulated to provide an even greater emphasis on the development of reasoning and thinking skills via the emergent approach.



• Annotated references have been completely revised and updated, including a new feature, "Pick of the Litter," that identifies especially interesting and perhaps offbeat references.



• The Whole Child is coordinated with the popular television series based on The Whole Child, funded by the Annenberg CPB Project. This series, available in Spanish and English, was produced under the guidance of an Advisory Committee that included Lilian Katz, Joan Costley, Irving Siegel, Carol Phillips, Ruby Burgess, Eli and Rosaline Saltz, Barbara Ferguson-Kamara, Frederick Goodman, and Jane Squires.

Continuing Features

• Material is presented in a warm, practical approach based on more than 30 years of experience teaching adult students and young children.
• Emphasis is on teaching methods that focus on children and their developmental needs rather than on science or art per se.
• The author, who recently edited First Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way, includes explanations of the Reggio Emilia approach and suggestions for integrating aspects of that philosophy.
• Entire chapters are included on multicultural, nonsexist education (Chapter 13) and welcoming children who may have special educational requirements into the life of the school (Chapter 9).
• An expanded Instructor's Manual is available at no charge to instructors which includes transparency masters describing "predicaments" for class discussion, suggested assignments, and a variety of test questions.

Acknowledgments

I owe so much to so many people that it is a well-nigh impossible task to mention them all. The contributions of students and parents to my knowledge and point of view have been considerable, as have the contributions of the members of my staff. In addition, I am forever in the debt of my mother, Alma Berg Green, who not only began some of the first parent education classes in Los Angeles but also taught me a great deal about young children and their families.

I am also indebted to Sarah Foot and her wonderful Starr King Parent/Child Workshop, which convinced me that my future lay in early childhood education, and to my own children, who bore with me with such goodwill while I was learning the real truth about bringing up young people.

The seventh edition has moved with the times and includes much new material. For their many suggestions in this regard, I would like to thank Susan Gomez, California State University at Sacramento; Peggy O. Jessee, University of Alabama; Janie H. Humphries, Louisiana Tech University; Mary Virginia Peaslee, Florida Southern College; Pauline Davey Zeece, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

As far as the book itself is concerned, I would like to thank Murray Thomas for teaching me, among other things, how to write and John Wilson for convincing me that some things remained to be said and changed in early education. To Chester and Peggy Harris, I am forever indebted for a certain realistic attitude toward research, particularly in the area of cognitive development.

The people at Merrill/Prentice Hall have, as always, been of great assistance. In particular I want to thank Ann Davis and Pat Grogg for their encouragement. The contributions of Linda Poderski, freelance copy editor; and Sheryl Langner, production editor, also deserve grateful notice. Without their careful help, the book would not exist.

Nor would my photographs be nearly as attractive without the advice and services provided by Color Chrome Photographic Laboratories. Along this same line I am indebted to the staff and children from several centers for making their schools and lives available for me to portray. These schools are The Children's Place at Integris Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City; The Institute of Child Development, University of Oklahoma; The Oaks Parent/Child Workshop, San Marcos Parent/Child Workshop, Starr/King Parent/Child Workshop and Discoveries (all of Santa Barbara, California); and East Tinker Air Force Base Child Development Center, Midwest City, Oklahoma.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Whole Child:  Developmental Education for the Early Years, Ninth Edition

Joanne Hendrick, University of Oklahoma, Emerita

Patricia Weissman

What is a child?  What do children need from their learning environment in order to thrive?

The thoroughly updated and revised Ninth Edition covers the same concrete, how-to information that students have found so useful in earlier editions.  The Whole Child is based on the premises that physical and emotional health are fundamental to the well-being of children, that education must be developmentally appropriate if that well-being is to prosper, and that children need time to be children.  While addressing daily issues such as naptime, toileting, and communicating with families, the authors also explain how to implement theoretical issues, such as emergent curriculum and Vygotsky's notion of scaffolding, to support children's learning.  From discussions on child abuse to the fostering of cognitive skills and creativity, the book gives students an authentic guide in how to support the whole child emotionally, socially, cognitively, physically, and creatively. 

 

This edition includes:

NEW! — Presents the content in a new 16-chapter format.

• Chapter 6 is a new chapter on Assessment and Planning–Helps students understand the current emphasis on standards-based education and how to maintain ”best practices” while meeting school requirements.
• Chapter 15 is a new chapter, Fostering the Creative Self–Discusses what creativity is, how it develops, and what teachers can do to enhance children’s creative growth.
• Chapter 16 is a new chapter, Developing and Implementing Curriculum for the Whole Child–Helps students pull together the different elements of early childhood education into a cohesive program for the whole child.
• Other chapters were combined and streamlined for more practical use by instructors. (The content from Chapter 7, Tender Topics, has been integrated into other chapters.)

NEW!  Discusses the integrated curriculum–Helps students understand the importance of meeting all of the children’s developmental needs across the curriculum spectrum. 

 

NEW!  Presents new information about the ecological theory of human development as outlined by Urie Brofenbrenner. 

 

NEW!  Includes content on children in elementary grades 1-3 in each chapter–Expands the usefulness of the text to primary school teachers.

Joanne Hendrick is professor emerita of early childhood education from the University of Oklahoma. In addition to raising four children of her own, her practical experience includes working with children at the Stanford Speech and Hearing Clinic, directing a parent-child workshop, working in Head Start, and chairing the early childhood areas at Santa Barbara City College and the University of Oklahoma. She holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in disorders of speech and hearing and graduate degrees from the University of California in counseling and early childhood education. She is past president of the California Association for the Education of Young Children.

Her current interests include gardening, photography, traveling to exotic places, writing about young children, and enjoying her ten grandchildren.

 

Dr. Patricia Weissman is co-author with Joanne Hendrick of two renowned early childhood college textbooks:  The Whole Child: Developmental Education for the First Early Years (Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2006) and Total Learning: Developmental Curriculum for the Young Child (Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2007). She began her early childhood career as a family care provider for two infants. Having found her calling, she studied early childhood education in the master’s program at San Francisco State University and received a doctorate of education from the University of San Francisco. During the past 30 years, she has worked as an infant caregiver, preprimary teacher, children’s center director, Child Development Associate (CDA) advisor, professor of early childhood education, and a research associate in early childhood development at the Merrill-Palmer Institute of Wayne State University. She was the founding editor of the journal Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange. Dr. Weissman also designed and consulted on the production of the Public Broadcasting Service video series entitled The Whole Child: A Caregiver’s Guide to the First Five Years. Dr. Weissman is the mother of two adult children whom she feels turned out "quite well."

Preface

Overview

The Whole Child is a practical methods book that explains how to teach young children in ways that foster healthy development. It shifts the attention of the teacher away from "art" or "science" to what the child is and what he needs from the learning environment in order to thrive. For that reason, it focuses on the child and pictures him as composed of a number of selves: the physical self, the emotional self, the social self, the creative self, and the cognitive self.

The physical self includes not only large and fine muscle development but also the handling of routines because such things as eating, resting, and toileting contribute much to physical comfort and well-being. For the emotional self, the book considers ways to increase and sustain mental health, to cope with crises, to use discipline to foster self-control, to cope with aggression, and to foster self-esteem. Included for the social self are ways to build social concern and kindliness and learning to value the cultures of other people. The creative self covers the areas of self-expression through the use of art materials and creativity as expressed in play and applied in thought. Finally, the cognitive, or intellectual, self is considered in terms of language and literacy development; the development of reasoning and thinking skills via the emergent approach, and the development of specific reasoning abilities.

The Whole Child is based on the premises that physical and emotional health are fundamental to the well-being of children, that education must be developmentally appropriate if that well-being is to prosper, and that children need time to be children—time to be themselves, to do nothing, to stand and watch, to repeat again what they did before—in short, they need time to live in their childhood rather than through it. If we offer the young children we teach rich and appropriate learning opportunities combined with enough time for them to enjoy and experience those opportunities to the fullest, we will enhance childhood, not violate it.

Inviting Features of This Textbook

New to This Edition

• New information on the development of the brain and the implications of those findings for early childhood education is included in relevant chapters.



• Additional new material is as diverse as discussions of asthma, obesity, and universal precautions and revised charts on the development of block play and Reggio-inspired examples of emergent curriculum.



• The basic tenets of Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories are explained, as well as their implications for early childhood education.



• The chapters on cognition have been reformulated to provide an even greater emphasis on the development of reasoning and thinking skills via the emergent approach.



• Annotated references have been completely revised and updated, including a new feature, "Pick of the Litter," that identifies especially interesting and perhaps offbeat references.



• The Whole Child is coordinated with the popular television series based on The Whole Child, funded by the Annenberg CPB Project. This series, available in Spanish and English, was produced under the guidance of an Advisory Committee that included Lilian Katz, Joan Costley, Irving Siegel, Carol Phillips, Ruby Burgess, Eli and Rosaline Saltz, Barbara Ferguson-Kamara, Frederick Goodman, and Jane Squires.

Continuing Features

• Material is presented in a warm, practical approach based on more than 30 years of experience teaching adult students and young children.
• Emphasis is on teaching methods that focus on children and their developmental needs rather than on science or art per se.
• The author, who recently edited First Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way, includes explanations of the Reggio Emilia approach and suggestions for integrating aspects of that philosophy.
• Entire chapters are included on multicultural, nonsexist education (Chapter 13) and welcoming children who may have special educational requirements into the life of the school (Chapter 9).
• An expanded Instructor's Manual is available at no charge to instructors which includes transparency masters describing "predicaments" for class discussion, suggested assignments, and a variety of test questions.

Acknowledgments

I owe so much to so many people that it is a well-nigh impossible task to mention them all. The contributions of students and parents to my knowledge and point of view have been considerable, as have the contributions of the members of my staff. In addition, I am forever in the debt of my mother, Alma Berg Green, who not only began some of the first parent education classes in Los Angeles but also taught me a great deal about young children and their families.

I am also indebted to Sarah Foot and her wonderful Starr King Parent/Child Workshop, which convinced me that my future lay in early childhood education, and to my own children, who bore with me with such goodwill while I was learning the real truth about bringing up young people.

The seventh edition has moved with the times and includes much new material. For their many suggestions in this regard, I would like to thank Susan Gomez, California State University at Sacramento; Peggy O. Jessee, University of Alabama; Janie H. Humphries, Louisiana Tech University; Mary Virginia Peaslee, Florida Southern College; Pauline Davey Zeece, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

As far as the book itself is concerned, I would like to thank Murray Thomas for teaching me, among other things, how to write and John Wilson for convincing me that some things remained to be said and changed in early education. To Chester and Peggy Harris, I am forever indebted for a certain realistic attitude toward research, particularly in the area of cognitive development.

The people at Merrill/Prentice Hall have, as always, been of great assistance. In particular I want to thank Ann Davis and Pat Grogg for their encouragement. The contributions of Linda Poderski, freelance copy editor; and Sheryl Langner, production editor, also deserve grateful notice. Without their careful help, the book would not exist.

Nor would my photographs be nearly as attractive without the advice and services provided by Color Chrome Photographic Laboratories. Along this same line I am indebted to the staff and children from several centers for making their schools and lives available for me to portray. These schools are The Children's Place at Integris Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City; The Institute of Child Development, University of Oklahoma; The Oaks Parent/Child Workshop, San Marcos Parent/Child Workshop, Starr/King Parent/Child Workshop and Discoveries (all of Santa Barbara, California); and East Tinker Air Force Base Child Development Center, Midwest City, Oklahoma.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.