Synopses & Reviews
This book provides the first state-of-the-art examination of children's understanding of biology and health. Authors based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia review and evaluate children's understanding of birth, life and death, their knowledge of contamination and contagion as well as processes related to food, digestion, and pain. The chapters tightly focus on the connection between research and practice in examining the implications for communication about diseases such as HIV and for children's medical and therapeutic decision-making.
Review
"This text offers an important addition to the literature on children's concepts of health, illness, and their internal bodies, and a valuable international perspective on many of the contemporary issues in the field. It is particularly welcome at a time when government initiatives are seeking to convey important health promotion messages to increasingly younger age groups of children." --Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry"...provides a rich empirical database of topics with great theoretical and practical significance...fascinating, entertaining, and at times sobering... Human Development
Review
"The real strengths to this book are in the final chapters, which illustrate the implications of cognitive development for health education, patient-physician relationships and medical decision making. The excellent coverage of these and other topics make this a useful refernce, training, amd practice." JDBP Jun 01"...provides a rich empirical database of topics with great theoretical and practical significance...fascinating, entertaining, and at times sobering... Human Development
Synopsis
'Presenting the first comprehensive examination of children\'s understanding of biology and health and using original research to examine whether children are capable of basic theorising in these areas, this book will appeal to advanced level students, academics and professionals in child health, welfare and education.\n
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction Michael Siegal and Candida Peterson; Part I. Development of Biological Understanding: 2. Young childrenâs understanding of mind-body relationships Kayako Inagaki and Giyoo Hatano; 3. How a naive theory of biology is acquired Ken Springer; 4. Constructing a coherent theory; childrenâs biological understanding of life and death Virginia Slaughter, Raquel Jaakkola and Susan Carey; Part II. Health Issues: 5. What young childrenâs understanding of contamination and contagion tells us about their concepts of illness Charles W. Kalish; 6. Children and pain John E. Taplin, Belinda Goodenough, Joan R. Webb and Laura Vogl; 7. Children and food Leann Birch, Jennifer Fischer and Karen Grimm-Thomas; 8. The ethics of emaciation: moral connotations of body, self and diet Carol J. Nemeroff and Carolyn J. Cavanaugh; Part III. Applications: 9. Considering childrenâs folkbiology in health education Terry Kit-fong Au, Laura F. Romo and Jennifer E. Dewitt; 10. Young childrenâs understanding of the physicianâs role and the medical hearsay exception Melody R. Herbst, Margaret S. Steward, Robin L. Hansen and John E. B. Myers; 11. Cognitive development and the competence to consent to medical and psychotherapeutic treatment Candida C. Peterson and Michael Siegal.