What role does an animal play in a child’s developing sense of self? Do children and animals interact in ways no longer recognizable to adults? Children and Animals addresses these and many other intriguing questions by revealing the interconnected lives of the inhabitants of the preschool classroom—an environment abounding in childish verbal and nonverbal interactions with birds, turtles, toads, snakes, bugs, and other creatures.The child-animal interactions captured here suggest that the young child’s developing sense of self and interactive skills are honed and enriched by the presence of nonhuman creatures. In touching and playing with animals, in talking to them or in silent presence, children reveal feelings and objectives they share with these important members of their daily lives. A privileged route by which these meanings are expressed and made conscious is pretend play, in which children translate the shapes and moods of the animal body into their own. As adults, we tend to marginalize the role of the animal body and animals’ presence in our lives. In contrast, children see animals as co-conspirators, as creatures to contend with, as fascinatingly different yet similar “other beings.” Children’s sense of connection to animals provides insights into social development—and into our ideas about what it means to become human.Based on Gene Myers’ study of two dozen children, and containing excerpts from children’s dialogues with their nonhuman playroom cohabitants, this book is a delightful and rewarding opportunity to learn how children craft a sense of self that differentiates them from the animal world. It captures in a child’s own words the importance of animals, birds, and reptiles to the child’s growing social self.Parents, educators, and students of early childhood social development, as well as those intrigued by the intersection of human experience and the natural environment, will find this book to be a rewarding reading experience.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Important Book in Human-Animal Interaction,
By A Customer
This review is from: Children And Animals: Social Development And Our Connections To Other Species (Lives in Context) (Hardcover)
... Myers has done a disciplined and sensitive field study in which he directly observed children's interactions with animals in a school setting. Based on a rich body of data he discusses how children understand animals and what this says about how they think of themselves. It is not an easy book and it is rather expensive, but for those really interested in human-animal relationships and interactions, it is an essential book to own.
0 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a bunch of bull!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Children And Animals: Social Development And Our Connections To Other Species (Lives in Context) (Hardcover)
I've read ridiculous, but this book is boderline insane asylum material! For one, the author charges an exuberant amount of money for this book, and the findings which are supposed to better our knowledge are out of price range for the average person. The content isn't any better. How the author makes the connection between children and animals becomes twisted around into little more than a very liberal idea of child development. The author totally ignores other theories of child development, and this work is clearly pro-darwinism. The author overlooks the distinct differences between children and animals, and it appears that the research conducted was tainted by the beliefs of the writer. Was this book written against a time crunch perhaps? One would be well-suited to bypass this book.
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