As a best-selling, chronologically organized child development text, Berk, Infants and Children is relied upon in classrooms worldwide for its clear, engaging writing style and its commitment to examining the latest theory and research. Berk takes an integrated approach to presenting development in the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social domains; emphasizes the complex interchange between biology and environment; and provides exceptional attention to culture. The most recent scholarship in the field is presented in a manageable and relevant way. Students are drawn in by Berks signature storytelling style and learn beside the texts "characters" who experience real issues in development, including physical, cognitive, and peer challenges, as well as parenting and educational concerns. Students will recognize many topics of profound significance in today's world, such as poverty, welfare reform, health care, child-care quality, physical punishment, the obesity epidemic, and bilingual education, and learn what researchers have found about their impact on children.In the Fifth Edition, Infants and Children has an even stronger emphasis on the interplay between biology and environment. Several reviewers of the fifth edition judge the coverage of brain and motor development to be the best in any child development text on the market today. Many aspects of the childs environment are considered, including home, extended family, school, neighborhood, community, social policy, and cultural influences. With unparalleled cross-cultural references, Infants and Children, Fifth Edition is an indispensable resource for anyone caring for children in an increasingly global community. Throughout the Fifth Edition, Berk creates even stronger connections between developmental domains, and takes more opportunities to ask students to "Connect" topics to those in previous chapters. Berk also helps students connect their learning to their personal or professional areas of interest. Her voice comes through when speaking directly to students about issues they will face in their future pursuits as parents, educators, social workers, health care providers, and others who work to secure the welfare of children.
Laura E. Berk is a distinguished professor of psychology at Illinois State University, where she has taught child and human development to both undergraduate and graduate students for more than three decades. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her master's and doctoral degrees in child development and educational psychology from the University of Chicago. She has been a visiting scholar at Cornell University, UCLA, Stanford University, and the University of South Australia.
Berk has published widely on the effects of school environments on children's development, the development of private speech, and most recently, the role of makebelieve play in development. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Office of Education and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It has appeared in many prominent journals, including Child Development, Developmental Psychology,Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Development and Psychopathology, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Her empirical studies have attracted the attention of the general public, leading to contributions to Psychology Today and Scientific American.
Berk has served as research editor for Young Children and consulting editor for Early Childhood Research Quarterly and the Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology. She is a frequent contributor to edited volumes on early childhood development, having recently authored chapters on the importance of parenting, on make-believe play and self-regulation, and on the kindergarten child. She has also written the chapter on development for The Many Faces of Psychological Research in the Twenty-First Century (Society for the Teaching of Psychology), the chapter on social development for The Chicago Companion to the Child, the article on Vygotsky for the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, and the chapter on storytelling as a teaching strategy for Voices of Experience: Memorable Talks from the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (Association for Psychological Science). Berk's books include Private Speech: From Social Interaction to Self-Regulation, Scaffolding Children's Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education, and Landscapes of Development: An Anthology of Readings. In addition to Infants, Children, and Adolescents, she is author of the best-selling texts Child Development and Development Through the Lifespan, published by Allyn and Bacon. Her book for parents and teachers is Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference.
Berk is active in work for children's causes. In addition to service in her home community, she is a member of the national board of directors of Jumpstart, a nonprofit organization that provides early literacy intervention to thousands of low-income preschoolers across the United States, using college and university students as interveners. Berk is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 7: Developmental Psychology.
