Children's Understanding of Biology and Health

by Edited by Michael Siegal , Candida C. Peterson

• ISBN13: 9780521620987
• ISBN10: 0521620988
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book uses new research and theory to present the first state-of-the-art account of children's understanding of biology and health. Each of the contributors views children's understanding in these areas to be to some extent adaptive to their well-being and survival and uses evidence collected through a variety of different techniques to consider whether young children are capable of basic theorising and understanding of health and illness. Topics ranging from babies to the elderly including birth, death, contamination and contagion, food and pain are examined and close links between research and practice are made with obvious attendant benefits in terms of education and communication. The combination of theory and practice will guarantee the appeal of this book to an international audience of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and professionals in areas such as education, child welfare, medicine and law.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Preface	xiii
Becoming mindful of biology and health: an introduction	1	(22)
Michael Siegal
Candida C. Peterson
Part I: Development of biological understanding
Children's understanding of mind-body relationships	23	(22)
Kayoko Inagaki
Giyoo Hatano
How a naive theory of biology is acquired	45	(26)
Ken Springer
Constructing a coherent theory: children's biological understanding of life and death	71	(28)
Virginia Slaughter
Raquel Jaakkola
Susan Carey
Part II: Health issues
What young children's understanding of contamination and contagion tells us about their concepts of illness	99	(32)
Charles W. Kalish
Children and pain	131	(30)
John E. Taplin
Belinda Goodenough
Joan R. Webb
Laura Vogl
Children and food	161	(22)
Leann Birch
Jennifer Fisher
Karen Grimm-Thomas
The ethics of emaciation: moral connotations of body, self, and diet	183	(26)
Carol J. Nemeroff
Carolyn J. Cavanaugh
Part III: Applications
Considering children's folkbiology in health education	209	(26)
Terry Kit-Fong Au
Laura F. Romo
Jennifer E. Dewitt
Young children's understanding of the physician's role and the medical hearsay exception	235	(22)
Melody R. Herbst
Margaret S. Steward
John E. B. Myers
Robin L. Hansen
Cognitive development and the competence to consent to medical and psychotherapeutic treatment	257	(25)
Candida C. Peterson
Michael Siegal
Author index	282	(8)
Subject index	290