Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young Immaturity in Human Development

by Bjorklund, David F.

• ISBN13: 9781405149525
• ISBN10: 1405149523
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young examines the nature of childhood through an evolutionary lens and argues that childhood is an essential stage of development with its own unique purposes, separate from those of adulthood; a time of growth and discovery that should not be rushed. Written by a renowned developmental psychologist Examines the role that our period of immaturity plays on the social, emotional, and educational needs of today's children Challenges common perceptions of children as simply "adults in training"

Author Biography

David F. Bjorklund is Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University. His publications include Parents Book of Discipline (with Barbara R. Bjorklund, 1999), The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (with Anthony D. Pellegrini, 2002), and Children’s Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences (fourth edition, 2005).

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

The Benefits of Youth

Rushing through Childhood

Views of Development

A Darwinian Perspective

I Come Not to Praise Immaturity

The Youngest Species

A Brief Look at Human Evolution

The Evolution of Childhood

Timing is Everything

The Youngest Species

The Slow Rate of Growing Up

The Gamble of Delayed Development

Big Brains, Social Complexity, and Slow Development

Cooperating and Competing

Family Matters

Slow Growth and Brain Plasticity

Developmental Plasticity and Evolution

When Slow is Fast Enough

Adapting to the Niche of Childhood

The Benefits of Limitations

See Things My Way

Learning Language

How Do Adults View Children's Immature Thinking?

Adapting to Childhood

The Advantages of Thinking You're Better than You Are

The Development of Metacognition - Knowing What We Know

Some Benefits of Less-Than-Perfect Metacognition

When We Deal with Children

Know Thyself, But Not Too Well

Play: The Royal Road through Childhood

What is Play?

The Adaptive Value of Play

Children Playing, Children Learning

Play it Again, Kid

The Most Educable of Animals

The Myth of "Earlier is Better"

Prenatal Learning

Early (Postnatal) Learning

Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Education

Stress in the Schoolhouse

Old Brain, New Curriculum

The Changing Face of Childhood

Pushing Children through Childhood

A Brief History of Childhood

The Costs of Ignoring Immaturity: The Well-being of America's Children

The Independent Human Juvenile: A New View of Childhood?

Racing to Adulthood, Prolonging Adolescence

Epilogue: Homo Juvenalis

Revisiting Childhood

Visiting Adulthood

Notes

References

Index

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