Infants, Children, and Adolescents

Berk’s signature storytelling style invites students to actively learn beside the text’s “characters” who share their influential experiences and developmental milestones. Students are provided with an exceptionally clear and coherent understanding of child development, emphasizing the interrelatedness of all domains–physical, cognitive, emotional, and social–throughout the text narrative and in special features.

Focusing on education and social policy as critical pieces of the dynamic system in which the child develops, Berk pays meticulous attention to the most recent scholarship in the field. Berk helps students connect their learning to their personal and professional areas of interest and their future pursuits as parents, educators, heath care providers, counselors, social workers, and researchers.

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 make-believe 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. She has also been featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and in Parents Magazine, Wondertime, and Reader’s Digest.

Berk has served as research editor for Young Children and consulting editor for Early Childhood Research Quarterly.  Currently, she is an associate editor of 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 article on social development for The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, 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, Landscapes of Development: An Anthology of Readings, and A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence. 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 and chair of the central region advisory board 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.

I. Theory and Research in Child Development

1. History, Theory, and Research Strategies

The Field of Child Development

Basic Issues

Historical Foundations

Mid-Twentieth-Century Theories

Recent Theoretical Perspectives

Comparing Child Development Theories

Studying the Child

II. Foundations of Development

2. Biological and Environmental Foundations

Genetic Foundations

Reproductive Choices

Environmental Contexts for Development

Understanding the Relationship Between Heredity and Environment

3. Prenatal Development

Motivations for Parenthood

Prenatal Development

Prenatal Environmental Influences

Preparing for Parenthood

4. Birth and the Newborn Baby

The Stages of Childbirth

Approaches to Childbirth

Medical Interventions

Birth Complications

Precious Moments After Birth

The Newborn Baby's Capacities

The Transition to Parenthood

III. Infancy and Toddlerhood: The First Two Years

5. Physical Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Body Growth

Brain Development

Influences on Early Physical Growth

Learning Capacities

Motor Development

Perceptual Development

6. Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Piaget's Cognitive-Developmental Theory

Information Processing

The Social Context of Early Cognitive Development

Individual Differences in Early Mental Development

Language Development

7. Emotional and Social Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood

Erikson's Theory of Infant and Toddler Personality

Emotional Development

Temperament and Development

Development of Attachment

Self-Development

IV. Early Childhood: Two to Six Years

8. Physical Development in Early Childhood

9. Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Piaget's Theory: The Preoperational Stage

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

Information Processing

Individual Differences in Mental Development

Language Development

10. Emotional and Social Development in Early Childhood

Erikson's Theory: Initiative vs. Guilt

Self-Understanding

Emotional Development

Peer Relations

Foundations of Morality

Gender Typing

Child Rearing and Emotional and Social Development

V. Middle Childhood: Six to Eleven Years

11. Physical Development in Middle Childhood

Body Growth

Common Health Problems

Health Education

Motor Development and Play

12. Cognitive Development in Middle Childhood

Piaget's Theory: The Concrete Operational Stage

Information Processing

Individual Differences in Mental Development

Language Development

Children's Learning in School

13. Emotional and Social Development in Middle Childhood

Erikson's Theory

Self-Understanding

Emotional Development

Understanding Others: Perspective Taking

Moral Development

Peer Relations

Gender Typing

Family Influences

Some Common Problems of Development

VI. Adolescence: The Transition to Adulthood

14. Physical Development in Adolescence

Conceptions of Adolescence

Puberty: The Physical Transition to Adulthood

The Psychological Impact of Pubertal Events

Health Issues

Motor Development, Sports Participation, and Physical Activity

15. Cognitive Development in Adolescence

Piaget's Theory

An Information-Processing View of Adolescent Cognitive Development

Consequences of Abstract Thought

Sex Differences in Mental Abilities

Language Development

Learning in School

Vocational Development

16. Emotional and Social Development in Adolescence

Erikson's Theory: Identity versus Identity Confusion

Self-Understanding

Moral Development

Gender Typing

The Family

Peer Relations

Problems of Development

At the Threshold

17. From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

A Period of Unprecedented Exploration

Cultural Change and Emerging Adulthood

Development in Emerging Adulthood

Risk and Resilience in Emerging Adulthood

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