Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings

by Jean Mercer

“A wonderful way to look more deeply into issues in child development.”
-Sarah Jane Anderson, Mount Ida College

“With its emphasis on critical thinking about child development, Mercer’s text is unique and timely. . . . Mercer has done an admirable job in selecting and tackling the topics that she does.”
-Nancy Dye, Humboldt College

In Child Myths and Misunderstandings , author Jean Mercer uses intriguing vignettes and questions about children and families to guide readers in thinking critically about 51 common beliefs. Each essay confronts commonly held misconceptions about development, encouraging students to think like social scientists and to become better consumers of media messages and anecdotal stories. The book is organized so that essays can be assigned to parallel either chronologically or topically organized child development texts.

Listen to a recording on Jean Mercer's book here. Features and Child Myths and Misunderstandings is intended for use as a supplementary text in courses in Child Development, Child and Adolescent Development, and Developmental Psychology.

Genres: Parenting

296 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2009

Reviews

[Adam Slagell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having enjoyed both NurtureShock and 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, I decided to read Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings. This book is essentially a collection of 50 short essays regarding common child development myths, many that parents are likely to of heard if not fallen for themselves. Essays are organized in to different sections based on the relevant developmental stage (e.g., prenatal, infant & toddler, preschooler, school age, and adolescent & teenage) of the myth.

This book is clearly written for undergraduate students, as a supplemental text to a child development or education course. It includes questions and exercises at the end of each section along with some references. Even though it is aimed at specific college upperclassmen, it is still very readable and relevant to parents. The author kindly avoids jargon that you might otherwise expect.

I did not find anything really surprising, except maybe that the "Back to Sleep" campaign against SIDS may not be effective, but this may be because I had just read the NurtureShock and 50 Great Myths of Pop Psychology. There was without a doubt some overlap with those books and other common debunkings in the skeptics community (e.g., the fact that vaccines do not cause autism). I think most people will still find at least a couple surprising chapters, and if not, it at least helps to reinforce some of these concepts. I think more than anything, it will comfort some of those parents that worry that they might not have done everything they could have for their child, for example, if they did not breast feed, put their kids to sleep on their backs or were unable to bond immediately after birth with their child for medical reasons. If nothing else, this book helps to reinforce the resiliency of children.

I think most regular readers here would enjoy this book and should check it out. My only complaint was that it was rather expensive and hard to find for a small paperback. It was even challenging to find in libraries, and there was no Kindle version. However, I suspect all of these issues are because it is really in the textbook market, which is a different beast than the rest of the publishing world.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book recently on a whim. The structure is a set of 50 short (few page) essays, each one on a different child development 'myth'. Each essay discusses the myth in question, and also reasons that the information may be inaccurate or misleading.

I particularly enjoyed the introduction, actually, in which the author discussed how to critically analyze a new piece of child-development information. I also appreciated the ways in which each essay pointed out how the science that suggested the original myth might have been questionable or incomplete resulting in an erroneous conclusion.
I felt, however, that some of the essays were fairly incomplete - the result, i believe, of keeping them bit-sized.

I can't say that any of the information was particularly revolutionary to me. I don't think that any of the myths that were busted were things that i particularly ascribed to (in fact, some of them i couldn't believe actually were commonly held beliefs about child development). With, perhaps, the exception of the discussion of how the 'back to sleep' method for SIDS prevention came about from studies with a large number of confounded variables and was not supported when the data was more carefully analyzed. (Notable to me, in part, because the advice is so pervasive.)

At any rate, i found this to be a very easy read - especially because of its bite-sized nature, and also enjoyable and thought provoking. As an advocate of careful science and critical thought, i'd love to see more similar essays, perhaps on a variety of topics, popularized.

[Marideth Bridges · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book felt very dry and boring and a lot of the 'facts' were things that people who have taken an intro level psychology class in college would already know. In addition, the tone also felt very condescending/patronizing. I know this is supposed to be an academic book, but I don't like it when authors talk down to their readers, as if they knew nothing about the topic of the book. But again, this book might have as well been written for an audience that does not know much about psychology, particularly child psychology. In fact, I’m actually pretty sure that it was written for college students, not new parents.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't completely read this book, but what I read I liked. Finally, a book that is grounded in research and that also critically reviews the research that is out there. This books covers the entire childhood age range, so I'm sure I will go back to it as needed as my child grows.

[Elizabeth]

As heard on Point of Inquiry.