Children’s Minds

Margaret Donaldson's seminal work on child development, first published in 1978, has become a classic inquiry into the nature of human thought. In this concise and brilliantly readable book, Margaret Donaldson shows that context is key when it comes to the development of language and thought, and how the right support can ensure children are skilled in these areas before they even start school. She revisits earlier theories of child development, notably those of Jean Piaget, to expose flaws in the accepted wisdom on child psychology and to suggest a range of new strategies to help children combat difficulties. As wise and perceptive today as it was when it first appeared, Margaret Donaldson's bestselling work is essential reading for anyone interested in child development and child psychology. Donaldson shows that much of the intellectual framework on which we base our teaching is misleading. We both underestimate the astonishing rational powers of young children and ignore the major stumbling block that children face when starting school. Given a setting and a language that makes sense to them in human terms, very young children can perform tasks often thought to be beyond them. The preschool child learns everything in a human situation. Only in school are they asked to acquire skills -- reading, writing, arithmetic -- isolated from a real-life context. This transition is difficult.The author suggests a range of strategies that parents and schools can adopt to help children. She argues that reading is even more important than we have thought it to be, since learning to read can actually speed children through the crucial transition. --From publisher description The School Experience -- The Ability To Decenter -- Learning Language -- Failing To Reason Or Failing To Understand? -- What Is And What Must Be -- What Is Said And What Is Meant -- Disembedded Thought And Social Values -- Why Children Find School Learning Difficult -- What The School Can Do -- The Desire To Learn -- The Shape Of Minds To Come -- Appendix : Piaget's Theory Of Intellectual Development. Margaret Donaldson. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. [158]-162.