As part of my course in Speech and Language Sciences, I have to carry out a child study. I have to observe a normally developing pre-school child and in order to do this successfully I have to know what is considered to be 'normal'. We have learned about this in lectures but our lecturer also recommended this book as reference while we are completing our study.

This book has become invaluable while I have been carrying out my observations for my child study. The book is based on the work of Mary Sheridan and has long been accepted as a guide to children's development.

The book was first published in 1973 and has been reprinted many times since. It was last revised and updated in 1997 and the copy I have was reprinted in 2006.

The book is spilt into three sections, following acknowledgements and an introduction. I have used the first section most frequently as this is the main section and is also the most relevant to my study.

*Section 1 - Illustrated Charts of Children's developmental progress*

This section is divided into four key areas of developmental progress. It is in chronological order from birth to five years. The four area's are:

*Posture and Large Movement
*Vision and Fine Movements
*Hearing and Speech
*Social Behaviour and Play

The text is very readable and the wording is fairly simple. This book does not attempt to explain why anything occurs at a certain age, which I think is good as there is no bias or opinion. But some people might view this as a disadvantage (depending on why you want the book)

The newborn baby section has a couple of other areas, such as 'states of sleep and wakefulness' and 'social interaction and the formation of attachments'.

There are lots of outline diagrams throughout this section, which compliment the text very well. These also serve as a reminder of the progress at a certain age without having to read all the text. The book does not cover every month of a child's life from birth to five years but it is very comprehensive in the ages it covers. The child I am studying is 2 years and 9 months so I am using the section on 2 and half years and 3 years of age to compare what he able to do with the expected norms. I have not found this to be a problem.

This section spans 41 pages and is a really useful reference tool. I have also used this section to check on developmental progress of my 2-year-old niece. I think it would be useful for new parents as well as students and professionals.

The end of the section provides a short list of further reading, should that be of interest to you.

*Section 2 -Patterns of development *

This is a shorter section of the book and one, which I have only looked at a couple of times. The section considers the patterns of development, which are important for understanding individual differences. I think this section will become more useful as I progress further in my course. I have referred to it for some background reading and have found it to be both useful and interesting. This section is also very readable and has some diagrams, though not as many as section one.

This section of the book is divided into:

*Posture and Large Movement
*Vision
*Hearing
*Communication, language and speech

Each subsection is further broken down providing detail on specific development within these areas. The posture and movement section has a small paragraph about when to seek advice.

There are more references to further reading in this section, and there is information about the detection of a squint, co-operation tests and understanding of language.

This section is another useful resource filled with relevant information on child development. I like the way it has information for further reading, should you suspect a problem, and also information about when you should seek advice from a professional.

*Section 3 - Support for Children with Special Needs*

This section includes information relevant to children with developmental needs. The section only covers 4 pages but it includes lots of useful information on The Child Development Team, Day care services, Education, Equipment, Financial Support, Register of disable children and Other services. There is a list of addresses of Specialist Organisations that might be helpful. It states that if you write to any of them you must enclose a stamp-addressed envelope with your letter.

I have not yet needed to use this section of the book, but it looks really useful and provides a range of information that will support children with special needs.

*Appendices*

The appendices consist of checklists designed to be used by parents to help them identify patterns of development associated with hearing and vision, and to help access the appropriate services if their child has special needs.

The first appendix is a checklist for detection of a hearing problem (Dr Barry McCormick) The next is a checklist for detection of a vision problem in the baby's first year and the 3rd is a checklist of support services for children with special needs.

This book is extremely useful for my studies in Speech and Language Therapy, but I think it is written with parents in mind. The information is easily accessible, well presented, complimented with diagrams and is very informative.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book for students, professionals or parents who want information on child development.

This book is available online from £7.99.

Thanks for reading!