The Neurobehavioral and Social-Emotional Development of Infants and Children
11 September 2007
Description
Internationally recognized as one of the premier researchers on child development, Ed Tronick has held notable teaching positions and conducted vital research for nearly 30 years.
Now, for the first time, Tronick has gathered together his most influential writings in a single, essential volume. Organized into five parts—(I) Neurobehavior, (II) Culture, (III) Infant Social-Emotional Interaction, (IV) Perturbations: Natural and Experimental, and (V) Dyadic Expansion of Consciousness and Meaning Making—this book represents his major ideas and studies regarding infant-adult interactions, developmental processes, and mutual regulation, carefully addressing such questions as:
- What is a state of consciousness?
- What are the developing infant’s capacities for neurobehavioral self-organization?
- How are early infant-adult interactions organized?
- How can we understand the nature of normal versus abnormal development?
- How do self and mutual regulation relate to developmental processes?
- Is meaning making purely a function of the brain, or is it in our bodies as well?
As a bonus, the book includes a DVD-ROM, with video clips of Tronick’s Still-Face Paradigm, an invaluable teaching aid.
Reviews
"[W]ell-organized, Tronick’s influential writings come together to form a coherent, illuminating whole….recommend this book to anyone interested in infant development." — Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter
"There is something in this volume for every reader….Ed Tronick offers us much to think about and much to learn from his unique perspective as scientist and clinician." — Psychologist-Psychoanalyst Newsletter
"This book will easily find a comfortable place on the shelves of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, infant researchers and enthnographers. It is definitely a must for subspecialty trainees in Infant Mental Health." — Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
"I recommend it highly…[T]his volume serves as a timely reminder of the value of insights gained through infant and child development research to underpin our own work observing and engaging with nonverbal language and patterns. Tronick’s most influential papers are gathered together in this weighty (in all senses of the word) volume. One of the things that stands out overall in Tronick’s work is his ability to define terminology, with fine-tuned precision, for describing significant moments of shared experiences between mothers and babies. The implications of his work for clinical psychotherapy with adults are made explicit in some of his later papers…[A] consistent and key element in Tronick’s research is the careful, nuanced practice of observation. Rather than necessarily working from preconceived labels or categories, he tends to derive categories from observation; in this way he articulates new definitions and proposes new models of theory. This is one of the things which has made his work so important in his own field, and in related fields like dance/movement therapy." — American Journal of Dance Therapy
