Authors Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky took time to talk to us about their journey, inspirations, and success in early childhood education. Click here to read their Author Spotlight interview.
Learning about child development and developmental psychology has been an interest of mine for many years, and was part of my training to become an early childhood educator. While I loved learning theories and idea from the greats like Erikson, Vygotsky, Freud, Piaget, etc., the one thing that often frustrated me was how was I to take that intensive information and figure out how to translate it to the work I did on a daily basis. Of course, I have eventually figured it out but I so wish I would have had a book like Early Learning Theories Made Visible back when I first began my career. The book covers theories from Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Lev Vygotsky, Abraham Maslow, John Dewey, Howard Gardner and Louise Derman-Sparks. First the authors give a basic run down of each theorist and their work. Then, in a very well organized and written manner, the authors lay out the theories in relation to these areas: 1. Social-Emotional Development 2. Beyond ABCs and 1,2,3s 3. Beyond Gross-Motor and Fine-Motor Skills Within these sections, the authors give amazing, stunning photography, and examples of how to incorporate these theories within our early childhood education programs through sections call Take Action: The Envirionment and Take Action: Your Role as a Teacher. These sections have provided me with valuable information that I have been able to very easily adapt and add to my family child care program. I am very glad to have it in my personal library and must say it is a book I hope all early childhood education programs should have as well. I highly recommend this book and give it a huge thumbs up!