Can anyone recommend a good book on child development

[horizonglimmer]

I am about to start a course which will qualify me to work in early years. However, it looks rubbish and I don't think I will learn much. ( I don't have much choice about the course. I am on a scheme to help unemployed parents get back into work, this course is the one found by my advisor and is free so it is the one I have to do) So can anyone recommend a good book on child development? I am looking for one aimed at early year professionals/ students, so quite academic. Any help would be much appreciated.

Anything by Penny Tassoni will be good. But what is the course that you are doing? It might be good, but I'm not sure that any free courses will give you a full and relevant qualification.

Could you tell us the course title and 'level' please?

TBH I doubt you'll find anything truly academic to be of use in a childcare course. They tend to use a mish-mash of received wisdom on child development theories, blended into an almost meaningless whole that happens to suit current trends and public policy.

Tassoni's writing will almost certainly get you through most entry-level childcare courses, mainly because it is exceptionally bland and non-academic and shifts with the changes in fashion.

@sofizzy and @itsaboojum it's a level 3 diploma for children's care, learning and development. It will enable me to gain employment in Wales. The course is free to me, but the Welsh Government is paying for it. Part of a scheme to help the unemployed gain employment. I'm not so much looking for a book to help me through the course, but rather to help me learn and inform my practice. I was thinking of the sort of thing that would be on reading lists for a degree in Early Years studies?

Anything by Margot Sunderland, especially ‘What every parent needs to know’/ ‘The Science of Parenting’ (different editions of the same book - I can’t remember which is the current one).

Penny Tassoni, Early Years Educator would be a good book for you as that’s what’s used when teaching level 3 childcare (or early years educator as the qualification is now called) in colleges. The framework in the book is all up to date and it’s broken down into simple to understand sentences.

Thanks!