Helping Children and Adolescents: Evidence-Based Strategies from Developmental and Social Psychology - Hardcover

"[...] an important contribution to the body of literature [...] a primer that crosses biopsychosocial dimensions of development. It is well written and is an accessible discussion of what it takes to foster psychological and physical health in a child. [...] I was captivated by how the material was presented in a style that made the content accessible to any interested reader. [...] a careful and scholarly distillation of the literature [...] An interested parent could pick up the text and find a valuable set of principles to follow in parenting, while practitioners or helping adults could read it and understand how important they are in the fabric of a child's life." Norman A. White in PsycCritiques, Vol. 56, 2011 "Professor Robert Woody, with doctorates in clinical/counseling psychology, public health, and law, writes with great authority in this outstanding and very readable book for all professionals on how best to help children and adolescents. By bringing together evidence-based practices from scholarly literature and social/developmental psychology as well as information from case studies and a wide range of professions, he shows how mental health professionals, professional helpers, schools and teachers, community services, parents, and extended families can identify, acquire, and propagate skills needed to develop and run both preventive and treatment programs. The wide range of pragmatic evidence-based methods he describes cover all the main areas, including adult responsibility, dealing with kids, preparation for learning, character and social development, maintaining health, adolescence, delinquency and crime. This is a unique and outstanding book!" Edwin L. Herr, EdD, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education and Associate Dean Emeritus, College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA "Professor Woody has taken on a significant challenge by collecting essential evidence-based strategies for child rearing from research in developmental and social psychology, as well as clinical fundamentals. He has also quite successfully tackled two areas often ignored when offering practical advice to carers and parents: adult responsibility and character development in children. With Professor Woody's book, mental health professionals - as well as parents and other carers - will be better placed to address the problems faced by children and youth, and also consider how to grow the children into responsible adults. In so doing he draws effectively on well known principles of psychology and current research. The resulting volume provides well-grounded invaluable guidance for both parents and professionals." Gerald P. Koocher, PhD, ABPP, Professor of Psychology and Associate Provost, Simmons College, Boston, MA Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

From the Preface: At some level and at some time, every adult senses a wish to help children become healthy, have enjoyable lives, and be constructive members of society. In turn, due to their immaturity, youngsters present challenges that understandably lead some adults to shy away or flounder around in their commitments to and relationships with children. Certainly parents face decisions every day that require them to make decisions about how to respond to their offspring, and they commonly benefit from professionals trained to understand and help youngsters. The career-choice of educators, mental health practitioners, and other responsible adults (such as in health care, social service, and law enforcement) creates a social responsibility, perhaps even a legal duty, to be of assistance; and they grapple with how they can best make short- and long-term contributions to children and adolescents. Despite good intentions, any adult may end up in a quandary. [...] Having worked professionally with kids for many years (and raised three of my own), I have dutifully studied authoritative information and research. I have found that scholarly works in the specialties of developmental and social psychology are particularly helpful for gaining understanding of childhood and adolescence and identifying and acquiring the skills that can be useful to efforts to guide youngsters. [...] In my role as a professor, I have often heard students say, Theory is fine, but how do I use the information in real life?A" Despite the simple clear language appropriate for most adults, this book is intended for training professionals in education, mental health, health care, social service, and law enforcement to be more effective in their helping of children and adolescents. There will be actual cases involving folks with whom I have worked as an educator, psychologist, or attorney, and there will be concrete suggestions about how the problem being considered could have been avoided or how it should be handled. Robert H. Woody