The Psychology of Babies: How Relationships Support Development from Birth to Two

Citation

Katherine Davies (2015), "The Psychology of Babies: How Relationships Support Development from Birth to Two", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 38-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-07-2014-0030

Whilst being a new parent can be an utterly bewildering experience devoid of structure and full of unknowing, The Psychology of Babies firmly debunks this with its pragmatic and intuitive approach to the exploration of the early developmental phase of a child’s life.

The multifaceted approach taken by Murray, in both form and design lends itself to parents or any student facing a career in paediatrics as she combines enough current research with an equal balance of common sense and accessibility to coherently address four primary areas; social understanding and cooperation, attachment, self-regulation and control, cognitive development. For parents, Murray’s careful division of subject matter into chapters, multiple subchapters and headings allows the easy and straightforward digestion of information. This arrangement offers the reader the ability to ignore the need to read sequentially or chronologically as often imposed by other literature, and instead they can choose the theme or issue most relevant to them at the time. In addition to the clean design of the book, the combination of “technical terminology” and colloquial lexis does ground the text in an authoritative position as a well researched, educational and instructive piece offering guidance without being authoritarian. The affable and comfortable nature of the content is further portrayed in its use of film strips and single images to relay the information provided in the corresponding text and captions. While this format allows the piece to become more manageable for parents or relatives, the inclusion of data in the form of graphs, enlightening case studies and the addition of “How to” sections does lend itself well to students new to this area who may wish to investigate these further.

Overall, I would recommend this text as offering a good albeit brief insight into the early years of children for students, and firmly suggest this as a read for parents who are looking for some positive guidance and support with some challenges which they may be facing with having a new child.