The Developing Child in the 21st Century

Taking a child-centred view of education and learning, this book offers a multidisciplinary exploration of childhood that shows how children make sense of the world through everything they come into contact with, and all their interactions.

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Taking a child-centred view of education and learning, this multidisciplinary exploration of childhood shows how children make sense of the world through everything they come into contact with, and all their interactions. The book takes a broad assessment of all children’s roles and experiences, covering a diverse range of topics including:




global and historical childhoods
the child as meaning-maker and active learner
learning in the context of family, culture, group, society
representing and re-representing the world
the development of symbolic representation
the child and culture
understanding roles, identity, race and gender
making sense of science and technology
brain functions and development.


Sandra Smidt depicts children as symbol users, role-players, investigators and creative thinkers, and follows children's progress in forming their understanding of their environment, asking questions about it, and expressing it through music, dance, art and constructive play.