| Abstract: | Reviews the book, Cognitive development in atypical children: Progress in cognitive development research edited by Linda S. Siegel and Frederick J. Morrison (1985). A great deal of psychological research in the past decade has focused on the topic of cognitive development. Accordingly, there are now whole volumes devoted to this subject, such as the Springer Series in Cognitive Development, of which this book, edited by Siegel and Morrison, is one. The term "Progress" in the titles of some of the volumes in the Springer Series denotes that these volumes are "strongly thematic, in that [they are] limited to some well-defined domain of cognitive development research." The theme for this particular book is that of atypical cognitive development, with the term encompassing disorders such as reading disability, autism, and hyperactivity. The book contains seven chapters: three on reading disability, two on autism, one on temperament and attention, and one on atypical infant development. Although the individual chapters in this book are interesting and informative, as is often the case with an edited volume, this book is less cohesive than one might hope. The book is part of a series that is intended to be "strongly thematic." In my view, it does not quite succeed in this regard. Presumably the unifying theme of this book is one of cognitive development in special populations; however, the populations chosen are quite diverse so that the reader often loses sight of the theme. Although this volume could presumably serve as a text for a course in atypical cognitive development, my general feeling is that the material presented varies awkwardly from an introductory to an advanced level, a range that makes it not quite appropriate for either an introductory or an advanced course in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
