Child and Adolescent Psychology

Florida State College at Jacksonville. (n.d.) Child and Adolescent Psychology.  https://library.achievingthedream.org/fscjchildpsychology/

Reviewed by: Natalie Marino, Lehman College

Introduction 

This evaluation is based upon the edited version of Child and Adolescent Psychology by Florida State College at Jacksonville. This is a textbook that serves as a part of a psychology course for Lumen and is written for anyone who wants to learn more about the processes of child development. The textbook has a CC-BY license. This textbook is part of Lumen Learning which is software built for professional development support. Both faculty and students can use Lumen Learning. The textbook has six modules that all correlate to the development of a child/adolescent: The Field of Child Psychology, The Dawn of a Person, Physical Development, Cognitive Development, Emotional, and Self Development, and Social Development. The main audience for this particular version is users enrolled in this Lumen psychology course; however, it can also serve as a great informational and/or teaching resource for a psychology professor, psychology student, or curious learner.

Evaluation 

Content: The content of the book is clear and comprehensible as it explains topics thoroughly and in a logical manner. The assignments included in the book are supplemental and add to the readers’ comprehension of the topic being introduced. The instructions for the assignments are concise and straight to the point. Any technical language that is used is defined or explained as simply as it can be. For example, the authors describe the defense mechanism projection as, “Projection: Defense mechanism in which a person attributes their unacceptable thoughts to others. If someone is frightened, for example, he or she accuses someone else of being afraid.” It states what projection is and provides an example for the idea of projection to be clear and understood in easier terms. The language used throughout the book allows for an easy read so the reader can follow along quickly whether they have background knowledge about this topic or not. The content refers to external reliable data like governmental and state websites. The book associates unfamiliar concepts with the real world which allows students to connect the topics to their own experiences. The book successfully reflects the learning objectives, goals, and or purpose and provides substantial efficacy for teaching the subject matter as it introduces each module and explains what the reader should be able to do, what it is important for them to do and how to do so, and clearly lists the objectives, and learning outcomes.

Structure, Organization, and Technical: The book is divided purposefully into modules, The Field of Child Psychology, The Dawn of a Person, Physical Development, Cognitive Development, Emotional, and Self Development, and Social Development. The book has subsections within the modules that make the text very organized. If an individual wishes to change the order of the sections and modules, they most definitely can. There are no broken links; all the links provided go straight to the connected source which allows the book to be well crafted and function smoothly. The book comes in multiple formats: EPUB, Digital PDF, Print PDF, Pressbooks XML, OpenDocument, and Common Cartridge (Web Links) which will allow most, if not all, users with any type of device to access this book. The visual design of the book is okay; it’s professional and minimalistic looking. It could easier to read font, include more colors, and have its images be black and white printer-friendly.

Images and Interactive Features: This book has some images and interactive features throughout the book. The interactive feature they incorporate most often is hyperlinks that are embedded throughout the text when the book refers to a video, organization, facts, guidelines, etc. Images include tables, graphs (pie, bar, etc.), photographs, and diagrams. All of the visual images/data are easy to comprehend as they are clear, simple, and correlate to the topic being described before or after the image. For example, as the book is talking about a genetically inherited disease most common in males, Hemophilia, it describes how the parent chromosomes contribute to it and then shows an image of the chromosomes and how they contribute to females and males. Since the images add to the topic, they contribute to a better understanding of the subject at hand. Although the book includes meaningful images, there is a bit too much text that could be overwhelming to the viewer/learner and this takes away the effectiveness of the actual information.

Social Justice and Equity: This book gives credit to all the key contributors and cites papers and data from a range of authors and organizations. The book includes information relating to different backgrounds, whether it be economic status, occupational status, disabilities, etc. In terms of race, I noticed the book only mentions White and African American ethnicities and their numerical facts. There are no depictions or images that represents diverse perspectives. The book tackles a lot about issues relevant to diverse populations as it lays out the statistic of preterm births among African American women, moral issues among different races, children in divorced families, etc.

Accessibility: The text is not too inclusive as the information given does not include a wide range of races. The book is straightforward in terms of design which could easily lose the interest of someone who might not be passionate about the subject. The resource is available in multiple file formats which allow for any changes, updates, or modifications to the text. The resource supports functionality features and includes a clear Creative Commons licensing statement at the beginning of the book. The book has a CC-BY license so others can copy, share, edit, and show the book if they credit the name. All the images in the book include a written caption describing what the image portrays. The colors in the book are not consistent throughout and the colors used are there to convey the meaning which I believe gets lost in translation if it is shown in black and white color.

Supplemental materials:  Assignments are available within this book which assess the comprehension of the reader. The assignments ask the reader to do thorough research and apply the topics from the module to the task. This idea applies to all their assignments.

Overall Review

My overall impression of this book is that it’s a great informational resource for those who want to learn more about child development or need a basic resource to supplement their teaching on the topic. The book has simple and well-explained information that is organized in a clear manner. However, it can get a little overwhelming and boring due to the overall aesthetic/design of the book. Since the actual content and accessibility of the book is great, I would recommend this resource to others. It would be a much more developed book if it included more information about all races to get a  culturally aware understanding of children’s development. To get a better understanding of child development for everyone, it should include information and facts about everyone. I believe an individual could get a great understanding and basic foundation of child development through this book which could then get spur other interests and questions about this field.