This product will no longer be available for purchase effective May 31, 2022. NOTE: This loose-leaf, three-hole punched version of the textbook gives students the flexibility to take only what they need to class and add their own notes -- all at an affordable price.

For courses in Child Development

Visit the Showcase Site to see sample chapters, get information on the supplements (including sample videos and on-line simulations), and much more.

A best-selling, chronologically organized child development text, Berk and Meyers' Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood is relied on in classrooms worldwide for its clear, engaging writing style, exceptional multicultural and cross-cultural focus, rich examples, and long-standing commitment to presenting the most up-to-date scholarship while also offering students research-based, practical applications that they can relate to their personal and professional lives. The authors takes an integrated approach to presenting development in the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social domains; emphasize the complex interchanges between heredity and environment; and provide exceptional attention to culture.

Renowned professor, researcher, and author Laura Berk is joined by new coauthor Adena Meyers. As faculty colleagues in the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University, they have collaborated on numerous projects, and their distinct areas of specialization and tremendous expertise make them a great team for coauthoring this new edition. Together, they present the latest theories and findings in the field to students in a manageable and relevant way. Berk and Meyers' signature story-like, conversational style invites students to actively learn beside the text's "characters," who experience real issues in development, including physical, cognitive, and peer challenges, as well as parenting and educational concerns. Berk and Meyers also help students connect their learning to their personal and professional areas of interest, speaking directly about issues students will face in their future pursuits as parents, educators, heath care providers, social workers, and researchers. As members of a global and diverse human community, students are called on to intelligently approach the responsibility of understanding and responding to the needs and concerns of children.

While carefully considering the complexities of child development, the authors present classic and emerging theories in an especially clear, engaging writing style, with a multitude of research-based, real-world, cross-cultural, and multicultural examples. Strengthening the connections among developmental domains and of theory and research with applications, this edition's extensive revision brings forth the most recent scholarship, representing the changing field of child development.

Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood, Eighth Edition is also available via Revel(TM), an immersive learning experience designed for the way today's students read, think, and learn. Learn more.

About the Author: This product will no longer be available for purchase effective May 31, 2022.

Berk and Meyers are faculty colleagues in the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University. They have collaborated on numerous projects, most recently coauthoring the chapter on make-believe play and self-regulation for the Sage Handbook of Play and Learning in Early Childhood.

Laura E. Berk is a distinguished professor of psychology at Illinois State University, where she has taught child, adolescent, and lifespan development for more than three decades. She received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her master's and doctoral degrees in child development and educational psychology from the University of Chicago.

Berk has been a visiting scholar at Cornell University, UCLA, Stanford University, and the University of South Australia. She has published widely on effects of school environments on children's development, the development of children's private speech, and the role of make-believe play in development. She has been featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition and in Parents Magazine, Wondertime, and Readers' Digest, and has contributed to Psychology Today and Scientific American.

In addition to Infants, Children, and Adolescents, Berk's best-selling texts include Child Development, Development Through the Lifespan, and Exploring Lifespan Development, published by Pearson. Her other books include Private Speech: From Social Interaction to Self-Regulation; Scaffolding Children's Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education; Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference; and A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence.

Berk is active in work for children's causes. She recently completed nine years of service on the national board of Jumpstart for Young Children and currently serves on the governing board of the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 7: Developmental Psychology.

Adena B. Meyers is a professor of psychology and member of the school psychology faculty at Illinois State University. She received her bachelor's degree in women's studies from Brown University and her doctoral degree in clinical-community psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is a licensed clinical psychologist.

Meyers' areas of specialization include contextual influences on child and adolescent development, with an emphasis on family-, school-, and community-based interventions that promote children's social and emotional functioning. She has served as a consultant to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and as a supervisor of mental health consultants working in Head Start preschool settings. She also supervises clinicians providing mental health services to elementary and secondary school students.

Meyers' publications have focused on school-based consultation; adolescent pregnancy, parenthood, and sexual development; school-based preventive interventions; and the role of pretend play in child development. Her clinical interests include therapeutic interventions related to stress and trauma and mindfulness-based stress reduction. She has taught a wide variety of courses, including introductory psychology, child and adolescent development, human sexuality, introduction to women's studies, and statistics for the social sciences.