First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Jean Piaget was one of the most salient and inspirational figures in psychological and educational research of the 20th century. He was also prolific, authoring or editing over 80 books and numerous journals and papers which spawned a continuation of his work over the following decades. His work now compromises a major component of many courses on children's psychological development and in a research tradition which is expanding, scholars may need access to the original texts rather than secondhand accounts. This volume is the third of nine reproducing Piaget's original works - they are also available as a boxed set.

It may be unethical for a person to conduct an intelligence assessment on another human being. Human intelligence is unquantifiable. Observing or analysing behaviour, appearance, personality, beliefs or acquired knowledge cannot produce a quantifiable measure of a persons intelligence. The brain can perform millions of billions of calculations per second. This gives the person enormous power and incalculable potential. Yet, saying I use my brain to think awards the I (the mind) a priority over the brain. We are thinking beings. We are compelled and condemned to think. Thinking is process. We cannot analyse thinking but we can analyse thoughts and ideas, the products of thinking. The mind can reflect on the past, live in the present and plan for the future. Intelligence involves abstract, purposeful, logical thinking and the ability to create and execute ideas. It also includes unconscious thinking. The mind functions best when the body is at rests. The mind never sleeps. The Bru na Boinne megalithic burial tombs in County Meath, particularly New Grange testify to the brilliance in observation, the thoughtful archectual planning and the masterful engineering execution of ideas and plans by our Neolithic ancestors of five thousand years ago. Modern day communication technology air and spacecraft are contemporary testimonials to human genius. Primary education should allow time in the curriculum for students to daydream purposefully. In early schooling greater emphasis should be placed on creativity, music composition, innovation and artistic pursuits.

This work seeks to delineate a theological framework into which biblically informed imagery and language of children in relation to God can be placed. McNeill’s aim is to offer a work of positive construction within the general Reformed tradition. The book shows that John Calvin has much to offer in this respect, but by examining the imagery and language of children in his works it is shown that Calvin is not adequately biblically informed in this area. McNeill argues that Jonathan Edwards provides a theological tool that enables a construal of children more in keeping with biblical language and imagery. The book then offers a general critique of current child development theories in which providential activity in child development is more or less ignored. By adopting Calvin’s theological framework to understand children before God, it is argued that the integration of child development and divine providence becomes a distinct possibility. This work should be of interest to those working in biblical, childhood, Calvin, and Edwards studies, as well as to the more general practitioner working with children in church and society.

For Charles Fernyhough, the birth of his daughter Athena was an opportunity to re-evaluate much of what he had learned as a researcher in developmental psychology. Drawing on the detailed notes he made during her infancy, Fernyhough uses Athena's story to explain how a child's mind develops before the age of three, tapping into a parent's wonder at the processes of psychological development in an engaging, child-centred way. It is written with a father's tenderness and a novelist's empathy and style.