Tag Archives: youth

Free e-textbook: Family Life in Adolescence

FLAMany parents fear the time when their beautiful happy children will become unmanageable adolescents continually engaging in risky or destructive behaviour. Unfortunately, this view of adolescents is the focus of the media, even though it relates to just a small proportion of young people.

In Family Life in Adolescence, research is collated showing that most adolescents are responsible young people who care about their families and crave the support of their parents. The research also indicates that the quality of the relationship parents have with their adolescents is crucial to the wellbeing of those young people.

Authors Patricia Noller and Sharon Atkin discuss the need for parents to set reasonable limits on their adolescents and to expect appropriate behaviour. They also show that children who have experienced positive, caring relationships with their parents are more likely than other adolescents to behave responsibly.

Family Life in Adolescence is valuable reading for anyone interested in the development of young people and the impact of the family environment. It draws on contemporary research across the globe, showing that behaviour in adolescence builds on earlier experiences in the family. It will prove useful to practitioners from a range of professions, such as social workers, educators and youth leaders.

This 222-page book is available in both PDF and EPUB format suitable for e-readers. Both may be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/447873

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Tufts Child & Family WebGuide

tuftscfwgThe WebGuide is a directory of quality websites covering all ages from early child development through to adolescence.

Tufts University have assembled approved links to websites and videos on topics of interest to parents. It is also used by students and professionals in the fields of child development, education, and psychology. All the sites and videos listed on the WebGuide have been systematically evaluated by graduate students. In order to ensure reliability, the evaluation system includes criteria such as the inclusion of citations in peer-reviewed journals.

This really is a very reliable resource for students and workers’ continuing professional development (CPD). It is easy to navigate, with drop-down menus across the top of the site. For example, ‘Health’ includes ADHD, Autism and Aspergers.

The WebGuide has been systematically evaluating links since 2001, so it has now amassed a substantial collection. Tufts’ evaluation criteria are rigorous, but I think that if it were to have begun today it might have indicated whether each resource was open-access or not.

Viewing the WebGuide from Europe, I can’t help wishing we had a comparable directory for resources outside the USA.

Access the WebGuide at: http://www.cfw.tufts.edu

Caring for vulnerable children – a new free online course

FLChildrenDevelop an understanding of some of the approaches involved in caring for vulnerable children, with this free online course.

Caring for Vulnerable Children is a six week long course beginning on 23 Feb 2015. It aims to inspire and challenge you to think differently about how we, as a society, care for vulnerable children and the future lives we help them to create.

The course is offered by The University of Strathclyde Glasgow on the attractive FutureLearn platform, and is led by lecturer Graham McPheat. It requires 4 hours of study time per week, a total of 24 hours overall. The course is free to study, and if required, a Certificate of Participation is available at £25. The course will be of interest if you wish to work or study in the fields of child care or social work, or if you just want to consider the role you play in responding to and caring for the children and young people who you encounter in different aspects of your life.

If you are interested in caring for vulnerable children, you may also like to take a look at SCIE’s Introduction to Residential Child Care, a suite of three e-learning modules which I previously reviewed and is still freely available.