Handbook on Multicultural Child Development

About the Book

“The training of children is a profession

where we must know how to lose time in order to gain it.”

By - Jean Jacques Rousseau

            The purpose of this handbook is for the education of persons who have children, work with children or provide services for infants  through age five; to understand the development of a child and enable child care providers to become more aware of conditions and behaviors that surround the child; and to identify problems that require immediate attention.  It is the responsibility of the child’s parents and care providers to address issues that create the barriers to the full and productive development of a child without abrogation of parental rights and responsibilities.

            A child born in the United States today, is born into a culturally pluralistic world.  It is a challenge, when culturally different is often viewed as defective, depraved or deviant.  Therefore it is incumbent upon all adults to provide the best possible environment for living, learning and respecting each person, regardless to individual differences.

            Many children’s games have transcended barriers of language, culture and forbidding geography.  Their universality has been noted everywhere in the world, where there is the will to help a child.

            Education  has been directed to the in-school youth and adults over the years.  Once the child departed the mother’s womb, it became the sole responsibility of the mother.  The world has changed significantly for the newborn to age five.  This does not mean that in-school youth and others do not need more knowledge and assistance in this area.  However, it does mean that we must lower the bar to address issues with the very young to prevent future problems.

            This author’s has more than 50 years experience with children, in-school youth, adults and others in the areas of  parenting, teaching, counseling and administration of educational programs at many levels.  It is strongly believed that more attention must be given to the child in the first five years of life, to instill values and desires for wholesome development, to make a better world.

“In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is,

But that which we hope for.”  By - Johann Goethe

Marcelett C. Henry,  Author

About the Author