Growth and Development Across the Lifespan: A Health Promotion Focus by Gloria Leifer and Heidi Hartston. St Louis, Mo: Saunders; 2004. 303 pages, softcover, $24.95.

Growth and Development Across the Life-span: A Health Promotion Focus is designed for students in nursing and other healthcare fields (ie, social work, psychology). The text presents growth and development in a continuum across the life span, including concepts related to physical, cognitive, social, and personality development.

This book is user friendly. It is written in layman's terminology, frequently offers definitions of the not-so-well-known concepts, and includes a glossary of terms.

This well-written, organized book discusses growth and development from conception to geriatrics. Each chapter of the book focuses on a life stage: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood, and geriatrics. The authors present chapters on prenatal influences on development, theories of development (ie, Piaget, Erikson, Freud), and bereavement. One chapter is also devoted to the process of dying and includes information and practices from several different cultures. Healthy People 2010 and governmental influences on healthcare are also discussed.

Within each life stage, the authors describe typical developmental tasks (ie, motor development of infants, identity accommodation of middle adulthood), physiological changes (ie, toilet training during early childhood, decrease in function of sweat glands in advanced old age), cognitive development (ie, movement from abstract to concrete thinking to individual thinking and beliefs), and psychosocial development (ie, establishing intimacy in young adulthood, need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in late adulthood). Sexuality across the life span is communicated throughout the text, and techniques for effectively teaching persons at each developmental level are discussed. The authors elaborate on the typical concerns people experience at each stage (ie, "empty nest" in middle adulthood) and how to best deal with specific age-related issues.

Throughout the text, the authors use tables, graphs, and charts very effectively. Within the chapters, the authors bring to light many culturally sensitive issues and set them apart from the rest of the text through the use of color. An appendix entitled "Paradigms of Cultural Influences Across the Lifespan" is included.

What sets this book apart from other texts on human development is its emphasis on proper procedures to use with people at different stages of life. It makes recommendations on what to say and what not to say when dealing with issues related to death, regardless of age, and it discusses several groups of people who may be reluctant to seek medical attention. The book also suggests signs to look for when dealing with different issues, such as suspected abuse.

This book is written in very simple, user-friendly language. Leifer and Hartston have put together a great resource for healthcare workers, early childhood educators, psychologists, or professionals from any field for whom there is a need to understand the challenges, risks, and needs of a targeted age group. Readers will appreciate having an easy-to-use guide at their fingertips.

Kirsten Minnerath, MS, ECSE

Doctoral Student in Human Development, North Dakota State University, Fargo