Playground Politics: Understanding the Emotional Life of the School-Age Child

The scary, exciting, dramatic, and often heart-rending experiences of grade school are a critical time in a child's life, with emotional milestones every bit as important as those of the first few years. Yet expert advice to parents usually stops short at the kindergarten door. Now, for the first time, Stanley Greenspan, M.D., one of this country's preeminent child development authorities, offers a "road map" to the stages of normal emotional development during the years from five to twelve. At first, still sheltered in the family, children are full of expansive and grand fantasies as well as fears: "the world is my oyster." Harsh "playground politics" change all this; buffeted by rivalries, pecking orders, triumphs, and rejections, children measure themselves in relation to classmates and peers. Then, between about ten and twelve, children begin to discover an inner center of gravity, an independent self-image that will be vital - and tested again - in adolescence. All these accomplishments, these expectations, this turmoil, of course, are brought home. With vivid stories and deep understanding, Dr. Greenspan helps parents deal with the typical issues that arise: aggression, rivalry, vulnerable self-esteem, late-blooming talents, learning difficulties, problems with reality and fantasy, and early sexuality. He offers the priceless skills and insight needed not only to keep on course, but to enjoy and marvel at these years of amazing inner growth.