Educational Media Reviews Online

Growing Minds, written and narrated by Dr. David Elkind, explores the concept of cognitive development that takes place in children during the first five years of life. The program begins by introducing the theorists', Piaget, Vygotsky, Freud, and Erikson, four major viewpoints on early cognitive development. Elkind then narrows the discussion to encompass two of the theorists and their views - Vygotsky and Piaget.

The role of the environment, whether it be passive (Piaget) or active ( Vygotsky), is explained in detail along with the directions of development (from egocentric to social (Piaget) vs. from social to egocentric (Vygotsky)). Also, elaborated in this program are the ways children (and pertaining to deductive reasoning - adults) reason; deductive and transductive reasoning, and magical thinking.

Throughout the program, the specific stages of development, acquired cognitive skills, and employed reasoning, are demonstrated through 'staged' testing of children or through observations of their play activity. Dr. Elkind captures his audience and retains their attention through use of these excellent and well defined examples. His narrative is very clear, definitive, and to the point. The children being tested or observed are very expressive and visual. Their responses to questions and situations slant on the comical side at times, lightening the otherwise serious nature of the program's subject matter.

The quality of this well written and produced program clearly illustrates an understanding as to how presentation is extremely important in educating the viewing audience. Growing Minds would accentuate an academic library's collection supporting programs in the fields of early childhood education and/or psychology. This program comes highly recommended.