David Elkind
Encyclopedia
Professor David Elkind is an American child psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

 and author. His groundbreaking books — The Hurried Child,http://www.justaskbaby.com/elkind/books The Power of Playhttp://www.justaskbaby.com/elkind/books and Miseducationhttp://www.justaskbaby.com/elkind/books — informed early childhood education professionals of the possible dangers of "pushing down" the elementary curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

 into the very early years of a child's life. By doing so, he argued, teachers and parents alike could lapse into developmentally inappropriate instructional and learning practices that may distort the smooth development of learning. He is associated with the belief of decline of social markers.

Professional positions

David Elkind is chief scientific advisor to “Just Ask Baby” and professor emeritus of Child Development at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

 in Medford, Massachusetts
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...

. He was formerly professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Education at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...

.

Elkind obtained his doctorate at UCLA and then spent a year as David Rapaport's research assistant at the Austen Riggs Center
Austen Riggs Center
The Austen Riggs Center is a psychiatric treatment facility founded in 1913 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.-Founding – 1946:A New York City internist who repaired to the bucolic countryside of Stockbridge while suffering from tuberculosis, Austen Fox Riggs developed an innovative treatment regimen...

 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1964–65 he was a National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

 Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at Piaget's Institut d'Epistemologie Genetique in Geneva. His research has been in the areas of perceptual, cognitive and social development where he has attempted to build upon the research and theory of Jean Piaget.

Elkind is a member of some 10 professional organizations, is on the editorial board of numerous scientific journals, and is a consultant to state education departments as well as to government agencies and private foundations. He lectures extensively in the United States, Canada and abroad. He has appeared on The Today Show
The Today Show
Today is an iconic American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series...

, The CBS Morning News, Twenty/Twenty, Nightline, Donahue, and the Oprah Winfrey Show. He has been profiled in People and Boston Magazine. Elkind co-hosted the Lifetime television series, Kids These Days. He is past president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, policy makers, and advocates...

.

Publications

Professor Elkind's bibliography now numbers close to 500 items and includes research, theoretical articles, book chapters and eighteen books. In addition he has published more popular pieces such as children's stories in Jack and Jill, biographies of famous psychologists in the New York Times Magazine, as well as presentations of his own work in Good Housekeeping, Parade and Psychology Today. Some of his recent articles include "Computers and Young Children," "The Authority of the Brain," "The Cosmopolitan School," "On Becoming a Grandfather," and "Thanks for the Memory: The Lasting Value of True Play."

Perhaps Elkind is best known for his popular books, The Hurried Child, The Power of Play, All Grown Up and No Place to Go, and Miseducation. Grandparenting: Understanding Today's Children was published in November 1989. Parenting Your Teenager and three additional books, Images of the Young Child; Understanding Your Child and a third edition of A Sympathetic Understanding of the Child: Birth to Sixteen appeared in 1993. Ties That Stress: The New Family Imbalance was published in 1994. A second edition of All Grown Up and No Place to Go and Reinventing Childhood: Raising and Educating Children in a Changing World appeared in 1998. A third edition of The Hurried Child came out 2001 and the 25th anniversary edition was published in 2007 along with his newest book The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally.

Elkind writes a regular blog where he shares his experiences, opinions and insights on children’s perceptual, cognitive and social development. He was a contributing editor to Parents Magazine.

Personal

Elkind is married to Debbie Elkind, lives in Cape Cod, and has three sons and four grandchildren. Elkind enjoys sailing and gardening and has recently taken up pottery.

External links

  • http://www.justaskbaby.com/chief-scientific-advisor
  • http://ase.tufts.edu/faculty-guide/faculty.asp?id=delkind a profile of Elkind
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