Discourses of the child: Textbook representations, childcare advice, the schooled child and the celebrity child of humanitarian aid

Discourses of childhood are central to the ways we structure our own and others’ sense of place and position. They are part of the cultural narratives that define who we are, why we are the way we are and where we are going. This chapter addresses the range of ways childhood is depicted, the extent to which developmental psychological accounts reflect these representations, the consequences of this for the adequacy of current forms and functions of developmental psychology, and the social policy and professional practices it informs.