GESELL, Arnold

Pioneer in study of infant and child development, principally Yale based. His longitudinal metric followings of individual children from earliest years to adolescence are comprehensive in attention to motor skills, reasoning abilities and the structuring of beliefs. They provide the basis for constructing age-related gradients of growth which include all aspects of bodily activity, emotional expression, dream life, relationships, play, educational learning, moral sense and philosophy of life, including God and death. Though reflective of a particular social and cultural context, which qualifies any claim to general normativity, they are still informative. Parenting, adoption procedures and school education have all gained from his work.

 Life

• A brief biography of Gesell

Works

• The First Five years of Life

• Youth: the years from ten to sixteen