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Erica Burman asks in Deconstructing Developmental Psychology, whose development privileged in developmental psychology and other disciplines, and whose development is therefore unaccounted for. Reflecting on Burman's work, particularly on this question, has informed my research and teaching since I first read the book in 1994. In this short commentary, I discuss the impact of Burman's theorising beyond her original focus on the development of young children and their relationships. I focus on how her work has informed research into understandings and representations of children and families who are for some reason considered to be 'different'. I focus on three themes addressed in the book: the production of universal development and the 'normal' child, selective abstraction and the (im)possibility of singularised representations of traumatised children. I consider how Deconstructing Developmental Psychology has relevance to an understanding of children, young people and families' lives and (beyond psychology as a discipline) to examine how dominant ideas of children's development is implicated within national, and international policy and other public arenas that regulate lives of children and families.

This article discusses the representation of abused children as 'damaged', drawing on a series of three advertising campaigns for a British children's charity. The pictures and text of the advertisements seek to elicit readers' concern for abused children by portraying them (a) as passive agents in their development and (b) as signifiers of the dangers of the world and the safeness of the home. The portrayal of abused children in the advertisements serves to reinforce a perception of the vulnerability of all children and the need for adult supervision and 'care'. Without seeking to dismiss the seriousness of abuse or of the work done by children's charities, the article questions the implications of these representations of childhood and 'damage', and argues that the dominant representation of abused children drawn on in such campaigns oversimplifies many complexities in the worlds and the lives of children who have been abused.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- Part I Constructing and deconstructing practice -- 1 Wellbeing and the ecology of children's lives -- 2 Constructions of normative families -- 3 The surveillance of children, young people and families -- 4 Public policy, children and young people -- Part II Co-constructing practice with children, young people and families -- 5 Disabled children, their parents and their experiences with practitioners -- 6 Counselling children: values and practice -- 7 Young people and mental health: resilience and models of practice -- 8 Domestic abuse and safeguarding children -- 9 Sons and daughters of foster carers: invisible, vulnerable or valued? -- 10 The social construction of home and school learning in multicultural communities -- 11 Children's welfare and children's rights -- 12 Between the rocks and hard places: young people negotiating fear and criminalisation -- 13 Constructing practice within the parenting agenda: the case of Sure Start and Parenting Orders -- 14 Forest School -- Index.

Introducing normative and different childhoods, developmental trajectory and transgression / Lindsay O'Dell, Charlotte Brownlow, & Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist -- Deconstructing ?developmental tasks -- Exploring leisure, hobbies and special interests : the constructive role of special interests for children with asd / Georgena Ryder & Charlotte Brownlow -- Beyond boy and girl : gender variance in childhood and adolescence / Katherine Johnson -- Becoming a popular girl : exploring constructions of friendships in teen magazines / Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist & Charlotte Brownlow -- Locating development -- The failed child of the failing mother? : situating the development of child eating practices and the scrutiny of maternal foodwork / Maxine Woolhouse -- Family relationships and troubled masculinities : the experience of young men in contact with social care services / Martin Robb, Brid Featherstone, Sandy Ruxton, & Michael Ward -- Beyond vulnerability : working with children who have experienced domestic violence / Jane Callaghan, Joanne Alexander, & Lisa Fellin -- The limits of childhood -- Independent migrant children, humanitarian work and statecraft : mapping the connections in south africa / Stanford Mahati & Ingrid Palmary -- Working children / Lindsay O?Dell, Sarah Crafter, Guida de Abreu, & Tony Cline -- Parricides, school shootings and child soldiers : constructing criminological phenomena in the context of children who kill / Amanda Holt -- Conclusion: theorising transgressive developmental trajectories and understanding children seen as "different" / Lindsay O'Dell, Charlotte Brownlow, & Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist

"Different Childhoods: Non/Normative Development and Transgressive Trajectories opens up new avenues for exploring children's development as contextual, provisional and locally produced, rather than a unitary, universal and consistent process. This edited collection frames a critical exploration of the trajectory against which children are seen to be 'different' within three key themes: deconstructing 'developmental tasks', locating development and the limits of childhood. Examining the particular kinds of 'transgressive' development, contributors discuss instances of 'difference' including migration, work, assumptions of vulnerability, trans childhoods, friendships and involvement in crime. Including both empirical and theoretical discussions, the book builds on existing debates as part of the interrogation of 'different childhoods'. This book provides essential reading for students wishing to explore notions of development while also being of interest to both academics and practitioners working across a broad area of disciplines such as developmental psychology, sociology, childhood studies and critical criminology."--Provided by publisher.

This article presents findings from an evaluation conducted in 2012, of the advice and advocacy service provided by the charity Family Rights Group for families involved with children's services. It specifically focuses on the experiences of grandparents and explores accounts from grandparents who were either in the process of seeking care of their grandchildren or were already caring for grandchildren but without formal support or recognition. The findings suggest that there is a need to pay greater attention to the fears of such grandparents about children's services in a context where there appears to be a policy preference for adoption. Also evident is a paradox at the heart of contemporary social work practices towards grandparents. While some felt dismissed and marginalized very quickly by social workers and imaginative approaches to care possibilities did not appear to be pursued, others were carrying enormous burdens of care often for very long periods of time without either financial support or legal recognition. To strengthen the care options for children and respect the ethic of care that is clearly to be observed operating in grandparenting practices, it is suggested that a more thorough interrogation of the multiple and often highly contradictory meanings attached to family is required on the part of social workers.

In this article, we explore how interpretation is dealt with by researchers using a vignette methodology. Researchers using vignette methodology often struggle with interpretation: how to interpret the responses when participants shift between discussing the vignettes as themselves, taking the perspective of the character in the vignette and commenting on what 'ought' to happen. We argue that by foregrounding a consideration of the method with an explicitly articulated theoretical position of dialogicality, issues inherent in interpretation become a valuable addition to the research rather than an obstacle to be overcome. In this article, we discuss 'Louise' a young carer, detailing the various positions she takes in her talk about the vignette of Mary, a fictitious young carer, to illustrate how a perspective based in dialogical theory contributed to the analysis of her various moves through different identity positions.

In this paper, we explore young peoples' normative representations of work. In particular, we are interested in the ways young people view work roles which could be considered 'atypical' such as young caring or language brokering. Interviewed were 46 young people (15–18 years) some who did, and some who did not engage in the 'atypical' work roles of language brokering or young caring. Findings indicated that young people have a strong representation of what a 'normal' childhood comprises and that friends, teachers and parents play a mediational role in cementing this contextually. However, respondents presented two alternative representations around engagement in 'atypical' roles, with some individuals holding both views at the same time. On the one hand, they felt that engagement in 'atypical' activities would be experienced as a loss of 'normal' childhood. On the other hand, a more positive representation of 'atypical' childhoods was also drawn on, in which engagement in 'atypical' activities was seen as a source of pride and a contributor of additional skills to a child's development. This opinion was evidenced by both those who had, and those who had not engaged in 'atypical' work.