Child Development Faculty
Barbara Schecter
Director, Graduate Program in Child Development/Psychology; Roy E. Larsen Chair in Psychology
Courses: Theories of Development
Program in Child Development/Psychology B.A., Sarah Lawrence College. M.A., Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University. Developmental psychologist with special interest in cultural psychology, developmental theories, and language and development; author and researcher on cultural issues in development and metaphoric thinking in children. SLC, 1985-
Carl Barenboim
Courses: Social Development, Bullies and Their Victims: Social and Physical Aggression in Childhood and Adolescence
B.A., Clark University. Ph.D., University of Rochester. Special interest in the child’s developing ability to reason about the social world, as well as the relation between children’s social thinking and social behavior; articles and chapters on children’s perspective-taking, person perception, interpersonal problem-solving, and the ability to infer carelessness in others; past member, Board of Consulting Editors, Developmental Psychology; principal investigator, grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. SLC, 1988-
Charlotte L. Doyle
Courses: Children’s Literature: Developmental and Literary Perspectives
B.A., Temple University. M.A., Ph.D., University of Michigan. A generalist in psychology with special interests in the creative process, psychological theory, and children’s literature. Written articles on the creative process in art, the fiction writing episode, facilitating creativity in children, and the definition of psychology. Books include Explorations in Psychology (a textbook) and seven picture books for children: Hello Baby, Freddie’s Spaghetti, Where’s Bunny’s Mommy?, You Can’t Catch Me, Twins!, Supermarket!, and The Bouncing Dancing Galloping ABC. SLC, 1966-
Jan Drucker
Director, Child Development Institute's Empowering Teachers Program
Courses: Personality Development, Pathways of Development: Psychopathology and Other Challenges to the Developmental Process
B.A., Radcliffe College. Ph.D., New York University. Clinical and developmental psychologist with teaching and research interests in the areas of developmental and educational theory; child development; parent guidance; clinical assessment and therapy with children and adolescents; and the development of imaginative play and other symbolic processes in early childhood and their impact on later development. Professional writings have centered on various forms of early symbolization in development and in clinical work with children. SLC, 1972-
Kim Ferguson
Courses: Cognition, Language, and Consciousness: An Introduction to Developmental Cognitive Science
B.A., Knox College. M.A., Ph.D., Cornell University. Special interests include cultural-ecological approaches to infant and child development; children at risk (children in poverty, HIV/AIDS orphans, children in foster care and institutionalized care); health and cognitive development; and development in African contexts. Areas of academic specialization include infant categorization development and the influences of the task, the stimuli used, and infants’ culture, language, and socioeconomic status on their performance; infant face processing in African and American contexts; and relationships between the quality of southern African orphan care contexts and child outcomes. SLC, 2007-
Elizabeth Johnston
Courses: Art and Visual Perception
M.A., St. Andrew’s University, Scotland. D.Phil., Oxford University. Special interests in human perception of three-dimensional shape, binocular vision, and the perception of depth from motion; author of articles and book chapters on shape perception from stereopsis, sensorimotor integration, and combining depth information from different sources. SLC, 1992-
Linwood J. Lewis
on leave Spring Semester
Courses: Intersections of Identity and Context: Race and Sexuality
B.A., Manhattanville College. M.A., Ph.D., City University of New York. M.S., Columbia University. Special interests in the effects of culture and social context on conceptualization of health and illness, multicultural aspects of genetic counseling, the negotiation of HIV within families, and the development of sexuality in ethnic minority adolescents and adults. Recipient of a MacArthur Postdoctoral fellowship and an NIH-NRSA research fellowship. SLC, 1997-
Sara Wilford
Director, Art of Teaching Graduate Program
Courses: Children’s Literature: Developmental and Literary Perspectives
Graduate Program/Psychology B.A., Sarah Lawrence College. M.S.Ed., Ed.M., Bank Street College of Education. Former early childhood and public elementary schoolteacher; keynote speaker and workshop leader for seminars and conferences on early childhood education; member, editorial advisory board, Child magazine; contributor to Scholastic, Inc. publications; author, Tough Topics: How to Use Books in Talking with Children About Life Issues and Problems and What You Need to Know When Your Child Is Learning to Read. Holder of the Roy E. Larsen Chair in Psychology (2001-2006). SLC, 1982-