This book wouldn’t have happened at all without other people.
Without being asked to write such a book by Jo Mackay I wouldn’t have thought to try.
Without my mother – a very experienced occupational therapist who can usually answer the curliest questions from parents – I’d never have had the nerve to take up the opportunity.
Without the encouragement of Associate Professor Ivan Lin at the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health I’d not have had the confidence to undertake the research required.
Without my husband, Martin, my mum and dad and my three sons helping with such things as meals, housework and running the schoolroom, and their willingness to discuss child development at length and their faith that this book will be helpful to other people – I’d have given it away half a dozen times.
This book is a synthesis not just of the research but of other people’s experience. I’ve talked to many people over the years about multiple generations in their families; to many clinicians, teachers and parents about children and, of course, to children themselves. The following people have challenged and shaped my ideas and, while I’m sure they don’t all entirely agree with me, I’d like to thank them very much.
The parents, grandparents and child development aficionados: Stephanie and Bradley Degens, Megan Jackson and Adrian Cutler, Sally Mather, Kathryn Bryson, Lisa Crake, Bevan and Noelene Turner (who made me wonder about the real story of the human heart), Jenny and Greg Watters, David and Ann Anderson, Chandra Ridley, David and Tracy Bent (for giving me a practical perspective on childcare), Bernard and Di Bent (specially for her insights into boys), Greg and Cindy Payne, Caroline and Simon Thomas, Mark and Carolyn Halleen, Rebecca Handcock and Michael O’Brien, Fe Waters and Shay Telfer, Quentin and Shelly Fowler, Emma and Rossco Foulkes-Taylor, Sue Wilding, Jo Johnson, Rob and Ros Gillam, Daniel Oi, Bridget Cameron, Emma Hawkes, Kate and Bill Moses, Elaine Sharplin, Robin and Alec Edgar, Kathy and David Lovelock, Christine and Christopher Gillam, Philippa and John Bostock, Mia Bostock, Darren Longbottom and Frances Brigg, Anna Hepburn and Art Diggle, Minnie and Nick Sabatino, David Chandler and Lara Hopkins, Christina Orow, Elizabeth Bowyer, Stuart Hill, Tanya Brown, Penny Johns, Rosie O’Connor, Maria and Geoff Pocock, Tracie Blair, Annette Prendergast, Sharon and Glen Grey, Sheryl Major, Ernie Stringer and Rosalie Dwyer, Penny and David Giorgi, Katie and Peter Jeffries, Lian and Patrick Walsh, Nita Human, Des and Phyllis Thompson, Tanya Lupton, Gina Goddard and Terry Chilvers, Merete Osborne and Paul Talbot, Kerry and George Hamilton, Jenny and Andrew Bailey, Sarah Xu, Margaret Watts, Sandra Norman and Deborah Costello, Sue Hamilton, Gladys King, Dave Cake and Karen McKenna, Elizabeth Jackson and Lynette Gillam.
The colleagues: Glenda Pitman, Helen Webb, Brendin Flanigan, Amanda Jackson, Margaret Oakley, Alma Dender (for helping me place sensory-motor theory within an attachment framework), Cathie Gillzan, Tania Wiley, Gary Davies, Meg Roche, Steph Bateman-Graham, Debbie Dowden, Sharyn May, Florence Robinson, Rebekka Sinclair, Karren Wood, John McCloy, Jim Peletier, Mike Henderson, Annette Evans, Ann Larson, Ariane Van Der Peyl, Marg Dines, Sue Van Uden, Phillip Gardiner, Karen Morissey, June Doyle, Mary Ash, Lyndy Richmond, Judy Young, Clive Reardon, Mandy Mitchell, Melinda Croke, Rebecca Smythe, Libby Lodge, Davina Fraser, Dorothy Stephens, Winsome Richards and Marissa Don.
The Combined University Centre for Rural Health, the Health Department of WA Library and the Education Department of Western Australia between them gave me access to books and journals from around the world. The In-Home Care Scheme has meant that the family business could afford for me to write this book: thank you Frontier Services, Ranitha Rachindar and Lesley de Grussa-Macaulay.
Thank you too to all my editors and readers for their detailed critiques, patience and intuitively-timed encouragement – Jo Mackay most of all, but also Ali Lavau, Megan Jackson, Tom Jackson, Glenda Downing, Jessica Dettmann and Catherine Page. Jessica, Catherine and indexer Susie Easton are all pregnant as I write – very serendipitous as knowing your own baby is coming makes child development fascinating – and they have brought an extraordinary degree of care and attention to getting this book right. The wonderful cover and book design are by Jane Waterhouse.
Finally, the practical wisdom of this book is due mostly to my mother Barbara – any mistakes are mine.