Perseverance and Joy: Advancing the Lives of Children

Abstract

This chapter presents some of the professional development, growth, and professional life of Barbara Mowder. For more than 40 years, Mowder has been a school psychologist, primarily training professionals to assume careers in school and clinical child psychology, but also writing, doing research, and speaking on issues related to school psychological services. She began her career in the days when school psychology was primarily a K–12 endeavor, and there was no free, appropriate, education offered to all children. She has helped to expand the field to include early childhood and infant psychology, as well as emphasize the importance of working with parents. The arc of her career in some ways follows the arc of school psychology in the sense of contributing to the training of school psychologists, as well as the written literature in the field. She wrote, with others, the first federal training grant to train school psychologists in the needs of young children and, in addition, the first book to include school psychological services in meeting the needs of young children and their families. She founded a professional association as well as a journal devoted to addressing the needs of infants, young children, and their families. Most recently, her professional contributions center on parents, parenting, and parent growth and development. Her Parent Development Theory (PDT), Parent Behavior Importance Questionnaire–Third Edition (PBIQ–3), and Working With Parents Manual (WWPM) will likely benefit parents in the important role they play in children’s development, as well as those professionals who work with parents.