Style and terminology...

[alexpgp]

I am translating a rather longish article from Russian into English, on child development, and am curious as to what a good approach might be to avoiding sexist language when speaking of "the child." For example in the following sentence, which parenthetical choice (or what formulation that I've missed) is best?
The child's own activity is

Comments

[caerbannogbunny]

For some reason, my initial comment gave me a message it was marked as spam. The following is the same comment with the web links "disabled" by spacing:

If it's Psychology in English, one resource (on the American side of the fence) is the American Psychology Association's Manual of Style.

www.(removespace)apastyle.(removespace)org

This book--available in hard copy and possibly as an e-book--has guidance on both format for things like references and guides for selecting style choices regarding sex/gender/etc.

If your target audience is on the British side of the fence, consider this manual:

www.(removespace)bps.org.(removespace)uk/sites/default/files/images/bps_style_guide.(removespace)pdf

Both have chapters on selecting (hopefully) non-offensive terms as well as guidance on formats and even spelling in some cases.

Good luck!

[alexpgp]

Thanks for the, um, links! :^)

[caerbannogbunny]

Your welcome?

Why re-invent the wheel when someone's already given you the design schematics for one, eh?

[st_martin_a]

If you're after a quick response on this specific sentence "The child's own activity is determined by (the child's|his or her|its) interaction with adults" you could put, "The child's own activity is determined by their interaction with adults". 'Their' applies to any sex.
As far as a 'child's knowledge' you could use 'growing knowledge'. 'Growing' meaning developing??
Hope I've been some help.