Product Description

How is a two-year-old's capacity for experiencing emotion different from a five-year-old's? What can and should you do to encourage your child's development of motor skills? Can you stimulate your baby to be smarter? How should you help your child differentiate between right and wrong? The Yale Child Study Center, founded in 1911, is world renowned not only for its contributions to the scientific and clinical understanding of infant and child development but also for bringing the insights of its cutting-edge research directly to parents. The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child is a book that empowers parents to build healthy families in their own way, finding their own style. The authors map out how children develop and what parents do -- often in the most basic of their daily interactions with their children -- to enhance their children's growth. They consider both the child's and the parents' perspectives as they address an extraordinary array of issues and topics, from choosing child care to balancing family and work responsibilities, from coping with bullies to talking with your child about significant life passages such as new siblings, divorce, and death. Unrivaled in its scope and authority, this practical, comforting, easy-to-use guide is steeped in the common sense and compassion that are the hallmarks of the Yale Child Study Center. It is destined to become the standard by which all other books on child development are measured.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480364 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-25
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.50" w x 7.50" l, 1.86 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Arranged by topics like early baby functions, emotional growth, learning right from wrong, and sexuality and gender, this encyclopedic guide explains all facets of children's psychological and physical growth and advises parents on how best to stimulate development and resolve common dilemmas. The authors, professors of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the Yale Child Study Center, write in reassuring language. "If you are listening to Mozart," they explain, "by all means play Mozart as you rock your infant. But if you prefer to sing along with Ray Charles, there's no need to choose Mozart instead. The games, books, and other products that keep you and your child interested are more useful than those `recommend by experts' for children in general." Perhaps the most helpful sections of the book are those focused on school. Parents will find information on diagnosing learning disabilities, finding special schools, encouraging reading, and coping with school-related behavior problems. Some parents accustomed to slim, trendy tomes may initially find this hefty volume intimidating, but it deserves a place on the parenting shelf in every household.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Although this survey of child development and parenthood packs considerable wisdom and bears a prestigious imprimatur, it comes off as fairly generic. With its emphasis on a conceptual, developmental approach, it stands out in strong intellectual counterpoint to the quick how-to tactics of many contemporary titles, such as Sally Ward's BabyTalk: Strengthen Your Child's Ability To Listen, Understand and Communicate (LJ 3/15/01). Mayes, director of early childhood programs at the Yale Child Study Center, and Cohen, its former director, cover individual topics in 36 chapters (e.g., "Your Baby's Motor Development," "Sexuality and Gender," "The Course of Pregnancy"). Though this comprehensiveness is a plus, much of the advice is common sense ("negative experiences or the absence of appropriate care may cause serious, enduring harm to early brain development"). As admirable as the authors' goals are, it is hard to imagine public library patrons reading and retaining this much general information. For larger public libraries. (Index not seen.) Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This particular guide brings an esteemed name and 90 years of research at the Yale Center to the task of advising parents on raising their children. Aimed at parents, teachers, and child-care professionals, the book uses research from several disciplines and interactions with parents and children. The book offers three perspectives: the scientific, with basic information about meeting a growing child's needs; the emotional, with attention to understanding a child's feelings; and the parental, with emphasis on the feelings and expectations the parent brings to the relationship: "Your view of yourself as a parent and your mental portrait of your child shape your parenting style." The objective is to help parents balance the three perspectives. Unlike most parenting books, this guide looks at broad developmental paths from the time the parent first begins to imagine the child to come, through pregnancy, birth, and various physical, cognitive, social, and emotional stages. This approach lends the guide a broad and deep perspective on parenting even as it covers typical issues such as imaginary friends and sibling rivalry. REVWR
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