What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life
Book Review: Explains the whys as well as the whats
Summary: 5 Stars
As new parents, my wife and I have read a great number of the parental-help books out there: books on pregnancy, books on childbirth, books on basic baby care, books on baby sleep, and books on childhood development. Of all of the books we've read, this is the one that I most recommend for its informational value and general objectivity.
One of the vexing things about being a new parent is that no suggestion for parenting one child translates exactly into good advice for parenting another. Every child is different; thus, books' suggestions may or may not be applicable in your particular case.
This book avoids that problem by presenting a lot of the hard information about various aspects of childhood brain development: pre-natal development, the birth experience, the development of the senses of touch, of balance, of sight, of sound; also, of higher intelligence and emotional development.
The book never tells you "you should do such-and-such"; rather, it presents the medical information and trends, and thus presents parents with the information they need to interpret their own child's behavior and to make choices appropriate to that behavior.
This book spends a fair amount of time and space on the physical details of brain maturation. I found this very useful, as the lessons that flow from this are thus not presented in a vacuum.
Although the material in this book is substantive and somewhat dense, it is engagingly written throughout. It's meatier than most of the books out there, but it's still a lot more readable than a basic medical text. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Finally an excellent, informative book that I can recommend!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a longtime user of Amazon, and I haven't commented on a book, until I read this. I read so many child development books, what to expect when you're expecting, etc. I think this book should be a best seller, and is the best one out of the whole bunch. It explains inportant things for you to do to create the best environment for your child inside and outside the womb, like WHY you should drink orange juice fortified with Folic Acid (for the brain and spinal cord development of a fetus)and especially after the 8th day of conception when the spine begins to close; why babies love to be rocked, spinned, jiggled, and how this stimulates their cognitive abilites, how stress truly affects the fetus (because of the chemicals a mother gives off and passes to her baby). Fascinating facts and research make this such an easy read. I received horrible grades in the sciences, both in high school and college, but this book isn't difficult at all! I've bought this for my sisters, and am buying this today as a baby gift for a friend. I have finally found a gift that mothers-to-be wont have, but will be glad to have once they get it. Of course, if you're not a reader, this book might not appeal to you. But since you're on amazon reading reviews, then you'd be a perfect candidate for this book. If you're pregnant this is a must have since it talks about development right from conception. Book Review: Above & Beyond "What to Expect" Books - Must Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love, love, love this book. And I've spent a great deal of my pregnancy reading & re-reading it. My tattered copy is full of highlighted sections that I found especially interesting.
The information in this book goes above & beyond the simplistic "What to Expect" books and gives detailed reasoning for the behaviors of our children.
So necessary, this book should be a "required" read!
Book Review: Good read but not for the casual reader
Summary: 4 Stars
Several of the reviews have discussed the content so I'm only writing about my impression. This is an informative book. I read this when my son was turning one year old, but I wish I had read it before or just shortly after he was born. It would have been fun to track the developmental changes as they occurred. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed it. I did find it somewhat slow and redundant, so plan to plod through it a bit. Also, this is best for someone with either a science background or a strong interest in science. If you aren't knowledgable about biology and/of basic physiology then you won't enjoy this book. My mother wouldn't have made it through the first chapter.Book Review: how you can increase your kid's IQ easily
Summary: 5 Stars
I would like to concentrate my review on Chapter 14--language and the developing brain. Dr. Lise Eliot, a mother and an excellent writer, have shown me the following important issues on learning a language of a child:
1. Every child learns a language well without any training.
2. Grammar is what vital for language comprehension, both child and adult.
3. To learn a language is to immerse and practice in that language to improve both vocabulary and grammar.
4.The exact neural learning map of the brain is complicated and incompletely understood.
5.The critical period for language experience, ie the easiest time for a person to learn a language is up to 7 years old.
6. To learn a second language well you should start as early as possible.
7. Our brain is designed to learn a language at an early age.
8.Foreign accents are inevitable if you learn a second language past age 7.
9.Babbling is important first step of language learning.
10.Children learn grammar by trial and error but also a intuititive understanding of the rules.
11.All children learn language in a very predicable way due our brain devlopment.
12.A parent can help to improve the speed of language learning by amount of partent's talking--ie it is better for you to talk with children as much as possible.
13.William Fowler has developed a PROVEN method of accelerated method of language learning for children and maintaininng their veral skill advantage througout life.
14. Most of what IQ measures is verbal skill.
15. Negative feedbacks are very harmful for a child's learning of language.
16.Correcting incorrect grammar of a child is counterproductive.
17.Reading books with a child greatly enhances their verbal ability.
18.Asking feedback after you read to your children Greatly improves their language ability.
19.Language enrichment should start as early as possible and continue to preschool years.
All the above important tips I have discovered in just one chapter alone.
(The other 16 chapters are also very informative and helpful.)
This book should be a must-read for any parent who cares about his/her child's brain development and how to raise a smart kid.