What's Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

Any visit to a bookstore and you can see for yourself that the baby book industry is alive and well. I have borrowed several of the more popular child development titles and spent many hours pouring through the pages in search of tidbits to help my child grow. Again and again these popular titles disappoint: either they are filled with out-of-date information, speculation, and rumor or they insult the reader's intelligence with oversimplification and lack of evidence. Lise Eliot's book, "What's Going on in There?" does _not_ disappoint. It is a factual and engrossing look at what modern science knows (and doesn't know) about child development. The author provides an overview of research across all the major areas of development (sensory, motor, emotional, memory, etc.) outlining how the brain is developing at various stages and what corresponding behaviors you will likely see in your child. Also covered is how parents can use the results of research to enhance and encourage their child's growth. Some of these things are very simple yet provide significant developmental advantages. For example, page 155 describes a vestibular stimulation study where spinning young infants in a swivel chair resulted in motor development advances. The information in the book about child emotional and social growth is particularly compelling. I think almost any parent reading that section couldn't help but pause and consider how their own interactions with their children are shaping their little minds. The information in those sections really made me reconsider how I was going to approach the job of being a parent. I particularly appreciated that the author takes time to delve deeper into studies to give the reader an understanding of the context and meanings of the results. This is particularly important for some of the socioeconomic studies where, at first blush, it appears that moneyed parents have smarter children. In conclusion, Lise Eliot does a great service to those parents wanting a sound and rational guide to understanding their child's development. Readable, interesting, with 458 endnotes. Highly recommended. PS - It appears Bantam fixed the binding issue. I have a copy from the 8th printing and there are no problems with the binding.

I've browsed through other parenting books written by "parenting experts", but a quick glance always let me know that their claims were dubious and didn't pertain to all the different kinds of children out there. This book does not try to tell you how to act as a parent, instead it tells you what is physiologically going on inside their bodies and brains so that you can figure it out for yourself.For example, when my son was around 1 1/2 I recognized that he was going through a verbal growth phenomenon (that every child experiences) refered to as "fast mapping" in the book. Children at this age have the most extraordinary ability to understand new words through context at a mind boggling rate. The author described it as something that no supercomputer array in the world is able to do as fast as a toddler. Since his brain might never again be that willing to absorb new data I decided to try to teach him as much as I could easily. He became potty trained at 18 mo. By 21 mo. he was able to recognize the uppercase and lowercase alphabet. By 27 mo he knew all the states, capitals, planets, and many dinosaurs and presidents. His learning frenzy slowed down by the time he was 2 1/2, but now at almost 3 1/2 he does have the ability to read at a 1st grade level.But it's not just in academic areas that this book is beneficial. It also imparts the research done in behavioral areas. I learned how beneficial constant interaction and affection has on children's behavior, and so adopted that approach. It also gave examples about the benefit of positive reinforcement, consistant discipline, and logical consequences. We have found these preemptive actions on our part has led to a relatively easy introduction into parenting. Basically, because we know "what's going on in there", we know what to do to get the results we want to get.Although I bought this book when my son was a few months old, I now give it to my pregnant friends because of it's clear-cut pregnancy advice, supported by research rather than word of mouth. It outlines all the environmental and even psychological factors that can have a tangible effect on your child. For example, most concerned pregnant moms give up caffeine to prevent birth defects. But when this claim is subject to the scientific method, even copious amounts of caffeine have no effect on the babies. But research does indicate that the mother's stress level does have at least a short term impact on the baby's brain. So in that way the book directs you to put your focus more on your psychological well being than on avoiding Diet Coke.Overall, a tremendous resource.

In this book, Lise Eliot goes in depth discussing current scientific knowledge about infant and early childhood brain development. I found this book very interesting to read. I would recommend this book who is interested or is researching/studying child development or how a child's brain and mind develops in the 1st five years. The book is very well written and quite easy to read. There were some medical terminology I didn't understand so I look it up in a medical book. Some of the many things discussed in this book are:How the brain is developedPrenatal risk factorsThe special benefits of breast milk for brain developmentWhat newborns can hearInfant walkers don't help infants walkHow to encourage a baby's motor developmentStress, attachment, and brain developmentHow the brain store memories?Language in the 1st eighteen monthsThe role of genesThe role of environmentThe chapters in the book are: Chapter 1 Nature or Nuture? It's All in the BrainChapter 2 The Basic Biology of Brain DevelopmentChapter 3 Prenatal Influences on the Developing BrainChapter 4 How Birth Affects the BrainChapter 5 The Importance of TouchChapter 6 Why Babies Love to be Bounced: The Precocious Sense of Balance and MotionChapter 7 The Early World of SmellChapter 8 Taste, Milk, and the Orgins of Food PreferenceChapter 9 Wiring Up the Visual BrainChapter 10 How Hearing EvolvesChapter 11 Motor MilestonesChapter 12 Social Emotional GrowthChapter 13 The Emergence of MemoryChapter 14 Language and the Developing BrainChapter 15 How Intelligence Grows in the BrainChapter 16 Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development Chapter 17 How to Raise a Smarter Child

Subtitled 'How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life' and written by a neuroscientist mother of three, this book benefits as much from its organization as the material it presents. Research, supplemented with anecdotes, is divided into chapters based on sense or function and then detailed chronologically within each section. Chapters include: The Basic Biology of Brain Development; How Birth Affects the Brain; The Importance of Touch; The Early World of Smell; Taste, Milk, and the Origins of Food Preference; Wiring Up the Visual Brain; How Hearing Evolves; Motor Milestones; Social-Emotional Growth; The Experience of Memory; Language and the Developing Brain; How Intelligence Grows in the Brain; Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development; How to Raise a Smarter Child.This is one of those books you should write in -- underline, highlight, take notes -- because if you are indeed interested in using this information to understand your child's progressive developmental changes, you will be referring to it often. The author presents a lot of research material in accessible language and style, but the book is dense and is not a day-to-day how-to guide. You will not read about colic or how to tell a cold from the flu, but you will learn why your four-month old prefers a little salt in her mashed potatoes or why most of us can't recall anything that happened before we were three-and-a-half years old. Because there is a lot of information, this is not one of the easiest books you will ever read, but it is eminently worthwhile. The author not only synopsizes a lot of research for us, but also defines the limits of research and/or those issues which are still under debate or not yet fully understood, and discusses the evolutionary implications of various developmental changes.A Notes section details sources so you can follow up in areas in which you're particularly interested. (With 458 Notes, I'm not sure why one reviewer criticized the book for lack of documentation.) A thorough index. This book seems to benefit as much from good editing as exemplary authorship.

Dr. Eliot has taken what is arguably the most fascinating topic facing science, the working of the human brain and mind, and recast it in gripping, accessible terms. It is a formidable achievement. She presents the scientific side of her story with grace and ease, leavening the sometimes heavy vocabulary of neuroanatomy with anecdotes of her own and other people's parenting experience. The theme of the book is established early and elaborated as she explores the development of each of the senses and systems of the brain: human intelligence is the result of the interaction between a child's brain and her environment. Although the child at birth is already capable of amazing feats, from face recognition to simple arithmetic (and the experiments used to study these feats are dazzlingly clever), the child is mostly ready to learn. The learning process actually changes the physical brain, giving the child the powers that we consider human: from sight and taste through emotion and language. The book presents all this information and throws in plenty of useful, practical advice on how to parent your children and what impact you can realistically expect to have on your child.