Summary on books for the lay person on child development

Thu Jul 31 02:32:34 UTC 2003

"Baby It's You" is out of print and was just by me - the two popular
books seemed to be confounded in the para below.  "Everything your
baby would ask if only he/she could talk" by Kyra Karmiloff and AK-S
has just been reprinted by Carroll & Brown, London.
Annette

.At 11:28 +0100 31/7/03, Alcock, Katie wrote:
>I forgot to summarise this discussion like I promised.  It was
>interesting for sociological reasons as well as in finding books.
>
>Six authors recommended their own books.  Some of the books
>recommended (not all by their own authors) were a little tangential
>to my/my brother's interests (psychoanalytic, primarily about
>pregnancy, about raising older children).  However many books were
>also recommended by people who did NOT write them... here are the
>books recommended with comments, and numbers of votes.
>
>May I highly recommend (despite the title) The Scientist in
>the Crib, by Gopnik, Meltzoff and Kuhl? The authors' delight
>in children illuminates a beautifully and humanely written
>survey of contemporary research on how children come to know
>about other people, about language and about the physical
>world. 3 votes for this book - none from the authors!
>
>baby steps, 2003 owl,holt - Claire B Kopp - no more details given
>
>Lise Eliot's book:
>"What's going on in there?  How the brain and mind develop in the first
>five years of life" (1999).
>New York: Bantam.
>Although obviously aimed at interested parents, there was plenty in
>there that was new for me too.
>
>Annette Karmiloff-Smith and her daughter have a best-seller called "Baby
>It's You", great stuff for the lay person.
>(Note from me: I use the video of this with my undergraduate classes
>especially for the language/communication examples e.g.
>over/underextension, joint reference, echolalia). 2 votes for this -
>neither from the author - but it may be out of print
>
>Annette Karmiloff Smith's book (which appears to have a nicer cover
>in the US) "What your baby would ask..."   "Some Amazon.com readers
>apparently think it's too "English" but that may be better than
>being too American!" As a new mom, I appreciated the format of
>Annette's book, which was short chapters and easy to read. 3 votes
>
>Recommended along with: Hirsh-Pasek/Golinkoff book "How Babies
>Talk.."  "They're different in their own ways -- the Karmiloff-Smith
>book is a bit more general (motor, language, cognitive and social
>development all covered), where as the Golinkoff/Hirsh-Pasek book is
>more detailed, but great. I recommend that book all the time, and
>people seem to like it." 2 votes
>
>Lise Eliot's "Early Intelligence"; Penguin Books,
>1999.
>Gary Marcus, The Birth of the Mind (Basic Books, January 2004),
>
>'Touchpoints' by Berry Brazelton
>
>Introduction to Infant Development,
>edited by Alan Slater and Michael Lewis, Oxford University
>Press, 2002.
>
>Selma Freiberg's 'The Magic
>Years' but it's psychoanalytic in it's theoretical
>underpinnings (although it doesn't read so that the
>lay person would even notice) and so I don't know if
>that's everyone's cup of tea. It covers childhood
>anxieties and problems from 0-5.
>
>Kenn Apel and Julie Masterson,  Beyond Baby Talk: From Sounds to
>Sentences, A Parent's Complete Guide to Language Development. It's
>published by Prima (2001)
>
>Happy Children by Rudolf Dreikurs, an Adlarian psychologist. There
>are newer versions of the book, not as good as the old one, which I
>buy all young parents in the my family: Happy Children: Challenge
>for Parents, by Rudolf Dreikurs and Vicki Soltz, and, The Challenge
>of Parenthood by Rudolf Dreikurs. Neither book is really about child
>development but about rearing them.
>
>The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pregnancy and Baby's First Year.
>This one has fantastic information about pregnancy, labor, and
>delivery, but the second half of the book on the first year is also
>wonderful. It tells you what to expect, developmentally each month,
>when to see the doctor, and presents both views on things like the
>"Mozart Effect", and co-sleeping.
>
>"Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child" from
>John Gottman for parents of children two years and up. The book draws
>on Gottman's developmental work on children's friendships and peer
>relationships and his clinical work with married and partnered adults.
>The self-help style of the book can be a bit off-putting, but the
>advice on teaching children how to handle emotions and negotiate social
>relationships is terrific.
>
>Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's "Mother Nature," as a present
>to scientifically-minded friends expecting a baby. Hrdy tells the
>biological and anthropological story of mothers, focussing on humans
>and non-human primates. It is more about mothers and fathers than about
>infants, but it is a great read for anyone who wants to have a think
>about the investment of parenting.
>
>Conclusions?
>
>Since I really want something less on parenting and not
>psychoanalytic, I think they'll be getting one undergraduate
>textbook (maybe this Slater book or the Blackwell Reader - if my
>undergraduates can cope with it, so can my brother) and one or more
>of the Karmiloff-Smith, Gopnik et al., or Golinkoff.  Probably not
>just the Golinkoff as they will want something general as well as
>something on language (although language development is, of course,
>the most important part!)
>
>Katie Alcock
>
>
>Katie Alcock, DPhil
>Lecturer
>Department of Psychology
>City University
>Northampton Square
>London EC1V 0HB
>Phone (+44) (0)20 7040 0167
>Fax (+44) (0)20 7040 8581
>Web
><http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/k.j.alcock>http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/k.j.alcock
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