BOOKS

We would like to provide you with the titles of books that may be of interest to you as parents. If you have read any of these selections or have suggestions of your own for parent reading please write to us at the INFANT LAB with your suggestions and/or comments....

Most all titles can be found at THE BROWN BOOKSTORE.

Please note: We do not necessarily endorse the following publications.

Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, New Edition

by Linda Acredolo , Susan Goodwyn , Douglas Abrams

From Library Journal

After studying baby sign language with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Acredelo (psychology, Univ. of California, Davis) and Goldwyn (psychology, California State Univ., Stanislaus) conclude that babies who are taught to use signs to express basic ideas (e.g., fingers to the lips for eat, fingers raised in a V for bunny) before they can say the words are both happier because they can communicate with others and more adept at speaking once they begin to acquire language. This is not a scholarly exegesis of their findings but a practical, easy-to-use guide to teaching baby signs. The authors begin with an explanation of their findings and then offer a portfolio of suggested signs in which simple pictures are accompanied by description, memory aid, and suggested situations for use. The book has an upbeat, encouraging tone that parents will appreciate. Interestingly, Parenting magazine cited the authors' study in the "News and Reviews" section of the May 1996 issue?but failed to mention this book! For all parenting collections.?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression by Marie Osmond , Marcia Wilkie , Judith Moore

Description:

While the famous Osmond smile beamed for the camera, no one, not even Marie, fully realized the emptiness that loomed behind the smile. Marie is not alone; more than one out of ten new mothers experiences post-partum de-pression (PPD) after childbirth. The mother of seven, Marie became increasingly depressed after the birth of her youngest child. One night, she got in her car, leaving her family and husband, and drove north-with no intention of returning until she felt she had resolved this crisis. After she went public with her own experiences with PPD on Oprah and Larry King Live, the response was overwhelming. Now, Marie shares the fear and darkness of the depression she overcame, and with the doctor who helped her through her ordeal, offers the methods she learned for treating PPD.

Beyond Baby Talk: From Sounds to Sentences, A Parent's Complete Guide to Language Development

by KENN APEL PHD, JULIE MASTERSON PHD

Book Description

From "Goo" to Gab — Guiding Your Child to Effective Communication

The first five years of a child's life are the most critical for speech and language development, and, as a parent, you are your child's primary language role model. So what are the best ways to help your child develop the all-important skill of communication? Fun, easy, and engaging, this book shows you how! Inside, you'll discover all of the essential steps and checkpoints from birth through age five, tips to help your child progress on schedule, and easy methods to:

·Evaluate and monitor your child's language development

·Understand and deal with environmental impacts such as television and cultural styles

·Recognize the signs of language development problems

·And much, much more!

Einstein Never Used Flash Cards : How Our Children Really Learn-- And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less

by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek , Diane Eyer , Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

From Publishers Weekly

Authors and child psychologists Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff and Eyer join together to prove that training preschoolers with flash cards and attempting to hurry intellectual development doesn't pay off. In fact, the authors claim, kids who are pressured early on to join the academic rat race don't fair any better than children who are allowed to take their time. Alarmed by the current trend toward creating baby Einsteins, Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff urge parents to step back and practice the "Three R's: Reflect, Resist, and Recenter." Instead of pushing preschoolers into academically oriented programs that focus on early achievement, they suggest that children learn best through simple playtime, which enhances problem solving skills, attention span, social development and creativity. "Play is to early childhood as gas is to a car," say Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff, explaining that reciting and memorizing will produce "trained seals" rather than creative thinkers. Creativity and independent thinking, they argue, are true 21st-century skills; IQ and other test scores provide a narrow view of intelligence. The authors walk parents through much of the recent research on the way children learn, debunking such myths as the Mozart effect, and pointing out that much learning unravels naturally, programmed through centuries of evolution. Although the research-laden text is sometimes dense, parents will find a valuable message if they stick with the program, ultimately relieving themselves and their offspring of stress and creating a more balanced life.

How Babies Talk: The Magic and Mystery of Language in the First Three Years of Life

by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff Ph.D. , Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Ph.D.

Book Description

” In their first three years of life babies face the most complex learning endeavor they will ever undertake as human beings: They learn to talk. Now, as researchers make new forays into the mystery of the development of the human brain, authors Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, both developmental psychologists and language experts, offer parents a powerfully insightful guidebook to how infants--even while in the womb--begin to learn language. Along the way, the authors provide parents with the latest scientific findings, developmental milestones, and important advice on how to create the most effective learning environments for their children. This book takes readers on a fascinating, vitally important exploration of the dance between nature and nurture, and explains how parents can help their children learn more successfully.”

"This is a great book. It's an important addition to any parent's library." --T. Berry Brazelton

Is It "Just a Phase"? How to Tell Common Childhood Phases from More Serious Problems by SUSAN ANDERSON SWEDO , DR HENRIETTA L. LEONARD

From the Back Cover

"This book will bring comfort to parents who are simply perplexed by their child and helpful strategies for parents confronted with more serious problems."

--Judith Rapoport, M.D., author of The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing

"A must book for parents and anyone who wants to understand children."

--John J. Ratey, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction and Shadow Syndromes

"Parents concerned by the behavior of an overactive, shy, or disobedient child, or troubled by their child's bedwetting or eating problems, can find reassuring, practical advice in this accessible handbook."

-- Publishers Weekly

The Myth of the First Three Years : A New Understanding of Early Brain Development and Lifelong Learning

by John Bruer

Book Description

Most parents today have accepted the message that the first three years of a baby's life determine whether or not the child will grow into a successful, thinking person. But is this powerful warning true? Do all the doors shut if baby's brain doesn't get just the right amount of stimulation during the first three years of life? Have discoveries from the new brain science really proved that parents are wholly responsible for their child's intellectual successes and failures alike? Are parents losing the "brain wars"? No, argues national expert John Bruer. In The Myth of the First Three Years he offers parents new hope by debunking our most popular beliefs about the all-or-nothing effects of early experience on a child's brain and development

The Origins of Grammar: Evidence from Early Language Comprehension (Language, Speech, and Communication)

by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek , Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

Synopsis

” How do children achieve adult grammatical competence? How do they induce syntactical rules from the bewildering linguistic input that surrounds them? The major debates in language acquisition theory today focus not on whether there are some sensitivities to syntactic information but rather which sensitivities are available to children and how they might be translated into the organizing principles that get syntactic learning off the ground. "The Origins of Grammar" presents a synthesis of work done by the authors, who have pioneered one of the most important methodological advances in language learning in the past decade: the intermodal preferential looking paradigm, which can be used to assess lexical and syntactic knowledge in children as young as 13 months. In addition to drawing together their empirical work, the authors use these results to describe a theory of language learning that emphasizes the role of multiple cues and forces in development. They show how infants shift their reliance on different aspects of the linguistic input, moving from a bias to attend to prosodic information to a reliance on semantic information, and finally to a reliance on the syntax itself. Viewing language acquisition as the product of a biased learner who takes advantage of the information available from a variety of sources in his or her environment, "The Origins of Grammar" provides a new way of thinking about the process of language comprehension. The analysis borrows insights from theories about the development of mental models, models of early cognitive development and systems theory, and is presented in a way that should be accessible to cognitive and developmental psychologists. ”

The Scientist in the Crib : What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind

by Alison Gopnik , Andrew N. Meltzoff , Patricia K. Kuhl

Book Description

This exciting book by three pioneers in the new field of cognitive science discusses important discoveries about how much babies and young children know and learn, and how much parents naturally teach them. It argues that evolution designed us both to teach and learn, and that the drive to learn is our most important instinct. It also reveals as fascinating insights about our adult capacities and how even young children -- as well as adults -- use some of the same methods that allow scientists to learn so much about the world. Filled with surprise at every turn, this vivid, lucid, and often funny book gives us a new view of the inner life of children and the mysteries of the mind.

The Secret Language of Children: How to Understand What Your Kids Are Really Saying by Lawrence E. Shapiro , Ph.D.

From Publisher's Weekly

Child psychologist Shapiro (How to Raise a Child with a High EQ), believes that when it comes to communicating with children, words are only part of the answer. Gestures, eye contact, posture, voice tone, inflection and other nonverbal cues make a significant contribution to how effectively messages are expressed and received. Beginning in infancy parents can recognize not only such "macro" signs as facial expression and posture, but also "micro" signs such as the color of a baby's skin when she cries or the way she clenches her fists. Shapiro explores the intuitive, emotional connection between parent and infant and then devotes consecutive chapters to emotions toddlers and older children express through play, stories, dreams and art, offering parents ways to be more expressive with their children, as well as techniques to help children articulate their feelings. Shapiro provides a wealth of unique yet practical exercises, such as "The Family Museum" in which a child draws a room in a museum showing three things that are important in his family (thus revealing his perception of family values), or "The Ignoring Game," designed to help kids ignore teasing. Unfortunately, such obvious advice as "try and locate the cause of the pain" when a baby is crying may cause veteran parents to lose patience, but rookies may appreciate the author's step-by-step approach to a baby's needs. Shapiro includes a comprehensive appendix of fun, innovative activities and communication techniques parents can use at home.

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

From Library Journal

Eliot, a neurobiologist, assistant professor at the Chicago Medical School, and mother of three, has written a highly technical yet immensely readable study of how the brain develops from conception to age five. This book is both theoretical and practical, combining scientific reportage with "how-to" advice for new parents. In the midst of a scholarly description of vision development, for example, Eliot pauses to give readers advice about how best to arrange a mobile over a baby's crib. With clear, mostly simple language, she guides readers through a fascinating array of new researchAon infant balance, the development of language and memory, and the relationship between the birthing process and the brain. On the downside, although Eliot italicizes technical terms and provides short definitions for them within the body of the text, nonscientists will find the absence of a glossary frustrating. On the upside, the book is extensively footnoted. A real page turner; highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.

- AMargaret Cardwell , Georgia Perimeter Coll., Clarkston

Your Child's Growing Mind : Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence by JANE HEALY

“A sane and readable guide to the burgeoning literature on human development. I particurly liked the discussions on the perils of superbabying and on the fostering of creativity.” —Dr. Howard Gardner, author of Frames of My Mind and The Mind's New Science

"Dr. Healy has done it again with Your Child's Growing Mind. Noboday Makes child development and it's practical applications so clear and readable. A must for parents." –Michael Brody, M.D., Chair of The Television and Media Committee of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition) by James Sears , Martha Sears , Robert Sears , William Sears

From Publishers Weekly

William and Martha Sears, a pediatrician and a registered nurse respectively, team up with two of their doctor sons to update their 1993 guide to "attachment parenting." Advocating a "high-touch style of parenting to balance the high-tech life of the new millennium," the authors teach new parents how to bond with their babies through seven fundamental behaviors, including breastfeeding, "babywearing" and setting proper boundaries. When parents keep close to their babies by bringing them into bed at night and picking them up when they cry, the infants develop better, the authors argue; rather than becoming spoiled, they become more healthy and independent. From tips for a healthy birth, getting your baby to sleep and feeding him the "right fats," to information about early health concerns, the major steps in infant development and troublesome but typical toddler behavior, the authors of this comprehensive volume (who share their own parenting experiences along the way) are assured and reassuring experts.

The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn't Talking Yet

by Marilyn C. Agin , Lisa F. Geng , Malcolm Nicholl

From Publishers Weekly

The mother of a boy with a speech disorder and the developmental pediatrician and former speech-language pathologist who diagnosed it as apraxia team up with scribe Nicholl to pen this expert guide to understanding speech delays and problems. Parents whose child doesn't say "mama" or "dada" soon enough might hope he's a "late talker," and if that were always true, there'd be no cause for alarm. But if the child has a speech disorder, early diagnosis and intervention is crucial: "Studies have shown that youngsters with learning disabilities make up a 'disproportionately large' percentage of suicides." The authors of this volume show, via clear chapters and even clearer charts, the kinds of language milestones kids should hit at certain ages and the warning signs of potential disorders. An overview of speech disorders focuses particularly on those in which language acquisition and speech sound production is affected-e.g., apraxia, a neurological motor speech impairment that has a number of associated conditions, including sensory integration dysfunction. The authors walk parents through finding the right doctor, therapist and method of therapy; ensuring that their publicly schooled child gets an Individualized Educational Program; dealing with insurance companies; engaging in activities that encourage speech practice; understanding nutritional supplements; and dealing with fears, both their child's and their own. A careful, thorough and realistic book, this will be a great resource for any parent dealing with these issues.

Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on Baby Furniture, Equipment, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear and Much, Much More! by Alan Fields , Denise Fields

Description:

One of the little details of having a baby that is sometimes forgotten is the cost. In this comprehensive guide, Denise and Alan Fields show how to keep these costs manageable. This newly revised, updated and illustrated edition covers such topics as how to avoid wasting money with baby clothes, and which brands are best; the truth about strollers, and which are the wisest choices; the ten best baby gifts (along with the five worst); name-brand reviews of toys, monitors, high chairs, latch car seats, and diapers; and much more. Baby Bargains is the best-selling guide to the very best deals on all of baby's needs. It includes everything necessary to turn bewildered, cash-crunched parents into savvy bargain hunters.