Infant-and-Toddler-Development Books

Okay, so the author went and did some observations of random children between the ages of 2 and 3 and then wrote this book to explain the children's general behaviours to parents for better insight. Ummm, okay. It didn't really offer much definitive advice or anything, and just when you think the author is trying to offer some on a general subject (for instance, imagination skills), then she turns around and tells you that some kids are different. So while she's trying to calm all parents concerns about their child's development by relating to the whole reading audience, she loses her point in writing the book. I could've written this book if I hung out with a bunch of different kids in their home environments. I didn't find it helpful at all, but I did find the kids in the book were adorable. I wouldn't recommend this to someone with a 2 year old. Maybe I would if the parent has a child that is coming on 2 years, as a general guideline of what's to come.

I only gave the book one star, because zero stars was not an option!

Any book that advocates shutting your child in the room and not checking on them until morning is not only medically unsound, but also cruel. You'd be better off reading Dr.'s Ferber or Sears.

Unfortunately, I did not do enough research before purchasing this book. If you are a selfish parent who can't stand being inconvenienced by your child and can live with listening to your child scream her heart out, sob until she's hiccuping, and have to fall asleep like that... hey, go for it. I lasted fifteen minutes and then said to myself... this is INSANE. She's crying, I'm standing outside her room crying, my tough Marine husband is practically in tears... for what? My two-year-old daughter will sleep through the night in her own bed eventually. Right now, she needs me to come in with her a few times a night. If that's what she needs, that's what she needs, and her needs are more important than mine. That's called parenting. All I can say to someone who can actually listen to their dear one sob and ignore it as described in this book.... well, you should have stuck with houseplants and left the parenting for those who don't mind the inconvenience of dealing with a living thing with feelings. This is an awful, awful book. Don't buy it. Buy Sears instead.

If you are looking for a book on selfisness, this is it! As new parents, my wife and I were looking for something like this to get our son to sleep through the night. We made the double mistake of; a, buying this book and b, trying out the ideas in it. After a few nights of staying up, listening to our frightened child cry for his parents (and all of us getting less sleep than before I might add) we tossed out the book and went back to our old sleep patterns. So what if your child doesn't sleep through the night? Do you? Each and every night? Not likely. Everyone is different and what most new parents don't need is to be shamed into thinking this is the best system for them (see pages 77-78) he says 'shame' so many times I lost count! Save your money. Listen to your child and to your heart instead, belive me your can't go wrong that way!

This book does have some concerns to me, but overall it was helpfull. People who left reviews saying they were told that they would sleep fine during some trials did not read this correctly. It clearly states if you cant handle the three day stint, dont do it! "Try what you are more comfortable with" and there were other options than the three day program. It also does not tell you to lock your child in their room and dont check on them. This book helps you understand that you dont need to run to your child the second they start crying, because then they think everything will be solved the minute they start to fuss, which leads to manipulation. I personally would not like the three day program, but this book gives good advice on how to get your child ready for bed without fuss.

I found this book a great companion to Dr Ferber's book. This one is very easy to read, well organized, and provides pep talks if you're about to start a difficult transition with your child. However, it lacks the graduated steps of the Ferber program (check on your child after 5 minutes, then 10, etc) that is so useful in the Ferber program. I used this book a pep talk before doing the Ferber program of crying with checking in intervals, and holding the door shut for a minute at a time. It worked! The first night we tried it for my toddler (who just discovered how to climb over her bed rail and wake us up every night for the past 2 months), she cried and jumped out of bed for 2 hours, then slept through the night. The second night she cried for 10 minutes, but stayed in bed and slept through the night. The third night, she let out a cry then went to sleep! If you prefer this type of cold turkey method, use it, but with Ferber. Otherwise, try one of those no-cry solutions which takes much longer, but may suit some parents.

If you're looking for a book to tell you what to do when your child throws tantrums, flings food, fights everything you try to do with/to/for him, you might need to find another source for those answers. But if you're interested in gaining a better understanding of where your two-year old is coming from, and why he/she acts the way they do, then I think this is a great book. I think it does a great job in explaining what it's like to be a toddler and explaining why they act in certain ways at certain times. If we, as parents, have a better understanding of them, that alone should help us in taming those behaviours that drive us nuts.

The only valuable (and non-redundant; i.e., not out there on the net) information I obtained from this book was the difference between an "active" and "easygoing" and a "shy" toddler. Did not give me any insight into what to do now that my 20 month old is throwing tantrums, screeching (sometimes with joy, sometimes with anger), what to do about "flinging food", "fighting getting into the car seat", fighting getting his diaper changed ... - in other words - nothing about how I might guide his behavior. I am still looking for a good parenting book that really tells it like it is.

i rated this really low because it was not at all what i was looking for. the information about this book lead me to believe that it was alot more "crafty" than it was. i was looking for something our 1&2 year old nursery kids could do during the church worship hour, but it turned out to be cheap, cheesy crafts that if you thought about it you could make up on your own. i was looking for something a little more...i guess the word is sophistcated....this stuff was making things with toilet paper rolls, or photocopying a picture so they could color it. duh..who hasn't already done that?? talk to a kindergarten teacher and they have probably made most of this stuff up on their own already! basically, someone thought to write down all of the already done....overdone crafts from household products and made money on it. kudos to them for thinking of it first!! i'm just sorry i wasted my few dollars on it. you'd be better off continuing your search for craft ideas.

I had truly been looking forward to this book. After hearing so much about Jane Nelson and being in recovery, it sounded appropriate.

Honestly, I didn't read past the first two or three chapters; the book seems to have been written for someone either still abusing alcohol or drugs - or someone who is just now in the beginning stages of recovery. . . and that's not where I am in my life.

I will definitely hold onto the book and hopefully can pass it on to someone who needs it.

Bought for a college class, did not find anything enlightening or new, thought most of the book was common knowledge for those studying child develoment.

This book was difficult to read for this American due to the foreign (British?) verbage and sentence structure. It did not contain much information that I had not already attained through parenting magazines, etc.

I'm a behavioral neuroscientist at a large univerity who focuses on research in adult psychiatic conditions. I'm expecting my first baby and I wanted to find a book that would answer the kinds of questions I am likely to wonder about as I think about my own child's brain, cognitive, and social development, with a scientifically informed backbone to it. This book isn't what I wanted. Most of the text is simply droning 1-3 sentence reviews of some selected infant research studies. Frequently she slips into reviews of research on children of depressed parents, which is obviously one of her passions. While that is certainly an important thing to be studying, it doesn't need to be mentioned so frequently and so randomly throughout the book, especially right in the middle of a section that was clearly about normal development. It really disrupted my ability to follow and make sense of the studies of infants of normal parents. The smarter thing would have been to just devote a chapter to this passion rather than throw it in here and there. My poor husband tried to read this book. He is not a scientist but is extremely intelligent and very appreciative of rational thought. He took to heart my hopes that this book would really expose us to sophisticated knowledge about babies that will help us as new parents, but he ended up feeling very confused and questioned himself as he read it since he wasn't getting anything out of it. When I told him I really wasn't either, he felt better! I realize the author did not aim for this book to be a primary parental teaching tool, but even as an academic endeavor to review and consolidate recent research, it falls very flat. I recommend that other people stick to more commercial literature to learn about child development as a parent, and stick to peer reviewed scientific journals for truly useful reviews of the state of knowledge regarding infant development.

This book was not what I expected. From the description ("you and your child can relive and look forward to each exciting milestone"), I thought I would be able to write notes and dates about when my child met the milestones described in the book. It's not a keepsake. Instead the book simply describes 11 milestones of the first year. Not worth it.

I found this book to be full of many errors and oversights. It does not contain useful or current information, and as such, I cannot recommend it. Even the summaries of well-established theories are, at times, inaccurate representations and, in some instances, very biased and represent the type of polemical writing found in the author's polemic/editorial book, Attachment Therapy on Trial, which contains a number of factual errors. A professionally written text on a subject should be written by a professional with training and experience in the subject matter; sadly this is not the case her. The author is not a mental health professional, not licensed, has conducted no research in the subject matter, and has not experience in the material. These serious lacks are evident in the mis-representations of research and in the conclusions reached.

I cannot recommend this book to any professional or to any parent as being a useful or reliable book.