The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development from Birth to Adolescence [Hardcover]

Linda C. Mayes M.D. (Author), Donald J. Cohen M.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

Children don't grow up simply by adding inches and pounds-child development is a much richer mix of physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth. While children make progress at their own pace, parents can help (or, occasionally, hinder) them. Understanding the many ways in which your child grows is the essence of parenting, and if you appreciate the ebbs and flows of development, you can raise your child with more insight and confidence.

The Yale Child Study Center studies the life experiences of infants, children, and parents. The faculty-psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians, and educators-provides the unique combination of a solid grounding in the science of child development, an understanding of a child's point of view, and an appreciation of parents' expectations and experiences.

Problems arise, of course, in every family's life. Dr. Mayes and Dr. Cohen's reassuring approach helps parents understand the nature of a problem, their role in it and response to it, and when and where to go for help with concerns such as learning disabilities, bullying, sibling rivalry, mental health and depression, anger and other difficult feelings, and divorce. This classic guide will be an incredible resource in every family bookshelf.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arranged by topics like early baby functions, emotional growth, learning right from wrong, and sexuality and gender, this encyclopedic guide explains all facets of children's psychological and physical growth and advises parents on how best to stimulate development and resolve common dilemmas. The authors, professors of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the Yale Child Study Center, write in reassuring language. "If you are listening to Mozart," they explain, "by all means play Mozart as you rock your infant. But if you prefer to sing along with Ray Charles, there's no need to choose Mozart instead. The games, books, and other products that keep you and your child interested are more useful than those `recommend by experts' for children in general." Perhaps the most helpful sections of the book are those focused on school. Parents will find information on diagnosing learning disabilities, finding special schools, encouraging reading, and coping with school-related behavior problems. Some parents accustomed to slim, trendy tomes may initially find this hefty volume intimidating, but it deserves a place on the parenting shelf in every household.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Although this survey of child development and parenthood packs considerable wisdom and bears a prestigious imprimatur, it comes off as fairly generic. With its emphasis on a conceptual, developmental approach, it stands out in strong intellectual counterpoint to the quick how-to tactics of many contemporary titles, such as Sally Ward's BabyTalk: Strengthen Your Child's Ability To Listen, Understand and Communicate (LJ 3/15/01). Mayes, director of early childhood programs at the Yale Child Study Center, and Cohen, its former director, cover individual topics in 36 chapters (e.g., "Your Baby's Motor Development," "Sexuality and Gender," "The Course of Pregnancy"). Though this comprehensiveness is a plus, much of the advice is common sense ("negative experiences or the absence of appropriate care may cause serious, enduring harm to early brain development"). As admirable as the authors' goals are, it is hard to imagine public library patrons reading and retaining this much general information. For larger public libraries. (Index not seen.) Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co.; 1st edition (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316954322
• ISBN-13: 978-0316954327
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,375,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good reference, June 10, 2006

By 

RI - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development from Birth to Adolescence (Paperback)

This book is good if you want a book that doesn't tell you how to parent, but rather helps you understand your baby/child. With the information in this book, you can make your own educated decisions on how to parent. It's very straightforward and it's easy to use it as a reference if you have a specific question.

If you're tired of books that tell you how you should be parenting but are interested rather in your child's development, this could be for you. It makes you think and is not a manual.

For example, in the sleep section, it doesn't tell you what to do, but rather the implications of different methods of helping your kid sleep and why your kid might be having trouble or falling into certain patterns (like maybe it's just part of development). This book really respects the parent-child relationship.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wide-ranging, eminently readable reference, May 17, 2003

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development from Birth to Adolescence (Paperback)

The collaboration of Linda C. Mayes (Arnold Gesell Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center) and Donald J. Cohen (Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center), The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development From Birth To Adolescence is a superbly practical and "reader friendly" guide for parents which compiles the findings and discoveries of the Yale Child Study Center (an organization first founded in 1911) in order to assisting men and women in finding their own parenting style, achieve balance between family and work duties, and acquire ways to strengthen the ties the bind their family relationships and deal with difficult issues arising from new siblings, to school bullies, to divorce and death. The Yale Child Study Center Guide To Understanding Your Child is confidently recommended as being a wide-ranging, eminently readable reference packed with solid information for parents and caretakers of children everywhere.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child, December 27, 2007

By 

Maynard D. Smith (Windsor, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Yale Child Study Center Guide to Understanding Your Child: Healthy Development from Birth to Adolescence (Paperback)

This book will be very helpful in planning a course on child development with interested parents. Though I have a background in work with chilren, my knowledge base is mostly theoretical and I needed something that would help me address the everyday issues that parents of young children face and I am hoping that many of them will be willing to get the book as a reference for themselves.