Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College [Hardcover]

Sam Wang (Author), Sandra Aamodt (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 13, 2011

How children think is one of the most enduring mysteries-and difficulties-encountered by parents. In an effort to raise our children smarter, happier, stronger, and better, parents will try almost anything, from vitamins to toys to DVDs. But how can we tell marketing from real science? And what really goes through your kid's growing mind-as an infant, in school, and during adolescence?

Neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang (who is also a parent) explain the facets and functions of the developing brain, discussing salient subjects such as sleep problems, language learning, gender differences, and autism. They dispel common myths about important subjects such as the value of educational videos for babies, the meaning of ADHD in the classroom, and the best predictor of academic success (hint: It's not IQ ). Most of all, this book helps you know when to worry, how to respond, and, most important, when to relax.

Welcome to Your Child's Brain upends myths and misinformation with practical advice, surprising revelations, and real, reliable science. It's essential reading for parents of children of any age, from infancy well into their teens.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...cutting-edge research on the growing brain, from birth to the age of 21....with its clear graphics, this is a useful companion guide for educators and families." - Nature

"...A fresh approach to brain research...offering parents practical tips along the way....The authors are consummate myth busters: birth order, research reveals, has little impact on personality, and the left-brain is as emotionally charged as the right....Thought-provoking revelations." - Publishers Weekly

"Dr. Wang and Dr. Aamodt playfully and engagingly introduce us to the hidden talents of our children’s brains." —Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show

 

"Few humans are as neurotic as parents, frantic about the disastrous lifelong consequences of every errant hiccup. In this smart, funny, accessible, and supremely sane book, Aamodt and Wang explain that our supposed knowledge in this realm is riddled with urban myths and that a child’s brain is tough and resilient in the face of adversity. This is a terrific, fun, educational book." —Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

 

"Fact-filled and fascinating, Welcome to Your Child’s Brain will answer many of parents’ most urgent questions. Neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang present the real data that will help parents understand and nurture their children of all ages." —Dr. Lise Eliot, associate professor of neuroscience at Rosalind Franklin University and author of What’s Going On in There? and Pink Brain, Blue Brain

From the Author

Sam Wang says: When Sandra Aamodt and I decided to write Welcome To Your Child's Brain, we knew that there were many books on child development. But I only grasped the enormity of the situation when I was getting ready to become a father myself. What I found in the bookstore (and here at Amazon) was overwhelming. However, I also noticed that many books were not based on scientific evidence. As neuroscientists we realized we had something to add.

Welcome To Your Brain is not just a parenting book - though it does have information that parents will find quite useful. Think of it as a book about how we become the adults that we are today. The core of that is childhood. If you wonder whether birth order affected your own personality, why you have musical talent (or lack it), or whether intelligence can ever be increased, then our book is for you.

Some of you came to this site through our New York Times article on "redshirting" kindergarteners. Our reading of the scientific evidence is that there is no long-term advantage to delaying entry to kindergarten - and some significant disadvantages. To read more (with links to technical literature), go to the top of this website, click on my name, find our blog, and look up our post on redshirting dated September 25, 2011.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (September 13, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596916494
• ISBN-13: 978-1596916494
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What got me interested in this book September 14, 2011

By Just a consumer

Format:Hardcover

This book is for parents or anyone interested in the dramatic changes in our brain and behavior that we humans undergo during our first quarter century of life. Let me tell you what got me interested in this book.

It is written by two neuroscientists, one (Aamodt) who is the former editor-in-chief for Nature Neuroscience, a highly respected scientific journal, and another (Wang) who is a professor and researcher at Princeton University, and is also a father.

In spite of the impressive scientific credentials of its authors, it is written in an approachable style. As Moira Gunn points out in her interview with Aamodt, the book's 30 chapters, most around 10 pages long, are interspersed with subsections with nearly two dozen practical tips, several myth-busting insights, and the occasional speculation. Each of the 30 topics is about a certain period in a child's life, with the periods overlapping with each other. So while chapter 4, "Beyond Nature Versus Nurture" covers from conception to the college years, chapter 11 on "Connecting with Your Baby Through Hearing and Touch" is limited to the period from the third trimester to age 2, chapter 13 on "The Best Gift You Can Give: Self-control" is about children from 2 to 7 years old, and chapter 25 ("The Many Roads to Reading") covers from 4 to 12 years.

I gave the book four stars initially (September 14), but now that I've gone through the whole book, I'm giving it the fifth star. I think it is the second book that any parent with newborns or pre-teens should get...I say second because "Welcome to Your Child's Brain" is not trying to be comprehensive, but the topics it does cover, it covers it in a no-nonsense way, deeply rooted in science as of 2010-11.

In today's digital world, it can be hard to judge the reliability of advice we find online; this book manages to document the basis for (I think) everything substantive it addresses, doing so in a way that is unobtrusive and does not distract you when you are reading it. Because of their credentials, you may not have the time or inclination to check their references, but I find it comforting to know that if I am skeptical about something Aamodt or Wang say, they gave me enough information that I can go online and check on the subject in detail.

I wish there was a book organized like this on other subjects: "Welcome to Your Retirement Plan" perhaps...?

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and helpful September 19, 2011

By A. Seelke

Format:Hardcover

As both a developmental neuroscientist and a new parent, I am keenly aware of how much the brain changes throughout the lifespan. Of course, knowing facts about brain development and being able to effectively use that information to enrich your child's development are two different things. This book does an excellent job of reviewing the scientific literature and giving advice on how to practically apply that information in your everyday life. After reading this book, I feel like I have a better understanding of how my child interacts with and learns about the world, and I know what I can do to help encourage his development.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars For parents? A thorough, responsible treatment, but technical and scholarly May 3, 2012

By Dennis Coates

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Parents desperately need to know about their child's brain, because there are sensitive windows of development with outcomes that last a lifetime. Parents have work to do at certain times, and they need to know what it is.

One thing I liked about this book is that it's thorough and responsible...all the stages, all the science is up-to-date. The authors have studied and worked in neuroscience for years. I'm an avid read of books like this, and I loved the extensive glossary, the hundreds of scientific references, and the detailed index. I appreciated this book far more than the pop science treatments of the developing brain that get a lot of the science wrong.

But all this rigor is actually a problem. It's as if the authors wanted to write a book for parents and ended up writing a book for other scholars and scientists. For example, the development of the prefrontal cortex happens during adolescence and is hugely important to the development of the basic structure of a child's intellect. Here's some of what the authors have to say about it:

"In a longitudinal study of children, the pattern of developmental changes in cortical thickness predicted intelligence more strongly than did the adult configuration at age twenty....Dendritic branching in neurons was also correlated with intelligence in a few studies."

This is a technically accurate description of the research. But what does this mean to a parent? Nothing.

The problem is the authors know their business but they've been writing for scientific peer review for decades, and so this is how they like to write about the topic. But this kind of writing doesn't communicate to parents. There are some important, practical points to be made, and these are buried in this kind of review of research.

I think few parents will be able to wade through all this technical description, but if they do they'll be convinced that there are stages of brain development that are important to the successful growing up of their child. But aside from being aware, what should they do as parents? There's not much of this in the book, and what's here is hard to find among the 300 pages of responsible scientific journalism.