Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is for the parent who wants to know all the "Whys." I have identical twins, so it is very interesting to me to see why their personalities might be different. Identical twins are used in many experiments, so I found this book especially interesting. My mother-in-law is also a pschologist and did many "experiements" with my husband (wish they had video cameras back then -- would have been neat to see). :) My husband and I have always been fascinated with child development since our children were born. This answered all our questions!

It is a very technical, detailed book, but it is not too far over an average parent's head to get something out of it. I did find myself skipping over some of the parts that got bogged down in details (I just want to get to the point sometimes), but I would get the main idea. My husband and I found this book while searching for a more scientific book on brain development. We were watching a series on TLC that showed different experiements done with children and when children acquire specific skills and why. We tried finding it again without success, so we searched for a book instead. You can find tons of books that tell you when your child should do what, but they don't tell why and what is really going on in their heads. This book will explain all that!! You will even learn things like why toddlers should drink whole milk until the age of 2! It is broken up into the different senses as well as being chronological, which I found really easy to follow.

This will definitely make you a better parent. As an educator myself, I find it fascinating just to have the knowledge, and I feel it is important for all parents to have this knowledge. You will learn how to stimulate your child at different ages so that his/her brain develops to its fullest. You and your child will be happier and more relaxed just having the information contained in this book.

The only regret I have is not having read it sooner! I had all the other parenting books, but I never felt fulfilled reading them. I didn't want a list of milestones, I wanted to know why they do milestones when they do. This is the only parenting book you need! I recommend reading it before your children are born, but it is never too late to read it! Mine were 2 when I got this book!

Scientific yet accessible, full of detailed information about developmental but a much lighter, more engaging read than lots of the dense developmental text out there.

I picked up this book simply because it had 46 amazing reviews. I feel that I owe it to everyone to come back here and also add that I give the book 5 stars as well! I'm so thankful I found this book!

I'm extremely interested in what the research says about babies brains and as a mother to be (3 months pregnant) I really want to give my baby the best possible start in life. I feel like "What's Going on in There" has given me the background I need to feel confident that I am going to be capable of meeting all of my babies' needs.

logical survey of what happens in the baby's brain for the 1st five years. Instead the book is organized by the five senses and ends with chapters on memory, intelligence. It also has a lot of info on the trauma that can occur in a baby's brain from vaginal births as well as some other material, that while interesting, doesn't seem to fit the title of the book. I expected to find enough info to decide when I would teach my child math, foreign languages, etc. In addition, I found two elements of the book disturbing enough to be distracting: the author brought her baby into her biology lab while she was actively conducting experiments (this can't be safe for a newborn or even legal in this country) and she cites several horrifically cruel neural studies where kittens had their eyes sutured shut. There's even a picture of a baby with a cranial hematoma and one of a baby wearing an electrode cap. I guess scientists have a much thicker skin for this sort of thing than you or me.

It is a very comprehensive book. No doubt about it.
But now imagine that you have one-week-old baby that requires your attention
and these 544 pages of medical information about how neurons grow, and axons connect
and how "this" works that you can't even repeat without looking at it again.
This book has a lot of information. And this is a good book in this sense.
But I got bogged down in it. I simply didn't have time to make use of it.
I wanted a book, which would tell me "what" should be done
and a short and clear explanation "why".
So I believe this book has probably 30-40% more information than you actually need.
Or my advice is - read the book BEFORE you had a child.

I've browsed through other parenting books written by "parenting experts", but a quick glance always let me know that their claims were dubious and didn't pertain to all the different kinds of children out there. This book does not try to tell you how to act as a parent, instead it tells you what is physiologically going on inside their bodies and brains so that you can figure it out for yourself.

For example, when my son was around 1 1/2 I recognized that he was going through a verbal growth phenomenon (that every child experiences) refered to as "fast mapping" in the book. Children at this age have the most extraordinary ability to understand new words through context at a mind boggling rate. The author described it as something that no supercomputer array in the world is able to do as fast as a toddler. Since his brain might never again be that willing to absorb new data I decided to try to teach him as much as I could easily. He became potty trained at 18 mo. By 21 mo. he was able to recognize the uppercase and lowercase alphabet. By 27 mo he knew all the states, capitals, planets, and many dinosaurs and presidents. His learning frenzy slowed down by the time he was 2 1/2, but now at almost 3 1/2 he does have the ability to read at a 1st grade level.

But it's not just in academic areas that this book is beneficial. It also imparts the research done in behavioral areas. I learned how beneficial constant interaction and affection has on children's behavior, and so adopted that approach. It also gave examples about the benefit of positive reinforcement, consistant discipline, and logical consequences. We have found these preemptive actions on our part has led to a relatively easy introduction into parenting. Basically, because we know "what's going on in there", we know what to do to get the results we want to get.

Although I bought this book when my son was a few months old, I now give it to my pregnant friends because of it's clear-cut pregnancy advice, supported by research rather than word of mouth. It outlines all the environmental and even psychological factors that can have a tangible effect on your child. For example, most concerned pregnant moms give up caffeine to prevent birth defects. But when this claim is subject to the scientific method, even copious amounts of caffeine have no effect on the babies. But research does indicate that the mother's stress level does have at least a short term impact on the baby's brain. So in that way the book directs you to put your focus more on your psychological well being than on avoiding Diet Coke.

Overall, a tremendous resource.

If you are pregnant or thinking about starting a family I definitely recommend that you buy What's Going on in There? by Lise Eliot. This book is very informative and should be eccential to your prenatal (and even post-natal) reading. Eliot ia a neurobiologist and a mother of three, so not only does she provide more than enough scientific information but she supplies plenty of personal anecdotes involing her children.

Unlike most books of this sort that divide the book into ages (0-3 months), Eliot divides her book into developmental stages from start(in uetero) to finish (postnatal) and head to toe. Therefore she will discuss a certain developmental task a chapter but in that chapter covers that development from emergence to completion, which in some cases spans several years. At first you might think that a book that is well over 500-pages on child development a bit hefty but in alll actuality it is quite an easy read. That being said I studied molecular/cell bio in college so because of my background education this book was a lot easier to read. Does one have to be and expert in biology in order to understand this book, I don't think so. Eliot presents her views and scientific evidence in a strait forward manner that anyone that has had high school biology should be able to understand.

The Chapters are as Follows:
(1) Nature vs Nurture? It's all in the Brain
(2) The Basic Biology of Brain Development
(3) Prenatal Influences on the Developing Brain
(4) How Birth Affects the Brain
(5) The Importance of Touch
(6) Why Babies Love to Be Bounced: The Precocious Sense of Balance and Motion
(7) The Early World of Smell
(8) Taste, Milk, and the Origins of Food Preference
(9) Wiring Up the Visual Brain
(10) How Hearing Evolves
(11) Motor Milestones
(12) Social-Emotional Growth
(13) The Emergence of Memory
(14) Language and the Developing Brain
(15) How Intelligence Grows in the Brain
(16) Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development
(17) How to Raise a Smarter Child

Some of you might be tempted to skip the first 16 chapters and go for the last one, I don't recommend doing this. Although the last chapter suggests that she put all the secrets to making your child smarter, actually I think that the message from Eliot is not for smarter kids but smarter parents. It is our resposibility as parents to foster our children's development, through interacting/ bonding, communicating and play, ths child does a lot of learning by observing us, and it is from us that they learn how to handle the pressures of the world. Which comes to Eliot talking about the Nature vs Nurture debate. This book does not advocate one way or the other, but BOTH. We are in the age now where scientists are tracking down the human genome trying to figure out what is it about our DNA that makes us, well us. Basically, DNA is the foundation that makes us who we are, giving us the foundation to grow, but without environmental pressures (both good and bad) to either foster or hinder our development. For example; let's take height a "normal" child (one born without autosomal defects which can lead to Dwarfism) growing up in an environment where there is poor nutrition either due to famine or poverty has less of a chance of becoming tall than a similar child that has had the benefit of eating foods that are fortified and that are bountiful. However, with certain genetic disorders like Dwarfism not matter how much positive pressure(i.e. nutrition) there will be little effect.

Eliot does an excellent job of transitioning from one chapter to the next. Thus I recommend reading it cover to cover. I also recommend reading it more then once, it is very useful to use as a reference, albeit not the best reference book on babies nor is it the worst.

This is a great resource for parents (and parents-to-be) wanting to understand the development of a baby's brain and how it affects behaviour, physical development, first movements, nature vs nurture, personality, etc. Lots of facts and information. I found it particularly helpful when my first child was about a month old as it helped me better understand what she might be thinking or why she was behaving a certain way due to the physical changes she was going through. The book is written in a much more objective way than other books I have read and I liked that it would present the information, sometimes from various points of view, and allow the reader to make their own conclusions. I wished I had gotten this book while I still pregnant! As a new mother, I found the number of books on child development overwhelming and with the number of different "methods" being touted, I eventually decided that I was just going to read this book to try to get a better understanding on what is going on in my baby's brain as a guide and then do the best that I can with that knowledge. Great book!

I really enjoyed this book. It's well written, informative, and downright interesting. Much of the information is presented in the form of results of studies; not just rules of thumb. For example, the first chapter has useful details about prenatal influences on the brain. There's a summary of research results on how caffeine affects development, and similar sections for alchohol, aspartame, MSG, and other (harmless and not-so-harmless) things that parents-to-be often worry about.

Then there's a fascinating series of chapters on how sensory development occurs. With a chapter title like "The Importance of Touch" you just know it's chock full of good recommendations. Similarly, "Wiring Up the Visual Brain" explains how visual perception develops. The most interesting nugget is that the visual cortex needs visual stimulation during critical periods to develop some abilities such as depth perception (stereo or binocular vision). Hence an infant with untreated vision problems may miss the critical period (usually from age 3 months to 6 months) and not develop stereo vision.

Stepping back from the details, an interesting fact about development is that different abilities don't all start at once; they come online at different ages so your baby can adapt to them one at a time. So when you notice changes in your baby's behavior or wants, it may be because a new ability has suddenly kicked in, and the baby needs to have it stimulated. It's fascinating stuff, and useful as well!

Even with a 9 month old this book was a breeze to read, but not because it lacks in substance. Lise Eliot does a fantastic job of explaining the cognitive development of children without sounding like an article in a scientific journal. Her conversational tone makes her detailed descriptions of brain development fascinating to read.

So far this has been my favorite book on child development.