Child Development

The natural history of your child's sexuality
Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask)
by Justin Richardson, M.D., Mark A. Schuster, M.D., PH.D.
You are flat on your back. Your shirt is pulled up over your belly, and your pants are down around your hips. Someone has just squirted a glob of cold jelly below your navel. This is one of those miraculous moments in life that doesn't always live up to

Gender Differences
Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences
by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.
Matthew turned five years old the summer before kindergarten started. He was looking forward to it. From what he had heard, kindergarten sounded like just one long play date with friends. He could hardly wait.

An Invitation to a Birthday Party
Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children
by Michael Thompson, Ph.D., Catherine O'Neill Grace, Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D.
All parents experience pain about their children's social lives. There is no escaping it. A mother agonizes over her child's social dilemmas. A father immediately assesses whether his son or daughter is well received by a group of children.

Physical Development Through Puberty
Caring for Your School Age Child: Ages 5-12
by Edward L. Schor, M.D., The American Academy of Pediatrics
Most parents believe that their youngster's childhood passes much too quickly. Only yesterday, it seemed, you sang lullabies over your child's crib, or watched her crawl for the first time or take her first steps.

Basic Infant Care
Your Baby's First Year (Second Edition)
by Steven P. Shelov, M.D., The American Academy of Pediatrics
When your baby first arrives, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the job of caring for her. Even such routine tasks as diapering and dressing her can fill you with anxiety-especially if you've never spent much time around babies before.

Happier, Smarter Babies
Baby Prodigy: A Guide to Raising a Smarter, Happier Baby
by Barbara Candiano-Marcus
As I began to research childhood brain development in order to develop the Baby Prodigy DVDs, CDs, and videos, I had to educate myself on how the brain worked. This chapter is by no means an effort to provide you with a full education in neuroanatomy

Your Baby's Amazing Brain
Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love
by Linda Acredolo, Ph.D., Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D.
Remember that feeling of excitement and exhilaration the day your baby was born? You examined her tiny face and gazed with amazement into her unaccustomed eyes wondering what she must be feeling in her first experience of the outside world.

Birth to Three Months
BabyTalk : Strengthen Your Child's Ability to Listen, Understand, and Communicate
by Sally Ward Ph.D.
The newborn baby arrives totally helpless and dependent, but nonetheless amazingly well equipped in a number of ways to interact with the adults around him. He shows an emotional inclination toward people from the very start of life and soon engages them

Nature or Nurture? It's All in the Brain
What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life
by Lise Eliot, Ph.D.
Wouldn't you know it? Just as I get this beautiful, healthy neuron filled with dye and ready to image, Julia wakes up and starts crying. The experiment takes a long time to set up; I've been at it most of the day and need just ten more uninterrupted

Body Image Blues
Real Kids Come in All Sizes : Ten Essential Lessons to Build Your Child's Body Esteem
by Kathy Kater
Too many American children, particularly girls, are afraid to gain weight. The compelling wish to be thin or stay thin at all costs provides the seeds for a lifetime of intense, unrelenting, counterproductive conflict between hunger and eating, or between

Communicating with Your Baby
Dr. Spock's The First Two Years : The Emotional and Physical Needs of Children from Birth to Age 2
by Benjamin Spock, M.D.
Babies can express their feelings and needs in many ways. Learning to read your baby is very important, especially for parents who want to respond to their baby's needs appropriately. Crying is a major source of communication that the newborn baby has.

Some Dos and Don'ts with Boys
Real Boys Workbook
by William S. Pollack, Ph.D., Kathleen Cushman, Ed.D.
Boys are different from girls-partly because their biology is different, but more often because we unwittingly treat them differently from their earliest infancy in what we have described as the Boy Code. (See pages xxi-xxii.)

Effects of Child Maltreatment on Early Brain Development
by Child Welfare Information Gateway
Brief periods of moderate, predictable stress are not problematic; in fact, they prepare the child to cope with the general world. The body's survival actually depends upon the ability to mount a response to stress.

Are You Concerned About Your Child?
Normal Children Have Problems, Too: How Parents Can Understand and Help
by Stanley Turecki, M.D., Sarah Wernick, Ph.D.
Eight-year-old Joshua looks unhappy most of the time. He is easily disappointed and reduced to tears. Playmates don't call as much, and Joshua says sadly that no one likes him. He has become whiny, and he shadows his mother around the apartment.

Nature's Contribution: The Biology of Emotions
Baby Hearts: A Guide to Giving Your Child an Emotional Head Start
by Linda Acredolo, Ph.D., Susan Goodwyn, Ph.D.
NEWS FLASH! There's More to Mothering Than Meets the Eye, Scientists Discover. New York, New York. What happens when Mommy Rat runs away from home, leaving her litter of pups to fend for themselves? They get hungry-very hungry. No surprise there.

The Importance of Reading to Children
Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five
by Penelope Leach, Ph.D.
When parents read aloud to their children, everyone wins. It's fun for the adult and great for the kids. Easy for you and good for them. You don't even have to ration it because, unlike TV or ice cream, there's no such thing as too much.

The Road Not Taken: Turning Boys Away from Their Inner Life
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys
by Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., Michael Thompson, Ph.D.
Luke, thirteen, pauses at the office door, undecided whether to take his baseball cap off or leave it alone; he pulls it off and steps in the room-the school psychologist's office. 'Come on in, Luke. Have a seat in the big chair.'

Introduction
Is it "Just a Phase"?
by Susan Anderson Swedo, M.D., Henrietta L. Leonard, M.D.
While it may not be worth a million dollars, the question of whether a child's behavior problems are 'just a phase' or something more serious is one that parents ask frequently during the grade school years. Problem phases occur so predictably that child

Getting a View from the Ferris Wheel
The Rollercoaster Years
by Charlene C. Giannetti, Margaret Sagarese
Parenting a child from ages ten through fifteen is truly challenging. Like the view from a Ferris Wheel, the highs are exhilarating; but looking down can be flip-flop stomach scary. It is the best of times and the worst of times.

The Twenty-four-Karat Golden Rule
Emotionally Intelligent Parenting: How to Raise a Self-Disciplined, Responsible, Socially Skilled Child
by Maurice J. Elias Ph.D., Steven E. Tobias, Psy.D., Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D.
Do you know the Golden Rule? Most people do. Usually, it is quoted, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." We call this "the Fourteen-Karat Golden Rule." Why? Because there is a better one, one that reflects what we