[.ca] The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us ... (ISBN 0688177883)

From Amazon.com:
A trio of nationally respected childhood-development scientists hailing from Berkeley and the University of Washington has authored The Scientist in the Crib to correct a disparity: while popular books about science speak to intelligent, perceptive adults who simply want to learn, books about babies typically just give advice, heavy on the how-to and light on the why. The authors write, "It's as if the only place you could read about evolution was in dog-breeding manuals, not in Stephen Jay Gould; as if, lacking Stephen Hawking's insights, the layman's knowledge of the cosmos was reduced to 'How to find the constellations.'" The Scientist in the Crib changes that. Standing on the relatively recent achievements of the young field of cognitive science (pointing out that not so long ago, babies were considered only slightly animate vegetables--"carrots that could cry"), the authors succinctly and articulately sum up the state of what's now known about children's minds and how they learn. Using language that's both friendly and smart (and using equally accessible metaphors, everything from Scooby-Doo to The Third Man), The Scientist in the Crib explores how babies recognize and understand their fellow humans, interpret sensory input, absorb language, learn and devise theories, and take part in building their own brains. Such science makes for great reading, but will likely prove even more useful to readers with a scientist in their own crib, acting as tonic to pseudoscientific how-to baby books that recommend everything "from flash cards, to Mozart tapes, to Better Baby Institutes." As the authors put it, "We want to understand children, not renovate them." --Paul Hughes

Stringent scientific approach - from babies and this book:
To baby watchers all over the world: The brains of babies work in a way that would make good old Popper smile in his grave. Babies form a theoretical model of the world which can be falsified. They test the model empirically. And if it fails several times they revise the model and start all over again. This book have given me even more respect for the small creatures that we bring into the world. Our capacity for learning will never be greater. The book looses one star because it is in need of tighter editing.

Some good stuff, too much fuss:
The book contains some interesting information, relevant to the title. Unfortunately it is very very repetitive. I found myself saying "I can't believe it is telling this again" many times. Having said that, there are some good parts in chapter 2 and 3 that are worth reading. The introduction and chapter 4-7 are a complete waste of paper, as the 50-page-long notes and reference (who reads them nowadays? put them up on a web site if someone wants to dig deeper). I would have preferred paying the same price for a 60-page-book with the same content, but I guess the markets impose some rules in order to be able to sell...

Interesting read, good information:
This book explains current ideas about infants and how and when they learn. It is a well organized with interesting ancedotes and humorous comments sprinkled throughout. Except for the last chapter, which gets rather philosophical, it was a page turner. I still remember their examples (of the first word 'uh-oh' and failure, or of kids confronting a candy box full of pencils). The book strives not to be the standard parenting text which is refreshing. Still, I would have preferred a summary chart of the basic developmental thresholds and the associated ages for those skills. As a young mother of a one year old, I bought this book along with several others on toddler development. It stands out because it is not a 'how-to' parenting book. The authors leave it to the reader to decide how to act on the information. Also, the book describes in some depth how conclusions were arrived at. As a scientist myself I appreciated this, but found their arguments about the similarities between babies and scientists somewhat trite. All in all, one of my top recommendations for parents. There is great information in an unusual, neutral format.

Incredibly informative, intriguing (and a bit irritating):
This is an incredible book for the reader with an open mind and a desire to learn. The authors tell us what they have learned and experienced in the field of child development and learning, and they have the credentials to be true experts and terrific sources of knowledge. I found the information they conveyed to be positively fascinating. Some of it I had either already somehow suspected, read about elsewhere, or noticed myself, but there was plenty that also surprised me, as well. It helped to know this information because just about everyone deals with children at some point, and it makes a real difference to know where they are coming from. It is also interesting information, given that WE all were children too. The only thing I found irritating were the humorous comments scattered throughout the book. I would have rather had the information given to me without these comical references (some of which I did not get, therefore did not find funny). I repeatedly found myself trying to ignore these supposedly comical anecdotes and to just pay attention to the data they were trying to convey. I consider myself a pretty funny person, but this was annoying. Other than that, though, this book is GREAT! A wonderful way to increase your knowledge of children and how (and when) they learn.

A Great Intro to Baby's Developmental Psychology:
As the father of a nine month old boy, I have been enthralled with this book. It is not a "how to" book on helping your child learn, but rather is a readable introduction to the current state of the study of cognitive development of babies. If you don't believe that it is possible to know what a baby is thinking, you will be fascinated at the clever experiments that have been constructed to tease out information from a baby's brain. It is surprising who much we can find out about how babies' brains work, and how much that can teach us about the adult human brain. The tone of the book is chatty, but the content is substantial. The authors discuss the philosophers as well as the scientists who are working in this area. I don't suppose that the average new parent is interested in wading into Chomsky, Ryle or Descartes, but this book actually makes it interesting and compelling. The book is broken down into the acquisition of particular mental skills. The authors thesis is that babies learn using, more or less, the scientific method, forming hypotheses and then testing them emperically. (The title of the book is a clever word play, referring to this theory, while simultaneously demonstrating what adult scientists are learning from their empirical studies.) While this may seem pretensious, the authors actually make a pretty good case for this theory. The acquisition of language deviates somewhat from this general theoretical method, but the authors have some fascinating experimental data to illustrate the way babies actually learn language. In short, this book is highly recommended, not just to new parents, but also to anyone interested in childhood cognitive development or what can be known about the workings of the human brain.