This book combines two worlds -- children and science -- in an entirely unique way that yields exciting discoveries about both. The authors show that by the time children are three, they've solved problems that stumped Socrates with an agility computers still can't match. The Scientist in the Crib explains just how, and how much, babies and young children know and learn, and how much parents naturally teach them. In fact, The Scientist in the Crib argues that evolution designed us to both teach and learn. Nurture is our nature, and the drive to learn is our most important instinct.
The new science of children also reveals insights about our adult capacities, helping to solve some ancient questions: How do we know there really is a world out there? How do we know that other people have minds like ours? It turns out that we find solutions to these problems when we are very small. But these astonishing capabilities don't disappear in later life, as the authors show in their engaging discussion of humans' potential for learning. In fact, they argue that even very young children -- as well as adults use some of the same methods that allow scientists to learn so much about the world.
Written by three top scientists -- themselves parents -- who conducted much of the pioneering research in this field, The Scientist in the Crib is vivid, lucid, and often funny. Filled with surprises at every turn, it gives us a new view of the inner life of children and the mysteries of the mind.
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
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Babies ready to speak any language:
This book wasn't as interesting as I hoped it would be, but I loved the chapter on language. It was fascinating to read that when babies initially begin to babble, they are able to differentiate all spoken sounds. Then the culture they are living in exerts its influence. "Once babies reach the babbling milestone, the universal phase of language production ends. Babies from different cultures, learning different languages, start to make the distinctive noises of their own community sometime between a... more info
Thoroughly enjoyable and informative:
An extremely readable overview of infant developmental psychology, this book provides fascinating details of the last thirty years of research on infant minds. The basic organization around three classic problems in epistemology (Other Minds, External Objects, and Language) will particularly appeal to those who took a few philosophy classes in college, but no background in either philosophy or science is necessary to understand and appreciate the work. Much of the book is devoted to summarizing various... more info
Worth reading:
This book is definitely not the most well-formulated book I've ever read, but parts of it are really worth the time to read. The first half gives information from research they do with babies, which was absolutely fascinating. In the second half, the chapter on babies' brains was interesting, but the rest of it was kind of a waste of paper, especially the last chapter. The authors are obsessed with scientists (they continuously refer to them as though they are the gods of earth basically), sex (they... more info
at least 6 stars:
the most amaizing and surprising book, written
with humour and love ; as a physical therapist i am working with small babies,
i recommend this book to everybody who has a baby or works with
them.
