Finding Smart Ways To Raise A Child (NAPSA)—What’s a parent to do? Whyis yourchild afraid of the dark? Is a night-light OK? Is there a “window” to teach your kids something new? Should you be concerned when your child throws a tantrum in the supermarket? “Relax,” say Norbert and Elinore Herschkowitz in their new book, A Good Start in Life: Understanding Your Child’s Brain and Behavior. The authors—he is a noted neuroscientist and pediatrician and she is an educator—have written a guide to help parents understand what is happening in the first six years of a child’s life, and how so much of that behavior flows healthily from their child’s brain development. In the past decade or so, through the help of new technologies, scientists are beginning to understand and “see” what is occurring as a baby’s brain matures. The Herschkowitzes present the best of that information so parents can understand how the brain contributes to a child’s personality and behavior. “Stepping back and listening to what science is telling you about how the human brain develops can help you strike a healthy balance between doing too much and doing too little for your child’s cognitive, emotional and social growth,” say the authors. The book starts with pregnancy and each chapter deals with a particular phase of social development, such as fear, playing and belonging to a group. And yes, not only can babies hear in the womb, but newborns show a special interest in people as opposed to anything else. Each chapter ends with a “To Think About Section,” a sort of “frequently asked ques- By the time a child reaches agesix, he or she can: Form personal relationships Participate in dialogue Show empathy Exercise a sense of fairness Set goals and try to reach them Enjoy creative activity Learn from experience Overcomefrustrations Take responsibility Take wider perspectives @ tions” for parents. The Herschkowitzes explain that in today’s rapidly changing world “you sometimes feel as if you had landed unexpectedly in the middle of a denseforest called parenthood. Your map is confusing, you don’t have a guide, you don’t even know where you are going.” To help parents navigate the thicket, the authors offer ten “ouideposts” at the end of the book, distilled from earlier chapters. The guideposts represent behaviors that normal brain development puts within the reach of the five and six year old child. The book was published by The Dana Press and The Joseph Henry Press. The Dana Press is the publishing division of the Dana Foundation. The Joseph Henry Press is an imprint of the National Academy Press. For more information about the book and current brain research, visit the Dana Foundation Website at www.dana.org.
