Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“This book is a valuable addition to parents libraries...After reading it, parents can be enthralled as they watch their new babies imitate and learn the ‘rules of communication and speech learning. What an interesting book by three eminent ‘baby watchers! T. Berry Brazelton, MD, Harvard Medical School
Review
“This book is at once a masterful synthesis of the latest findings about the minds of children and a provacative argument that young children resemble practicing scientists. Few books about human development speak so eloquently to both scholars and parents.” Howard Gardner, Ph.D., author of Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences in the 21st Century
Review
“[An] excellent book...it should be of interest to anyone curious about the human mind and its origins.” The Chicago Tribune
Review
“Meticulously researched, combining charm and erudition, humor and humanity, The Scientist in the Crib...should be placed in the hands of teachers, social workers, therapists, policymakers, expectant parents and everyone else who cares about children.” The Washington Post
Review
“The Scientist in the Crib is a triumph, a clear-headed account of the kinds of things that go on in the heads of young children....[This book] speaks in the voice of intelligent parents talking to other intelligent parents--witty, rather personal, and very well informed.” T. Berry Brazelton, MD, Harvard Medical School
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-264) and index.
About the Author
Alison Gopnik, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading cognitive scientist. She is past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and is the author of more than seventy papers on philosophy, psychology, and children's early learning. She has also written for The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement. Mother of three, she lives with her family in Berkeley, California.Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D. revolutionized the field of child psychology with his discoveries about how much infants know, learn, and remember. He is a professor of psychology and the University of Washington, and his research has been featured in Time, The New York Times, and museum exhibits worldwide. He and his wife, Dr. Kuhl, live with their daughter in Seattle, Washington.Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph.D. is the world's leading authority on speech development and is a professor of speech and hearing at the University of Washington. She was one of six scientists invited to present their research at the White House Conference on Early Learning and the Brain in 1997. Her recent findings on language acquisition and why parents speak "motherese" to their children made national headlines. She and her husband, Dr. Meltzoff, live in Seattle.
Table of Contents
Ancient questions and a young science -- What children learn about people -- What children learn about things -- What children learn about language -- What scientists have learned about children's minds -- What scientists have learned about children's brains -- Trailing clouds of glory.