An NPR Science Desk correspondent challenges the misleading child-rearing practices commonly recommended to parents, outlining alternatives grounded in international ancestral traditions that are being used effectively throughout the modern world.

Demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science of child development have been overlooked. The authors discuss the inverse power of praise, why insufficient sleep adversely affects kids' capacity to learn, why white parents don't talk about race, why kids lie, why evaluation methods for "giftedness" and accompanying programs don't work, and why siblings really fight....

Helps children learn simple words and phrases in French.

"Describes the important milestones child care providers will observe as children grow from birth through age eight ... includes information on all five developmental domains - physical and motor, social and emotional, communication and language, cognitive, and approaches to learning - and aligns with state standards."--Page 4 of cover.

"How children think is one of the most enduring mysteries--and difficulties--of parenthood. The marketplace is full of gadgets and tools that claim to make your child smarter, happier, or learn languages faster, all built on the premise that manufacturers know something about your child's brain that you don't. These products are easy to sell, because good information about how children's minds really work is hard to come by. In their new book, neuroscientists...