2014 Book Review #42: The Wonder Years

[jethrien]

Title: The Wonder Years: Helping Your Baby and Young Child Successfully Negotiate the Major Developmental Milestones
Editor: The American Academy of Pediatrics
Genre: Parenting
Thingummies: 3

Synopsis: A guide of milestones to age 5.

Thoughts: There are a lot of useful suggestions for games and activities to both stretch and occupy young minds here. But I repeatedly found myself questioning the timelines. I know that my son is currently rather ahead of the curve on his gross physical milestones. (The pediatrician is repeatedly surprised.) So it's not that surprising that he's well ahead of a lot of their timelines. But he also regularly socializes with other kids--at daycare, at Gymboree, at the park. So I think I've gotten exposed to a fair number of kids around his age. And it seems to me that a lot of these milestones are so conservative as to be not entirely credible. My kid's 16 months old. With some effort, he can climb up onto a grown-up chair by himself, turn around, and sit at the table. According to this book, he should start being able to do this at...2 1/2. That's over a year from now. And most of his friends aren't that far behind him. So I'm a little skeptical of their milestones, to be honest.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Or, you're raising the next Einstein.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

He's ahead regardless, but I doubt every kid on the playground is also ahead of the curve. I think their curve is too conservative.

Also, Einstein was delayed on most of his milestones. Basically didn't seem all that bright until his twenties.