The Architecture of the Child Mind


Book Description

What exactly does it mean to be intelligent? Does intelligence manifest itself in one way or in different ways in children? Do children fit any preconceived notions of intelligence? Some theories assert a general (g) factor for intelligence that is universal and enters all mental abilities; other theories state that there are many separate domains or faculties (Fs) of intelligence; and still others argue that the g and Fs of intelligence coexist in a hierarchical relation. The Architecture of the Child Mind: g, Fs, and the Hierarchical Model of Intelligence argues for the third option in young children. Through state-of-the-art methodologies in an intensive research program conducted with 4-year-old children, Bornstein and Putnick show that the structure of intelligence in the preschool child is best construed as a hierarchically organized combination of a General Intelligence factor (g) and multiple domain-specific faculties (Fs). The Architecture of the Child Mind offers a review of the history of intelligence theories and testing, and a comprehensive and original research effort on the nature and structure of intelligence in young children before they enter school. Its focus on intelligence will appeal to cognitive, developmental, and social psychologists as well as researchers and scholars in education, particularly those specializing in early childhood education.




The Architecture of the Child Mind


Book Description

What exactly does it mean to be intelligent? Does intelligence manifest itself in one way or in different ways in children? Do children fit any preconceived notions of intelligence? Some theories assert a general (g) factor for intelligence that is universal and enters all mental abilities; other theories state that there are many separate domains or faculties (Fs) of intelligence; and still others argue that the g and Fs of intelligence coexist in a hierarchical relation. The Architecture of the Child Mind: g, Fs, and the Hierarchical Model of Intelligence argues for the third option in young children. Through state-of-the-art methodologies in an intensive research program conducted with 4-year-old children, Bornstein and Putnick show that the structure of intelligence in the preschool child is best construed as a hierarchically organized combination of a General Intelligence factor (g) and multiple domain-specific faculties (Fs). The Architecture of the Child Mind offers a review of the history of intelligence theories and testing, and a comprehensive and original research effort on the nature and structure of intelligence in young children before they enter school. Its focus on intelligence will appeal to cognitive, developmental, and social psychologists as well as researchers and scholars in education, particularly those specializing in early childhood education.




The Child Mind in Evolution


Book Description

Consists of three parts: first, a description of the child and his background, the conditions under which the drawings were made; second, a study of the content and characteristics of the drawings; third, a psychological interpretation of the findings.




How the Child's Mind Develops


Book Description

How the Child's Mind Develops, 2nd Edition.




The Whole-Brain Child


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than 1 million copies in print! • The authors of No-Drama Discipline and The Yes Brain explain the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures in this pioneering, practical book. “Simple, smart, and effective solutions to your child’s struggles.”—Harvey Karp, M.D. In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth. Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives. “[A] useful child-rearing resource for the entire family . . . The authors include a fair amount of brain science, but they present it for both adult and child audiences.”—Kirkus Reviews “Strategies for getting a youngster to chill out [with] compassion.”—The Washington Post “This erudite, tender, and funny book is filled with fresh ideas based on the latest neuroscience research. I urge all parents who want kind, happy, and emotionally healthy kids to read The Whole-Brain Child. This is my new baby gift.”—Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other “Gives parents and teachers ideas to get all parts of a healthy child’s brain working together.”—Parent to Parent




The Design of Childhood


Book Description

From building blocks to city blocks, an eye-opening exploration of how children's playthings and physical surroundings affect their development. Parents obsess over their children's playdates, kindergarten curriculum, and every bump and bruise, but the toys, classrooms, playgrounds, and neighborhoods little ones engage with are just as important. These objects and spaces encode decades, even centuries of changing ideas about what makes for good child-rearing--and what does not. Do you choose wooden toys, or plastic, or, increasingly, digital? What do youngsters lose when seesaws are deemed too dangerous and slides are designed primarily for safety? How can the built environment help children cultivate self-reliance? In these debates, parents, educators, and kids themselves are often caught in the middle. Now, prominent design critic Alexandra Lange reveals the surprising histories behind the human-made elements of our children's pint-size landscape. Her fascinating investigation shows how the seemingly innocuous universe of stuff affects kids' behavior, values, and health, often in subtle ways. And she reveals how years of decisions by toymakers, architects, and urban planners have helped--and hindered--American youngsters' journeys toward independence. Seen through Lange's eyes, everything from the sandbox to the street becomes vibrant with buried meaning. The Design of Childhood will change the way you view your children's world--and your own.




Century of the Child


Book Description

The book examines individual and collective visions for the material world of children, from utopian dreams for the citizens of the future to the dark realities of political conflict and exploitation. Surveying more than 100 years of toys, clothing, playgrounds, schools, children's hospitals, nurseries, furniture, posters, animation and books, this richly illustrated catalogue illuminates how progressive design has enhanced the physical, intellectual, and emotional development of children and, conversely, how models of children's play have informed experimental aesthetics and imaginative design thinking.







The Architectures of Childhood


Book Description

Between 1935 and 1959, the architecture of childhood was at the centre of architectural discourse in a way that is unique in architectural history. Some of the seminal projects of the period, such as the Secondary Modern School at Hunstanton by Peter and Alison Smithson, Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation at Marseilles, or Aldo van Eyck’s playgrounds and orphanage, were designed for children; At CIAM, architects utilized photographs of children to present their visions for reconstruction. The unprecedented visibility of the child to architectural discourse during the period of reconstruction is the starting point for this interdisciplinary study of modern architecture under welfare state patronage. Focusing mainly on England, this book examines a series of innovative buildings and environments developed for children, such as the adventure playground, the Hertfordshire school, the reformed children hospital, Brutalist housing estates, and New Towns. It studies the methods employed by architects, child experts and policy makers to survey, assess and administer the physiological, emotional and developmental needs of the ‘user’, the child. It identifies the new aesthetic and spatial order permeating the environments of childhood, based on endowing children with the agency and autonomy to create a self-regulating social order out of their own free will, while rendering their interiority and sociability observable and governable. By inserting the architectural object within a broader social and political context, The Architectures of Childhood situates post-war architecture within the welfare state’s project of governing the self, which most intensively targeted the citizen in the making, the children. Yet the emphasis on the utilization of architecture as an instrument of power does not reduce it into a mere document of social policy, as the author uncovers the surplus of meaning and richness of experience invested in these environments at the historical moment when children represented values and ideas about life, community, happiness, human potentiality, and perhaps even the very prospect of imagining a more humane and secure future at the aftermath of the Second World War.




From Neurons to Neighborhoods


Book Description

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.