I've referred to this book many times over the years. This book is a great gift to give to new parents.

Really solid overview of child development aimed at parents, though I also found it useful as someone who works with youth. Most of the information in here isn't new to me, but the presentation is fantastic: clear, accessible, with practical suggestions about what adults can do to nurture children and teens. Healy is especially opposed to pressuring children to grow up to fast--I'd love to give a copy of this to some of the loving but overinvolved parents that I see at the branch.

I am honestly impressed with how relevant this book still is. Much of the science and data are still true and the core tenets still apply. I found it useful, practical, and interesting.

I loved this book! I love the way Jane Healy explains the science in layman terms and then offers very practical suggestions in how to actually use the information to help your child. You can read more of my review here: http://thefilesofmrse.com/archives/2569

I bought this book in 1999 and my sister in law borrowed it right away. She liked it so much, I've only just gotten it back!

Straightforward and solid, both detailed but covering a broad range of subjects.
Would have helped if there was more of a summary/ maybe dumbing-down of the whole book at the beginning or end. I'd have to read it multiple times to feel like I actually fully grasped the gist of everything--very thick. Definitely not a 'simple' guide by any means.

Your Child's Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence covers how the brain develops throughout the beginning years and then how that is portrayed as the child begins to learn via reading, math, science, writing, spelling and through creativity. Part one covers brain development at various ages and how the brain changes and grows. Part two covers the foundations of learning, gender and hemisphere differences, learning styles, handedness and early language and memory. Part three covers how to teach children how to learn the basic subjects such as reading, math, writing & spelling, creativity, etc.

My mother-in-law gave me this book to read, from the collection she amassed in her years as a preschool specialist. I have to say I was very so-so on this book and really only read it because she gave it to me. I'm not at quite the right space to really read and apply this book and, if my daughter were a bit older (say around age 4), its contents would be a lot more meaningful to me. The beginning chapters on brain development were, quite honestly, way over my head. I think, however, if you have children just about to start attending school or if you have children in the early school years, this book could be pretty helpful with the practical aspects of how to encourage your children to learn in a natural, "fun" way. That being said, I thought that there were some chapters that were very interesting, particularly the chapter on how to teach children to read. I think it might be good to keep this book in mind and reread it in a few years once it's more applicable.

Highly recommended for any parents &/or teachers out there.

The most facts-based, hard-headed, and comprehensive book on how kids thing for parents, at least that I know of. An amazing resource, particularly compared with the anecdote-based books like extended pamphlets that are usually targeted at parents.

This was a super easy read, great for parents and educators. As a parent, I found the brain development information to be so interesting. As an educator, I found so many wonderful bits of information that would valuable to share with new parents and parents of primary aged children. So glad I took the time to read this book! The message = Talk, talk, talk to your kiddos and build language daily.

This book emphasizes the importance of allowing children to simply be children developing at their own speed, and the role of parents in tuning rather than driving this development towards predefined and often unrealistic targets.
Most (otherwise well-intentioned) parents find it difficult to establish a balance between taking care that their kids receive the best guidance possible, and pushing them too hard. This book is a must read especially for those who want to ensure they “do everything right”. A good reminder that kids are not lifelong projects, that should meet milestones, deadlines and above-average performance whenever caregivers wish it, but individual human beings with specific natural interests and talents that need nurturing. And that slower development in certain aspects may in fact correlate with better performance in those segments when the child reaches adulthood.
I will for sure re-read certain parts of this book when my offspring reaches each discussed stage of development.

Really good information on brain development and how that corresponds to learning ability and style, with practical tips for parents to help partner with teachers to help children reach their full potential. While it added a lot for parents to do and look out for, it was also super encouraging by reducing a lot of the cultural noise and push for children to learn classic academic facts faster and memorize more. Focus was placed more on critical thinking and development according to meaning. As a parent, I'll be using this book throughout my kid's school training.