Really great child development stuff, some pretty basic. Good advice on tantrums. Liked this quote: "time spent playing is always well spent" or something like that. Cuz now every time my child plays I feel good about my parenting, haha.

This is great as a narrative of development and what to expect. It did not offer a lot of activities that I wasn't already doing and it would be better to read earlier rather than later since so much development is packed into the first year. I usually like these books to be organized by year instead of area of development, but I liked the overall supportive and clear tone of the book. What I really liked was the final chapter on factors influencing development. It really reminds one not to lock in your idea of your child since there are many factors that influence them. This is something missing in other books which may cover the other topics.

Nice to have on hand to understand what to expect with childhood development.

Read this a couple months ago. The information is really basic, but I thought it was very helpful for a first-time mom. It does a good job outlining milestones and when they typically happen. I also really liked the ideas for different games and activities that are appropriate for each age group. A good, basic resource.

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.

Interesting book. I agree with parts of the developmental milestones. I wish I would have read this prior to having my child, had some good suggestions for developmental games and activities. Also ways to calm baby during "fussy" stages. Some of the milestones appear to be a bit advanced (like discussing walking around 32 weeks) but the developmental fussiness was believable and a good discussion.

Dr. Altmann's book gives valuable parenting advice. Highly recommend.

Nice layout...information is nothing terribly new...especially for second time round parent. Addresses children ages 0-5 years.

2.5*

If this is a book about child development, how can they not address sleep? I would understand if they briefly said the research is inconclusive but to leave it out entirely makes the book incomplete.