The Wonder Weeks: How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 10 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward

"The Wonder Weeks. How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 10 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward" describes in easy-to-understand terms the incredible developmental changes and regression periods that all babies go through during the first 20 months of their lives. The extended, white cover edition describes 2 more leaps in the mental development of your baby up to the end of the sensorimotor period. The book offers guidance how to ...: • Know when and why your baby is fussy • Help him/her (and yourself!) get through / survive the fussy phases • Get the most out of these developmental phases The book is based on the scientific- and parental-world-changing discovery of a phenomenon: all normal, healthy babies appear to be more fussy at very nearly the same ages, regression periods, and sleep less in these phases. A worldwide bestseller and sanity savior for parents around the globe. These age-related fluctuations in need for body contact and attention (regression periods) are related to major and quite dramatic changes in the brains of the children. These changes enable a baby to enter a whole new perceptual world and, as a consequence, to learn many new skills. This should be a reason for celebration, but as far as the baby is concerned these changes are bewildering. He's taken aback -- everything has changed overnight. It is as if he has woken up on a strange planet. The book includes: • Week-by-week guide to baby's behavior • When to expect the fussy behavior, what this implies (cranky, clingy, crying (the three C's) behavior) and how to deal with these regression periods (leaps) • A description from your baby's perspective of the world around him and how you can understand the changes he's going through • Fun games and gentle activities you can do with your child For more detailed information about contents and the research behind the book, please visit www.thewonderweeks.com Expert reviews: ---“This is a very practical and entertaining window into the baby’s first year and a half. van de Rijt and Plooij have observed and found the vulnerable times in an infant’s development that I independently came to in my book Touchpoints (Perseus). The authors’ observations and practical suggestions are wonderful.” (T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., professor emeritus, Harvard Medical School). ---“Anyone who deals with infants and young children will want to read 'The Wonder Weeks.' This book will open parents’ eyes to aspects of their children’s growth, development, changing behavior, and emotional responsiveness that they might otherwise not notice or find puzzling and distressing.” (Catherine Snow, Ph.D., Shattuck Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education). ---“van de Rijt and Plooij’s work on infant development has enormous value for clinical use and scientific application. Not only have they explained the periods of puzzling, difficult behavior in infancy which so worry parents, they have also shown how these behaviors mark developmental leaps and have described the stages in the infant’s understanding. Together, this gives parents and professionals soundly based insight into babies’ developing minds. What’s more, van de Rijt and Plooij have described the play and communication that work best with babies at different ages and thus helped parents understand and connect sensitively with their babies. This parent-child connection is the major prerequisite for the development of secure, well-adjusted children. 'The Wonder Weeks' is essential reading for everyone who works with infants: pediatricians, social workers, psychologists, and, of course, parents.” (John Richer, Ph.D., Dip. Clin. Psychol., consultant clinical psychologist and Head of Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatrics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England).

Born in 1944, Hetty van de Rijt studied Educational Psychology at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands and she worked in an institute for the mentally handicapped. She obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, England in 1982. Born in 1946, her husband Frans X. Plooij studied behavioural biology in the Netherlands in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Groningen, where he received his Ph.D. in 1980. Together they studied infant development in free-living chimpanzees with Dr. Jane Goodall in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East Africa from 1971-1973. Consequently, from 1973 to 1976, they studied with Prof. Robert Hinde in the Medical Research Council unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, University of Cambridge, England. In 1976 their daughter Xaviera was born. From 1976-80 Frans worked at the department of Developmental Psychology, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, filming and observing babies in their home environment. From 1981 to 1993 he was head of the department of Research and Development at the institute for Child Studies of the City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where, among other things, he worked on the implementation of an innovative second- and foreign-language teaching method for preschool children. From 1993 to 1998, he was a professor at the Department of Developmental and Experimental Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen. Currently, Dr. Plooij is director of the International Research-institute on Infant Studies (IRIS) at Arnhem, and president of Kiddy World Promotions B.V., a consulting firm that serves companies producing products related to children, such as toys. He is a full member of several international, scientific societies including the New York Academy of Sciences. In addition to numerous scientific publications, Dr. Plooij has written several bestselling parenting books. As a post-doc at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands from 1986 to 1990, Dr. van de Rijt studied the development of human babies in their home environment. As lead author with her husband as co-author, she wrote the best-selling parenting book The Wonder Weeks, which has been published in twelve languages, from the USA to Japan. She designed a parental support and education program called "Leaping hurdles," based on the Wonder Weeks and published a scientific evaluation study to report on the effects of this program. She died far too young at the age of 59.