PEDIATRICS Vol. 88 No. 3 September 1991, pp. 496
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Reviews of Lay Literature in Child-Care: What Parents Are Reading

FRANCES PAGE GLASCOE PhD1, WILLIAM O. MOORE MD1, and ANNA BAUMGAERTEL MD1

1 Child Development Center, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

LB Ames, FL Ilg. Your Three-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy./Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender. Gesell Institute of Human Development. New York: Dell Publishing, 1976; list price $8.95 each (No. 29 and No. 26 on the 1990 bestseller list of books on child care from Ingram Book Co., distributor of trade books).

Ames and Ilg provide an exciting and interesting portrayal of young children's minds and the uniqueness of their feelings, language, drawings, play, humor, and thinking. Parents are taught to understand children's perspectives and their implications for behavior. For example, "bossiness" is explained as a way children cope with insecurity. Repeated requests for the same story or game is their way of producing order and learning. Variability across children, gender and ages is emphasized. While this is helpful, occasionally the authors seem too reassuring about seemingly significant developmental delays. Otherwise, the texts help parents acquire appropriate expectations for development and behavior. Disciplinary techniques are carefully tied to developmental stages and include diversion, avoiding choices and direct commands at certain ages, maintaining routines, etc. Question and answer sections at the end of the texts help parents with specific conflicts such as bed-times, toileting, fears, eating, and so forth. The authors assume the presence of an intact family with numerous resources including a nonworking parent. This may explain the dearth of references to support services. Although the texts could use modernization, they continue to serve as reminders of the complexities, integrity and wonder that are young children.


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