So I finally scored a copy of Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina (thanks C for the advanced copy!) and have started to read it (along with the numerous other child development books I’ve been reading concurrently). Here’s what the book is about in a nutshell as taken from the opening pages of the book:
Pregnancy
- Babies develop an active mental life in the womb
- Stressed mom, stressed baby
- Eat right, stay fit, get lots of pedicures
Relationship
- Happy marriage, happy baby
- The brain seeks safety above all
- What is obvious to you is obvious to you
Smart baby
- The brain cares about survival before learning
- Intelligence is more than IQ
- Face time, not screen time
- Safe baby, smart baby
- Praise effort, not IQ
- Guided play—every day
- Emotions, not emoticons
Happy baby
- Babies are born with their own temperament
- Emotions are just Post-it notes
- Empathy makes good friends
- The brain craves community
- Empathy soothes the nerves
- Labeling emotions calms big feelings
Moral baby
- Babies are born with moral sensibilities
- Discipline + warm heart = moral kid
- Let your yes be yes and your no be no
I will be writing more about the book in time to come but meanwhile, you can take a sneak peek at the first few pages and read the Q&A with John Medina to get an insight on what sort of information you will find in the book. Alternatively, you can just buy the book if you can’t wait.
I haven’t finished reading it but from what I’ve seen so far there’s quite a bit of overlap with Nurture Shock pretty much concluding the same things – which is also reassuring. It is still worth reading because there is new information – one in particular that caught me:
Myth: Children somehow find their own happiness.
Truth: The greatest predictor of happiness is having friends. How do you make and keep friends? By being good at deciphering nonverbal communication. Learning a musical instrument boosts this ability by 50 percent. Text messaging may destroy it.
Time to revisit music lessons?
Nurture for the Future 