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 that all babies go through during the first 20 months of their lives. Age-related fluctuations and the need for body contact and attention are all related to major and quite dramatic changes in the brains of children. These changes enable a baby to enter a whole new perceptual world and, as a consequence, to learn many new skills. Wonder week by wonder week you'll discover the dates in the first 20 months when all babies take ten major development leaps. Learn how to encourage each leap forward. Help your baby with the three Cs of fussy behavior: Cranky, Clingy and Crying. Recognize the on-set of stressful times and join your children in coping with them.

Author Biography

Frans X. Plooij studied behavioral biology in the Netherlands in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Groningen, where he received his Ph.D. in 1980. He is a full member of several international, scientific societies including the New York Academy of Sciences. Together they studied infant development in free-living chimpanzees with Dr. Jane Goodall in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East Africa. Dr. Plooij is director of the International Research-institute on Infant Studies (IRIS) at Arnhem, and president of Kiddy World Promotions B.V. Hetty van de Rijt studied Educational Psychology at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands and obtained her Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, England. At the University of Amsterdam, 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.