How to stimulate the most important developmental weeks in your baby's first 20 months and turn these 10 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward. The worldwide bestseller and multiple award winning The Wonder Weeks describes the incredible mental developmental changes (leaps) and regression periods that all babies go through. Based on the scientific - and parental - world-changing discovery of a phenomenon: all healthy babies appear to be more fussy at very nearly the same ages, regression periods, and sleep less in these phases. 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. Understanding the real reason behind crying, eating, and sleeping problems is the only real solution every parent needs.

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.