Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love

As a teacher, child psychology graduate and mother I have to say that this book was very useful. Even having studied most of the material in this book in university, it was a excellent reminder of the many ways to stimulate a child's mind. Yes there are not many gmaes - and the ones included are simple and sometimes obvious. However the connection the book makes between the games, that most parents play with their babies anyway, and how those games stimulate the mind is fascinating and is what this book is really trying to do. Once you understand the function of a particular game you can adapt and modify and make new games that stimulate the same parts of the brain.If you are looking for a strictly games book with less psychology and more actual games and songs, definitely buy Baby Play by Gymboree. It has games organized by age and then color coded on each page to highlight the game, song, skill, related research etc and you can easily find just what you want without reading all the extra stuff. Plus, there are fantastic pictures!But I digress. Baby Minds is a book with a lot of information. It is designed, I believe, for the parent or teacher who wants to understand what their child is learning when they play. Can you successfully raise your child without reading this book? Absolutely! Will this book make you more aware of the types of activities you do with your child and what your child is gaining? Absolutely!

This is the best written book on early child development that I've read( and I've gone through the entire library shelf). I liked it so much I had to buy this newest edition on Amazon. As a first time mom, I found it helpful to know what babies are capable of at each stage and how certain types of play can help them to form the proper neurologic connections to advance in their development. The authors give specific suggestions on simple games to play with children from newborn to age three(there is an index in the back of the book with types of play to promote specific developmental goals grouped by age of the child), and back it up with clinical studies and clear explanations. I know I will be reading this book over and over for the next few years!

This book was very informative. I enjoyed reading it. I think you will enjoy reading it too. It gave some great suggestions for helping little minds. I think anyone who has children would benefit from reading this book. Teachers also might find this helpful or just anyone who works with kids.

This book is totally excellent in encouraging parents to stimulate their baby's mind from birth.But he is rather limited in some ways. It is all about stimulating logic, not so much about creativity.For example, the authors believe that a good MEMORY is what is needed to excel at school. That is what is wrong with the school system! We need to stimulate the ability to think, not just to remember.So, in addition to this book, have your baby look at things of NATURE, where there is infinite variations. eg silk roses, hang spirals, pictures of nature - not just geometric black and white things.

This book recommends what types of stimulus help to promote optimal mental and emotional development. It's laid out fairly well and it a quick read. Use this book as a supplement to other baby mind books you'll get. What I like best about this book is at the end, it summarizes (in chart form) all the things you should be doing with the baby and at what age (such as what type of stimulus you should be giving the baby and what areas of cognitive or emotional development it stimulates). Again, get this in conjunction with other books, such as my favorite, "What's Going On In There?".

This is an extremely informative read, especially for those parents looking for more than a how to guide.There are a myriad of books designed to "spoon-feed" the well meaning parent.As a first time parent, I've read a number of books covering infant and toddler development.This books is CLEARLY one of the best I've read.Acredolo and Goodwyn cover all of the important areas of development, support the current understandings with past and current researchand finally provide us with many suggestions for activities that are not only fun, but skill building for our precious little ones as well.This is a great "foundation" book that's never dry or boring and is packed with useful content.It's an absolute must for expecting parents or those with very young infants.The earlier you get this book the better.

While I think this is a great book, I expected it to be a better resource of games. It is more general than expected and you have to wade through the chapters to find the game suggestions. This makes it more difficult to use as a resource later when you are likely to want to look up games for a specific age-group. While they do have a "Tips Revisited" chapter where they list the games by age, I wasn't pleased with the generalness of the descriptions given. I just wasn't excited about the organization of the book. I much preferred "Your Baby's Mind" by S. H. Jacobs (except his dismissal of early exposure to books). I did however love the book "Baby Signs' by these same authors.

This book is a more in-depth resource for parents and caregivers. Although the information in this book covers babies from birth to age three, it's difficult to find the activities for each age level easily as they are separated by categories (problem solving, memory, first words, letters, rhymes, books, counting, etc.). Written by two Ph.D.s, the book has good research-based information about developmental milestones of babies and toddlers, but the pictures used are black and white.

Interesting science and a few good ideas.

I expected more ideas..

Interesting read although more research based rather than actual "brain building" games.

A good read!

Natürlich ist es noch nicht zu sehen, was für eine Auswirkung diese Spiele haben, aber auf jeden Fall ist es interessant wie die Spiele für die passende Älter doch interesse weckt und langeweile verbannt. Auch wenn es nichts anderes tut, hilft das schon sehr die Nerven der Eltern zu schönen.