What can parents do with a brand-new baby? Here are hundreds of ideas for using mirrors, blocks, shaving cream -- and even parents' own smiles -- to keep babies laughing and learning. Both parents and caregivers can use this book to help babies make the most of those important first 18 months.

A complete guide to the most important year in your baby’s life! With its timely, in-depth advice and hands-on guidance, Parenting magazine has emerged as the child-care resource of choice for aware, involved parents. Now the editors of Parenting bring you a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute guide to the all-important first year of your baby’s life. With fully illustrated chapters organized in three-month increments from birth to first birthday, Parenting Guide to Your Baby’s First Year provides the essentials on everything you need to know about: Your Baby’s First Hours: How newborns look, act, and feel • Making the most of your hospital stay • Taking your newborn home The Adjustment to Parenthood: Dealing with postpartum blues • The challenging demands of a newborn • Older siblings Feeding Your Growing Child: The pros and cons of breast and bottle • Strategies for dealing with picky eaters • Avoiding mealtime power struggles Child Development: How your baby grows • Mastering motor skills • Baby’s social and emotional life Health & Safety: First-year medical checkups • Baby-proofing your home • Common illnesses of infancy and early childhood Special Concerns: Preventing SIDS • Living with colic • Developmental delays

You're no idiot, of course. You know that life isn't like an old sitcom—when TV dads like Mike Brady or Ward Cleaver always had just the right answer for Greg, Marcia or the Beaver. But when it comes to earning the title "World's Greatest Dad," you feel like you're always going to be more like the father from Married with Children than the one from Father Knows Best. Don't retire your cardigan just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Fatherhood answers all the questions any expecting, new, or veteran father could have on topics ranging from communication and ground rules to privileges and punishment.

There is more to listening than just hearing. A miraculous process that begins in the womb, learning to communicate is a vital part of expressing oneself and of understanding and interacting with the world. A child’s ability to listen well affects every aspect of his or her life. But for some 1.5 million children in the United States who have normal hearing and intelligence, communication and language are blocked. Words are jumbled and distorted. These children have a hard time following directions and become frustrated in trying to make themselves understood, which often leads to unruly behavior, poor school performance, social isolation, and low self-esteem. Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) affects the brain’s ability to accurately process the sounds of speech, which in turn impedes the ability to communicate. Experts are just beginning to unlock the mystery of this confounding condition. As a result, APD is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. But hope is here. Now veteran speech-language pathologist Lois Kam Heymann offers the first practical guide to help parents dramatically improve the listening and language skills of their children, whether they have a diagnosed auditory processing disorder, slow language development—or simply need practice listening. Inside this reassuring, action-oriented book you’ll find • easy-to-identify milestones to help parents pinpoint challenges that may arise during each stage of their child’s development from birth to age eight • the tools and checklists needed to assist parents in recognizing APD early • tips to distinguish APD from other listening/learning disorders, including ADD, ADHD, LPD, and PDD • methods to encourage a child’s natural listening abilities through books, stories, nursery rhymes, songs, lullabies, toys, and games • home techniques to hone a child’s auditory processing—whether he or she has severe APD limitations or just needs to build listening “muscles” • specific suggestions on how to improve a child’s listening skills outside the home—at school, during after-school activities, even when at a restaurant • an analysis of traditional classroom settings and effective ways parents can advocate for better sound quality • guidelines for finding the right professionals to work with your child With hands-on ways for improving a child’s ability to listen to instructions, process information, and follow directions, parents can turn simple activities into powerful listening lessons in only minutes a day. The bottom line: Learning how to listen in our noisy, complicated world is the key to a happy and engaged child.

A guide for adoptive parents from preparations for a child's arrival through the teen years.

Let the trusted authors of Your Pregnancy™ Week by Week—the book you relied on while you were pregnant—guide you through baby’s remarkable, sometimes mind-boggling first year. With easy-to-understand information at your fingertips, you’ll know what to look for and understand what’s happening. This book will provide you with the skills necessary to support and encourage baby’s growth. Thoroughly revised and updated, Your Baby’s First Year™ Week by Week includes the latest pediatric guidelines and recommendations, plus more than 50 new topics—everything from food allergies to cord-blood banking. It also features the essential milestones of baby’s social, emotional, intellectual and physical development on a weekly basis. Valuable information includes: Common medical problems: what to look for and when to call baby’s pediatrician Bonding with baby: from baby massage to talking, what you can do to create a meaningful connection Feeding baby: breast milk or formula? and introducing solids Sleeping habits: how to improve the situation for the entire family Vaccination guidelines: learn about the latest recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Playing with baby: how to help develop baby’s cognitive, social and motor skills through play and with toys, many of them homemade Baby gear: the latest on carriers, high chairs, swings, cribs, clothing, diapers and everything else you may need

As they play, children do more than imagine--they also invent life-long approaches to thinking, feeling, and relating to other people. For nearly a century, clinical psychologists have been concerned with the content and interpersonal meaning of play. More recently, developmental psychologists have concentrated on the links between the emergence of symbolic play and evolving thought and language. At last, this volume bridges the gap between the two disciplines by defining their common interests and by developing areas of interface and interrelatedness. The editors have brought together original chapters by distinguished psychoanalysts, clinical psychologists, social workers, and developmental psychologists who shed light on topics outside the traditional confines of their respective domains. Thus the book features clinicians exploring subjects such as play representation, narrative, metaphor, and symbolization, and developmentalists examining questions regarding affect, social development, conflict, and psychopathology. Taken together, the contributors offer a rich, integrative view of the many dimensions of early play as it occurs among peers, between parent and child, and in the context of therapy.

'Kind, scholary, accessible... A gorgeous book for every parent' Dr Chris Van Tulleken The stress, anxiety, and isolation of the past few years have led to a crisis among young children. Many toddlers who had been chatting away stopped altogether while others never developed language skills at all. Speech and language therapist Nicola Lathey and journalist Tracey Blake are on a mission to get your child back on track--with strategies tailored to specific needs: - What if your baby isn't babbling in year one? - What if your toddler isn't saying their first words in year two? - What if your child isn't talking in sentences like their peers in year three? What to Do When Your Child Isn't Talking answers parents' burning questions about their child's development and provides expert strategies to put this advice into practice. With each chapter devoted to a language setback and solution, this book provides practical advice and fun games for parents to steer their children back on track and set them up for success at school and in life.

It's amazing how quickly babies develop during their first days, weeks, and months. Baby Development: Everything You Need to Know takes parents through the first two years, focusing on what they can do to help maximize their baby's potential in a relaxed, fun way.

Revised and expanded, this new edition will help parents of young children develop confidence in the decisions they'll make.