An interesting book. A lot of the contemporary research on child development that was reviewed here has been discussed elsewhere, but it was presented in a thorough and readable way. The big theme is that children, adolescents, teens and adults are very different physiologically and so we have to resist our urge to map back from adult frameworks to understand what younger people are doing and why. The most surprising part to me in all of this was the negative affect of watching public educational programming and how kids learned more nuanced sophisticated ways to be mean to each other because such a large portion of each show was spent demonstrating the offensive behavior and its effects. I still like [b:Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall: A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, Revised and Updated|25344|Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, Revised and Updated|Anthony E. Wolf|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167685095s/25344.jpg|382886] better. ( )

Interesting, but a book in the format of "here's a counter-intuitive and/or counter-mainstream result" per chapter that Freakonomics made so popular, and which is therefore incredibly high level and leaves me wondering if, and then how much, of this I should take on board. And then of course, "How?"

As an example: sure, I buy the idea that self-esteem was terminally over-hyped for decades, and it makes sense to me that giving kids constructive feedback, targetted praise, and generally focussing on effort rather than "oh, you're so smart" is the better way. But what do you tell a kid who is trying very hard and just doesn't appear to get better? How much time/money/effort/emotion/etc. should you invest in something the kid just sucks at? When/how do you make the call that they lack the knack? On the other hand, how much should you force a kid to keep trying when they might want to quit? For how long? In what ways?

A lot of interesting factoids, but little here that, outside of the most straightforward circumstances, is particularly *useful.* ( )

Bronson and Merryman's _Nurtureshock_ attacks two underlying assumptions about child development - a) children are basically like small adults when it comes to reacting to their environment and acting morally and b) there is a clear spectrum of child behavior from good to bad. The essential problem with received ideas about child psychology is that adult researchers bring their own biases into the mix. Children are constantly interacting with their environment in ways that confound adults - this is especially true of teenagers, whose sense of morality and risk-taking is constantly being negotiated and is influenced more by their peer group than their upbringing. Required reading for parents and teachers alike. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Provocative and provided much food for thought. ( )

3.5 - Food for thought for parents. The reviewer who called it "Freakonomics meets Malcolm Gladwell for parents" said it best. I couldn't come up with a better description. My takeaways: Kids should sleep more. Teens argue - it's okay. You should still have rules but be willing to talk it out with them. ( )