From Babydom to Toddlerhood Extended Edition of Worldwide Bestseller, The Wonder Weeks, Now Available

An extended edition of the bestselling parental guidebook, The Wonder Weeks, is now available, it was announced today. This new edition of the worldwide phenomenon picks up where the original left off, taking parents – and their babies – through

Nationwide (I-Newswire) November 1, 2010 - An extended edition of the bestselling parental guidebook, The Wonder Weeks, is now available, it was announced today. This new edition of the worldwide phenomenon picks up where the original left off, taking parents – and their babies – through the critical first 20 months of mental development and into the first stages of toddlerhood.

The Wonder Weeks, written by Hetty van de Rijt, Ph.D., and Frans Plooij, Ph.D., one of the world’s top specialists in infant/child development and parent-baby interactions, spells out the miracles happening inside your baby’s brain with detailed information about each concurrent leap in the mental development. Based on 35 years of extensive research in the field of mental development in infants and toddlers, the book describes in easy to understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during their first 20 months of life.

Research has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes (or leaps) during their first 20 months of their lives. During this time, they will learn more than in any other year. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which affects not only his mood, but also his health, intelligence, sleeping patterns and the “three C’s” -- Crying, Clinging and Crankiness.

In the years since the publication of the original version of The Wonder Weeks, Dr. Plooij continued to research the developmental leaps in infants together with numerous national and international experts. The results are found in the extended edition of the book, which explores how the ninth and tenth are key leaps to form the basis of a well-educated child in cleverness and in well-raised person.

Worldwide research has given us a new view on the mental development of infants. Studies showed that when babies make their ninth and tenth leap in the mental development (64 weeks and 75 weeks), they start developing their first set of values and norms and they start building a conscience, respectively. "So,” says Plooij, “start setting rules now, and it will be an investment for life!”

According to Dr. Plooij, for the first time in history we know exactly what is going on inside a baby’s head and how this affects the whole process of growing up. “But, even more important,” he says, “we now know what we can ask from a toddler and what we cannot. And, toddlers from this age are capable of understanding far more than we ever imagined!”
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The Wonder Weeks is available at www.thewonderweeks.com, Amazon.com, and most online booksellers for $25.

More information about The Wonder Weeks, including details about the research behind the book, can be found at www.thewonderweeks.com and (in video) http://www.youtube.com/thewonderweeks.

To schedule an interview with Dr. Plooij or to receive additional background, please contact: Ellen R. Werther @ 212 980 4499 or mailto:ellen@thewonderweeks.com.