How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake, as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, "From Neurons to Neighborhoods" presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Environment is important to early learning. Relationships, however, are the core of it all in early childhood. This book clearly spells this out so policy makers and businesses will know what is necessary in the making of our next generation.

This is a valuable resource for any professional library.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:


Great resource!  Mar 27, 2006 By Kirby D. Rekedal MD
An amazing breadth and depth of neuroscience and its implications for how we treat children. Must reading for anyone wishing to get beyond prejudice and rhetoric to the core of what needs to be done in public policy to protect and preserve childhood in modern America. Should be 5 stars, but now a little dated, although references are excellent and it's not hard to follow the themes into the most recent research.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:


Review of From Neurons to Neighbourhoods.  Aug 04, 2006 By A. Ursic "Ange U."
I purchased this book, because I am doing a Graduate Diploma in Maternal & Child Health in Australia. Many of our lecturers were taking quotes from this book and referring to Jack Schonkoff's remarks contained within, pertaining to new evidence on myelination and the importance of interaction and stimulation of small children and the relationship between this and brain growth. It is easy to read and I am confident that both the lay person and health professional alike will glean valuable insight. I find myself constantly referring to this book and know that this will have an effect on my future practice as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


super terrific  Oct 23, 2006 By Holly4Tulo "HHW"
This book is a staple in the early childhood mental health field. It represents everything good in the promotion of social-emotional development in our society. Creating neurobiologically friendly environments for young children is a crossroad our society faces in an effort to have a positive impact on the mental health for our time. Implications for risk and resilience research contributions are included.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


Mind-numbing  Jan 30, 2010 By Lawrence Daressa
"Neurons to Neighborhood" has played a seminal role in increasing recognition among early childhood professionals and the general public of the critical role of neural development during the first years of life on subsequent life outcomes. In particular, it identifies childhood poverty as perhaps the major factor causing later cognitive and emotional deficits and disparities. That said, the book is ten years old and badly in need of a revision both to include important new research but to address a new audience. It is basically a public policy report and hence written in the mind-numbingly boring prose which seems de rigeur within the Beltway. Dr. Shonkoff's Center on the Developing Child has done an admirable job publishing short, accessible precis of many of the books findings. What is needed, in my opinion, is a shorter, more concise and more intellectually provocative work of "popular science" and social analysis.

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