As a research neuroscientist, Lise Eliot has made the study of the human brain her life's work. But it wasn't until she was pregnant with her first child that she became intrigued with the study of brain development. She wanted to know precisely how the baby's brain is formed, and when and how each sense, skill, and cognitive ability is developed. And just as important, she was interested in finding out how her role as a nurturer can affect this complex process. How much of her baby's development is genetically ordained--and how much is determined by environment? Is there anything parents can do to make their babies' brains work better--to help them become smarter, happier people? Drawing upon the exploding research in this field as well as the stories of real children, What's Going On in There? is a lively and thought-provoking book that charts the brain's development from conception through the critical first five years. In examining the many factors that play crucial roles in that process, What's Going On in There? explores the evolution of the senses, motor skills, social and emotional behaviors, and mental functions such as attention, language, memory, reasoning, and intelligence. This remarkable book also discusses:

        how a baby's brain is "assembled" from scratch
the critical prenatal factors that shapebrain development
how the birthing process itself affects the brain
which forms of stimulation are most effective at promoting cognitive development
how boys' and girls' brains develop differently
how nutrition, stress, and other physical and social factors can permanently affect a child's brain


Brilliantly blending cutting-edge science with a mother's wisdom and insight, What's Going On in There? is an invaluable contribution to the nature versus nurture debate. Children's development is determined both by the genes they are born with and the richness of their early environment. This timely and important book shows parents the innumerable ways in which they can actually help their children grow better brains.

This is one of those books you should write in -- underline, highlight, take notes -- because if you are indeed interested in using this information to understand your child's progressive developmental changes, you will be referring to it often. The author presents a lot of research material in accessible language and style, but the book is dense and is not a day-to-day how-to guide. You will not read about colic or how to tell a cold from the flu, but you will learn why your four-month old prefers a little salt in her mashed potatoes or why most of us can't recall anything that happened before we were three-and-a-half years old. Because there is a lot of information, this is not one of the easiest books you will ever read, but it is eminently worthwhile. The author not only synopsizes a lot of research for us, but also defines the limits of research and/or those issues which are still under debate or not yet fully understood, and discusses the evolutionary implications of various developmental changes.

A Notes section details sources so you can follow up in areas in which you're particularly interested. (With 458 Notes, I'm not sure why one reviewer criticized the book for lack of documentation.) A thorough index. This book seems to benefit as much from good editing as exemplary authorship.

115 of 118 found the following review helpful:


Interesting, but not what I expected from the description  Mar 13, 2005 By Clicker
I'll briefly mention that like many other reviewers, my book totally fell apart before I even read half of it. But that's not the author's fault.

I had expected this book to be a year-by-year description from birth through age 5 of how a child's mind develops and how parents can nurture that development. I was quite wrong. This book covers a lot of in utero development from conception through about the seventh month of pregnancy and it touches on how long after birth these processes take to refine. The book also devotes a lot of attention to toxins and how they can affect the embryo or fetus. There is a break down of the five senses and how functional they are during pregnancy and infancy. The book reads much like biology and physiology textbooks I had in school. It also sites many studies using rats, monkeys, cats and children. If you are not interested in biology or the related research, you may have a difficult time staying with this book. I do find biology interesting and I had to force myself to read certain sections.

As I mentioned, I expected something far different than what I read in this book. I found about thirty pages of the first sixteen chapters and most of the seventeenth chapter had information that I could apply to the nuturing and development of my child. The book demonstrated that half of a child's IQ is inherited and half can be nutured by getting directly involved with your child and his/her activities. This advice is not just for infants and toddlers. The author suggests staying involved through the teen years too. It also expressed that breastfed babies score about six points higher on IQ tests than babies who are not breastfed. One other interesting point - first born children are smarter than their siblings. This is because they learn from teaching the younger child as opposed to the common belief that the younger child learns from the older one.

If you are interested in reading this book, I suggest doing so before or during your pregnancy. There is information you might find useful even before conception.

159 of 166 found the following review helpful:


A fascinating book and very informative to read  Nov 28, 2001
In this book, Lise Eliot goes in depth discussing current scientific knowledge about infant and early childhood brain development. I found this book very interesting to read. I would recommend this book who is interested or is researching/studying child development or how a child's brain and mind develops in the 1st five years. The book is very well written and quite easy to read. There were some medical terminology I didn't understand so I look it up in a medical book. Some of the many things discussed in this book are:
How the brain is developed
Prenatal risk factors
The special benefits of breast milk for brain development
What newborns can hear
Infant walkers don't help infants walk
How to encourage a baby's motor development
Stress, attachment, and brain development
How the brain store memories?
Language in the 1st eighteen months
The role of genes
The role of environment

The chapters in the book are:
Chapter 1 Nature or Nuture? It's All in the Brain

Chapter 2 The Basic Biology of Brain Development
Chapter 3 Prenatal Influences on the Developing Brain
Chapter 4 How Birth Affects the Brain
Chapter 5 The Importance of Touch
Chapter 6 Why Babies Love to be Bounced: The Precocious Sense of Balance and Motion
Chapter 7 The Early World of Smell
Chapter 8 Taste, Milk, and the Orgins of Food Preference
Chapter 9 Wiring Up the Visual Brain
Chapter 10 How Hearing Evolves
Chapter 11 Motor Milestones
Chapter 12 Social Emotional Growth

Chapter 13 The Emergence of Memory
Chapter 14 Language and the Developing Brain
Chapter 15 How Intelligence Grows in the Brain
Chapter 16 Nature, Nurture, and Sex Differences in Intellectual Development
Chapter 17 How to Raise a Smarter Child

79 of 82 found the following review helpful:


the only parenting book I've used  Jan 29, 2004 By Sajil Unni
I've browsed through other parenting books written by "parenting experts", but a quick glance always let me know that their claims were dubious and didn't pertain to all the different kinds of children out there. This book does not try to tell you how to act as a parent, instead it tells you what is physiologically going on inside their bodies and brains so that you can figure it out for yourself.

For example, when my son was around 1 1/2 I recognized that he was going through a verbal growth phenomenon (that every child experiences) refered to as "fast mapping" in the book. Children at this age have the most extraordinary ability to understand new words through context at a mind boggling rate. The author described it as something that no supercomputer array in the world is able to do as fast as a toddler. Since his brain might never again be that willing to absorb new data I decided to try to teach him as much as I could easily. He became potty trained at 18 mo. By 21 mo. he was able to recognize the uppercase and lowercase alphabet. By 27 mo he knew all the states, capitals, planets, and many dinosaurs and presidents. His learning frenzy slowed down by the time he was 2 1/2, but now at almost 3 1/2 he does have the ability to read at a 1st grade level.

But it's not just in academic areas that this book is beneficial. It also imparts the research done in behavioral areas. I learned how beneficial constant interaction and affection has on children's behavior, and so adopted that approach. It also gave examples about the benefit of positive reinforcement, consistant discipline, and logical consequences. We have found these preemptive actions on our part has led to a relatively easy introduction into parenting. Basically, because we know "what's going on in there", we know what to do to get the results we want to get.

Although I bought this book when my son was a few months old, I now give it to my pregnant friends because of it's clear-cut pregnancy advice, supported by research rather than word of mouth. It outlines all the environmental and even psychological factors that can have a tangible effect on your child. For example, most concerned pregnant moms give up caffeine to prevent birth defects. But when this claim is subject to the scientific method, even copious amounts of caffeine have no effect on the babies. But research does indicate that the mother's stress level does have at least a short term impact on the baby's brain. So in that way the book directs you to put your focus more on your psychological well being than on avoiding Diet Coke.

Overall, a tremendous resource.

20 of 20 found the following review helpful:


A superb, evidence-based guide to your child's development  Nov 13, 2005 By Stuart H. Stock
Any visit to a bookstore and you can see for yourself that the baby book industry is alive and well. I have borrowed several of the more popular child development titles and spent many hours pouring through the pages in search of tidbits to help my child grow. Again and again these popular titles disappoint: either they are filled with out-of-date information, speculation, and rumor or they insult the reader's intelligence with oversimplification and lack of evidence.

Lise Eliot's book, "What's Going on in There?" does _not_ disappoint. It is a factual and engrossing look at what modern science knows (and doesn't know) about child development. The author provides an overview of research across all the major areas of development (sensory, motor, emotional, memory, etc.) outlining how the brain is developing at various stages and what corresponding behaviors you will likely see in your child. Also covered is how parents can use the results of research to enhance and encourage their child's growth. Some of these things are very simple yet provide significant developmental advantages. For example, page 155 describes a vestibular stimulation study where spinning young infants in a swivel chair resulted in motor development advances.

The information in the book about child emotional and social growth is particularly compelling. I think almost any parent reading that section couldn't help but pause and consider how their own interactions with their children are shaping their little minds. The information in those sections really made me reconsider how I was going to approach the job of being a parent.

I particularly appreciated that the author takes time to delve deeper into studies to give the reader an understanding of the context and meanings of the results. This is particularly important for some of the socioeconomic studies where, at first blush, it appears that moneyed parents have smarter children.

In conclusion, Lise Eliot does a great service to those parents wanting a sound and rational guide to understanding their child's development. Readable, interesting, with 458 endnotes. Highly recommended.

PS - It appears Bantam fixed the binding issue. I have a copy from the 8th printing and there are no problems with the binding.

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