What's Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

Although the human brain has 100 billion nerve cells at birth, newborns are capable of little beyond the most vital functions like breathing and sucking. The infant's ability to see, hear, touch, smell and taste is primitive. Higher cognitive functions like attention, reasoning, language and conscious memory are absent. Scientific research proves that a baby's brain cells are only weakly connected. What firms up these connections are the experiences and stimulation the baby receives in the critical first five years....