Childhood Development Quotes

“One reason it is vital to respond to an infant's needs is trhat the baby feels it is the cause of its own neglect, although this is not a conscious thought. Such narcissistic feelings pave the road to an infant's psychological and physical growth; since the baby senses no boundaries between herself and her mother, she "believes" that her cries cause the mother to tend to her. And if the mother does not tend to her, the baby believes that she created her own rejection by not being lovable, not worthy of care. It's a belief that haunts one's life.”
― Victoria Secunda, When You and Your Mother Can't Be Friends: Resolving the Most Complicated Relationship of Your Life

“What children need and want is not some new pedagogical method, but the world that already exists. They want to play in nature, plant things, be with animals, participate in the upkeep of their environment. They want to assimilate the culture and knowledge acquired by humanity in the countless generations preceding them, and they want to do this in a living way that is not sequentially programmed. They want to learn to speak, count, read, write, to discover geography and the mysteries of the universe, to learn music, mathematical code, biology, history, all about dinosaurs, and so on. And if we take the trouble to present the whole reality to our children in conditions that make sense to them, we will be very surprised at how quickly they leave their toys aside when they distract them from their real task: studying the real world that they were just born into, understanding it, becoming specialists in it.”
― Céline Alvarez, The Natural Laws of Children: Why Children Thrive When We Understand How Their Brains Are Wired

“A good children's book is conversation kids and their parents share and talk about.”
― Suzy Davies