YOUR FIVE-YEAR-OLD: Sunny and Serene; YOUR SIX-YEAR-OLD: Defiant But Loving

by Louise Bates & Frances L. Ilg Ames ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1979

These two volumes, like their 1976 predecessors (Your Two-Year-Old, Your Three-Year-Old, Your Four-Year-Old), briefly characterize successive stages in children's lives. Among the standard references, they place near the more staid and traditional: sexual stereotypes, though muted, are present, ""nice"" and ""good"" child are repeated desirables, psychological insights take a back seat to more concrete priorities. (For example, tooth loss, common to both ages, is mentioned but only the tooth-fairy aspect is discussed.) Although still committed to Sheldon's body types, the authors recognize Chess and Thomas' work on temperament; and although they focus on broad patterns, they do insist that no child will follow the precise course of development they outline here. Eating and dressing habits, discipline and tensional outlets, the place of grandparents and other recurrent considerations receive attention--nothing exceptional, just once-over advice. One more serious reservation: they endorse conditioning devices for bedwetters. Ames and Ilg do, however, stress one facet central to both ages: school readiness, which they emphatically remind should depend on maturity rather than chronological age. Overall, then, somewhat limited but generally reassuring.

Pub Date: April 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION