Child Psychology: A New Look Inside Babies' Minds - TIME

Description

A New Look Inside Babies' Minds

Sure, they may while away their days eating, sleeping and soiling diapers. But Alison Gopnik says it's high time that babies got some respect. In her new book, The Philosophical Baby , the University of California, Berkeley, psychologist says modern research is revolutionizing our understanding of the first years of life, revealing early childhood to be a frenzied period of intellectual, emotional and moral development. "Any child will put the most productive scientist to shame," she writes. Gopnik spoke with TIME about the origins of creativity, the "boondoggle" of educational toys and discerning right and wrong during this uniquely fertile period of life.

TIME: You say that for most of history, babies were seen as "vegetables with a few reflexes." What's going on in a baby's mind that we didn't appreciate before?

Gopnik: If you just casually look at a baby, it doesn't look like there's very much going on there, but they know more and learn more than we would ever have thought. Every single minute is incredibly full of thought and novelty. It's easy as adults to take for granted everything it took to arrive at the state where we are.

You say babies are more imaginative and even more conscious than adults.

They take in much ...

Original URL

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1916406,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1916406,00.html