173: Why we shouldn’t read the “Your X-Year-Old Child” books any more

Have you ever seen recommendations for the books called Your One Year Old, Your Two Year Old, and so on, by Louise Bates Ames?  Every few weeks I see parents posting in online communities asking about some aspect of their child’s behavior that is confusing or annoying to them, and somebody responds: “You should read the Louise Bates Ames books!”   This usually comes with the caveat that the reader will have to disregard all the 'outdated gender stuff,' but that the information on child development is still highly relevant.   In this episode I dig deep into the research on which these books are based. While the books were mostly published in the 1980s, they're based on research done in the 1930s to 1950s.   I argue that far from just 'stripping out the outdated gender stuff,' we need to look much deeper at the cultural context that the information in these books fits within - because it turns out that not only were the researchers not measuring 'normal,' 'average' child development, but that they were training children to respond to situations in a certain way, based on ideas about a person's role in society that may not fit with our views at all. And if this is the case, why should we use these books as a guide to our children's development?   Other episodes mentioned: RIEScience of RIEToilet learningParenting Beyond Pink and BlueNVC   Jump to highlights: 02:41 An open invitation to check out the new book that will be released in August 2023. 04:59)Why these child psych books from the 1980s are all over parenting Facebook groups today 06:01 The Gesell philosophy of human behavior 08:48 Who is Louise Bates 10:32 Who is Arnold Gesell 11:28 How the children were selected to participate in the experiment 14:28 How our view of childhood had undergone a massive shift in the previous 100 years 16:09 What’s it like to have a child involved in the study 19:35 Some of the significant milestones provided by researchers 20:50 Dr. Gesell is looking to study the natural development of children’s physical capabilities 22:07 What normal seems to mean in the study 23:11 Gesell fails to observe what the baby’s hands are actually doing 24:18 The purpose of the ‘performance box’ 27:44 I add my own judgment of the research 28:32 Gesell wrote that what he called ‘systematic cinematography’ 29:22 Another way that the situation was anything but natural was that the study took place within a dome 30:59 Dr. Gesell observed the effect of the running commentary on him in the experimenter role 31:54 Dr. Gesell makes contradictory statements about whether the behavior he observed in the lab was the same as the behavior the child displayed at home 32:58 A baby’s behavior changes based on the environment it is in 35:04 What the researchers say about children’s capabilities outside of the lab 35:56 Even the view of maturation itself is inextricably linked to Euro-centric ideas about time, on both micro and macro scales. 40:51 What are parents supposed to do with all this information 45:19 One of the Dr. Bates Ames’ key ideas is that development doesn’t proceed in a linear fashion 47:52 The similarity between reading the development book and reading a horoscope 52:33 The idea that things aren’t linear in our children’s development is super helpful 52:54 I found the most useful description of why this non-linear behavior happens in a book of essays by Dr. Myrtle McGraw 54:14 Going back to the outdated ideas about gender 57:11 The flow of authority 01:00:55 When we use our power to get children to do what we want them to do we’re still promoting the values of a patriarchal culture 01:02:58 The most common word uttered is ‘mine’ 01:05:04 Each of the decisions parents make is made in a cultural context 01:07:36 An episode suggestion to listen to   References Al-Bdour, A-N.A., Akasheh, H.F., & Al-Husban, N.A. (2003). Ultrasonography of the uterus after normal vaginal delivery. Saudi Medical Journal 25(1), 41-44.   Astrology King (October 29, 2022). Aries Last Week: October 24 to 30, 2022. Author. Retrieved from: https://astrologyking.com/aries-last-week/   Ball, R.S. (1977). The Gesell Developmental Schedules; Arnold Gesell (1880-1961). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 5(3), 233-239.   Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, June 17). Arnold Gesell. Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arnold-Gesell   Dalton, T.C., & Bergenn, V.W. (1995). Beyond heredity and environment: Myrtle cGraw and the maturation controversy. Boulder: Westview Press.   Gesell, A., Ilg, F.L., Bates Ames, L., & Rodell, J.L. (1971). Infant and child in the culture of today: The guidance of development in home and nursery school. New York: Harper & Row.   Gesell, A., Halverson, H.M., Thompson, H., Ilg, F.L, Castner, B.M., Ames, L.B., & Amatruda, C.S. (1940). The first five years of life: A guide to the study of the preschool child. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.   Gesell, A.D., Thompson, H., & Amatruda, C.S. (1938). The psychology of early growth, Including norms of infant behavior and a method of genetic analysis. New York: MacMillan.   Gesell, A., Thompson, H., & Amatruda, C.S. (1934). Infant behavior: Its genesis and growth. New York: McGraw Hill.   Gesell, A. (1952). Infant development: The embryology of early human behavior. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.   Gesell, A. (1930). The guidance of mental growth in infant and child. New York: The MacMillan Company.   Gesell, A. (1926). The mental growth of the preschool: A psychological outline of normal development from birth to the sixth year, including a system of developmental diagnosis. New York: The MacMillan Company.   Gesell, A. (1925). The retarged child: How to help him. Bloomington, IL: Public School Publishing Company.   Ilg, F.L., & Bates Ames, L. (1972). Child behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.   Knobloch, H., & Pasamanick, B. (1974). Gesell and Amatruda’s developmental diagnosis: The evaluation and management of normal and abnormal neuropsychologic development in infancy and early childhood (3rd Ed.). Hagerstown: Harper & Row.   Lancy, D. (2015). The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings (2nd Ed.). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.   Leung, K.C., & Sauve, R.S. (2005). Breast is best for babies. Journal of the National Medical Association 97(7), 1010-1019.   Mulic‐Lutvica, A., Bekuretsion, M., Bakos, O., & Axelsson, O. (2001). Ultrasonic evaluation of the uterus and uterine cavity after normal, vaginal delivery. Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology: The Official Journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 18(5), 491-498.   O’Neill, A. (2022, June 21). Child mortality rate (under five years old) in the United States, from 1800 to 2020. Statista. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041693/united-states-all-time-child-mortality-rate/   Pelcowitz, M. (2012). Louise Bates Ames. Psychology’s Feminist Voices. Retrieved from: https://feministvoices.com/profiles/louise-bates-ames   Pikler, E. (1972). Data on gross motor development of the infant. Early Child Development and Care 1(3), 297-310.   Pikler, E. (1968). Some contributions to the study of the gross motor development of children. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 113(1), 27-39.   Tredgold, A.F. (1909). II. The feeble-minded – a social danger. The Eugenics Review 1(2), 97-104.