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Informationen zum Autor Louise Bates Ames (1908–1996) was a lecturer at the Yale Child Study Center and assistant professor emeritus at Yale University. She was co-founder of the Gesell Institute of Child Development and collaborator or co-author of three dozen books, including The First Five Years of Life, Infant and Child in the Culture of Today, Child Rorschach Responses, and Your One-Year-Old through Your Ten- to Fourteen-Year-Old series. Klappentext What is it about four-year-olds that makes them so lovable? What problems do four-year-olds have? What can they do now that they couldn't do at three? Drs. Ames and Ilg! recognized authorities on child behavior and development! discuss these and scores of other questions unique to four-year-old girls and boys! and they offer parents practical advice and enlightening psychological insights. Can Your Four-Year-Old make you a happier! less stressed! and more efficient parent? You bet! Find out about: • Embarrassing moments . . . how to deal with a four-year-old's fascination with bowel movements! belly buttons! body parts! and forbidden words-without turning red. • Words that will work a miracle . . . what to say to give your child and instant smile! raise self-esteem! and change behavior quicker than criticism. • Hyperactivity . . . how to determine if your "always on the go" four-year-old is truly hyperactive. • Kindergarten readiness . . . school too soon can cause lifelong problems! so note this warning for parents of "fall babies." • Encouraging creativity . . . fifteen activities you can initiate to stimulate your child's natural talents and have a great time too! • Your child's body type: round and plump or bony and angular . . . does it predict behavior! temperament! and social success? . . . and more! chapter one CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AGE The Four-year-old is a funny little fellow, and if you can accept him as such, you will appreciate and enjoy him for what he is. If, on the other hand, you take a sterner stance and feel that his boasting, his swearing, his general expansiveness, and his often out-of-bounds behavior is wrong, both you and he may have an unnecessarily hard time of it. For the most part, we have found the boy or girl of this age to be joyous, exuberant, energetic, ridiculous, untrammeled—ready for anything. What a change he offers as compared to his more difficult, demanding, Three-and-a-half-year-old, just-earlier self! If at times he seems somewhat voluble, boastful, and bossy, it is because it is so exciting for him to enter the fresh fields of self-expression that open up at this wonderful age. The child at Three-and-a-half characteristically expressed a strong resistance to many things the adult required, possibly because in his own mind the adult was still all-powerful. Four has taken a giant step forward. All of a sudden he discovers that the adult, though still quite powerful, is not all-powerful. He now finds much power in himself. He finds that he can do bad things, from his point of view, and the roof does not fall in. More than this, following its seemingly built-in plan of interweaving, nature sees to it that whereas the Three-and-a-half-year-old was rather withdrawn and insecure much of the time, Four operates on the expansive and highly sure-of-himself side of life. Four, as Figure 1 shows, is an age when the child is characteristically in a nice state of equilibrium. Emotional exuberance has its positive as well as its negative side. The typical Four-year-old loves adventure, loves excursions, loves excitement, loves anything new. He adores new people, new places, new games, new playthings, new books, new activities. No one is more responsive to the adult effort to entertain. He will accept what you have to offer with delightfully uncritical enthusiasm. So, it is a pleasure to ...
