Between the ages of one and three years, the child discovers the world around him. He insists on putting his fingers into electric sockets, redecorating the kitchen walls with his dinner or eating the house-plants' soil. How can we give these young explorers, with their wild ideas and often incomprehensible reactions, some of the basics of life, indeed of survival ? How can we avoid catastrophes without provoking tears or fits of anger ? The Emotional Lives of Toddlers is an indispensable guide for those who seek to understand and accompany young children. Far from the sweeping generalities about childhood - which, all too often neglect the elementary distinctions of the child's age-period, character or familial context - this book takes into consideration the specificities in the behaviours and the needs of toddlers as well as his individual personality traits. It follows the great stages that mark children's growth and development between the ages of one and three. Most of all, the book used precise and humoristic terms to answer the concrete questions that all parents must confront one day or another : the problems of day-care centers and sibling rivalry, the discovery of sexuality and the eventual divorce of parents.For happy, well-adjusted children and cool, relaxed parents !A professor of psychology and the University of San Francisco, Alicia Lieberman is specialized in the study of very young children.