Between the ages of one and three years, children begin discovering the world. They may stick their fingers in the electric sockets in the living room, cover the kitchen walls with their dinner or even eat the soil from the flower pots. How should parents go about giving young explorers with strange ideas and often incomprehensible reactions some notions of life and even of survival? How can accidents be avoided, without provoking crying fits and anger?
Aimed at readers who wish to understand and accompany the progress of the very young, this book surveys the major steps in the development of young children, while taking into account basic differences related to the child’s age, personality and family background. It also provides precise and often humorous answers to many of the specific questions that parents ask. All the fundamental issues are reviewed: toilet training, sleeping problems, separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, divorce, and day-care centres.
This book should help parents feel more relaxed — thus enabling them to create an environment in which their children can blossom.

Alicia Lieberman teaches psychology at the University of San Francisco. She specialises in the study of parent-child relations.