A Thousand Days of Wonder: A Scientist's Chronicle of His Daughter's Developing Mind

by Charles Fernyhough

Book Overview

A father's intimate look at his daughter's developing mind from birth to age three Unlike any other time in our lives, we remember almost nothing from our first three years. As infants, not only are we like the proverbial blank slate but our memories are like teflon: nothing sticks. In this beautifully written account of his daughter's first three years, Charles Fernyhough combines his vivid observations with a synthesis of developmental theory, re-creating...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583333975
• ISBN13: 9781583333976
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Avery Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An astonishing book

(I read this as the new mother of a two-month old son, and I keep going back to it every couple of months as he changes with breathtaking rapidity....) A seriously scientific book that repeatedly made me laugh out loud and choke back tears....what an accomplishment. Fernyhough edifies with well-annotated psychology, entertains with beautifully turned phrases, and moves by evoking his own somewhat melancholic spirit and his daughter's vast, inimitable personality. He really made me feel the enormity of a new human being's mind. This book is great nourishment for the mind and soul of a new parent.

Fascinating

Charles Fernyhough, the author of this book, is a psychologist who is fascinated by the way the brains of young children develop. When his own wife becomes pregnant, he finds himself with the perfect test subject for all of his theories, and the perfect opportunity for close observation of an infant. Fernyhough delves into the way the brain develops in the womb, the amazing way the mind forges connections even before birth. When his daughter, Athena, is actually born, her doting father spends a great deal of time observing and making notes about her behavior, a close study that continues up through her third year of life. As a parent of small children myself, I found this account of developing brains to be both fascinating and familiar. It was interesting to find out that many of the emerging behaviors of my children were universal. I loved the way the author spoke to his daughter, and his adoration of her was clear from the way he wrote about their interactions. This book occasionally got bogged down in the psychology lessons, though, going into some detail about why certain behaviors happened or how they happened, or how certain other scientists over time had observed similar behaviors. Much of this information I already knew, although I can't say for sure if I know it because it's basic information that everyone knows, or if I know it because I've specifically read about these studies before. I was much more interested in reading about the author's conversations with his little girl and how her personhood emerged.