What’s Going on in There? audiobook cover - How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

What’s Going on in There?

How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

Lise Eliot

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Categories:
ParentingPsychology

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What’s Going on in There?
Nature vs. Nurture+
Pregnancy and Birth+
Sensory Development+
Motor Skills+
Temperament+
Language Acquisition+
Intelligence and Play+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 10
What was the main finding of René Spitz’s 1940s experiment comparing children raised in a prison with those raised in a nursery?
  • A. Children in the nursery developed faster due to a structured educational environment.
  • B. Children raised by their mothers in prison developed normally, while isolated nursery children suffered neuronal degeneration.
  • C. Both groups showed similar development, proving that genetics outweigh environmental factors.
  • D. Children in the prison showed delayed motor skills due to lack of space, while nursery children excelled.
Question 2 of 10
According to the text, what is a significant developmental benefit of a natural birth for a newborn?
  • A. It prevents the development of cerebral palsy in later stages of infancy.
  • B. It accelerates the development of the infant's somatosensory cortex.
  • C. It triggers the release of stress hormones that help the baby cope with the new world and develop better reflexes.
  • D. It ensures the infant will have a higher natural tolerance for pain throughout childhood.
Question 3 of 10
How does an infant's sense of touch develop in the somatosensory cortex?
  • A. It develops uniformly across the whole body within the first few weeks of life.
  • B. Connections to sensory receptors in the hands develop first, followed by the feet.
  • C. Connections to sensory receptors in the mouth are established first, followed later by the hands.
  • D. The sense of touch remains largely dormant until the child is about 18 months old.
Question 4 of 10
Why is it potentially dangerous that some infants cannot detect the taste of salt until they are about four months old?
  • A. They may accidentally consume lethal amounts of salt without instinctively rejecting it.
  • B. It prevents them from absorbing essential minerals needed for early bone growth.
  • C. It causes them to reject breast milk in favor of sweeter, less nutritious alternatives.
  • D. They are unable to digest solid foods properly, leading to severe malnutrition.
Question 5 of 10
Why is a newborn baby's vision initially quite poor, only allowing them to see what is close to them?
  • A. The eyes lack the necessary physical structures to process light until they are exposed to the sun.
  • B. It prevents sensory overstimulation by ensuring infants only see as much as they can handle.
  • C. The brain prioritizes the development of the somatosensory cortex over the visual cortex.
  • D. Fetuses keep their eyes tightly closed in the womb, delaying the development of the optic nerve.
Question 6 of 10
What evolutionary purpose does the Moro reflex—where an infant flings their arms out and brings them in—serve?
  • A. It helped infants practice the motor skills necessary for eventually learning to walk.
  • B. It allowed infants to hold onto their mothers when the mothers made sudden movements.
  • C. It helped infants regulate their body temperature during sudden environmental changes.
  • D. It was a mechanism to protect the infant's head and neck from potential impacts.
Question 7 of 10
How can parents best support a child who is genetically predisposed to being pathologically shy?
  • A. By completely shielding the child from stressful situations and strangers.
  • B. By gently challenging the child to connect with strangers in a safe way.
  • C. By enrolling the child in strict preschool programs to force social interaction.
  • D. By ignoring the shyness, as temperament is entirely determined by genetics and cannot be changed.
Question 8 of 10
What do scientists recommend parents do regarding their child's grammatical mistakes during language acquisition?
  • A. Parents should correct their children frequently to prevent bad habits from forming.
  • B. Parents should ignore the child until they use the correct word to incentivize proper grammar.
  • C. Parents should avoid correcting children too often, as it can hamper the child's innate drive to learn new words.
  • D. Parents should use flashcards to drill the exceptions to grammatical rules.
Question 9 of 10
According to studies mentioned in the text, how does a family's socioeconomic background primarily impact a child's language acquisition?
  • A. Children from wealthier backgrounds are exposed to significantly more words per hour than children from welfare families.
  • B. Children in welfare families develop the left hemisphere of their brain much faster to compensate for their environment.
  • C. Socioeconomic status determines the exact age at which a child begins to understand their very first words.
  • D. Wealthier families are more likely to correct their children's grammatical mistakes, leading to faster fluency.
Question 10 of 10
What is the book's actionable advice regarding providing toys for infants?
  • A. Provide as many new toys as possible to ensure constant intellectual stimulation.
  • B. Avoid giving children toys entirely, as household objects provide better sensory experiences.
  • C. Maintain a balanced number of toys and rotate them, as too many encourage giving up easily and too few cause boredom.
  • D. Only provide educational electronic toys to give children an early advantage in IQ tests.

What’s Going on in There? — Full Chapter Overview

What’s Going on in There? Summary & Overview

What’s Going on in There? (1999) delves into the cognitive and physiological development of young children. These blinks explain the most important milestones of a child’s development, exploring the shared influence of genes and parenting on children.

Who Should Listen to What’s Going on in There??

  • New parents or parents-to-be
  • Teachers and caregivers curious about infant psychology
  • Anyone who’s ever wondered what babies think about

About the Author: Lise Eliot

Lise Eliot is a neuroscientist and professor at the Chicago Medical School. As a writer, she is known for her contributions to the magazine Slate, as well as her book Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps and What We Can Do About It.

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