Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development

Cover......Page 1
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 12
1: The Benefits of Youth......Page 14
Rushing through Childhood......Page 16
Views of Development......Page 18
A Darwinian Perspective......Page 27
I Come Not to Praise Immaturity......Page 33
2: The Youngest Species......Page 34
A Brief Look at Human Evolution......Page 36
The Evolution of Childhood......Page 49
Timing is Everything......Page 57
The Youngest Species......Page 65
3: The Slow Rate of Growing Up......Page 68
The Gamble of Delayed Development......Page 69
Big Brains, Social Complexity, and Slow Development......Page 71
Cooperating and Competing......Page 75
Family Matters......Page 76
Slow Growth and Brain Plasticity......Page 78
Developmental Plasticity and Evolution......Page 96
When Slow is Fast Enough......Page 97
4: Adapting to the Niche of Childhood......Page 100
The Benefits of Limitations......Page 102
See Things My Way......Page 106
Learning Language......Page 114
How Do Adults View Children’s Immature Thinking?......Page 119
Adapting to Childhood......Page 122
5: The Advantages of Thinking You’re Better than You Are......Page 124
The Development of Metacognition – Knowing What We Know......Page 126
Some Benefits of Less-Than-Perfect Metacognition......Page 141
When We Deal with Children......Page 148
Know Thyself, But Not Too Well......Page 149
6: Play: The Royal Road through Childhood......Page 152
What is Play?......Page 155
The Adaptive Value of Play......Page 157
Children Playing, Children Learning......Page 160
Play it Again, Kid......Page 174
7: The Most Educable of Animals......Page 176
The Myth of “Earlier is Better”......Page 182
Prenatal Learning......Page 185
Early (Postnatal) Learning......Page 189
Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Education......Page 195
Stress in the Schoolhouse......Page 202
Old Brain, New Curriculum......Page 210
8: The Changing Face of Childhood......Page 212
Pushing Children through Childhood......Page 214
A Brief History of Childhood......Page 217
The Costs of Ignoring Immaturity: The Well-Being of America’s Children......Page 224
The Independent Human Juvenile: A New View of Childhood?......Page 229
Racing to Adulthood, Prolonging Adolescence......Page 231
Epilogue: Homo Juvenalis......Page 234
Revisiting Childhood......Page 235
Visiting Adulthood......Page 236
Notes......Page 240
References......Page 252
Index......Page 280