wonder weeks book review

Wonder Weeks – Book Review

Did you make the same mistake as I did and only read pregnancy books while pregnant? I didn’t find my two favorite books about baby’s (Babywise, and The Wonder Weeks book) until about a month before I was due…

I remember it vividly- I was finally pregnant, and I happened to be at Target. I thought I’d stop by the book section and get a few pregnancy books.

I couldn’t wait to read about the bundle of joy inside of me. I love knowing facts and details. I bought two books.

One of them was  What to Expect When Expecting  (an amazing book). The other book, I returned so fast, I don’t even remember the title. It was the most negative book I’d ever read. It detailed every possible thing that could go wrong during pregnancy, along with all of the things I needed to avoid, etc.

It was not something I wanted to read. I am all about knowing the facts, but I am also focused on staying positive and realistic. As the book was written it simply put unneeded and unwanted worry on expecting moms.

When I returned the book, I also returned to the pregnancy book aisle. I found that many of the books focused on the negatives.

So, I stuck with the one good book I’d found and did the rest of my reading and research online.

About a month before my due date I realized I should probably start reading up on my baby, instead of just the pregnancy.

I found two phenomenal books:  Babywise , and  The Wonder Weeks . I’ve decided to start doing book reviews of the helpful books that I find. So, today I’ll be starting with  The Wonder Weeks .

The Wonder Weeks Book

This book review originally appeared at Team Cartwright blog  on October 13, 2016.

The Wonder Weeks  concept and idea is just fascinating to me. This book outlines 10 developmental milestones that occur in a baby’s first 20 months of life.

The idea is that these developmental milestones actually occur at roughly the same time for babies (within a few weeks).

With predictable leaps in babies development, this book is incredibly eye opening as a parent.

The book details the earliest week that these leaps typically occur. You can literally look at a calendar and predict when they will occur for your child.

During these leaps, your baby is extra fussy as they work through these life altering changes that are occurring in their brains.

When the leap is over you’ll be able to see your baby showing new skills!

My experience with The Wonder Weeks:

I found that the app coupled with the book was an amazing combination. I detail below what each has to offer. The combination put my mind at ease.

All of the sudden (literally out of the blue) Caroline would be extra fussy, and I had no idea why or what had changed.

Without fail, 100% of the time, I would check the wonder week calendar, and Caroline would be entering or already in a leap. It was shocking to me how predictable these leaps really were!

Once I realized that Caroline was in a leap, I’d read the chapter for that specific leap in  The Wonder Weeks  book.

Reading about the skills she was developing put everything into perspective and allowed me to remove myself from the frustration of the “fussy period”, and be more understanding that it wasn’t my fault or her fault or anyone’s fault…it was a normal mental development that was occurring.

I was also able to read about the new skills that might be popping up, and see them happening right before my eyes.

Truly amazing. Once I realized that the concept of this book seemed to really be on point, my husband and I would read about the next leap ahead of time so we knew what skills we were looking for.

We enjoyed reading the chapters together every evening, and discussing our daughter’s progress.

The Wonder Weeks App :

I think the app is now $1.99. It is the ONLY app I’ve ever paid money for, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The app is a quick reference to keep tabs on where your child is in their developmental cycle.

You can enter your child’s birth date and track where they are in relation to the leaps that are outlined in the book.

The app gives a quick summary of the skills that may be developing during this leap. I used the app mostly for the ease of the calendar and tracking.

The book suggests to base your child’s development based on their  due date . I entered 2 “children” into the app:  Caroline based on her due date , and  Caroline based on her birth date .

I always found that my daughter entered leaps perfectly based on her  birth date . I tracked them both for about 6 months, and once I realized our trend to be based on birth date, I stopped tracking based on due date all together.

I’d recommend doing this to see how the calendar lines up for your specific child.

The Wonder Weeks Book :

The book is a must buy. It goes into a ton of detail about what is happening with your baby’s development.

There is a separate chapter for each wonder week (or leap).

Each chapter of The Wonder Weeks consists of 4 sections:

• This Week’s Fussy Signs : This section outlines what behaviors and clues to look for indicating that your baby is about to make a developmental leap.  There is a diary section where you can check off the signs you’ve noticed to help you keep track of things.
• The Magical Leap Forward:  This section discusses the new skills and abilities your child may acquire during the leap. Again, there is a diary section with a checklist . This was probably our favorite part of the book! We loved reading about all of the new skills that our baby would soon acquire!
• What You Can Do to Help:  This is an amazing section, that gives you ideas for games, toys, and even focused activities that are catered to each stage of development. This is also one of my favorite parts to read through and gave me some great ideas!
• After the Leap:   After the leap, your baby will start to be happy, and more independent again. This section lets you know when to expect this.

The chapters also have real life experience quotes from moms and dads, along with fun facts on things like brain changes, sleep tips, top toys, and more!

As an example, in wonder week 12 , there is a brain change fact that states “At approximately 10 to 11 weeks, the head circumference of babies dramatically increases”.

I just loved seeing everything put forward in such a positive light with lots of fun facts. Babies have a lot of ups and downs and it can be hard on parents when they don’t know what’s going on.

This book really does help you to understand what’s happening in your baby’s development and how you can assist to make things easier on them. I highly recommend grabbing a copy!

We’ll even be re-reading this when baby #2 comes along one day- it was that interesting and there are way too many facts to simply remember for the next go around.

It is definitely an in the moment read and well worth your time (even when sleep deprived)!

You can view all of my personal experiences with the different leaps and wonder weeks by going to this link !

The Wonder Weeks

The Wonder Weeks book has been fascinating to read and follow during both of my living children's lives. Every single time they were fussy babies, I turned to the book to find that yes they were in fact in a developmental leap. It coincided every single time. I loved reading the science about what was happening in their tiny little, quickly developing brains. And let's face it, it felt so good to know that I wasn't doing anything wrong... my baby was just in a leap!

With my first baby, I started writing about her leaps a bit late. I started during leap 5. I swore with my second baby I'd write about every leap. Well... I started with leap 1, but had stopped by leap 5 (ran out of time with two little kids stealing it all away) LOL! The good news is that between the two of them, I have all of our experiences written down for most of the leaps. You can find it all below...

Wonder Weeks Leap 1 

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 1. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

Wonder Weeks Leap 2

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 2. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

Wonder Weeks Leap 3: Wonder Week 12 Smooth Transitions

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 3. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

Wonder Weeks Leap 4

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 4. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

Wonder Week - Leap 5

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 5. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

Baby Wonder Weeks - What is the Grey Period?

The wonder weeks app shows a "grey" period. This grey period is not explained in the book and is just briefly explained in the app. Learn all about it here including our personal experiences and what to expect!

WONDER WEEKS- LEAP 6

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 6. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

WONDER WEEKS- LEAP 7

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 7. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

LEAP 10: IT'S HAPPENING- SHE'S TALKING!

Learn about the wonder weeks, leap 10. In this post you'll get to see our real life experiences, along with what the book shows to be the developmental milestones that our baby encountered.

TODAY I FEEL LIKE SUCH A TERRIBLE MOTHER

Lately, I feel like the entire day is made up of these crying/screaming fits. She gets angry. She has tried to bite me a couple of times in her rage. She pushes me away when I try to comfort her. She slaps my face, she throws objects she’s holding, kicks, slams her face into things, and falls backwards hitting her head.

I try to protect her from hurting herself badly. I try to not get angry. I try to be understanding. I try to empathize. I try to explain what’s ok and what’s not ok. I try to help her through it. I try to give her the space she needs...

Wonder Weeks Data Collection

Please join me in collecting data on the Wonder Weeks! I'd love to add your experiences to my blog posts on each of the wonder weeks so we have a more comprehensive view.

The Wonder Weeks - An Invaluable Tool for Parents

I was beyond THRILLED when I found the  Wonder Weeks book  and app.

Everything suddenly fell into place and made sense. The Wonder Weeks book seemed to explain the feeling of “chaos” and disruption of parenting perfectly.

Almost down to the DAY, the app predicted when our baby was going to be extra fussy.

How to Handle the Wonder Weeks With a Premature Baby (Guest Post)

The wonder weeks with a premature baby... or two.

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Book review article, book review: the wonder weeks: a stress-free guide to your baby's behavior (6th edition).

• Independent Researcher, Den Haag, Netherlands

A Book Review on The Wonder Weeks: A Stress-Free Guide to Your Baby's Behavior (6th Edition)

Xaviera Plas-Plooij, Frans X. Plooij, Hetty van de Rijt (New York, NY: Countryman Press), 2019, 464 pages, ISBN:978-1682684276.

Positive psychology and education start from the first days as a baby. Education is learning, and learning is knowledge acquired by study. Babies study. During studies, a baby constructs moods. This happy or bad “weather” a baby has during development, is an example of how children develop in their education, with moods. When you understand the relationship between brain development and moods, you can keep the baby and child happier during their development, and create an upwards spiral while learning. You can understand the bad weather moments of a child when the brain is learning new things and can help the baby learn in the most positive way, and will see a happier child when learning is done and a stronger bond. After the development phase, the child finds the learned skills easier. Every phase/leap, the child will learn new skills. We should know all leaps of the entire development of a child to help a child overcome bad moods, and help the child learn fitting to their growing brain and own pace of learning, and give the fitting input per leap.

In the wonder weeks, you can find 10 leaps explained in baby development, an understanding of the leaps and a prediction, according to science, how the child will behave in a new phase. The baby will start with sensing through their own senses and will discover their parents, and the world nearby. Later on, the child will expand their world, games, and studies, and will be focused on preferences.

The book explains the child development process, of standard development, cumulative development and development toward bigger complex, which all children will have, but it also explains the exact mood per leap, how parents will respond to the baby, and how the baby will respond to the parents per leap, and what games you could play with the baby before a leap, during a leap, and after a leap.

The entire psychology around the leap is explained as well. The book is explaining what a child can do by themselves and what it needs from the parents. The book has a very clear explanation of what one can do for a child and what to expect per phase. What toys are fitting, and what games to think of to play with the child that will help the child further develop in a positive way.

This book is very much about creating a very positive environment for a child to develop in. It is typical positive psychology and uses the technique of empathy, the understanding what to expect in a child's development, and bonding with the child, encouraging a child in the ways the child will understand and need, to make the entire process of development easier and get more out of the development phases.

This book is based on research in the homes of families with children and babies. Fifty-two babies were visited in the first research. The half were girls, the other half boys. Parents were asked to look at the progress in the development of the baby, but also if everything went smoothly during the development of the child. The moods of the child and the parents were monitored too. Parents explained every week how everything was going. And the researchers and parents researched how the child shows their moods, how their development is visible, and what a child can do per stage from all possibilities. So, they discovered the fastest development possible as well in babies. And made lists for fast babies. And you can find the fastest ever possible things a child can do as well. So, if you would have a fast child you can find the child can do all of the lists. Other babies pick out some things.

The book leaves room for the preferences of a child. And is fitting with neuroscience about brain development and brain growth, related to new possibilities. And is fitting with studies about memory and input processing.

The book also tells you when the new leap is coming, how to recognize the new phase coming. And the actual leap, and all psychology around that, how the leap is working out in the life of the baby, and the family. And when the phase is done.

Supporting the child, giving confidence, having empathy for the child is a foundation in this book. Also, suggestions about how you can help your baby/child learn.

The book is an overall report on how your child is developing. Your child will go some steps forwards, and some stop back every phase of growth.

The mood calendar should be created and be expanded to the end of the brain development around 28 years, where all moods and stages are explained. This would help all parents stay positive during development, and will help positive psychology in education.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Keywords: positive, positive psychology, child, development, neuroscience

Citation: Hachmer J (2020) Book Review: The Wonder Weeks: A Stress-Free Guide to Your Baby's Behavior (6th Edition). Front. Educ. 5:42. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2020.00042

Received: 15 March 2020; Accepted: 30 March 2020; Published: 21 April 2020.

Edited and reviewed by: Pei Sun , Tsinghua University, China

Copyright © 2020 Hachmer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jiska Hachmer, jiska1@gmail.com

Wonder Weeks Review

A Wonder Weeks book review from the Babywise Mom. Does this book really help you know what to expect for baby sleep and behavior?

As you travel among social groups on the Internet discussing parenting issues, you might come across the term “wonder week.”

Something I have found interesting over the years is that certain ideas are more catching to some groups than others–even among Babywise moms. Different groups online will lean more heavily on some ideas than others. Wonder Weeks is something widely discussed and mentioned in my Chronicles Google Group.

So what is a wonder week?  The Wonder Weeks  is a book written by Plooij and Rijt (translated by Sonderegger). Here is the info on the book:

The Wonder Weeks describes in easy-to-understand terms the incredible developmental changes and regression periods that all babies go through during the first 20 months of their lives. 

Age-related fluctuations and the need for body contact and attention are all related to major and quite dramatic changes in the brains of children. These changes enable a baby to enter a whole new perceptual world and, as a consequence, to learn many new skills. 

Wonder week by wonder week you’ll discover the dates in the first 20 months when all babies take ten major development leaps. Learn how to encourage each leap forward. Help your baby with the three Cs’ of fussy behavior: Cranky, Clingy and Crying. Recognize the on-set of stressful times and join your children in coping with them.

Based on the scientific- and parental-world-changing discovery of a phenomenon: all normal, healthy babies appear to be more fussy at very nearly the same ages, regression periods, and sleep less in these phases, The Wonder Weeks will help your baby, and you, get the most out of these developmental phases.

In other words, there are predictable times your baby will be fussy.

Post Contents

Predictable Mental Leaps

Measure by baby’s due date, wonder weeks baby app, helpful tool for understanding baby, related posts.

All babies are more fussy than usual during each “developmental leap.” Why is this? Because baby is learning a new skill–the world is changing for your baby. Some are more dramatic (like when baby gains depth perception). This book outlines when these changes happen, what is happening, and what you can do to help ease your baby through the transition.

Baby’s mental development is growing. Your baby will have sunny weeks when things are good and calm, but during the stormy weeks, our infant’s development is on overdrive. Baby’s brain is changing and your infant is developing a new ability (or a few!).

I find the information incredibly helpful when my baby is fussy for “no reason.” When you have a baby who is normally quite happy and content and suddenly is clingy, it can be really disconcerting! But then I go to the book, and sure enough! Developmental leap happening! Baby will snap out of it as fast as she snapped “into” it. And she will come out knowing how to do more! It is helpful because if fussiness, poor eating, and/or poor sleep are due to wonder week, you don’t want to be changing up waketime lengths, dropping naps, changing how often baby eats, etc. You want to ride it out.

With Brinley and McKenna, any time they had a significant Wonder Week I included that info in their baby summary. You can see these in my posts with a label Wonder Weeks .

The argument has been made of “what about self-fulling prophecy?” In other words, when you are expecting your baby to be fussy at 19 weeks old, then won’t you see fussiness? I think that is a valid consideration. However, I personally only have a few memorized. Every time one of my babies was upset and acting “off,” I would consult and see yep, it is a wonder week. And the reason I have for my few memorized weeks is that those are the weeks I consistently get the most questions about. 

The books is about 20. The Kindle edition is about 10. And something I think is really cool that they have done is they have broken up the chapters so you can buy just one “week.” So if you are on your last baby who is 15 weeks old and you don’t think you want to buy the book for your last baby, then you come up on Wonder Week 19 and think “Ack! I need help!” you can spend $2 and buy the Kindle version for the chapter for that week. In’t that awesome? It also means you could try a chapter before committing to the whole book.

When looking at Wonder Weeks, you want to measure your baby’s age and the weeks based on baby’s due date.

So your little one might have had 3 months of life outside the womb, but was one month early, so you would consider your baby 2 months old.

This of course is only as accurate as your due date was accurate, so it is not always exact. There are often inaccuracies with due dates. Watch for patterns and find where your individual infant falls. You might find a baby born 3 weeks early really fits the Wonder Week leaps 2 weeks early.

Now here is what you have to be careful of. Sometimes growth spurts and wonder weeks line up. Sometimes a baby will be sick at the same time as a wonder week.

While often a wonder week can explain behavior, you want to still think through and be sure there isn’t something else going on. Sometimes you only know by trial and error. Is it a growth spurt? Try to feed and see if baby is hungry. If not, you ruled it out. So use Wonder Weeks as a tool and as a comfort, but still take into account other possibilities.

The Wonder Weeks app is a really helpful tool to keep track of our baby and the milestones that will or should be happening. There is a leap alarm, a diary to track milestones, personalized schedules, and insights into the leaps.

The app can help you support and stimulate your baby’s development. The app has several awards including “coolest app for moms”, “Choice and gold” from mumli, “Best app for parents” from NHS, and more!

The wonder weeks is a helpful tool for understanding your baby. It will help you pinpoint the reason for sleep problems, crankiness, tantrums, and regressions. It provides practical suggestions to help your little one through these times as easily as possible, including fun games to help your kiddo with the development she is working on. It can really help make parenthood easier in baby’s first year!

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7 thoughts on “Wonder Weeks Review”

My confusion with Wonder Weeks is.. is it still really considered a WW if it's been several weeks? It seems like for both ww19 & ww26 there has been unusual fussiness and sleep changes that last over a month!

My baby is almost 16 weeks old and is currently in leap four. I started noticing unusual fussiness in her about two weeks ago and checked wonder weeks, and sure enough she was entering her next leap. The first week of this leap also coincided with her three month growth spurt. She has had extreme difficulty napping, and is waking once or twice early in the morning to eat. My question is: how do we continue to implement babywise during a leap? I know you said don't change anything like waketime, naps, etc., but she has already been changing them – every day has been different since this leap begun. For her naps, I don't feel right letting her cry it out now knowing (thanks to wonder weeks) all that is going on in her little mind. Any suggestions? Thank you!!

My son has yet to fall into the Wonder Weeks patterns. He has never had "more fussy than usual days or weeks"…but he's just a generally happy baby so maybe fussy isn't his thing!?

My 9 week old's odd behavior now for the last two nights is to stay awake from 8pm to 2 or 3 am with a few cat naps in between, maybe 30 mins. I'm certain this is a wonder week because she only comforted by being held or nursed. Day time is actually still pretty good. She is napping better than usual. I too am curious how to continue babywise during this time. I'm so afraid she will get her days and nights confused if I let her sleep too much during the day while she is up ALL night, but I know she has to be tired. Do I need to even worry about day/night confusion during this time? Proceed with babywise schedule like normal?

I too have questions about wonder weeks. My first baby I hardly noticed any change at all… I implemented Babywise, it worked and we never had any issues. This second child of mine is giving me a run for my money. She used to give me good 7-8 hour stretches at night without a peep and now for 2 weeks she has been waking up just crying 4-6 times a night! I'm not sure if I should let her cry it out, if I should reinsert her pacifier. I've read so many things about sleep regression and they say don't let them cry it out, comfort them when they wake up, b/c these changes in sleep and development are hard for them… but I feel like I'm undoing all the hard work I've done up to this point. She seems to be losing all her self soothing skills. We go in, reinsert her pacifier, re-swaddle her arms down (she can't seem to fall asleep without her arms swaddled still). Any suggstions of what the "right way" is to deal with all this waking up? And the other mystery is she is not fussy during the day, she's quite pleasant! She has always struggled to take longer than 45-1 hour naps so that is nothing knew. So then I wonder, is this a wonder week or just my child learning bad sleeping habits… b/c she is so content during the day. I've really tried all my tricks (dressing her warmer, cooler, turning up the heat, down the heat, giving her extra milk in a bottle at night, feeding her around 4 or 5 am, doing the dream feed, dropping the dream feed)… ugh… I'm kind of lost now, I feel like I'VE lost all my sleep training skills.

And for any suggestions I thank you! I love your blog and it has always been so helpful.

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Book review for new parents: The Wonder Weeks

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When we posted a list of 9 books for new moms and dads, I left out a book recommended by New Jersey reader Rebecca Cain, The Wonder Weeks because I had never heard of it and wanted to learn more. I asked Rebecca to tell me more about the book and she’s done us all the favor of providing a great summary. Here’s what she said:

In my previous corporate life, I thrived on calendars and schedules, project plans and milestone-delineated goals. I thought parenting would have at least some similarities ”“read the how-to, lay out the timeline, execute, goal achieved. (You’re laughing derisively now, as you should be.) Since my husband frequently travels internationally for work, for weeks at a time, I outsourced much of our prenatal reading to him since he’d otherwise be struggling to decipher foreign language newscasts. He was great at summarizing the 5 things that we absolutely must do ”“or avoid doing ”“ to ensure our impeding addition would be happy, healthy, sleeping, performing calculus in her head, etc. Only, our kid rarely fit the descriptions we’d crib-noted, or her temperament just didn’t lend itself to their prescriptions. A few weeks in, I understood the roller coaster called “newborn” I’d just boarded didn’t come with a calendar function.

I wish instead I’d had my husband read The Wonder Weeks: How to stimulate your baby’s mental development and help him turn his 10 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward , as I believe that armed with the insight of this piece I would have been more confident as a new parent, and more curious, rather than anxious, about how my new baby was experiencing the world. And, I would have had one of those project plans (at least in broad brush strokes) I used to love so much when life could be cleanly displayed in Excel (wistful sigh).

Based on 35 years of research by Dutch husband-and-wife academic team Hetty van de Rijt and Frans Plooij, The Wonder Weeks offers age-based baby behavior insight focused on 10 distinct developmental “leaps” from birth through 20 months. In addition to laying out when (as in, which weeks, by gestational age) you can expect your baby to be most difficult, they also present diary entries from 15 families at each leap, and offer optimism that the “wonder week” will end with positive growth for your child. Quite frankly, it’s the closest thing to a crystal-ball-for-parents I’ve seen.

A mom with a slightly older baby suggested The Wonder Weeks book to me when I was at my wit’s end with a clingy, crying, non-sleeping, 8-week-old, wondering if my previously lovely baby had undergone a complete personality change. “Oh, that’s a Wonder Week, she said, almost off-handedly. “There’s another one soon. Get the book, there’s a calendar.”

A calendar?!

Skeptical of the book’s predictive power, so I first signed up for the free alarm service, which promised to alert me by email to the next leap a few days before it should commence. A few weeks later I received my first alert; two days after that she was well into the next leap, with its associated clinginess, crying, and crankiness (the “three C’s”).

Convinced, I bought the app ($1.99 for iOS and Android) and the full e-book ($12.99 on your iOS device). You can also purchase individual chapters for only the ages you want; since the Wonder Weeks are timed according to a baby’s due date rather than birth date, I’ve found the timer and the app really helpful too, since they do the math for me.

According to the authors:

we found that, surprisingly, all normal, healthy babies are more tearful, troublesome, demanding, and fussy at the same ages ”¦ From our research, we are now able to predict, almost to the week, when parents can expect their babies to go through of these ”˜fussy phases.’”¦During these periods, a baby cries for a good reason ”¦ [this] is a book on how to understand and cope with your baby when he is difficult and how to enjoy him most as he grows.

In addition to plotting out when you can more or less expect Junior to be more challenging than usual, in each chapter van de Rijt and Plooij outline the behavioral signals of the upcoming leap, and the new abilities your baby will start to exhibit afterwards. They also offer ideas on how to engage these specific emerging abilities, so that playtime helps baby make better sense out of what’s going on in his brain. To help you later remember these blurry but beautiful times, the book provides a diary for you to record your own child’s progress through the leaps. Overall, they present a cheerful and upbeat approach to understanding your baby, with little of the “heed us or else” tone I’ve noticed in many other parenting books.

You can find a hard-copy of The Wonder Weeks on Amazon (easier to share with your partner), a Kindle version (half the price), or purchase individual chapters on the authors’ website .

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The Wonder Weeks Review – an endearing film about the journey of pregnancy with three couples

Here is our review of the 2023 Netflix film The Wonder Weeks, which does not contain significant spoilers.

If you’re wondering why  The Wonder Weeks   sounds familiar, it is a period babies go through while developing in their early months. Babies quickly go through 10 developmental leaps, so they seem different within months.

The baby wonder week leaps occur at predictable times and are preceded by a fussy period. Without a doubt, films surrounding motherhood are scarce, but when movies are released with the central focus being on pregnancy or post-pregnancy, those stories are important.

Women go through so much in their lives, and nothing will ever prepare you for what pregnancy entails. No one explains how anything works, and that’s why the majority of women are scared. It’s only a process they hear from other women; each body is different, so it affects everyone differently.

The Wonder Weeks  on Netflix has a wonderful cast of women with a wholesome story to brighten anyone’s mood. Not only do you get some comedic moments, but it’s also a heartfelt journey with three different couples experiencing pregnancy differently.

More importantly, the women are highlighted, and anyone mother can resonate with their struggles.

The Wonder Weeks Review and Plot Summary

Everyone knows how difficult pregnancies can be, and in The Wonder Weeks, there are three different young mothers who want to help each other go on this journey. The cute thing about this film is that they develop a “Mama Club” that not only helps each other with frequently asked questions but also other young mothers who are struggling with pregnancy.

It’s a sweet premise that really hasn’t been done before, and it was refreshing to see young mothers uniting under one roof to help each other out. There are three different couples; Anne and Barry, Kim and Roos, and Isle and Sabri. Each has a story that others can connect with, making for a modernized family unit to be established early in the film.

Anne and Barry just gave birth to their baby girl, and she has to go back to work now that her maternity leave is finished. So that adjustment of getting back into a routine and leaving her baby to go to work is a hurdle most mothers have to go through.

Kim is the group’s founder and is married to Roos; they are a lesbian couple who seek the help of their friend Kaj (also their sperm donor) to make their dreams as parents possible. The three of them have a unique dynamic, and this also leads to a thread of different ways to have a child.

The final couple, Ilse and Sabri, are an interracial couple with different backgrounds, and they struggle with deciding how to raise their newborn with two distinct ideologies.

What  The Wonder Weeks  does well is show the full spectrum of pregnancy and the differences each couple goes through because life is never simple. It shows the struggles through the emotional moments and the anecdotes through the comedic moments.

Is the 2023 movie The Wonder Weeks good or bad?

The Wonder Weeks is a sweet film on Netflix that is entertaining enough to sit through because of what they explore for motherhood.

Women will especially connect to one of these characters and their situations. It is good for what the story consists of narratively, but it is a generic dramedy with a solid cast to tell this story.

Is the 2023 movie The Wonder Weeks worth watching?

If you are a fan of lighthearted comedies that pack an unexpected emotional punch, then it is worth a watch.

You almost don’t expect to find it as endearing as it is, but the direction by Apple Boudellah and Aram van de Rest makes this delightful to watch.

What did you think of The Wonder Weeks? Comment below.

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Article by Amanda Guarragi

Amanda Guarragi joined Ready Steady Cut as an Entertainment Writer in June 2022. She is a Toronto-based film critic who has covered TIFF, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and HorrorFest International. Amanda is also a growing YouTuber, with her channel Candid Cinema growing in popularity.

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‘The Wonder Weeks’: Still Influential. Still Wrong.

This 27-year-old tome continues to influence the way parents see child development. Too bad its advice doesn't hold up.

The Wonder Weeks is a baby guidebook turned baby-advice juggernaut that offers parents the promise of being able to predict and exploit a series of developmental leaps over the first two years of life. That promise is laid out in the book’s subtitle: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical Leaps Forward . For over 27 years, parents have continued to be hungry to stimulate those magic leaps. The Wonder Weeks has been reprinted multiple times since its debut in 1992 and spawned a baby-advice media empire that includes apps, an online course, and emailed “leap alerts.” Even Pampers leveraged The Wonder Weeks to give parents insight while using their new smart diaper .

As a parenting franchise, The Wonder Weeks clearly has staying power and unrelenting influence. But there’s a problem: The guide’s vision of child development is more convenient construction than scientific fact. Moreover, the man who developed The Wonder Weeks , Dr. Frans X. Plooij, has shielded his book from all sorts of questions surrounding the veracity of the underlying theory. He even went so far as to attempt to stop the publication of a study that challenged his work before he left academia.

What is there to hide?

The core of the idea is that children progress through 10 distinct phases of developmental “leaps” — the proverbial wonder weeks — that occur on a predictable timeline. These phases are preceded by a period of general inconsolable fussiness and followed by a period of general happiness. The trick is that if parents know that the fussiness is preceding a cognitive leap forward, they can promote a calm transition by helping their baby develop the interests and abilities distinct to that stage.

In a way, The Wonder Weeks place a new spin on the idea of developmental milestones . The difference is that the leaps within this theory are linked to neurological development and are supposedly more acute and predictable. This is where the cracks start to show.

Baby development occurs on a continuum rather than a fixed schedule. Moreover, every child is different. Babies will develop their abilities at their own natural pace and rhythm based on myriad factors including their genetics, their diet, their environment, and the adults who interact with them. So, the milestone of rolling over might occur at 5 months, but that’s an average. It could also happen at 4 months, or 6 months. To suggest that babies will experience a mental leap that profoundly changes the perception of their world at distinct and precise intervals isn’t supported by the bulk of research into infant development.

“Most claims about discreet stages turn out to not hold up,” says Dr. Celeste Kidd, a baby development researcher with the UC Berkley Kidd Lab. “Most kinds of cognitive development are not sitting in a silo.”

Kidd notes that developmental psychologist Jean Piaget is responsible for the idea of cognitive development occurring in stages, but notes he did not intend for those stages to be considered as discreet. In fact, some behaviors linked with different developmental stages can be occurring simultaneously in the same kid. In other words, like most things associated with babyhood, development is messy.

“Stages are a useful shorthand for describing a theory of how development works when actually the real dynamics are complex,” Kidd says.

And that’s likely why Dr. Plooij hoped to find the distinct pattern of leaps he describes. Being able to map a baby’s mental development as magic leaps would be incredibly helpful, particularly if it could explain infant fussiness. But when Plooij’s Ph.D. student attempted to replicate his findings she was unable to find evidence of the leaps. Plooij was vocal in criticizing his student’s study , titled “Emotional instability as an indicator of strictly timed infantile developmental transitions,” and attempted to keep it from being published. The controversy ultimately led Plooij to lose his place in academia.

This is not to say there’s no value in The Wonder Weeks or that this is in any way a dangerous book. The book lays out a general roadmap of infant development in a most accurate and extremely helpful way. In other words, the way it organizes information about baby development is helpful when considered in a broad scope. And the stages described in the book capture enough of the average baby experience that many parents will see their child reflected in the text.

Clearly, this is deeply comforting to parents. It gives a sense of control and understanding. The Wonder Weeks also gives parents something to do, even if what they are doing is not accomplishing the intended outcome — reducing fussiness and helping specific leaps occur.

“People are really good at seeing patterns. Fussiness can be driven by any number of things,” Kidd says. “It can be tiredness; it can be frustration; it can be a headache. It’s really hard just given one signal to draw one conclusion about what the cause is. It’s a comforting thought, but it would be difficult to know if that were true.”

Still, The Wonder Weeks feels true. It has, after all, garnered thousands of testimonials from parents who begin to interact in the prescribed manner and see fussiness decrease. This too may have a simple coincidence that isn’t the intended magic.

“We have tons of evidence to suggest that kids like when they are being attended to. And kids like being responded to,” Kidd says. “They like when they make requests and they are answered. They learn better in those circumstances.”

What makes Wonder Weeks so popular, helpful, and influential has nothing to do with any specific research or insight gleaned by its creator. Here’s how it really works:

• The book offers a broad general description of average baby behavior during early development.
• Parents of typical babies see their child reflected in the average and feel empowered by a perceived ability to predict developmental leaps.
• Parents feel comfort from believing generalized fussiness is related to important developmental work the baby is doing.
• Parents engage in prescribed developmental activities and the fussiness decreases due to parental attention and consideration.
• Parents feel that the baby has progressed through a leap and feel better about themselves, their baby, and most importantly, the book.

Importantly, none of the magic attributed to the book actually requires purchasing The Wonder Weeks book or downloading the Wonder Weeks app. It just requires paying attention to a baby’s cues and providing them positive, happy attention, and interesting play. The book isn’t harmful, just unnecessary.

Of course, in some circumstances, the book can be very unhelpful. A baby affected by congenital birth defects or developmental delays, for instance, may develop on a much slower timeline. The same goes for babies affected by poverty or toxic environments. Other babies may simply progress at their own pace, leaving parents frustrated and even more anxious that their child is not following the book.

But Kidd notes that there is a way for anxious parents to find accurate and scientifically sound help.

“Talk to a pediatrician,” Kidd says. “They are great at talking parents down. They have no incentive to BS you.”

The same can’t be said for Dr. Plooij.

This article was originally published on Aug. 30, 2019

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The Wonder Weeks review: An admirable depiction of parenthood

In The Wonder Weeks , three couples face the challenges of parenthood while trying to balance their personal and professional lives. The film is now streaming on Netflix.

Anne and Barry welcome their daughter, Mia, into the world. The doctor tells them that Mia’s rapid growth might impact her negatively, which makes Anne obsessively control every single thing about her daughter. 

Anne and Barry also have trouble finding a spot at nearby daycares for Mia, which makes it hard for them to keep up with their work while raising their daughter. Anna finds the answer to her troubles when she is introduced to a club called Moms for Moms. 

Moms for Moms was founded by a woman named Kim, whose wife, Roos, is pregnant with their third child. The father of their children is Roos’ best friend, Kaj, who now wants to be a part of the children’s lives as their father. However, Kim does not think that he is ready for the responsibility that comes with fatherhood.

Then there is Ilse, whose boyfriend’s mother moves in with her and her boyfriend when their son, Samih, is born. Ilse wants her son to learn about the cultures of both his parents, but cultural differences and the pressure from her boyfriend’s family make things hard.

Performances

Sallie Harmsen’s portrayal of Anne, whose biggest flaw is that she wants nothing but perfection for her child, is convincing. Harmsen makes it hard to blame her character for anything when she brings out Anne’s insecurities and anxieties in a way that will make the audience sympathize with her. 

While Yolanthe Cabau’s character’s discomfort is apparent at all times, she does not leave much of an impact, partly because the script does not give her much space for anything but being uncomfortable.

Katja Schuurman stands out as an overprotective Kim who always gets her way, and Louis Talpe definitely seems like a man who is learning to be a responsible father overnight, but their performances completely overshadow Sarah Chronis, who plays Roos.

The film’s idea of a family is not limited to a married heterosexual couple. It includes the unconventional family of Roos and Kim, who allow Kaj to be a father to their children, as well as a multicultural couple that has a child without getting married.

Through Anne’s character, the show tries to depict the difficulty of going back to one’s old life after becoming a mother. Motherhood does not just come with sleepless nights but also with new responsibilities, insecurities, and fears.

The parents in the film are all imperfect in their own ways. The film allows them to have different kinds of flaws, like being overprotective or obsessive, and their mistakes are seen as natural. The characters are then given space to change and become better individuals. 

The confrontation between Kim, Anne, and Kaj is the moment in the film when things fall apart. The scene appears heavily scripted with the characters screaming at each other and not caring about the distressed child; it reminds the audience of the distinction between films and reality.

Additionally, the way conflicts are conveniently resolved all at once is very unconvincing. Ilse and Sabri’s mother suddenly seeing eye to eye and putting aside their differences is an example of that. 

The stories in The Wonder Weeks might resonate with people who have gone through similar experiences as parents; they will appreciate the depiction of parenthood in the film. However, others might not enjoy it as much.

The Wonder Weeks

Director: Appie Boudellah, Aram van de Rest

Date Created: 2023-06-10 14:25

Also Read: The Wonder Weeks summary and ending explained

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Wonder Weeks’ on Netflix, a Dutch Parenting Comedy

Where to stream:.

• The Wonder Weeks

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Pod Generation on Hulu, a Dystopian Satire Starring Emilia Clarke as the Mother of Pod Babies (Not Dragons)

Stream it or skip it: ‘a round of applause’ on netflix, a strange dramedy about a couple and their nihilist kid through the decades, stream it or skip it: ‘the family plan’ on apple tv+, a weirdly violent mark wahlberg action-comedy intended for families, stream it or skip it: ‘are you there god it’s me, margaret’ on starz, a delightfully funny adaptation of a judy blume classic.

This week in We’re Running Out of Ideas for Movies Theatre is The Wonder Weeks (now on Netflix), which adapts a parenting self-help book into a featherweight Dutch dram-com about new parents struggling with diapers, daycare and circumcision. The directors of the two F— Love movies tell the intertwined stories of three sets of parents and their maternal-paternal mishaps and struggles, with some product placement of said tome here and there to justify the use of the title, and the result is… underwhelming? Familiar? Bland? How about all of the above?

THE WONDER WEEKS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Unlike other movies, The Wonder Weeks opens with the PUSHHHHHHHH scene where the pregnant mom strains and groans and rips her husband a new one in the midst of giving birth. That’s Anne (Sallie Harmsen), and the soon-to-be proud papa is Barry (Soy Kroon). She’s in the bathtub and the doula’s nearby and their house is the kind of massive open-space dwelling that tells us she’s about to be made partner at the firm. And that’s a problem, because she has a career and Barry works too and they can’t find a daycare with an opening. Stress! And on top of that, a nurse counselor tells them flat-out that their baby daughter is “fat” and for that she should be fired and reassigned to a more suitable occupation, scraping the insides of septic tanks. 

Anne visits the nearby daycare where she’s zillionth on the waitlist. She overhears that members of a group called Moms for Moms get to skip the waitlist, so she joins the club, which is slightly disconcertingly affluent and culty. Moms for Moms is run by Kim (Katja Schuurman), who has two offspring with her wife Roos (Sarah Chronis), and a third on the way, all fathered by sperm donor Kaj (Louis Talpe). Kaj is a bachelor who all of a sudden wants to be part of his biological kids’ lives. Kim’s reluctant but Roos thinks it might not be a bad idea, so they agree to let him take the children for a night here and there. They meet with Anne, who as I said before is about to be made partner at the firm, to hammer out a visitation deal.

We also meet Ilse (Yolanthe Cabau), who’s holding her brand-new infant son in her arms and arguing with Sabri (Iliass Ojja) about whose surname the kid gets, since they’re (GASP) not married. You’d think they’d have discussed this at least once in the previous nine or so months, but no. They go home and his Moroccan mother shows up to stay indefinitely and force them to conform to her family’s cultural norms, most prominently a big family party where the kid gets circumcised and a sheep gets sacrificed in his name. None of this sits well with Ilse.

Meanwhile, Anne and Barry deal with a baby who cries all night and a lifestyle where they work all day and a dilemma where their sex life suffers and may be exacerbated by the attractive nanny they’ve hired to help out. Things also come to a head with the Kim/Roos/Kaj situation, as Kim isn’t one who relinquishes control of any situation ever, especially when she learns that Kaj isn’t being totally honest with them about his past; he’s a good guy with good intentions who always finds himself in predicaments where he accidentally locks the toddler in the car, stuff like that. Will all this parental pandelerium resolve itself or what? NO SPOILERS. 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: One can’t help but ponder why What to Expect When You’re Expecting became a dingbat comedy while Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care continues to languish unexploited by Hollywood.

Performance Worth Watching: Cheers to Louis Talpe’s Sam Rockwell Lite energy, which makes his character stand out a hair or two above the other boilerplate types. 

Memorable Dialogue: Anne snickers as Kim spews new age drivel during a Moms for Moms support group: “Breathe in through your nose, and out through your vagina, your piggy bank of happiness. Let your piggy bank glow.”

Sex and Skin: Not much beyond the inevitable cliched coitus interruptus scene where the lingerie-clad mom tries to rekindle their sex life/marriage but is derailed by the crying baby.

Our Take: Hey guess what, parenting is hard! So are marriages. And assorted family dynamics. Bet you didn’t know that! The Wonder Weeks surely wants couples of all stripes to smile and nod in acknowledgment of these characters’ assorted travails: Remember, you’re not alone in this crazy thing called life. Take comfort in knowing that other people have problems, too! These wafer-thin types work through generic situations in a narrative that’s rendered so broadly, it’s as if the screenwriters feared alienating potential audiences with anything deeper than tepid greeting-card sentiments. This movie has an enemy, and it is specificity. 

And that’s why this 90-minute snoozefest comes off as little more than a year in the life of some Movie Characters. With its same-sex couple and an unmarried pair from wildly different cultural backgrounds, it attempts to offer a diverse range of characters, but ends up leaning heavily on wearisome stereotypes, the most egregious being the offensive portrayal of these BACKWARDS Moroccan people that actually want to SACRIFICE a SHEEP. Beyond that, the characters are summed up with feeble cliches: The Mom Balancing a Career and Motherhood, the Control Freak, the Mother-in-Law Who’s All Up In Your Business, the Bachelor Who’s Loosey-Goosey About Schedules and Keeping His Apartment Tidy. The tone ranges from wacky to melodramatic to lightly satirical, but the entire mixture is so flavorless, it’s like one part orange juice to nine parts water.  

Our Call: Wonder Weeks ? More like Blunder Reeks ! SKIP IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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A Novel of Lost Daughters and Waylaid Lives

Prison, pregnancies and other operatic turns propel Caroline Leavitt’s latest book, “Days of Wonder.”

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By Michael Callahan

Michael Callahan’s third novel, “The Lost Letters From Martha’s Vineyard,” will be published in May.

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DAYS OF WONDER, by Caroline Leavitt

When the unfairness of life overwhelms you, does it bring out your grit and resolve, or send you down a rabbit hole of grievance and desperation?

Such is the crossroads facing three deeply damaged people in Caroline Leavitt’s 12th novel, “Days of Wonder”: Ella Fitchburg, newly released from prison after being convicted of trying to poison her wealthy boyfriend’s father; her teenage love, Jude, a victim of domestic abuse who’s lugging his own millstone of guilt; and Ella’s mother, Helen, who was cruelly cast out of her Hasidic Jewish community as a pregnant teenager.

Ella, too, is pregnant when she begins her 25-year sentence, but is pressed to give the baby girl up for adoption. Freed nearly two decades early thanks to a governor’s intervention, Ella, now 22, tracks down the child, who has been adopted and named Carla, and hastily moves from Brooklyn to Ann Arbor, Mich., to be close to her — without disclosing her real identity to her daughter’s new parents. A cross between Sylvia Plath’s sardonic Esther Greenwood and Allison McKenzie from “Peyton Place” (the Mia Farrow iteration), Ella mostly covets security and a bigger place in the world, clinging to a deluded dream of her, Jude, Carla and a life they can never have.

All along we feel Ella’s deep longing, her pain at having been so spectacularly cheated by life. Alas, that doesn’t prevent her from coming off as a creepy stalker: She hides in a back booth at the bar where her daughter’s new dad works, pops up like a disturbed jack-in-the-box to sneak cellphone pictures of Carla and anonymously leaves knitted mittens in the family mailbox.

We’re also asked to sustain some serious suspension of disbelief. Despite a closed adoption, Ella quickly discovers her daughter’s location when a lawyer sloppily exposes a file with the family’s address; Ella meets Carla after the little girl’s errant ball miraculously rolls in front of her feet at a playground, a trope for the ages. Perhaps most ludicrous: With zero experience Ella lands a job as a freelance “Dear Abby”-style columnist for a weekly newspaper in Ann Arbor and is able to support herself on it. That’s worthy of the same eyeroll we collectively delivered when Carrie Bradshaw was somehow able to afford all those Cosmos and pricey shoes.

Leavitt is clearly in her element here: Her previous novels are a soapy collection of women experiencing pain, regret and, ultimately, redemption. But the task of untangling the characters’ myriad secrets and the foggy mystery that binds Ella, Jude and Helen together is harrowing, and leads to some cutting of corners (Ella’s alacrity at becoming best friends with Carla’s adoptive mother seems a tad convenient). It also results in a denouement that feels as overly tidy and soulless as a sample home.

While it moves intermittently between the trio’s individual story lines, the narrative is largely driven by Ella — Jude and Helen seem to serve as more of a supporting cast, present to both reflect her pain and mark the road of broken promises she’s trudged. The sometimes clichéd plotting is helped by Leavitt’s graceful prose: Ella sees her mother as “a dry, twisted sponge that could no longer expand”; falling for the high school dreamboat Jude, she finds herself out of her depth in his social circle, not knowing “how to dress in the casually-mussed way of the teenage elite”; upon release from prison, she threads her way through a throng of reporters, “their voices like thorns.”

The novel’s title is a tad misleading; the book is far less about wondrous days than about the tenacity required to survive life’s bad ones. Ultimately — and despite enough melodrama for “General Hospital” — it heralds the power of steady perseverance, sturdy faith and the raw restorative power of love.

DAYS OF WONDER | By Caroline Leavitt | Algonquin | 320 pp. | $29

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The Wonder Weeks Milestone Guide: Your Baby's Development, Sleep and Crying explained Paperback – September 1, 2016

• physical development
• emotional development
• intelligence

This complete Q&A book is based on the must-have, best-selling book, The Wonder Weeks, and the award-winning Wonder Weeks app.

• Print length 160 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Kiddy World Publishing
• Publication date September 1, 2016
• Dimensions 5.58 x 0.3 x 8.4 inches
• ISBN-10 9491882139
• ISBN-13 978-9491882135
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kiddy World Publishing (September 1, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9491882139
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9491882135
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.58 x 0.3 x 8.4 inches
• #802 in Babysitting, Day Care & Child Care

About the authors

Xaviera plas-plooij.

Xaviera Plooij, mother of three and CEO of the Wonder Weeks, has one mission: to give parents the tools they need in order to fully understand their baby’s mental and emotional development. Daughter of Dr. Frans X. Plooij and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt, founding authors of The Wonder Weeks, Xaviera Plooij has significantly revised and modernized the sixth edition of the book. As a writer, columnist, and popular speaker, she’s in 24/7 contact with parents around the globe. Plooij is a trusted member of the Lumi by Pampers Expert Advisory Panel. She lives in the Netherlands.

Frans X. Plooij

From Babydom to Toddlerhood

Extended Version of Worldwide Bestseller, The Wonder Weeks, Now Available

- Recommended by T. Berry Brazelton, Celebrated Pediatrician and Child Development Specialist, Among Others -

Have you ever wondered what's going on in your baby's head? Why is a normally well-tempered baby suddenly difficult and demanding? And then, suddenly, he is doing things he could not do the day before.

Research has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes - or leaps - during their first 20 months of their lives. During this time, he will learn more than in any other year. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby's mental development, which affects not only his mood, but also his health, intelligence, sleeping patterns and the "three C's" (crying, clinging and crankiness).

The Wonder Weeks Explained

Following each leap comes the "wonder weeks," in which the baby has new and expanded brain capacity and is able to learn to do new things. Each leap sets the stage for subsequent development of skills, which depend on the baby's preferences, experimentation and physical development. For example, perceiving special relationships (about 26 weeks) is necessary for taking a first step, which normally varies from five-to-eleven months.

As amazing as this is, it is also scary for the baby. Suddenly, he can think, feel, notice and understand what is happening around him in a new way. The perception of sensations does not change with increasing age, but becomes subservient to the new, higher levels of perception that are emerging one after the other in the hierarchy and that are superposed onto the already existing, lower levels of perception. These changes in thinking can show up in changes in what he can do and how he behaves. That is why, before he is able to explore his new abilities, he often cries more, is more clingy and crankier. These changes can also manifest as poor sleep, lack of appetite and general fussiness - and exhausted parents.

The Wonder Weeks

The Wonder Weeks, by Dutch authors Hetty van de Rijt and Frans Plooij spells out the phenomenon happening inside your baby's brain with detailed information about each leap. Based on 35 years of extensive research, The Wonder Weeks describes in easy to understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during their first 20 months of life.

In the years since the publication of his original book, Dr. Plooij continued to research the developmental leaps in infants together with numerous national and international experts. The results are found in an extended version of The Wonder Weeks, which explores ninth and tenth are key leaps to form the basis of a well-educated child in cleverness and in well-raised person.

The Wonder Weeks, which has been an international bestseller for years selling more than 1 million copies worldwide in 12 languages, is more readily available in the U.S. available at www.thewonderweeks.com. There is also an iPhone/iPad app available.

Using the book as a guide, parents can be better prepared - often within a week or two - when to expect the behavior that marks a new change in their baby's development. The Wonder Weeks provides:

* A phase-by-phase guide to baby's behavior

* An explanation of the markers for the "three C's" and how to react

* Fun games and gentle activities parents can do with their baby to guide them through their "leap"

* A description of the baby's perspective on the world around him and how it can help parents understand the changes he's going through

The Experts Weigh-In on The Wonder Weeks

"This is a very practical and entertaining window into the baby's first year and a half. van de Rijt and Plooij have observed and found the vulnerable times in an infant's development that I independently came to in my book Touchpoints (Perseus Books Group). The authors' observations and practical suggestions are wonderful."

-T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., professor emeritus, Harvard Medical School

"Anyone who deals with infants and young children will want to read The Wonder Weeks. This book will open parents' eyes to aspects of their children's growth, development, changing behavior, and emotional responsiveness that they might otherwise not notice or find puzzling and distressing."

-Catherine Snow, Ph.D., Shattuck Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Scientific Curriculum Vitae: Frans X. Plooij

Born in 1946, Frans X. Plooij studied in the Netherlands with Adriaan Kortlandt, University of Amsterdam, with Hein Oomen, University of Nijmegen, and with Gerard Baerends, University of Groningen, where he received his Ph.D. in 1980.

In 1971–73, he and his wife Hetty van de Rijt worked with Jane Goodall in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East-Africa, on infant development in free-living chimpanzees. In 1973-76 he worked with Robert Hinde in the Medical Research Council unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, University Sub-department of Animal Behaviour in Madingley, Cambridge, England; in 1976-80 at the department of Developmental Psychology, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands; and from 1981 to 1993 as head of the department of Research and Development at the institute for Child Studies of the City of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where, among other things, he participated in European Union SOCRATES-LINGUA projects concerning the implementation of an innovative second- and foreign-language teaching method for small schoolchildren.

From 1993 to 1998, he was a professor at the Department of Developmental and Experimental Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen.

Currently, Dr. Plooij is president of the International Research-institute on Infant Studies (IRIS) at Arnhem, the Netherlands, initiator of the European project on “the intercultural study of infantile regression periods” (ISIRP), and director of Kiddy World Promotions B.V., a consulting firm that serves companies producing products related to children, such as toys.

Dr. Plooij was Vice-president for Information of the International Society for Human Ethology from 1989-1993, Vice-president of the Institut Européen pour le Development de tous les Enfants (IEDPE), served on the editorial board of the journal “Ethology and Sociobiology”, and is member of the panel of assessors of the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

He is a full member of several international, scientific societies in the domains of child development and behavioural biology, and of the New York Academy of Sciences.

In addition to numerous scientific publications, Dr. Plooij has written several bestselling parenting books, one of which, The Wonder Weeks, has been published in twelve languages, from the USA to Japan.

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