Child Development: The First Two Years

After the opening--and somewhat amazing--remark about parents having "few places to turn to for information" about child rearing (my office alone would supply more than they could carry), Child Development: The First Two Years comes back to reality, offering an excellent overview of a child's development over the first two years. Host Joyce Cohen introduces each of the segments on the video which are divided by age (birth-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, etc.), and then the program shifts to footage of tykes doing things that exemplify that age period. For example, the 3-6 month stage, whose official name could be "The Period When Everything, Yes Everything, Goes Directly Into The Mouth," contains some very cute footage of kids gumming whatever object is readily available. More than just a series of cute shots, however, the program covers a lot of ground in 45 minutes, including breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, introducing solids into a baby's diet, the development of motor skills, dealing with separation anxiety, diaper rash and other minor ailments, walking, language development, and more. Although this material is covered just as well in any number of other similar videos released over the past few years (two of our recent favorites are Your Baby: A Video Guide to Care and Understanding With Penelope Leach, reviewed in our July-August 1990 issue, and Baby Talk, reviewed in our September 1992 issue), Child Development: The First Two Years is fine, inexpensive addition to the area. And everyone knows that one of the cardinal rules is that you can never have enough (let alone too much) material on childbirth and parenting. Highly recommended. (Available from: V.I.E.W. Video, 34 East 23 St., New York, NY 10010; (800) 843-9843.)