Faculty Bibliography

Klass argues for the value of the tumult of family life as cognitive stimulation for babies and young children. Children learn best by helping out around the house and being included in all the things that families do

ON a Saturday morning here, there is only one possible place to be, at least for parents with children under 10. Dr. Edward M. Hallowell is at a soccer game. His son Jack, 7, is playing for the Maroon team; his wife, Sue Hallowell, is team manager. And because this is Cambridge, ground zero for self-conscious parenting, every soccer team has been taught to chant, ''One, two, three, four -- We don't care about the score!'' Dr. Hallowell, 49, a child and adult psychiatrist, is the author of ''Connect,'' a book that argues the necessity of human connectedness in the interest of health and happiness. So how does he square connecting and competing? Even 8-and-under soccer, he would argue, is more than little boys in shorts and shin guards running themselves breathless on a bright fall morning; it, too, is a form of connection. Exactly, Dr. Hallowell said. Dr. Hallowell, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Medical School and an expert on attention deficit disorder, has turned his focus on the squishy area of feelings and found that feeling good is good for you

Klass contends that parents can't remove temptation from their child's path by legislating what someone else's child eats, calling it a misguided idea

Klass, a pediatrician, discusses children's weight. Parents who hover over their children, worried that they're getting fat, reinforce the message that one can never be thin enough, a message that can lead to eating disorders and misery

Klass reviews 'What A Blessing She Had Chloroform: The Medical and Social Response to the Pain of Childbirth from 1800 to the Present' by Donald Caton

Klass explains why she feels that, post-potty training, there is little a parent should know about their child's bathroom habits. She notes that just as parents' attitudes about their children's bodily privacy vary, kids' thoughts on the subject vary as well

What I dread when I see a note like this is a child who's terrified of me and of being examined. With a 5-year-old, I want a cheerful, sociable interview - not the tears that start to overflow as I ask my friendly questions or the quivering lower lip, sobbing or sometimes screaming when I actually touch her. Usually, though, you can comfort babies. I examine them in their parent's arms, crooning and cooing as I proceed. And you can often distract a toddler - set off your beeper, point to a picture on the wall - long enough to do what's needed. But older children may become specifically worried about doctors and medical exams, especially when it comes to shots and blood tests. I start to be concerned about it when a child is around the age of 3 and, I think, should have the understanding (and the language) to deal with me. There may be wariness about shots, and there may be wriggling and giggling when you press on the belly, but there shouldn't be terror or uncontrolled crying and screaming. And yet sometimes there is

Perri Klass reviews the children's novel 'Skellig' by David Almond