Understanding your baby

Book excerpt: Babies arrive in the world already equipped with many skills, reflexes and instincts that help them adapt to and influence their environment as well as the people who fill it. The mother-and-daughter team of Kyra Karmiloff, a research psychologist, and Dr Annette Karmiloff-Smith, a professorial research fellow at the Developmental Neurocognition Lab at Birkbeck College, University of London, 'translate' the latest scientific findings on infant behavior, the development of gross and fine motor skills and intelligence, and how infants produce language and experience the social world, as well as offering helpful tips and suggestions about how parents can positively influence their child's journey towards independence.