Embryology of Behavior

Dr Arnold Gesell's The Embryology of Behavior is one of the historical classics for all who are interested in child or human development. This amazing book, a documentation of his studies of the embryo, the fetus, the neonate and the infant, was first published in 1945. His observations on the growth of behavioural organization are reinforced by stunning cinematic photography, and record for us the bases for the maturation of motor behavior on which researchers and clinicians interested in infancy have built ever since. All of us depend on his concept of the maturation of the central nervous system as the clock' driving the baby's development. The map of this sequential development was accurately and sensitively laid out for us over 40 years ago. No one has been able to refute his observations even with the more refined research and analytic techniques of today. Since that time the concepts of individual differences, of temperament, and of the interaction between social, cognitive and motor lines of development have been added, but we still rely on Dr Gesell's established norms as the anchor.