What do we mean by 'thinking'?

Jad and the team at Radiolab have just released a new show, called Words. I talked to them about the role of language in the development of children's thinking. You can listen to the podcast here. And you really should check out the accompanying video as well.

Quite a few things came out of the discussion which I wanted to comment on some more. So I have written a post on my PT blog to explain in more detail how I see things working here. The post is called "What do we mean by 'thinking'?", and you can check it out here.

Free will in childhood

The latest post in the Lego Stars Wars series is on the development of free will. You can read it over on Psychology Today. Meanwhile, over on the Facebook page, there are details of the summer giveaway - closing date coming up soon.

Picturing her dreams

I've talked a fair bit about dreams on this blog, but I haven't come anywhere close to this: check it out.

Repetitive behaviours

Over at Psychology Today I've got a new blog post on repetitive behaviours in toddlerhood. You can read the piece here.

Please come and say hello on Twitter. And check out the Facebook page for news of a summer giveaway!

Gita Vygodskaya

I was saddened to hear the news from Moscow this week of the passing of Dr Gita L. Vygodskaya. Gita was Lev Vygotsky's eldest daughter and became an eminent psychologist in her own right. She had an important part to play in bringing Vygotsky's unpublished writings to publication, and she also wrote movingly about her memories of her father in an article entitled 'Remembering Father', which we included in our 1999 Critical Assessments of Vygotsky's work.

For me, one of the most memorable details of Gita's account was the description of life in the family's cramped Moscow flat. Vygotsky was already suffering from the tuberculosis that would kill him at age thirty-seven, and was hard at work on his masterpiece, Thinking and Speech. He nevertheless always found space for Gita to do her homework on the table beside him. It's a fact I always remember when my kids have their own work to do, and it's a wonderful reminder of a great genius and his pioneering, dedicated daughter.

Thanks to Marina Nelson for letting me know the sad news about Gita and for giving me permission to use the photograph. 

Mind-minded parenting, moral babies

A new post on my Psychology Today blog: I'm writing about our work on mind-mindedness and the possibility - as yet not fully tested - that certain interventions might increase parents' mind-mindedness.

Also this week, Paul Bloom's NYT piece on the moral lives of babies. Thanks to Rachel for pointing this one out.

The anti-parenting thing

Last week on Psychology Today I posted a 'manifesto' for a new approach to parenting. The post has been tweeted about quite a lot, and I've had a couple of interesting comments on the post. See what you think - you can read the post here.

Also, just a reminder that tickets for the Royal Institution event are on sale now.