![](https://www.storycircle.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/WhatIsThisChildhoodCover.1-768x994.jpeg)
By: Carol Toole
ISBN: 978-1-952166-15-0
Bell Pond Books, 2023
This book explores the consciousness of the young child through language development, often in their own words. The child’s early utterances reveal a unity of word and experience and of experience and meaning. Children live more fully in perception than conception. Yet, speech as it unfolds eventually leads the child to abstraction, self-consciousness, and critical thinking. This journey into childhood will deepen the quality of our attention and presence in each moment, enlivening our speech and interactions and thereby preserving our children’s sense of wonder and spiritual connection.
About the Author
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During the past forty years, Carol Toole has been a Waldorf teacher, storyteller, puppeteer, writer, and parent educator, creating a popular series called Creative Living with the Young Child. More recently, she provides Academic Language Therapy, movement therapy, and strategic tutoring to grade school children.
Carol’s other publications include articles in Renewal Magazine; poetry and prose in the Real Women Write Anthologies; and Tara’s Spring Wish, a children’s book.