Louise Bates Ames

Louise Bates Ames (born October 29, 1908, Portland, Maine—died October 31, 1996, Cincinnati, Ohio) was a child psychologist instrumental in the fields of child and human development. Ames was best known for helping recognize the distinct and predictable stages of growth and change that children and infants progress through and for educating parents about these phenomena.

Ames received her undergraduate (1930) and master’s (1933) degrees in psychology from the University of Maine. Her doctoral degree in experimental psychology was granted by Yale University in 1936. Working with American psychologist and pediatrician Arnold Gesell, Ames examined the development of creeping and crawling in infants (known as “prone progression”) for her doctoral dissertation. This work soon developed into the theme that became her life’s work—the appearance of relatively clear-cut stages of human development that follow each other in a defined and predictable pattern.

In 1950 Ames and colleagues cofounded the Gesell Institute of Child Development in New Haven, Connecticut, to continue and promote Gesell’s work. There Ames served as director of research, as associate director, and later as director. After retirement she was president of the institute’s board.

In 1951 Ames and pediatrician Frances Ilg (Gesell Institute cofounder and researcher) began writing a nationally syndicated newspaper column called “Child Behavior” (changed to “Parents Ask” after 1962), which lasted until 1973. From 1953 to the early 1990s, Ames wrote and cowrote numerous books and articles, and she appeared on several television and radio shows. Some of her best-known books include Don’t Push Your Preschooler (1974), Your One-Year-Old (1979), He Hit Me First (1982), and Your Seven-Year-Old (1985).