{{short description|American pediatrician and professor}} {{Infobox person | name = Frances Ilg | image = FrancesIlg1925.png | alt = a young white woman with short wavy fair hair, wearing a stiff round white collar pinned at the throat | caption = Frances Ilg, from the 1925 yearbook of Wellesley College | birth_date = 1902 | birth_place = Oak Park, Illinois | death_date = July 26, 1981 | death_place = Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin | occupation = Pediatrician, college professor, writer }}
'''Frances Lillian Ilg''' (1902– July 26, 1981) was an American pediatrician and professor at Yale University. She was an expert in infant and child development, as co-founder and director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development.<ref name="Affeld2006">{{cite book|last=Affeld|first=J'Anne|editor=Neil J. Salkind |editor2=Lewis H. Margolis |editor3=Kimberly DeRuyck |editor4=Kristin Rasmussen |title=Encyclopedia of Human Development |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqI5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT737 |year=2006 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4129-0475-9 |page=737 |chapter=Ilg, Frances (1902-1981)}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Frances Ilg was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the daughter of Joseph Frank Ilg and Leonore Petersen Ilg. Her father worked for the railroad;<ref>{{Cite news |date=1961-05-24 |title=Obituary for Leonore Ilg (Aged 87) |pages=44 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100187213/obituary-for-leonore-ilg-aged-87/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> her maternal grandparents were born in Norway. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1925.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/wellesleylegenda1925bost |title=The Wellesley legenda |date=1925 |publisher= [Boston, etc.] Pub. by the Senior class of Wellesley College|pages=45}}</ref> She trained as a physician at Cornell Medical School, earning her medical degree in 1929.<ref name="Affeld2006" />
== Career == Ilg was an assistant professor of child development of Yale University from 1937 to 1947. In 1950, she co-founded the Gesell Institute in New Haven with two colleagues, psychologist Louise Bates Ames and Janet Learned Rodell.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1952-01-13 |title=Two Doctors Will Answer Behavior Queries |pages=52 |work=Detroit Free Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100188223/two-doctors-will-answer-behavior-queries/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She also wrote a newspaper column, "Child Behavior", which was syndicated nationally.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Waggoner |first=Walter H. |date=1981-07-28 |title=DR. Frances L. Ilg, Authority and Writer on Child Behavior |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/28/obituaries/dr-frances-l-ilg-authority-and-writer-on-child-behavior.html |access-date=2022-04-21 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In the 1950s and 1960s she counseled parents to "enjoy their children" and "guard their sense of fun and sense of humor"; she also advised school districts to consider emotional maturity as well as intellectual development in grade placements.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Russell |first=Kathlyn |date=1971-07-27 |title=Teachers Hear Child Expert |pages=13 |work=Times-Advocate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100188792/teachers-hear-child-expertkathlyn/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> "We have been over-emphasizing the gifted child," she said.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jaycox |first=Betty |date=1962-01-18 |title='Pushing Children Too Fast' |pages=16 |work=The Akron Beacon Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100187492/pushing-children-too-fastbetty-jaycox/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In 1957 she received the William Freeman Snow Award from the American Social Hygiene Association, for "distinguished service to humanity."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jaycox |first=Betty |date=1962-01-12 |title=Pediatric Authority Will Speak |pages=14 |work=The Akron Beacon Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100188556/pediatric-authority-will-speakbetty/ |access-date=2022-04-21 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Works== * ''The first five years of life: a guide to the study of the preschool child, from the Yale clinic of child development'', 1940 * (with Arnold Gesell) ''Child development, an introduction to the study of human growth'', 1943 * ''Vision, its development in infant and child'', 1946 * (with Arnold Gesell) ''The child from five to ten'', 1946 * ''L'Enfant de 5 à 10 ans'', 1949 * ''Child behavior'', 1951 * ''The Gesell Institute party book'', 1959 * ''Parents ask'', 1962 * (with Louise Bates Ames) ''Mosaic patterns of American children'', 1962 * ''School readiness; behavior tests used at the Gesell Institute'', 1964 * ''Your four-year-old: wild and wonderful'', 1976 * ''Your three-year-old: friend or enemy'', 1976 * ''Your six-year-old: defiant but loving'', 1979 * ''Your five-year-old: sunny and serene'', 1979
== Personal life == Ilg adopted a daughter, Tordis, in 1938.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-12-06 |title=Miss Tordis Ilg Engaged to Wed Louis Isselhardt; Programer for A.T.&T. Betrothed to Doctoral Candidate at N.Y.U. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/06/archives/miss-tordis-ilg-engaged-to-wed-louis-isselhardt-programer-for-att.html |access-date=2022-04-21 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Ilg died in 1981, aged 78 years, while vacationing in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilg, Frances Lillian}} Category:1902 births Category:1981 deaths Category:American pediatricians Category:American women pediatricians Category:American developmental psychologists Category:Yale University faculty Category:People from Oak Park, Illinois Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:20th-century American psychologists Category:20th-century American women