12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
Original price was: $39.99.$14.99Current price is: $14.99.
Description
“Simple, smart, and effective solutions to your child’s struggles.”—Harvey Karp, M.D.
In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth.
Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
“[A] useful child-rearing resource for the entire family . . . The authors include a fair amount of brain science, but they present it for both adult and child audiences.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Strategies for getting a youngster to chill out [with] compassion.”—The Washington Post
“This erudite, tender, and funny book is filled with fresh ideas based on the latest neuroscience research. I urge all parents who want kind, happy, and emotionally healthy kids to read The Whole-Brain Child. This is my new baby gift.”—Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other
“Gives parents and teachers ideas to get all parts of a healthy child’s brain working together.”—Parent to Parent
Extremely insightful and well written guidance on how to help my kids better integrate (and good words for me too!).
As I worked my way through the book, I tried the techniques on my 2.5 year old and it was pretty much miraculous. I already had a good relationship with her, but connecting on a different level was rewarding as a parent. It helped me help her work through tantrums, difficult or scary situations, and find ways to effectively problem solve on her own. This book doesn't just empower us parents, it empowers our children too, which should be the end goal of every parent.
The book is a quick read (I finished it in about a week working full time and with 4 kids in the household), so its very accessible. The content is immediately useful and non-judgemental. As my review title suggests, if there were only one book us parents could read about child development and the role we as parents play in that development, it needs to be this book.
These things gave me much pause about the full use of my child’s brain but after reading this book I know that she does have a brain and one day, possibly, she will use it. I hope.
The Whole-Brain Child offers a lot of practical ways to help your children. I was feeling a little frustrated when I got to the end of the book because I didn't see these practical ways, but there's a section at the end of the text that goes more specifically into each age range with practical tips. This is what I was looking for.
I feel like The Whole-Brain Child was packed with information. Good information. Scientifically researched information. But for me, I find that the first time I'm exposed to a topic, the information might not soak in so well. So I definitely think I could benefit from re-reading The Whole-Brain Child. And I have intentions to do just that.
I have already put some things I've learned into practice with my children. And I can see these strategies being helpful. At the same time, I can see that I need more practice to get better at calling these strategies to mind in the moment. Shoot, I actually could use some of these strategies in my own brain for a calmer life.
The Whole-Brain Child gets 4 Stars. It might be worthy of 5 Stars upon a re-read when I absorb more of the information and put it into practice with my kids. So maybe I'll come back and update this review down the road. Until then... Have you read The Whole-Brain Child? What did you think? Let me know!
Dan Siegel describes the functions of each of the parts of the brain, then focuses on integrating the different parts. He uses examples of common child behavior / situations and explains how the brain is working in those moments with those behaviors, and what we can do as parents to understand how their brain is functioning in that moment, how to communicate to the child in the situation in the most receptive way, and how to use these situations as learning and developing tools. Like when a child is overly emotional or in a tantrum, you have to work with their right brain emotion in those moments because its in control, and you can later introduce the left brain logic. I know, thats probably one of the more basic concepts, but he does a great job of explaining the science behind the actions. What he talks about totally makes sense intuitively, but see it laid out and explained in a scientific way was pretty fascinating.
Understanding the developing brain has been sooo helpful in my understanding of how to be a better parent. For me, having this foundation of knowledge is so much more powerful than reading through a million other "parenting" books and trying a bunch of different techniques. I feel so much more confident in the decisions I'm making as a parent, and I know how to respond to my children across a spectrum depending on their personality or the situation. It realllly helps reduce the frustration on BOTH sides.
Plus, this is also so helpful to understand other people in your lives. There were a few 'ahha' moments in there in which I totally understood what happens between two adults during a heated discussion.
I do think that he spends a bit too much time on the wheel- hub/spoke analogy. He describes each of the spokes essentially as a piece of our personality, but they don't individually define who we are. They are all connected and make us whole. I may not be describing it exactly properly, as I might have zoned out on that piece, but its the one part where he deters from the science and lost my interest.
PS...I downloaded this on audible to listen to it during the non-child part of my daily commute because, as we all know, how many parents have the extra time to sit and read through a book?
PSS...Dan Siegel just came out with a book regarding the developing teenage brain. Given that the idea of having teenage daughters is one of my fears, I will definitely be reading that one in a few years!