Audie Award Nominee, Personal Development, 2013
Your toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of a store. Your preschooler refuses to get dressed. Your fifth-grader sulks on the bench instead of playing on the field. Do children conspire to make their parents' lives endlessly challenging? No - it's just their developing brain calling the shots!
In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the best-selling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson demystify the meltdowns and aggravation, explaining 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 can seem - and feel - so out of control. 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. Raise calmer, happier children using twelve key strategies, including:
- Name It to Tame It: Corral raging right-brain behavior through left-brain storytelling, appealing to the left brain's affinity for words and reasoning to calm emotional storms and bodily tension.
- Engage, Don't Enrage: Keep your child thinking and listening, instead of purely reacting.
- Move It or Lose It: Use physical activities to shift your child's emotional state.
- Let the Clouds of Emotion Roll By: Guide your children when they are stuck on a negative emotion, and help them understand that feelings come and go.
- SIFT: Help children pay attention to the Sensations, Images, Feelings, and Thoughts within them so that they can make better decisions and be more flexible.
- Connect Through Conflict: Use discord to encourage empathy and greater so...