The Whole-brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

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Scribe Publications, 2012 - Family & Relationships - 176 pages

A NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER

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 bestselling book 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 behaviour 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 social success.

Complete with clear explanations, 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 Childshows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.

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About the author (2012)

Daniel J. Siegel was born on September 2, 1957. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. He received a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his post-graduate medical education at UCLA. His training is in pediatrics and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. Siegel was the recipient of the UCLA psychiatry department's teaching award and several honorary fellowships for his work as director of UCLA's training program in child psychiatry and the Infant and Preschool Service at UCLA. He is the author of several books on parenting and child development including The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and Parenting from the Inside Out, which he co-wrote with Mary Hartzell. Siegel is known as a mindfulness expert and for his work developing the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology which is an interdisciplinary view of life experience. He is the author of Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice.