Customer Reviews

How to Handle a Hard-to-Handle Kid: A Parents' Guide to Understanding and Changing Problem Behaviors

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The title of this book is quite misleading to a parent who is looking for help in raising their challenging child. The author does a good enough job with dispensing advice on how to generally deal with hard-to-handle behavior. However, he completely misses the mark on hard-to-handle kids.

Dr. Edwards begins the book with a clear enough discussion on temperment and how it should be taken into account when dealing with children's behavior. Unfortunately, he does not follow his own advice throughout the remainder of the book.

Even the chapter on dealing with specific hard-to-handle situations fails to discuss temperment. Dr. Edwards ignores that mealtime difficulties, for example, can be played out differently in children with varying temperments. He speaks in vague generalities. These hard-to-handle problems cannot always be boiled down so simplistically.

For parents of children who are less intense and a bit more flexible, Dr. Edwards advice may be enlightening, but it is of little use to a parent of challenging child.

I was looking for a book to help my boy and me (he was in Grade 1 last year and was having real terrible problems in school to the point the headmaster and teachers found it hard to handle him). I have been having problems handling him myself eversince he was 3 years old. After reading this book, it has really opened my eyes to my type of parenting (authoritarian) and to what "type" of child he is. He is hyperactive and after applying the many advice and parenting techniques, his behavior (and mine) have changed a lot for the better! The "Support through Listening" has given us a breakthrough. My son, knowing now that I understand him, has such a confidence that it had brought him out of a lot of his temper tantrums at home and it had also helped in his low self-esteem. The positive and negative feedback had been truly helpful and the reward system has made life a lot easier. Though I have not put everything that was suggested into practice, I am keeping this as a handbook - will be incorporating bit by bit the productive parenting techniques into our (my husband and I) lives. I thank God for this fantastic book and am deeply grateful to Dr Edwards for his brilliant "workable" strategies and for the encouragement that we've (the whole family) benefitted from it! I have recommended this book to some of my friends.

Like the author said, if you don't spend time with the kids when they are young you WILL spend an inordinate amount of time when they are older. Nip the problem in the bud by reading this book. Start to develope good parenting skills as early as possible. Learn some very practical day to day parenting skills involving homework problems,temper tantrums,difficulty in social situations,the dangers of harsh punishment,the real price of rewards, etc. This book has been very helpful to me, although my child doesn't have behavior problems at this time, by reading this book I feel as if I can recognize problems before they get out of hand.

The ideas on dealing with bedtime hassles made my life, and my girl's, much easier. She can still be difficult, but I've learned how to respond more effectively.

Dr. Edwards provides advice on handling the HTH kid. The approach he uses is based upon his vast knowledge and experience in the the field of child psychology. I found that the advice he gives in his book is both simple and sage. He stresses consistency and calm, which produces positive results.

I have even met Dr. Edwards and know first hand that the methods espoused in his book are the ones he practices on a daily basis. In our area he is known by both deed and reputation. He does not speak above you or below you. He does not assume that you are a bad parent because you have a HTH kid. Throughout the book, he imparts simplistic wisdom, through understanding why the behaviors occur and how they can be "changed". This is not a "pop-psychology" quick fix fad book. It gives you reasonable steps to provide reasonable structure and consistency for your child.

HTH kids have a good "extra" parent in Dr. Edwards. He provides calm and reasonable solutions to understanding the HTH kids. He has made me a better parent by showing that even parents need to have structure and guidance.

Even if you do not have a HTH kid, by following Dr. Edwards advice, you will be a better parent and your child benefit from your newfound wisdom.

This book offers "cookie-cutter" solutions to parenting problems. I felt that there was nothing new presented in the book...simplistic ideas that you can find in any parenting book. It's common sense that you should reinforce the positives, reward good behavior, spend time with your child, listen without judging so that the child doesn't get defensive. If you're a beginner to this type of thinking this book is for you. If you've been around and around the block with your "hard to handle child" you'll find better information in "Setting Limits with your Strong-Willed Child" by Robert MacKenzie. For a Christian perspective, try "Boundaries with Kids" by Cloud and Townsend.

This book has some of the most helpful information for relating to not only difficult children but to anybody in general. Like Dr. Edwards said in his book, we all can be difficult at times. His style of writing is clear and humorous, yet discusses a very serious subject. We, as parents,really need to take an honest look at our children and ourselves and take the time and effort to learn good parenting skills. It's probably the most important job in the world and we have practically no training for it. Even hairdressers have more training for their jobs than parents. Thank you Dr. Edwards for taking the time to write this book. I've tried some of your suggestions already and I'm already feeling better about my daughters and myself.