Customer Reviews

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a new parent, I am just beginning to read up child development, discipline, and parenting. This short book gets right to the point and gives parents twelve key strategies that will help them parent their kids without losing it. The twelve strategies are:

1: Connect and Redirect: Connect emotionally, redirect logically

2: Name It To Tame It: Taming emotions through storytelling

3: Engage, Don't Enrage: Appeal to logic and planning, not to emotion

4: Use It Or Lose It: Encourage planning, thinking, and other left-brain activities

5: Move It Or Lose It: Body over mind method to restore balance

6: Use The Remote Of The Mind: Teaching your child to view his/her memories while maintaining control

7: Remember To Remember: Exercise memory often

8: Let The Clouds of Emotion Roll By: Teaching your kids about temporary feelings

9: SIFT: Using sensation, image, feeling, and thought to help your child understand

10: Exercise Mindsight: Focusing with your mind (For more on this, see one of the author's other books, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation

11: Increase The Family Fun Factor: The science behind building in fun family times

12: Connect Through Conflict: Turning conflict into opportunity

Some of the things I really liked about this book include:

* Cartoon explanations and demonstrations of each point. Very helpful.

* Break down at the end of each chapter for kids.

* Chart at the end of the book on how to integrate each strategy for different ages - very valuable, and a great addition to the book.

The only negative thing I can say is that some of the strategies seemed too much alike to warrant another strategy (ex. Remote of Mind and Name It to Tame It). Use the chart at the back, and this little book will help you survive everyday parenting struggles. Highly Recommended.

Another book on redirected parenting, this one with a Christian focus instead of neuroscience: Gospel-Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting

Book that really got me interested on the power of the mind and memory: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

The Whole-Brain Child was so much more than I was expecting. I selected it because my daughter was going through some struggles with her 2 year old twins and my other daughter's 4 year old went through several weeks of separation from his mom and dad and now has to adjust to life with twin brothers. I was looking for things I might be able to do or to pass on to them that might help. What I wasn't expecting was getting some insight into why I feel it necessary to have dessert after a meal or why I have some of the anxieties I have.

I found the book easy to read and understand. There are many specific examples of how each technique can be used. I found these examples to be very useful. Most seems to be directed toward school-age children, but the back of the book has a chart that breaks down how to use each strategy with different age groups. There is 0 - 3, 3 - 6, 6 - 9, and 9 - 12. This makes it easier to see how each technique can be used with the children in your life.

Integrating the brain makes sense, especially the way it is explained here. We have a right brain (emotional) and a left brain (logical) and when we use both our lives are more balanced, meaningful, and creative. We also have an upstairs and a downstairs brain. Downstairs is the more primitive brain, which is intact at birth. The upstairs brain is under construction during childhood and gets remodeled during adolescence. Upstairs can be overtaken by the downstairs especially during high-emotion situations. When we "lose it", our downstairs has taken over. There are also different kinds of memories that need to be integrated as well as self and others. In general, this book is about integrating all the different parts of our brain. Doing so makes it so much easier for us to live happy, productive lives. I am ready to use some of the strategies explained in this book.

ETA: This book must have made a big impression on me. It hasn't been that long since I finished reading it, but I find myself quoting from it frequently. Sometimes it's when I am talking to my children about their children, but I have also had conversations with teachers I used to work with where information I learned in this books added to the discussion.

I have a 1 year old daughter and was hoping this book would help me communicate with her and build her mental resiliency. It does that and so much more. WIthout getting lost in needless academic discussions of learning and (bio)psychology, the book provides very concrete insights and recommendations for improving a child's ability to be mentally strong and healthy, and cope with stress. It also provides extensive example dialogues and scenarios involving a parent and his/her child; these dialogues are very realistic and display the various author-introduced techniques in action. Frankly, I've already begun to implement these with my 1 y/o and I'm seeing results. I think this is the best strength of the book - you are provided a brief background discussion of the topic (e.g., dealing with latent memories), and then an example scenario and actual dialogue of a parent using that insight to solve his/her child's issue. Immensely practical.

The first part of this book was painful to read, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Starting off, I was pretty sure the science would be terrible because every child is a "whole-brain child" but it does get better and the science gets more accurate. I still take issue with the left-brain, right-brain dichotomy, but I see where the authors were trying to go with that.

Most of the strategies presented aren't anything new but I appreciate the "whys" behind the advice they give because is helpful to have a basic understanding of child development from a neurological standpoint. If you're anything like me, someone can tell you all day long that you need to do something but it doesn't truly make sense until I understand the underlying reasoning and the authors do a great job of presenting that information without bogging the reader down.

The most helpful part of the book are the last pages where each strategy is broken down by age group. This provides a great summary and I would suggest skimming over these pages once a week or so to keep the strategies in fresh in the mind so they are right there when they need to be recalled.

Parenting advice is everywhere and it can be hard to figure out what to trust, so it's nice to see one that gives some support for its conclusions. While there's no hard and fast rules that will work in every situation, The Whole-Brain Child provides wonderful strategies that should work in most.I Just keep in mind, if you've already read several other similar books (basically positive parenting) you're probably not going to find new strategies here.

I couldn't wait to for "the Whole Brain Child" to arrive so that I could start reading it. Let me say that it is packed with lots of information and after reading it, I must admit, I need to reread over and over again. It contains 12 whole-brain strategies that are explained in details & offers a few simple illustrations.

I like the concept of integrating both the left and right side of the brain. There are more and more products these days geared towards Right brain or Left brain learning such as Tweedlewink. I'm excited to see more and more research done on this subject that can help us understand how our brains work and how to teach and communicate to our children more effectively. "Instead of just giving the answer...excercise the upstairs brain." With this book you get advice on how you can help your children produce these characteristics:

- sound decision making and planning
- control over emotions and body
- Self-understanding
- Empathy
- Morality

I like how "The Whole Brain Child" at the end of the book reviews the type of integration, whole brain strategy and application strategy according to the age group you are seeking as a "refrigerator sheet". Overall, a very insightful book.

As a child therapist I was thrilled to read this book; I am always on the lookout for new parenting strategies to share with the parents of my clients. I was pleased to find that in addition to some simple, neurologically-based parenting strategies, there was also some fascinating information on brain development in children.

The book begins with the premise that everyday parenting dilemmas-- such as that fight in the backseat over who is on whose side-- can be turned into opportunities to teach kids important skills, like conflict resolution, perspective-taking, and empathy. This is not an approach to parenting that expects perfection; there is lots of reassurance throughout the book that no parent is perfect, and that the authors don't expect parents to turn every moment into a magical lesson. They simply provide strategies for parents to make the most of everyday moments in terms of helping their child's brain develop. The authors come across as down-to-earth and friendly, yet extremely knowledgeable.

The book explores the differences between left and right brain, and "upstairs and downstairs" brain development in kids, providing wonderful insight-- in plain English-- on the neurological reasons why kids react and respond differently than adults. Parents are shown how to engage with their children on an emotional level before attempting to reason with them. Other strategies involve helping kids to strengthen their memories, improve their mindfulness skills, and manage strong emotions.

The book is filled with cartoons that illustrate the various parenting skills, as well as illustrations to explain some of the neurological concepts (which are much, much easier to understand with a visual). There is a helpful refrigerator sheet that summarizes each of the skills learned in the book, as well as an "ages and stages" section at the end which illustrates how to apapt the skills to different developmental stages.

Overall this was an interesting, insightful book that explained how parents can engage the "whole brain" of the child to raise children that are thoughtful, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent. I would highly recommend this book to parents, as well as to therapists who work with children.

Every parent should buy this book. Siegel and Bryson do an excellent job of breaking down parenting as a process and not an event.

They teach the reader how to navigate through the right brain, left brain model. So if your child is having a right brain meltdown, they teach you how to reach them there before you move to logic. Some parents will find that to be a basic skill, but many will find it very new and rewarding.

Understanding the idea of an upstairs and downstairs brain is also a major accomplishment in this book. Most of the time, we as a people do not give thought to the why of what we do. This book helps explain a more integrated approach to parenting. One of the most controversial parts of the book will no doubt be when the author's take on the idea that parents should ignore tantrums. They dare to suggest that actually attempting to teach your child to process their feelings in the middle of the tantrum could be the best approach.

Another excellent take-away with this book is the idea that parents need to move away from denying and dismissing their child's feelings. Too often, I see parents dismiss their child's feelings because the feelings manifest in a way that the parent doesn't like or the parent doesn't know how to process his or her own feelings.

This book does an excellent job of helping understand how to process emotions in a healthy way. If you child is experiencing fear, there are simple and real life takeaways that you can utilize to help them. If your child is angry with you because you set a boundary for them, there are easy to use ways that you can help your child express that in a healthy way! This is one of the best aspects of this book.

Lastly, this book gives a very cursory overview of mirror neurons. They are amazing and we all have them. If you have angry children, it might be because you are angry. Our brains are wired for "we" is an exact quote from the book. As parents, we have to be integrated in order to raise integrated children. This book will find a lot of push back by the far right who believe a parents number one goal is to punish the evil out of their children and by those who find it doesn't match the way they parented.

Regardless, buy it. You will not regret it. In fact, I suspect that you will be very happy that you did.

This book helped me turn difficult periods or moments into opportunities. Times that in the past have gone downhill for me, I am now able to turn around to make us a happier, more understanding and relaxed family. The book explains how a child's mind develops and why it works and reacts differently than an adult mind. I've fallen into a trap in thinking that my children are looking at things the same way I do or that they will feel what I do in emotional situations. That's not true and Siegel and Bryson have done a wonderful job of showing me how a child's brain works and how to get through each day in a way that makes the whole family happy.

There are six chapters that talk about integrating the parts of the brain, the person, the family (Parenting with the Brain in Mind, Two Brains are Better than One, Building the Staircase of the Mind, Kill the Butterflies!, The United States of Me, and The Me-We Connection). These chapters cover the 12 whole-brain strategies: 1. Connect and Redirect: Surfing Emotional Waves, 2. Name It to Tame It: Telling Stories to Calm Big Emotions, 3. Engage, Don't Enrage: Appealing to the Upstairs Brain, 4. Use It or Lose It: Exercising the Upstairs Brain, 5. Move It or Lose It: Moving the Body to Avoid Losing the Mind, 6. Use the Remote of the Mind: Replaying Memories, 7. Remember to Remember: Making Recollection a Part of Your Family's Daily Life, 8. Let the Clouds of Emotion Roll By: Teaching that Feelings Come and Go, 9. SIFT: Paying Attention to What's Going On Inside, 10.Exercise Mindsight: Getting Back to the Hub, 11. Increase the Family Fun Factor: Making a Point to Enjoy Each Other, 12. Connect Through Conflict: Teaching Kids to Argue with a "We" in Mind.

What I've learned from this book is a work-in-progress. I am getting better and more consistent in how I handle conflict with my children and I can see it's working. I am so glad to have read this book. It has given me a new understanding of what my children are thinking and new ways to nurture them and make us all happy. I only wish I'd had it five years ago.

I can't say enough about how helpful this book is to me as a parent. If I could only have two books on parenting, I'd pick this along with Playful Parenting. The book uses brain research to show how to handle tough situations and, more importantly, how to nurture your child, yet the brain research is written in a very accessible and understandable way. Each chapter has a summary, and the book has a chart at the end that has the highlights and is broken down by age. My 4 year old is passionate to say the least, and the book helped me understand that when a child is in an emotional (or right brain) state, left brain logic (talking, lecturing, do this/stop this now or you won't get that) has no effect. The child can't begin to process logic until calm and back from the fit. The book also suggests what to do instead. Emotions can be pretty overwhelming for kids, too, so I appreciated the suggestions and drawings for teaching your child about how the brain and emotional states work. The book says right off that it isn't intended as a model or system for parenting but as a way to understand your child better. I tried to read Siegel's first book Parenting from the Inside Out, but I couldn't follow it. This book is far more accessible.

This book is based on the concept that to deal with your child - and to help them thrive - it is helpful to understand how a child's brain works. It is such a simple, yet powerful, premise. While it focuses on ages 0-12, the concepts can be adapted to apply to teens, and even adults.

So, why do parents, teachers, grandparents, etc, need a book like this? The different parts of our brains often don't work together very well. Think of when people get scared and can't be calmed, even though they logically know that there is no real threat. This is an example of the older parts of the brain overpowering the more developed parts. Unfortunately for parents and caregivers, the older parts often overpower the more developed parts, because a child's brain is not fully developed until the mid-20s. Also, the hemispheres of our brains handle situations differently, and if children are actively using one side over the other, we need to engage the hemisphere they are working from. This book will show you how to interact with children to help them become more calm, flexible, and balanced by taming the reptilian brain (where tantrums emerge), engaging the advanced areas of their brain, and helping them integrate their left and right hemispheres.

For example, when a child is emotionally upset (using the right brain), many parents try logical, left-brain solutions, a "dismiss and deny" approach ("there is no good reason to cry, so stop!"). A better response to an upset child would be to "connect and redirect," i.e. to acknowledge their feelings ("yes, that is upsetting"), comfort them physically (e.g. with a hug), and later approach the situation more logically. This works for adults too, since when we are upset, angry, etc, most of us rarely become calm after someone screams at us or tells us to "just stop" something. The book contains many other useful tips to help parents deal with the day-to-day headaches...I mean...joys of children.

As a parent of a young child, I was fascinated. The book is interesting and filled with helpful advice that is similar to strategies I have put into practice in my own life to become happier and more balanced. It contains many entertaining stories, and the comic strips that pop up throughout helped me understand the material better. The end material is a helpful summary of the advice contained in the book. I have been reading on a variety of brain-related topics lately, and they all seem to be integrated in this one book! I see instances of Neuro-linguistic Programming, Mindfulness, and Non-Violent Communication (Empathetic Communication). It is really cool to see all of these excellent theories and resources applied to parenting. I would highly recommend this book. It is based on accepted and emerging brain science and provides an alternative to the "yell and yell more" technique that so many of us have used (and had used on us) with ineffective results. Will every solution in the book work every time? Probably not, but there are some great ideas to try!