Your Child's Strengths and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
55 used & new from $1.82

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them
 
 
Start reading Your Child's Strengths on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them (Hardcover)

~ Jenifer Fox M.Ed. (Author) "I AM STANDING IN A MOST UNUSUAL PLACE AT THE MOST MIRACULOUS moment of my life..." (more)
Key Phrases: relationship strengths, strengths inventory, strengths epiphanies, Hundred Acre Wood, Strengths Journal, Strengths Profile (more...)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.27 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.68 (35%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
25 new from $1.94 29 used from $1.82 1 collectible from $24.95

Also Available in:

List Price: Our Price: Other Offers:
Kindle Edition (Kindle Book)   $9.99  
Hardcover (Bargain Price) $24.95 $9.98 21 used & new from $4.77
Audio Download (Audible.com) Offsite Link $24.99 $13.12  
Audio CD (Audiobook,CD,Unabridged) $34.99 $26.59 17 used & new from $21.00
MP3 CD (Audiobook,CD,MP3 Audio,Unabridged) $24.99 $18.99 10 used & new from $15.14

Frequently Bought Together

Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them + StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths + Strengths-Based Leadership
Price For All Three: $43.70

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them by Jenifer Fox M.Ed.

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Your Child's Strengths: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

Your Child's Strengths: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

by Jenifer Fox M.Ed.
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $6.00
StrengthsExplorer For Ages 10 to 14: From Gallup, the Creators of StrengthsFinder

StrengthsExplorer For Ages 10 to 14: From Gallup, the Creators of StrengthsFinder

by Gallup Youth Development Specialists
3.9 out of 5 stars (7)  $26.40
Strengths-Based Leadership

Strengths-Based Leadership

by Tom Rath
4.0 out of 5 stars (42)  $14.29
Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently

Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently

by Marcus Buckingham
3.6 out of 5 stars (183)  $19.79
The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success

The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success

by Marcus Buckingham
3.9 out of 5 stars (140)  $18.89
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fox, head of a girl's boarding school in New Jersey, writes about a strengths-based curriculum she developed and implemented with great success. She not only presents a workbook that can be utilized by educators and parents, but also offers a convincing argument in favor of over-turning outdated curriculums and teaching methods. Instead of focusing on weaknesses, Fox submits that children do far better when the focus is on their strengths. Childhood is for "creative dreaming," not preparation for standardized tests. Fox identifies three types of strengths: activity, learning and relationship strengths, and helps parents guide their children toward self-discovery, explaining that true strengths include not only what a child is good at, but what she enjoys and makes her feel strong. The book is written in a lively and engaging style, and sprinkled with anecdotes from Fox's teaching life and her own experiences as a student who was frustrated and uncomfortable in a traditional school setting. Clearly, writing is one of Fox's strengths, as is her inspiring passion for helping kids lead meaningful lives.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review

“When I was labeled ‘learning disabled,’ the educational system tried everything to fix me, from giving me purple-colored reading glasses to putting me through hundreds of hours of remediation. Through all these efforts to fix what was supposedly wrong with me, my strengths, gifts, and talents were not simply neglected or ignored, but negated. Jenifer Fox has taken a groundbreaking and important stand against the standardized deficit and remediation education that dominates the lives of millions of students. Philosophical yet extremely practical, innovative yet grounded in solid research on effective pedagogy, Your Child's Strengths is a must read for any student, parent and educator.”
—Jonathan Mooney author of The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal and Learning Outside the Lines

Your Child's Strengths is a tonic for the regret one feels for all the children burdened by schools and a world preoccupied by weaknesses rather than strengths. Countless compelling stories illustrate vividly the theme, that focusing on children's strengths is the roadmap for all parents and teachers to give what we want inherently wish to provide: a means for children to find their own path. The Strengths Inventory and Affinities Program curriculum in the Appendix offer a remarkably practical means to start down the path and are worth a read by themselves, but then you would miss the journey of revelation the book evokes.”
—Patrick F. Bassett, President, National Association of Independent Schools

"Jenifer Fox has vision, passion, intelligence, and experience. All show in Your Child’s Strengths, which contains a wealth of practical ideas for parents and educators who want to encourage among children the strengths that make possible the good life."
—Christopher Peterson, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan and author of A Primer in Positive Psychology

"Your Child's Strengths puts in plain view what has been in front of us all along – that education and character development always do best to first identify and deepen strengths, rather than to first (and too often exclusively) focus on deficit and weaknesses. Fox's approach is more interesting, more effective, and ultimately more humane."
—Michael Riera, author of Staying Connected to Your Teenager: How to Keep Them Talking to You, and How To Hear What They’re Really Saying

Your Child’s Strengths contains clear, interesting, step-by-step techniques for identifying and utilizing children’s cognitive and emotional strengths - an excellent starting point for any parent, teacher, or student who wants to take the more effective step of focusing on assets rather than liabilities. The wisdom contained in this remarkable volume will be a godsend, not only for those who are just beginning to try to understand a child’s learning style but also for those already battered by a misguided an educational system.”
—Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., co-author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

“This is a brilliant, innovative, enormously practical, and hugely important work. Where positive psychology and strength-based philosophies usually stumble, this book soars, namely, in practical application. If teachers and parents would all read this and implement its suggestions, our broken educational system would be fixed in no time. Truly, this book could change the world.”
—Edward Hallowell, M.D. author of Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood to Adulthood and Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Viking Adult (February 28, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0670018767
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670018765
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,478 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #89 in  Books > Nonfiction > Education > Parent Participation

More About the Author

Jenifer Fox
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Jenifer Fox Page

Inside This Book (learn more)

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Middle School Teacher Raves, March 12, 2008
As a career middle school teacher, I know how challenging it can be to manage a classroom full of diverse learners. It is easy to focus on "fixing" what is wrong with kids. What Fox does in this book is offer a practical program to build on students' strengths. She shows us how to discover them with great activities and exercises and also makes a strong case that building on student strengths lays the groundwork for students to improve their performance overall. In this age of standardization, this book provides a refreshing reminder to teachers and parents that kids are not problems to be solved but mysteries to be discovered. I, for one, am looking forward to sharing this book with the parents of kids I teach and using the exercises and ideas in it to partner with them to see our students in a new light. Great book, groundbreaking.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Your Child's Strengths by Jenifer Fox, July 15, 2008
By jjmachshev "jj" (Grovetown, GA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
What an excellent book for parents, educators, and just about everyone else too. "Your Child's Strengths" by Jenifer Fox is a well-structured, logical, and methodical plan for bringing out the best in children, while inculcating resiliance and responsibility to help them face the ups and downs ahead of them.

Fox uses well thought-out plans, exercises, and examples to help her target audience learn how to re-focus their senses to work WITH children rather than trying to work ON children. Her approach is designed to assist the parent or educator in acting as a guide to the child who discovers their own strengths. I'm sure anyone who has ever had or worked with a child can verify that truths which come from within are much more powerful and have much more staying power than those others 'teach' TO us. Learning to recognize your own strengths vice talents can be compared to recognizing small epiphanies that occur in your life when you are happy, pleased, and self-confident. In this respect, the book is a manual for recognizing personal strengths in ourselves as well as enabling our children to learn to recognize and work with their strengths.
Fox is careful to explain the both the concepts behind this strategy and the actions needed to carry it out. The first part of the book explains the reasoning and successes of this method. The second portion provides descriptions and examples for recognizing strengths and how to delve deeper than mere words by utilizing all our senses to pick up what children can't or won't say. The final chapters are literally a textbook with exercises, suggestions, and charts each reader can use.

Even the appendices have structure and use as they detail lists and writings to implement this process individually, in the family, in groups, and grade-by-grade in schools. There are also success stories and contacts available for readers.

As both a mother and an educator, I'm very encouraged after reading "Your Child's Strengths". Both parents looking for guidance and educators screaming for help (although maybe I should phrase that the other way around!) can use the truths laid out so diligently in Jenifer Fox's book to combat the negativity so prevalent around us and infecting our children. I'll certainly be recommending it to my fellow educators and close friends. After all, with so much to learn the target audience need not be restricted to parents and educators. Personal growth is not, and should not be, only a childhood experience.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Starting them on a Me Inc. journey , August 22, 2008
By Dennis DeWilde "The Performance Connection" (Cleveland area, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
  
The older we get, the more we realize that life is a journey of discover into who we are; and those who help guide us along that path are called our most honored teachers. In this easy to read tutorial, educator Jenifer Fox relies on stories from her life and her life's work with children to demonstrate the importance of integrating that process into your child's education and then provides the how-to-do manual.

Arguing persuasively against systems that place all comers into a common box and then looks to identify failure (weakness) as the path to growth, Fox reminds us that we are all unique, individual beings with both weaknesses and strengths. Recognizing that our weaknesses are most often the underside of a powerful strength, educator Fox shows us how to use this strength base as a foundation for growth and learning - starting not when we are adults, but starting from an early age by incorporating this concept into our educational institutions. Recognizing that this strength positioning applies not just to students, but also to the teachers, Fox created an Affinities Program as an alternative to standardized teaching and testing methodologies.

Applying the well accepted "Head, Heart, & Hands" framework to strength understanding, Fox categorizes children's (adults too, for that matter) strengths as Learning, Relational, or Activity based, and provides examples and discovery techniques for each. If you have done any introspective analysis yourself, you will appreciate that a book cannot give the answers to your child's strengths, but this one will surely help you start them on that journey and integrate it into their educational development.

Do not be off-put by the nearly 350 pages. The book takes only 160 pages to present the usual problem/solution argument - an easy two sitting read. The next 75 pages are the how-to-do application piece for working with the child - a worthwhile book in its own right. By including the Affinities curriculum as an appendix to the book, Fox expanded the book beyond the usual < 250 page limit for the easy read designation - consider this your free gift when you buy the book.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who loves a child.

Dennis DeWilde, Author of "The Performance Connection"
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read and Good Points
I enjoyed the way this book was written. Some books are dry but this writer is a story teller in which a message is woven. It helped me to see my child in a new light. Read more
Published 1 month ago by E. Szakal

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them
This book has been an excellent aid for me. Read more
Published 5 months ago by N. Crew

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Every Parent & Teacher
Jenifer Fox is on a mission: to radically transform how we as parents, teachers, & a society view our children & their education. Read more
Published 8 months ago by James John Hollandsworth, M.D.

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew we'd have trouble recognizing our/our kids' TRUE strengths?
Jenifer Fox's stories are SO interesting and enlightening...pick up the book and randomly read and you'll find fascinating, easy to understand real-life parables. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Susan Goewey

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for learning to identify talents in children
This is an excellent book that highlights the role of identifying early strenghts in children for future academic/professional success. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Bright Development

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!!!
I originally borrowed this book from the library. I fell in love with it, so I bought a copy. This is a great book for adults and Children alike who are wondering what their... Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Evans

4.0 out of 5 stars Dig deeper
This book by Jenifer Fox offers a unique view on the development and education of your children. Rather than depending on a rigid school curriculum and then using test results to... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Amanda Richards

4.0 out of 5 stars One Way to Overcome No Child Left Behind
Education isn't getting much play in the 2008 presidential election coverage. I suspect that with all the hoopla around the politics of politics, as well as the state of the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by PunditMom

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Strengths Movement 0 November 2007
See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.