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One of the areas of parenting that I feel is often neglected, is the need for parents to intentionally build relationships with their children.
The book The Whole Brain Child helps parents build these relationships by showing them ways they can respond to their child’s emotional needs and not just see the unwanted behaviour.
By getting to the core, meeting your child where they are really hurting, scared, disappointed you can show them that you truly understand them, see them and are willing to help them through their situation.
As the title suggests, The Whole Brain child explains how both you and your child’s brain works. It gives scientific reasons why your children may respond with certain behaviours and struggle to keep their emotions in check.
…You know, the lovely tantrums I am sure we have all experienced at one time.
But don’t worry! There is an answer to our many questions…
But not just an answer. Dr Tina and Dr Daniel give 12 simple strategies parents can use to truly connect with their children and help them to calm down and use their whole brain to deal with the situation at hand.
Who should read The Whole Brain Child?
You should definitely read this book ….
If you want to know how your child’s brain works and why they respond in certain ways
If you want simple strategies that you can use straight away to help you effectively deal with emotional or challenging behaviours (including tantrums)
If you want to know how to connect with your child on an emotional level
If you enjoy reading about child development
You want to understand the science of how the brain works… in a way you can understand
This book is special, because it’s emphasis is not just on the children you have now, but also how it can bring about change for the next generation and the generation afterwards.
What if we had the opportunity to raise children to grow up to be emotionally intelligent adults, able to face any situation thrown their way and articulate how they feel, rather than pretend their emotions don’t exist.
If you want to raise relationally and emotionally healthy individuals, then this is a book you want to read.
My Honest Opinion of the book: The Whole Brain Child
I really enjoy psychology, the mind and all things counselling…. hence I decided to study counselling right? But what I really enjoyed about this book, is the way it broke down how the mind works in the most simplest form.
Dr Daniel and Dr Tina, have the ability to make something that can be quite complex (and most scientist / doctors tend to use long words that no one understands) and make it easy for any mum or dad to read and digest.
They also went one step further. They kindly placed all the strategies in one place at the end, on a separate page that you can take out and place on your fridge for easy access.
For those of you with children of different ages, Daniel and Tina explain how parents can implement each strategy for each child’s age. So whether you have a pre-schooler or a teenager, these strategies can be used and they show you how to adapt them to each child.
Why mums should read The Whole Brain Child
There are so many resources available to parents, on how to practically raise children. Less light is shone on the importance of understanding how your children’s brain works and why they respond in certain ways.
This book is not just about helping your child, but also helping yourself. It helps you work through some things yourself and understand yourself better so you can best parent your child.
As a bonus: You don’t have to try and figure out how to tell your children / partner, what you have learnt. It is all there for you!
There are little comic strips you can read to your children / partner, to explain what you have learnt and so they can also have a better understanding of how their brain works and why they respond in certain ways.
Bonuses all around!