The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Proven Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

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The idea here is to respond adequately to children emotions so that they will grow up with a strong sense of security. Each region of your brain is responsible for a distinct set of tasks, which we’ll explore in the coming chapters.

For instance: the two strategies for integrating right and left brain are 1) connect and redirect and 2) name it to tame it. The Whole-Brain Child explains the neurological and developmental reasons for many of your child’s meltdowns and misbehaviors. The pioneering experts behind the bestselling The Whole-Brain Child now explore the ultimate child-raising challenge: discipline. One of the back-of-book blurbs described it as "erudite" and offering a "science focus" which is completely misleading. When the different parts of your child’s brain—such as the logical left brain and the emotional right brain—are not integrated, it makes your child mentally and emotionally off-balance, which causes her to act out.Describe one recent incident in which your child acted irrationally, and which you suspect could be due to an unintegrated implicit memory. I just started the book and can tell right away that this should have come with an accompanying PDF of a cheat sheet that seems to be in the book for a quick run through of the principles.

If our children argue or complain about something someone said to them, we can ask them to explore the other person's perspective. Many times we have expectations for our children that they can't meet, because their brains haven't been wired to do so yet. Think of all your parts as spokes on a wheel, and your self-awareness of your various parts is the hub in the center. As our authors point out, if we had to be asked what we want for our kids, we would probably say that we want them to be happy and successful.Before we discuss the whole-brain strategies for integration, reflect on the techniques you already use. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures.

Siegel’s books include the New York Times’ bestseller “Brainstorm”, along with "Mindsight," "The Developing Mind," "The Mindful Brain," "The Mindful Therapist," in addition to co-authoring "Parenting From the Inside Out," with Mary Hartzell and "The Whole-Brain Child," with Tina Bryson.The message of The Whole-Brain Child is that families — both children and parents alike — aren’t stuck in their current circumstances. 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. Nurturing children comes in many forms, but we often overlook how to stimulate and encourage children's whole-brain development. The fifth and sixth chapters, however, throw a little of Susan Stiffelman’s “Parenting Without Power Struggles” into the mix, offering child therapy techniques and explaining why they work through the prism of brain science. For example, I liked the "upstairs brain, downstairs brain" metaphor but ultimately isn't this just another way to say that you need to help your kid get out of the stuck tantrum-y place to where they can think reasonably?