EL Reading For Parents: The Whole-Brain Child

Recently I posted my Maternity Reading List.  While I am still excited to get through the whole list, life and exhaustion have slowed me down a little (that's ok, I'll have lots of late night reading time when I'm feeding a baby).  The next one I read was The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson.

This book focuses more on the emotional development of kids.  Each chapter focuses on one aspect of how the brain develops and how that impacts behavior and emotions.  It has tips on how to respond to different types of situations to help get the kid through it.  Then at the end of the chapter there is a section that you use to teach your kids about the concept and a section on how to integrate the knowledge into your own life.

All in all, I thought it was a good book and could see how it could be very useful.  However, having a psychology degree and being a parent already, I felt like a lot of the information I either knew already or felt kind of like common knowledge.  I did find myself wanting to share concepts and ideas with my husband, since he has not parented before and is a bit more stoic when it comes to the emotions department.


Some Take Home Messages:

• Children have developing brains, and sometimes truly are unable to regulate their emotions and behaviors
• Handle the emotions first/in the moment and then come back with logic and reason afterwards
• Help children name their emotions to make them seem more manageable
• When children are hyper-focusing on one thing that is bringing them down, help them visualize all the parts of their days/lives that contribute to their "self"