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

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Their premise is that these twelve strategies help “integrate” children’s brains, that is, “coordinate[] and balance[] the separate regions of the brain” so as to optimize mental health. Using the image of a child inside a canoe floating down a river, they explain that veering close to the bank of chaos leaves the kid feeling too out of control to relax whereas drifting close to the bank of rigidity makes the kid too rigid to function ideally (instead “imposing control on everything and everyone”). “By helping our kids connect left [brain] and right [brain]” - as well as their “upstairs” and “downstairs” brains and implicit and explicit memories - “we give them a better chance of [finding] . . . harmonious flow between the[] two extremes,” which in turn will minimize tantrums and other results of “dis-integration.” Of course, they warn, the results won’t be perfect both because we should expect imperfection in ourselves as parents and because kids are biologically unable to always “be rational, regulate their emotions, make good decisions, think before acting, and be empathetic.” To "work well together" means all the parts are integrating effectively. Horizontal integration is when the left-brain and right-brain link together. Vertical integration involves the intuitive, more primitive parts of the brain, allowing the more reasonable prefrontal cortex to pause and re-consider a little. Memory integration helps the hippocampus make implicit memories more explicit so that we can process worrying things that have occurred in the past. We can also integrate different thoughts and experiences by focusing our attention differently. And finally, we can develop our kids' built-in capacity for social connection. Name It to Tame It: Corral raging right-brain behavior through left-brain storytelling, appealing to the left brain’s affinity for words and reasoning to calm emotional storms and bodily tension. This erudite, tender, and funny book is filled with fresh ideas based on the latest neuroscience research. I urge all parents who want kind, happy, and emotionally healthy kids to read The Whole-Brain Child. This is my new baby gift.” —Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Opheliaand The Shelter of Each Other The key notion behind “managing” your child’s brain growth is integration. In other words, the brain has many different parts, and for a child to grow to a smart and happy individual, it needs to learn how to integrate all of these parts to cope with the experiences that come to its way.

strategies that help parents identify their own discipline philosophy—and master the best methods to communicate the lessons they are trying to impartBy doing this, you will engage its higher brain, instead of just enraging the lower one with punishment. This means that parenting is all about dealing with your child’s experiences, in a way that they shape the person it becomes. Dr. Daniel J. Siegel is an author, leader at Mindsight Institute and teacher of psychiatry at UCLA.

New parents get a bunch of advice from everyone around them. However, one type of advice is crucial: how parents should approach the child’s brain? What Siegel has done here is, based upon cutting-edge neuro-science, boiled down the info relevant for parenting into 12 strategies to help you guide greater brain integration in your children, from birth through about 12-years old. The bad part is that the whole rest of the book, ie 80% , is the pseudo-scientific explanation based on a over-simplistic model of the brain that the authors seem to be so proud of that they need to explain it to us in detail.Rezumatele de la sfârșitul fiecărui capitol sunt utile și explică și mai simplist ideile discutate, așadar, mai ai încă o șansă să intelegi și mai bine ce vor să îți transmită autorii. This book isn't about how to make your kids behave or how to turn your kid into a genius. Instead, its focus on how a "whole brain" that is fully integrated will help a child grow into a more functional adult. I also liked that Siegel didn't make me feel that these are things that we need to be working on with our children ad nauseum. Having fun and relaxing with your kids are important, too. Finally, I want to share two interesting tidbits from “The Whole Brain Child” approach that contradict standard parenting advice but perfectly align with my parenting instincts: If you're looking for a first parenting book, then this is it. Go for it. Very clear narration, great points and easy to follow. Examples help a lot and repeats some points many times so it's a bit easier to remember. However if you've already listened to 2+ of parenting books, then it probably doesn't have that much novel information for you. Still great to reiterate and all, but if you've had a few, then it doesn't add much. It's just overall better than others of its kind out there, but most of the content is same/similar

Awalnya saya mengira buku ini bersifat lebih universal seperti “The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read”, namun ternyata buku ini lebih menyasar audiens-audiens spesifik seperti orang tua, caregiver, atau guru 😂 Meskipun demikian, I find this book enjoyable too! Similarly, when your child is upset, we should first connect right brain to right brain. Yes, with empathy. Then, once they are more receptive, we are able to redirect with the left brain. Redirect does not mean to distract. It means to involve the child in making amends and finding solutions together. 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. Yet, we're so often just trying to meet the day's demands that we don't spend intentional time developing the skills to help them thrive and grow. The strategies proposed in The Whole-Brain Child are helpful and highly informative, and they undoubtedly have a place in each family. However, they are better suited to slightly older, rather than younger, children. This may not be the book for you if you’re expecting or are new parents (unless you want a head start!) but it could be applied to children from at least age two.Over the next few weeks, Marco's mom helped him retell the story repeatedly, including the vital end part where they went to visit his caregiver, who had recovered well. This retelling enabled him to process the frightening experience, which had positive neurological effects of integration. SIFT: Help children pay attention to the Sensations, Images, Feelings, and Thoughts within them so that they can make better decisions and be more flexible. There were several amazing strategies and takeaways from this methodology. I really appreciate how social-emotional wellbeing of children is being accounted for more and more in today’s society, like it should! There were good golden nuggets in this book that I could see myself using with my students or future children one day. Let's imagine the brain as a house, with an upstairs and downstairs section. The downstairs area is the more primitive part of the brain, responsible for the basics like breathing, automatic responses, and intense emotions. The upstairs brain contains the study and library, and lets in more light, allowing you to see things clearly and make wise decisions.