Are you worried about your child starting school? Is your child anxious? Accredited Parent Coach Val Mullally discusses how you, as Parent, can help.
Is your child anxious or unhappy about going to school or creche? ‘How do I know if my child is being treated okay?’ Parent Coach Val Mullally shares HOW to listen.
From the Koemba Book Club:
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
Your toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of a store. Your preschooler refuses to get dressed. Your fifth-grader sulks on the bench instead of playing on the field. Do children conspire to make their parents’ lives endlessly challenging? No—it’s just their developing brain calling the shots!
In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling 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. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, is under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids can seem—and feel—so out of control. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth. Raise calmer, happier children using twelve key strategies, including
• 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.
• Engage, Don’t Enrage: Keep your child thinking and listening, instead of purely reacting.
• Move It or Lose It: Use physical activities to shift your child’s emotional state.
• Let the Clouds of Emotion Roll By: Guide your children when they are stuck on a negative emotion, and help them understand that feelings come and go.
• 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.
• Connect Through Conflict: Use discord to encourage empathy and greater social success.
Complete with clear explanations, age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles, and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
From the Koemba Book Club:
Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes: Awakening the Ordinary Miracle of Healing
An essential guide for recognizing, preventing, and healing childhood trauma, from infancy through adolescence—what parents, educators, and health professionals can do.
Trauma can result not only from catastrophic events such as abuse, violence, or loss of loved ones, but from natural disasters and everyday incidents such as auto accidents, medical procedures, divorce, or even falling off a bicycle. At the core of this book is the understanding of how trauma is imprinted on the body, brain, and spirit, resulting in anxiety, nightmares, depression, physical illnesses, addictions, hyperactivity, and aggression. Rich with case studies and hands-on activities, Trauma Through A Child’s Eyes gives insight into children’s innate ability to rebound with the appropriate support, and provides their caregivers with tools to overcome and prevent trauma.
From the Koemba Book Club:
You Are My World: How a Parent’s Love Shapes a Baby’s Mind
This is one of my absolute favourite parenting books. A great gift for parents of a newborn child. Exquisite pictures that melt the heart and very little words to read. But the words that are written are profound. This book has the potential to inspire parents to be the parents their little one needs them to be.
From the Koemba Book Club:
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain
This book is one of the most profound I have read about creating environments for young children to thrive. It’d not an easy read – but well worth it. Don’t skip over the very intense chapter on young children and stress. This chapter alone makes the book invaluable.
