Books you should read!: “The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive.”

Parents frequently ask me for books they could read to help them in supporting their child or their relationship with their child. One of the books that I suggest most frequently is Daniel Siegel’s: “The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive.”

If you are having frequent moments where your child’s behaviour baffles or infuriates you then this book might have something to offer to you. Understanding how children's brains function in moments of calm and stress can dramatically enrich the parenting experiences. This book is one of the few books available that insightfully integrates the growing body of research on children’s developing brains with practical parenting strategies.

The over arching premise of this book is that parent’s can influence and better understand their children’s actions through understanding their brains. From minor annoyances to major freak outs- the better we understand the systems responsible for them the better we can help kids whilst in them and help them too get to those uncomfortable places less often.

At the core of anything we do to support children is the relationship between the caregiver and the child. This simple truth underlies all of the strategies described and shared by Siegel.

Siegel takes a complex topic and explains it in an engaging and insightful manner. As someone who has read most of the heavy hitters in the parenting and child development cannon, this book is an easy pick as one of my favorites given it’s practicality, accessibility and valuable information.

It is available at most major book sellers and has e-reader versions as well as audiobook. There is also a parent skills workbook available based on the book that is also widely available and a good resource.

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