What Do You Say?
How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and a Happy Home
-
- USD 9.99
-
- USD 9.99
Publisher Description
A guide to effectively communicating with teenagers by the bestselling authors of The Self-Driven Child
If you're a parent, you've had a moment--maybe many of them--when you've thought, "How did that conversation go so badly?" At some point after the sixth grade, the same kid who asked "why" non-stop at age four suddenly stops talking to you. And the conversations that you wish you could have--ones fueled by your desire to see your kid not just safe and healthy, but passionately engaged--suddenly feel nearly impossible to execute. The good news is that effective communication can be cultivated, learned, and taught. And as you get better at this, so will your kids.
William Stixrud, Ph.D., and Ned Johnson have 60 years combined experience talking to kids one-on-one, and the most common question they get when out speaking to parents and educators is: What do you say? While many adults understand the importance and power of the philosophies behind the books that dominate the parenting bestseller list, parents are often left wondering how to put those concepts into action. In What Do You Say?, Johnson and Stixrud show how to engage in respectful and effective dialogue, beginning with defining and demonstrating the basic principles of listening and speaking. Then they show new ways to handle specific, thorny topics of the sort that usually end in parent/kid standoffs: delivering constructive feedback to kids; discussing boundaries around technology; explaining sleep and their brains; the anxiety of current events; and family problem-solving. What Do You Say? is a manual and map that will immediately transform parents' ability to navigate complex terrain and train their minds and hearts to communicate ever more successfully.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Neuropsychologist Stixrud and test prep tutor Johnson team up again (after The Self-Driven Child) for this on-target guide to talking to children. "Focusing on effective communication with our kids is a powerful way to grow our relationship with them," they write, and across nine chapters make a convincing case that, while talking with kids can be hard, doing so is key to their well-being. The authors cover such topics as cultivating closeness (one-on-one time is crucial) and setting healthy expectations (pushing kids hard doesn't always work). There's guidance, for example, on how to "parent as consultant," a low-emotion way to help kids reach goals they set for themselves, and Johnson and Stixrud show readers how to foster in kids an "intrinsic motivation," or behavior driven by curiosity and desire rather than reward and punishment. On the thorny issue of limiting screen time, they write: "Your job is not to control your kids, but to help them learn to control themselves." The authors are steadily encouraging: "Isn't this what we want our parenting to do—to help kids learn to run their own lives?" Full of easy-to-implement tips, this is a resource parents will return to.
