The Dolphin Way


Book Description

In this inspiring book, Harvard-trained child and adult psychiatrist and expert in human motivation Dr. Shimi Kang provides a guide to the art and science of inspiring children to develop their own internal drive and a lifelong love of learning. Drawing on the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, Dr. Kang shows why pushy “tiger parents” and permissive “jellyfish parents” actually hinder self-motivation. She proposes a powerful new parenting model: the intelligent, joyful, playful, highly social dolphin. Dolphin parents focus on maintaining balance in their children’s lives to gently yet authoritatively guide them toward lasting health, happiness, and success. As the medical director for Child and Youth Mental Health community programs in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dr. Kang has witnessed firsthand the consequences of parental pressure: anxiety disorders, high stress levels, suicides, and addictions. As the mother of three children and as the daughter of immigrant parents who struggled to give their children the “best” in life—Dr. Kang’s mother could not read and her father taught her math while they drove around in his taxicab—Dr. Kang argues that often the simplest “benefits” we give our children are the most valuable. By trusting our deepest intuitions about what is best for our kids, we will in turn allow them to develop key dolphin traits to enable them to thrive in an increasingly complex world: adaptability, community-mindedness, creativity, and critical thinking. Life is a journey through ever-changing waters, and dolphin parents know that the most valuable help we can give our children is to assist them in developing their own inner compass. Combining irrefutable science with unforgettable real-life stories, The Dolphin Way walks readers through Dr. Kang’s four-part method for cultivating self-motivation. The book makes a powerful case that we are not forced to choose between being permissive or controlling. The third option—the option that will prepare our kids for success in a future that will require adaptability—is the dolphin way.




What Do You Say?


Book 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.




Pride and Joy


Book Description

Pride and Joy is a different kind of parenting book. In Pride and Joy, child psychologist Kenneth Barish brings together the best of recent advances in clinical and neuroscience research with the author's three decades of experience working with children and families. He shows how a deeper appreciation of our children's emotions offers parents a new understanding of their children's development and better solutions to the problems in their lives. Barish offers advice to parents on how we can restore more joyfulness and pride in our relationships with our children and how we can help children bounce back from disappointment and defeat. He shows how we can repair family relationships that have been damaged by frequent anger and resentment and how we can preserve our children's idealism and their concern for others--how we can raise children who feel good about themselves and also care about the needs and feelings of others. Barish also offers advice on how to solve problems of daily family life--establishing rules and limits, doing homework and going to sleep, winning and losing at games, our children's reluctance to talk to us, their tantrums and lack of motivation, and their addiction to television and video games. He presents down-to-earth recommendations for solving these common family problems--problems that too often erode the joyfulness of our children and our pleasure in being parents. Pride and Joy is both informative and highly practical, and a balanced answer to the extreme methods that too often dominate parenting debates. Few parenting books address the central issues of concern to today's parents while also offering parents as much day-to-day advice.




Motivating Kids


Book Description

Frustrated with your kids' lack of motivation? Tired of nagging? Want to motivate your children without using force? Motivating Kids is the book for you! This is the ultimate comprehensive guide to motivating kids that will teach you the science of motivation: the Why, the What, and most importantly, the How to motivate your kids. The practical tips work just as effectively, and just as easily, on toddler and on teenagers. We all know that motivated kids can do everything. Even more than their knowledge, their academic achievements, their skills and abilities, their drive and motivation will determine their success in life. Motivation is like a battery that keeps people going. The fuller the battery is, the further we can go. Motivation is what makes your child get up in the morning, eat, take care of him/herself, learn, try new things and experience the world to the fullest. It is like the fuel that keeps them going and, as a parent you want them to go far. If you want to make sure your kids will go far, into every destination in life, you want to make sure their motivation battery is full. Motivating Kids is your ultimate guide to motivating your kids to be the best they can be. About 300 pages of practical ways to fill up the battery and fuel up their life, 211 quotes to inspire you and your kid to do amazing things and be the best you can be: best parent, best child. In 18 chapters, this ultimate guide gives you 303 practical tips that can change your parenting and help you become a role model for your child. This parenting course has 28 exercises that will lead you to it, gradually and with confidence and save you wondering the "how to" of motivation. This book, which is a summary of 17 parenting sessions, includes new research and statistics that will reveal the science of motivation and save you sitting through courses, classes and hundreds of books.




The Self-Motivated Kid


Book Description

Winner of the 2015 USA Book News International Book Award for Parenting and Family In this inspiring book, Dr. Shimi Kang, a Harvard-trained child and adult psychiatrist and an expert in human motivation, provides a guide to the art and science of encouraging children to develop their own internal drive and a lifelong love of learning. Drawing on the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, Dr. Kang shows why pushy, hovering "tiger parents" and permissive "jellyfish parents" actually hinder self-motivation. She proposes a powerful new parenting model: the intelligent, joyful, highly social dolphin. Dolphin parents focus on maintaining balance in their children's lives to compassionately yet authoritatively guide them toward lasting health, happiness, and success. The mother of three children and the daughter of immigrant parents who struggled to give their children the "best" in life—Dr. Kang's mother could not read, her father taught her math while they drove around in his taxicab, and she was never enrolled in a single extracurricular activity—Dr. Kang argues that often the simplest "benefits" parents give their children are the most valuable. Combining irrefutable science with unforgettable real-life stories, The Self-Motivated Kid walks readers through Dr. Kang's four-part method for cultivating self-motivation. She argues that by trusting our deepest intuition about what is best for our kids, we will allow them to develop key traits—adaptability, community-mindedness, creativity, and critical thinking—to empower them to succeed and thrive in our increasingly competitive and complex world.




Motivating Children with Specific Learning Difficulties


Book Description

Motivating Children with Specific Learning Difficulties provides a comprehensive and definitive guide to what teachers need to know about motivation in pupils with Specific Learning Difficulties, including dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD. Written by three of the world leaders in research on motivation and classroom learning, this book seeks to provide teachers with an increased understanding of why particular strategies should be used with their pupils. It recognises the challenge of motivating children with learning difficulties and looks to help teachers enhance their skills and self-sufficiency. The authors address what motivation is, how to encourage it and the links between motivation and learning. They consider a range of Specific Learning Difficulties in relation to literacy, numeracy, motor development and co-ordination and attention factors in learning. Key issues on learning differences are presented in order to identify and address pupils’ specific needs, and the role parents and educators can play in motivation is also examined. The information and reflections offered in this book will be of interest to teachers across the globe, as well as postgraduate students working towards a qualification in Specific Learning Difficulties.




A Love for Learning


Book Description

Gifted children are susceptible to many de-motivating factors, which can lead to depression and academic underachievement. The authors present concepts and techniques to counteract those factors, allowing a child's motivation to skyrocket. Features the Four C's of Motivation: (1) Creating Challenge; (2) Creating Control; (3) Creating Commitment; and (4) Creating Compassion. This new book includes additional resources, books and websites for parents and teachers, and a foreword by Dr. Joanne Rand Whitmore Schwartz, former dean of the College of Education, Kent State University, and author of the classic book, "Giftedness, Conflict and Underachievement." Following a foreword and a preface, this book contains the following chapters: (1) The Turn-Off Effect; (2) a 360 Motivation; (3) Physical Reasons for Loss of Motivation; (4) Emotional Reasons for Loss of Motivation; (5) Social Reasons for Loss of Motivation; (6) School Reasons for Loss of Motivation; (7) The Four C's in Action; (8) Creating Challenge; (9) Creating Control; (10) Creating Commitment; (11) Creating Compassion; (12) The Classroom that Works; (13) Motivating Every Student--Who's in the Classroom?; (14) Questions and Answers; and (15) Parent to Parent: a Story of Hope. Endnotes, Additional Resources for Parents and Teachers, References, Index, and About the Authors are also included.




A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism


Book Description

In this accessible guide to bilingualism in the family and the classroom, Colin Baker delivers a realistic picture of the joys and difficulties of raising bilingual children. This revised edition includes more information on bilingualism in the digital age, and incorporates the latest research in areas such as neonatal language experience, multilingualism and language mixing.




Parenting Matters


Book Description

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.