The Whole-Brain Child

Outline

The Whole-Brain Child (2011) explains how a child’s developing brain works and how parents can use everyday moments to help children grow emotionally healthy. Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson present twelve practical strategies for helping the logical and emotional parts of the brain work together, such as naming big feelings to calm them. The book turns difficult moments into opportunities for connection and growth.

• A child's brain is still developing, so big emotions and difficult behaviour are part of growth, not just bad conduct.
• The logical and emotional parts of the brain can be helped to work together instead of against each other.
• Naming a big feeling is one simple way to help a child calm down.
• Everyday moments, including hard ones, can be used to help a child grow emotionally healthy.
• The book offers twelve practical strategies that turn difficult moments into chances for connection and growth.

Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson combine expertise in psychiatry and child therapy. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founder of the Mindsight Institute, and Bryson is a psychotherapist and parenting expert. Together they also wrote No-Drama Discipline.