'The Whole-Brain Child'

I just finished reading The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson.  As being parents themselves, Daniel and Tina give us specific and vivid illustrations of how parents and parents to be can go beyond surviving in day-to-day moments with their children, and can actually help them thrive.   

In The Whole-Brain Child, brain is thought of as being 'social': it is a raw material that can be worked and re-worked, and thus has a tremendous potential for being navigated, trained and nurtured through awareness and human interactions.  In terms of parenting, this perspective could give many of us hope and power, as well as responsibilities, as it could allow us to see how we can actually impact the direction of how our children develop 'right now' and in the future. 

Certainly, brain is an exponential process (not an end result) with unlimited learning potential.  I have become more and more aware of this perspective through actually applying some of their approaches to my time spent with our four-year-old son, while reading the book.  

Whole-brain strategy #1 'connect and redirect', for example, works quite well for me so far and I think is a definitely useful approach to connecting with your children.  It has helped me a lot to deal with my son's (and my own) emotional waves coming from time to time in certain situations, like 'I- don't-want-to-put-the-socks-on' moment and 'I-don't-like-to-eat-dinner' moment.

With their 'connect and redirect' strategy, now I can see what is really happening in my son's mind, especially when he gets upset about something that doesn't make much sense to me.  Previously, I sometime felt like I spent much of my time just disciplining my son and not enjoying just being with him, but now I understand how powerful 'connecting with the right first' can be and how it allows children to use both sides of their brain in a more integrated, coordinated way.  And what is also great about using the approach is that parents can feel more in control of themselves, instead of being controlled by the situation or their emotions.    
Overall, really useful and readable book not only for parents but also for educators.  I totally recommend it and am glad I had the opportunity to read it now, not in 10 years time.  

Click here and here to find out more information about the book.