Book Review and Giveaway: Whole Brain Child Workbook by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge,from PR by the Book, for review and giveaway purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

Having problems with your child acting out?

Don't want to medicate your child needlessly, and hope there might be another way?

This new workbook just MIGHT be your answer!

Synopsis:

Based on their New York Times bestselling book, The Whole-Brain Child, internationally acclaimed neuropsychiatrist Dan Siegel, M.D., and brain-based parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D., have created a workbook to help parents understand the science behind their child s developing mind and survive the everyday parenting struggles that accompany each stage of growth. 

Drs. Siegel and Bryson declare the workbook free of rules, obligations, or guilt it s simply a tool for parents and caregivers to find more help with support, move towards a deeper understanding of and connection with their children, and gain a fuller understanding of themselves as parents

*Tools for solving sibling conflict, homework struggles, screen time battles, tantrums, outbursts, sulking and more.
*Practical, age-specific exercises and activities
*12 whole-brain strategies, which can become a shared vocabulary for parents, grandparents, caregivers, clinicians, and educators 
*Interactive format that allows journaling to integrate ideas with each person s own parenting approach
*Cartoons, graphs and illustrations

Review:

Part workbook, part parenting book, this book can be a HUGE help to parents who have kids that appear to act out for no reason. It helps parents to understand how kids' minds work,and where an inability to properly verbalize feelings, emotions or past experiences,can lead to an 'anger wave' from your child. you do not need to have read the Whole Brain Child book the workbook is based on, as the authors included the principles in this workbook, as they help you through them. 

As you can see, it can help you to step back and realize that there may be a whole lot of things going on in your child's head, that you might not be aware of. the book helps you to work through ways to get your child to calm down from their wave of anger so that you can deal with the actual problem at hand intellectually. 

I love how they have developed the closed hand concept,yo help kids think about what is going on themselves. How their upstairs brain knows what they are supposed to be doing/react,and how their downstairs brain is ruled by emotions. 

By having the child bring the upstairs brain to the downstairs brain, it helps them to refocus and think about what they are doing/about to say. the illustrations are a HUGE help as you can see, to help explain the concepts and ideas to your child.They allow for quicker understanding and usage. 

For us, the whole concept of anger wave really resonated with Miss Grace. She immediately said "YES!" that is exactly what it feels like!Getting her to remember the de-escalation technique is the harder part, and one we're still working with, but I have faith it will stick and help all of us in the long run.I really can't recommend this book enough, as a vital way to help you AND your child!

Giveaway:

One lucky BTHM reader will get to win their own copy of this great book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Authors:

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatry. He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, founding co-director of UCLA s Mindful Awareness Research Center, co-investigator at the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. 

Dr. Siegel s psychotherapy practice spans 25 years and he has published extensively for the professional audience. Dr. Siegel s books include Mindsight, Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology, The Developing Mind, Second Edition, The Mindful Therapist, The Mindful Brain, Parenting from the Inside Out (with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed.), and the three New York Times bestsellers: Brainstorm, The Whole-Brain Child (with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.), and his latest No-Drama Discipline (with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.). He has been invited to lecture for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, and TEDx.

Dr. Tina Payne Bryson is the co-author (with Dan Siegel) of two New York Times Best Sellers: Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. She is a pediatric and adolescent psychotherapist, the Director of Parenting for the Mindsight Institute, and the Child Development Specialist at Saint Mark s School in Altadena, CA. She keynotes conferences and conducts workshops for parents, educators, and clinicians all over the world. Dr. Bryson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and she lives near Los Angeles with her husband and three children. You can learn more about her at TinaBryson.com, where you can subscribe to her blog and read her articles about kids and parenting.