The Whole-Brain Child
Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson · 2011
The Whole-Brain Child (2011) is a book by Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson on Parenting. A neuroscientist and a parenting expert translate brain science into 12 down-to-earth strategies that turn tantrums, meltdowns, and bedtime battles into chances to build your child's emotional intelligence, resilience, and self-control.
Neuroscience-based, practical strategies for nurturing a child's developing mind.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of The Whole-Brain Child pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- Treat every meltdown as an integration problem, not a discipline problem: chaos and rigidity show up when the brain's parts aren't working together, so your job is to help the pieces reconnect rather than to win the moment.
- Connect before you redirect. When a child is flooded, soothe the emotional right brain first with eye contact, touch, and empathy; only once they 'feel felt' will the logical left brain be available for problem-solving or limits.
- Use 'Name it to tame it': have your child tell the story of what upset or scared them. Putting words and narrative to a frightening experience calms the right brain's alarm and shrinks the emotion to a manageable size.
The other 4 — and the full 9-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 6 chapters
The whole summary runs about 9 minutes, read or listened to.
- Parenting With the Brain in Mind
- Two Brains Are Better Than One: Connecting Left and Right
- Building the Staircase of the Mind: Upstairs and Downstairs Brain
- Kill the Butterflies: Integrating Memory for Growth and Healing
- The Many Parts of Me: Integrating the Self
- The We of Me: Connecting Self to Others
Finish The Whole-Brain Child tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 9 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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