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THE YES BRAIN by Daniel J. Siegel

THE YES BRAIN

How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child

by Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson

Pub Date: Jan. 9th, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-59466-3
Publisher: Bantam

Techniques to help your child grow and develop from a reactive to a receptive state.

In their latest collaboration, Siegel (Psychiatry/UCLA School of Medicine) and Bryson, authors of The Whole-Brain Child (2011) and No-Drama Discipline (2014), continue their discussion on how to help a child grow into a healthy, productive adult. The authors emphasize the importance of integrating the entire brain, so all the different regions “become more connected, both structurally (meaning the way they physically connect via neurons) and functionally (meaning the way they work, or function, together).” Integration encourages communication and cooperation, producing constructive outcomes that increase flexibility, adaptability, coherence, energy, and stability in a child’s outlook on life. In each chapter, the authors use concrete examples to demonstrate the techniques needed to create and maintain a balanced, resilient, insightful, and empathic brain, and each section is backed by various cartoons adults can use to teach these methods to children. Siegel and Bryson also encourage adults to follow their methodology to further aid the developing child. They illustrate the harm done when an adult dismisses, criticizes, and shames a child’s feelings, the disadvantages of an overbooked schedule, and the necessity of adequate sleep. They discuss when to push a child beyond his or her comfort zone and when to offer comfort, how adults can remain calm during a difficult moment with a child, and how to encourage empathy on multiple levels. They also explore how the current cultural norms and expectations of “success” are creating stress, exhaustion, anxiety, and depression, and they suggest the definition should be refined. Easily assimilated and informative, the book will help adults enable children to lead physically and emotionally satisfying and well-rounded lives filled with purpose and meaningful relationships.

Edifying, easy-to-understand scientific research that shows the benefits that accrue when a child is encouraged to be inquisitive, spirited, and intrepid.