Common-sense and practical advice on raising young children by an expert in the field.
The Supernanny delivers a guidebook to aid parents with rambunctious toddlers.
With more than two decades of experience as a London nanny, Frost (Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care, 2008, etc.) has seen just about every kind of behavioral issue a young child can produce and has developed certain strategies that effectively nip bad behavior in the bud. She offers parents of preschoolers and older children five basic guidelines to follow to ensure a child grows "into a happy, healthy, productive adult with good morals, healthy boundaries, and the ability to function well in the world." By meeting the physical, nutritional and sleep needs of a child, as well as providing an environment that encourages brain development and setting clear rules for family behavior, parents can eliminate most, if not all, potential problems. Using a method called SOS, Frost recommends a parent Step back from the situation at hand, Observe what is happening, and then Step in and administer the appropriate resolution. Using clear-cut examples that are common issues with young children, the author provides parents with ready-made solutions that have proven effective, eliminating the need to second-guess a decision. She covers sleeping problems (getting a child to sleep in his own bed or what to do when he cries in the night), food and eating issues (refusing to eat certain foods, establishing good table manners, going out in public with toddlers), the need for safety and interacting with other children. She also suggests activities to stimulate gross and fine motor skills and recommends basic good behavior rules that are the accepted norms for human interaction. A full chapter devoted to handling temper tantrums is an added bonus for parents in crisis mode.
Common-sense and practical advice on raising young children by an expert in the field.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-54238-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
A dull examination of the idea that a certain set of symptoms commonly afflicts ambitious, talented young women growing up in societies that value males over females. Authors Silverstein (Psychology/CCNY; Fed Up, not reviewed) and Perlick (Psychology/Cornell Medical College) assert that they find evidence of this syndrome—which they dub ``anxious somatic depression''—in medical writings going back to the fourth century b.c.; in recent writings of anthropologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists; and in the biographies, correspondence, and diaries of some 40 prominent women (e.g., Queen Elizabeth I, Charlotte Brontâ, Indira Gandhi). In addition, they distributed questionnaires and psychological tests to some 2,000 young women whose responses confirmed their findings. They cite evidence that women seeking to achieve in areas traditionally reserved for men pay a heavy price: depression, anxiety, disordered eating, headaches, and other somatic and psychological symptoms. These first appear in adolescent girls who chafe under the societal limits placed on them as females and who are ambivalent toward their femininity, especially those growing up in a period of great change in women's roles and those with traditional mothers. In other times, the disorder was recognized as hysteria or neurasthenia, but today, the authors assert, it frequently goes undetected by physicians and therapists. Silverstein and Perlick's aim is to make the syndrome known so that it will be recognized and treated. Preventing it, they note, would require changing society so that women's ambitions are given equal opportunity and their roles equal respect. Although the authors have consigned some of their research data and discussions of methodology to appendixes in an attempt to make their writing accessible to the general reader, the effort largely fails. Professional colleagues may persevere, but the stilted, redundant prose may well discourage those less dedicated. (charts and diagrams)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-506986-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
A psychologist attempts to answer some basic questions: Why do certain memories stay with us while others fade? Why do our recollections of events change over time? And why does memory seem to play tricks on us? A river of memory flows through our lives, according to Kotre (Univ. of Michigan; Seasons of Life, 1990), and its purpose is the creation of meaning about the self. He describes memory as a hierarchical system. At the bottom are vivid recollections of specific events; above them are general impressions, or generic memories; as one ascends the hierarchy these become more thematic, more laden with meaning. At the apex of Kotre's scheme is the self, which he says is both the product of the hierarchy and the creator of its meaning. He traces the ways in which the remembering self and the remembered self—the ``I'' and the ``me''—develop from birth to adulthood, and he speculates that memories may become more mythic in old age as individual events take on special significance in shaping the story of one's life. Kotre liberally illustrates his ideas with his own memories (the white gloves of the title belonged to his grandfather), numerous case histories from psychological literature, and recent events (John Dean, Ronald Reagan, and Anita Hill all appear in these pages). He sidesteps the controversial issue of recovered memory, saying merely that as a juror he wouldn't convict if such a memory were the sole evidence, but that as a therapist he would take these memories on their own terms and trust what he encountered. There is little hard science here but lots of behavioral data, conjecture, and theory. The construct of memory that Kotre offers seems flimsy once it's stripped of the padding provided by his own memories and numerous stories. Readable and often entertaining, but hardly compelling.
Pub Date: June 21, 1995
ISBN: 0-02-918464-9
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
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