HOW TO TALK SO LITTLE KIDS WILL LISTEN

Advice for parents on handling toddlers to pre-tweens.

Faber—the daughter of Adele Faber, the author of the bestselling How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk (1980)—and her good friend King combine their years of experience as mothers with new research on child-rearing to offer a useful guide for parents and other adults regarding the 2-to-7 age group. With a format similar to the original book, the authors begin with the basics: acknowledging a child’s feelings through words, writing, and artwork; using play, offering choices, and patience, among other methods, to enlist cooperation; instilling discipline and resolving conflicts without the use of threats, character attacks, or physical punishment. In the second section, the authors move on to specific issues: eating and food battles, brushing teeth, shopping with young children, name-calling, hitting and other physically aggressive behavior, getting children to sleep, navigating anger, interacting with pets, how to handle lying, and a host of other common and difficult scenarios adults face on a daily basis. Faber and King not only offer their own lives as examples; they also include numerous scenarios from other parents who have used the tactics presented in the authors’ group workshops. For those in need of a quick rehash of each chapter, short cartoons summarize each section. Although the information is mostly common-sense, the logical presentation enables readers to quickly understand why one method works and another method doesn’t, making it easy for the adult to incorporate subtle changes into his/her behavior, which in turn creates profound differences in the child. Any new parent, teacher, or day care operator will benefit from reading this helpful book. Adele Faber provides the foreword.

Accessible, highly effective methods for raising well-behaved children.