Help Your Child Deal With Stress - and Thrive: The transformative power of Self-Reg

Description

Today's children are under serious stress - they are under pressure to succeed at school, pressure to fit in, and in regard to social media. Stress can also come from day-to-day-life, and affect even very young children: too much noise, being rushed, separation anxiety - the list of potential stressors is long. When kids are stressed and anxious, they often struggle to articulate what is troubling them and either start to misbehave, or else shut down and fail to communicate at all. This is often construed as 'bad behaviour' by parents, and treated as such. In this ground-breaking parenting book, Stuart Shanker argues that teaching children the art of self-regulation will transform their behaviour by helping them to identify, talk about and manage their emotions. Self-reg, as he calls it, will help return to a balanced, productive state whenever they feel the need, so replenishing their energy and helping them to flourish. As parents, if we can learn to identify why a child is behaving as they are, so we can start to help them learn to self-regulate. This leads to a harmonious home and children who feel nurtured and supported. Underpinned by science, Dr Shanker's techniques have had a remarkable effect on children and parents alike, and hundreds of thousands of children who have gone through the programme in Canada have shown significant improvement in literacy, numeracy and behaviour. Now, his groundbreaking research is being published for the first time in this timely and practical guide for parents. Mastering the art of self-regulation can help children learn to deal with experiences, overcome frustration, pay better attention, control impulses, engage better with others and enhance their learning capabilities. Self-Reg will inspire in parents a sense that their child can truly realise his or her potential, and give them the confidence to help their son or daughter develop the skills and emotional strength needed to navigate the pressures and stresses of the modern world.

Dr Stuart Shanker is Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology and head of a psychological research lab at York University in Toronto, Canada. He's won numerous awards, lectured at Harvard and other leading universities, given keynote addresses at major gatherings, appeared on the Today Show and CNN and been interviewed by The New York Times, WSJ and others. Teresa Barker is a journalist and has co-written many books, including the New York Times bestseller Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Her specialisms include parenting, child development and psychology.

In this important and timely book, Stuart Shanker encourages us to see our children in a whole new light and gives us the tools we need to help nurture our young in order that they can better manage stress, build resiliency and improve their emotional health. Today's pupils are under serious pressure to perform; by helping children recognize, identify and talk about their emotions, we can help them find balance and ultimately realise their true potential. - Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, co-founder of Action for Happiness and best-selling author Our digital age is stressful, frantic and over-stimulating. Raising a child today requires an understanding of self-regulation. Self-Reg is a wonderful guide for parents, a way to understand the hidden stressors facing children, and their neurological, psychological, social, and emotional effects. Dr. Shanker helps parents not just to understand the meaning of their child's behavior with compassion, but, just as essentially, how to calm themselves in order to better guide their children toward more positively engaged living. - Catherine Steiner-Adair, Ed. D., author of The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age Capping a lifetime of studying and thinking about children's emotions and behavior, the brilliant Stuart Shanker presents us with this stupendous gift, a true tour-de-force, in which he dismantles and elegantly reassembles, so that the layperson can understand, one of the most complicated mechanisms of the mind: self-regulation. Parents, rejoice! Read this book and you will be able to teach your children (and yourselves!) the practical, immensely valuable, and enormously satisfying skills of self-regulation. - Edward Hallowell, MD, author of Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder Brilliant. In this illuminating and accessible breakthrough book, Stuart Shanker makes a powerful case for understanding children's behavior and misbehavior using the lens of self-regulation. I will never see children in the same way. I recommend Self-Reg to any parent, educator, or mental health professional who wants to understand children at the deepest levels, and who wants a practical technique for helping a stressed-out child feel safe and engaged. - Michael Thompson, author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys