Nurturing Our Spirited Children
Home Parent to Parent Resources Site Guide


Spirited Behaviors / Temperament / Personality Books

Return to Book Shop Main page




cover
The Difficult Child
by Stanley Turecki

How to help--and cope with--the difficult child...

Expanded and completely revised, the classic and definitive work on parenting hard-to-raise children with new sections on ADHD and the latest medications for childhood disorders.

Temperamentally difficult children can confuse and upset even experienced parents and teachers. They often act defiant, stubborn, loud, aggressive, or hyperactive. They can also be clingy, shy, whiny, picky, and impossible at bedtime, mealtimes, and in public places. This landmark book has been completely revised to include the latest information on ADHD, medications, and a reassuring approach to all aspects of childhood behavioral disorders.

In this parenting classic, Dr. Stanley Turecki, one of the nation's most respected experts on children and discipline--and himself the father of a once difficult child--offers compassionate and practical advice to parents of hard-to-raise children. Based on his experience with thousands of families in the highly successful Difficult Children Program he developed for Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, his step-by-step approach shows you how to:

Identify your child's temperament using a ten-point test to pinpoint specific difficulties
Manage common--often "uncontrollable"--conflict situations expertly and gently
Make discipline more effective and get better results with less punishment
Get support from schools, doctors, professionals, and support groups
Understand ADHD and other common diagnoses, and decide if medication is right for your child
Make the most of the tremendous potential and creativity that many "difficult" children have

Drawing on his experience with thousands of families in his highly successful Difficult Child Program, Dr. Turecki shows parents how to:

Identify their child's difficult temperament using a ten-point test to pinpoint specific difficulties
Manage typical conflict situations expertly and kindly
Make discipline more effective and get better results with less punishment
Get support from schools, doctors, and others
Understand ADHD and other common diagnoses, and decide whether medication is right for their child
Make the most of the child's creativity and potential

Order Now!

cover
Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamos:
How to Help the Child Who is Bright, Bored and Having Problems in School
by Lucy Jo Palladino

Psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino claims that 20 percent of children have what she calls the Edison trait: "dazzling intelligence, an active imagination, a free-spirited approach to life, and the ability to drive everyone around them crazy." She named the trait after Thomas Edison, who flunked out of school despite his obvious brilliance. Palladino says that Edison-trait children think divergently, while the routines and structure of schools are more geared toward convergent thinking, or focusing on one idea at a time. The incompatible school environment, she says, usually leads divergent-thinking children to act out, receive poor grades, and often be labeled as strong-willed and disruptive.

These symptoms may sound similar to those of ADD, but Palladino says that's an overused term often mistakenly applied to Edison-trait children. "In most cases," she says, "ADD behavior patterns are comparable to but more extreme than the typical patterns of an Edison-trait child who does not have ADD." A diagnosis of ADD does not take into consideration factors such as "intelligence, perceptiveness, sensitivity, creativity, and wit."

With many references to scientific studies, Palladino helps you decide whether your child is one of the three types of Edison-trait children: dreamer, discoverer, or dynamo. She also gives pointed, practical advice regarding such controversial topics as diet, neurofeedback treatment, and psychological testing. For frustrated parents and educators, Dreamers, Discoverers, and Dynamos will be a rich source of both help and hope.

Synopsis:
Explains how parents can identify and appreciate the Edison Trait--intelligence, active imagination, and a free-spirited approach to life--and offers eight steps to help support its benefits and minimize its problems.

Order Now!

cover
The Edison Trait:
Saving the Spirit of Your Nonconforming Child
(Retitled as Dreamers, Discovers and Dynamos)
by Lucy Jo Palladino

Lucy Jo Palladino defines the Edison Trait (named after Thomas Edison) as divergent vs. convergent thinking. Edison Trait kids--one in five children--have the qualities that make innovative leaders, inventors, explorers, yet they often have a hard time in school where their personality traits may be seen as weak or negative. Palladino recasts these children in a positive light and gives specifics on understanding and becoming an ally for your Edison Trait child. The book is convincing, reassuring, and accessible. Perhaps it will help parents of nonconforming kids resist the pressure to make their kids "just fit in."
Order Now!

cover
The Explosive Child:
A New Approach For Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, 'Chronically Inflexible' Children
by Ross W. Greene

Flexibility and tolerance are learned skills, as any parent knows if they've seen an irascible 2-year-old grow into a pleasant, thoughtful, and considerate older child. Unfortunately, for reasons that are poorly understood, a few children don't "get" this part of socialization. Years after toddler tantrums should have become an unpleasant memory, a few unlucky parents find themselves battling with sudden, inexplicable, disturbingly violent rages--along with crushing guilt about what they "did wrong." Medical experts haven't helped much: the flurry of acronyms and labels (Tourette's, ADHD, ADD, etc.) seems to proffer new discoveries about the causes of such explosions, when in fact the only new development is alternative vocabulary to describe the effects. Ross Greene, a pediatric psychologist who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, makes a bold and humane attempt in this book to cut through the blather and speak directly to the (usually desperate) parents of explosive children. His text is long and serious, and has the advantage of covering an enormous amount of ground with nuance, detail, and sympathy, but also perhaps the disadvantage that only those parents who are not chronically tired and time-deprived are likely to get through the entire book. Quoted dialogue from actual sessions with parents and children is interspersed with analysis that is always oriented toward understanding the origins of "meltdowns" and developing workable strategies for avoidance. Although pharmacological treatment is not the book's focus, there is a chapter on drug therapies.
Order Now!

cover
The Fussy Baby
by William & Martha Sears

"Let him cry it out!"
"Are you feeding that baby again?"
"Don’t you ever put her down?"
Parents of fussy babies hear these kinds of remarks all the time. In fact, they may even ask themselves these questions. Faced with a baby who demands to be held, nursed, and comforted much of the time, new mothers may begin to doubt their own intuition, even as they long for a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

The first edition of THE FUSSY BABY, published in 1985, helped parents think about their demanding babies in a new light. These are children with high needs; children who are smart enough to ask for the high–quality caregiving that will help them develop their full potential.

In this revised edition, attachment-parenting experts William and Martha Sears bring new insight to the tried-and-true advice that has worked for so many families over the last two decades.

Respond to baby’s needs and will build up your own sensitivity. Trust baby to tell you what he needs, and he will learn to trust himself and eventually grow to be confident and independent.

Look for new information on colic (the "hurting baby"), gastroesophageal reflux, and the challenges of breastfeeding a fussy a baby, along with updated references, reorganized chapters, and lots and lots of mothering tips.

THE FUSSY BABY has carried many families through times with a high-need infant. This new edition brings that tradition of sensitive, intuitive parenting to a new generation of caring mothers and fathers.

Order Now!

cover
The Highly Sensitive Child:
Helping Our Children Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them
by Elaine N. Aron

The bestselling author and psychologist whose books have topped 240,000 copies in print now addresses the trait of “high sensitivity” in children–and offers a breakthrough parenting guidebook for highly sensitive children and their caregivers.

With the publication of The Highly Sensitive Person, Elaine Aron became the first person to identify the inborn trait of “high sensitivity” and to show how it affects the lives of those who possess it. Up to 20 percent of the population is born highly sensitive, and now in The Highly Sensitive Child, Aron shifts her focus to highly sensitive children, who share the same characteristics as highly sensitive adults and thus face unique challenges as they grow up.

Rooted in Aron’s years of experience as a psychotherapist and her original research on child temperament, The Highly Sensitive Child shows how HSCs are born deeply reflective, sensitive to the subtle, and easily overwhelmed. These qualities can make for smart, conscientious, creative children, but with the wrong parenting or schooling, they can become unusually shy or timid, or begin acting out. Few parents and teachers understand where this behavior comes from–and as a result, HSCs are often mislabeled as overly inhibited, fearful, or “fussy,”or classified as “problem children” (and in some cases, misdiagnosed with disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder). But raised with proper understanding and care, HSCs are no more prone to these problems than nonsensitive children and can grow up to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted adults.

In this pioneering work, parents will find helpful self-tests and case studies to help them understand their HSC, along with thorough advice on:
• The challenges of raising an highly sensitive child
• The four keys to successfully parenting an HSC
• How to soothe highly sensitive infants
• Helping sensitive children survive in a not-so-sensitive world
• Making school and friendships enjoyable

With chapters addressing the needs of specific age groups, from newborns through teens, The Highly Sensitive Child delivers warmhearted, timely information for parents, teachers, and the sensitive children in their lives.

Order Now!

cover
The Highly Sensitive Person:
How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
by Elaine N. Aron

Are you an HSP? Are you easily overwhelmed by stimuli? Affected by other people's moods? Easily startled? Do you need to withdraw during busy times to a private, quiet place? Do you get nervous or shaky if someone is observing you or competing with you? HSP, shorthand for "highly sensitive person," describes 15 to 20 percent of the population. Being sensitive is a normal trait--nothing defective about it. But you may not realize that, because society rewards the outgoing personality and treats shyness and sensitivity as something to be overcome. According to author Elaine Aron (herself an HSP), sensitive people have the unusual ability to sense subtleties, spot or avoid errors, concentrate deeply, and delve deeply. This book helps HSPs to understand themselves and their sensitive trait and its impact on personal history, career, relationships, and inner life. The book offers advice for typical problems. For example, you learn strategies for coping with overarousal, overcoming social discomfort, being in love relationships, managing job challenges, and much more. The author covers a lot of material clearly, in an approachable style, using case studies, self-tests, and exercises to bring the information home. The book is essential for you if you are an HSP--you'll learn a lot about yourself. It's also useful for people in a relationship with an HSP.
Order Now!

cover
The Highly Sensitive Person's Workbook:
The Practical Guide for Highly Sensitive People and HSP Support Groups
by Elaine N. Aron

Can 1.2 billion exceptionally nervous nervous systems be wrong? No way, says depth psychologist Elaine Aron, bestselling author of The Highly Sensitive Person. An HSP herself, Aron is also the reigning expert on the subject, and this workbook exists to make you a more helpful expert on yourself. It can be read in conjunction with her more narrative book--the chapter headings match--or without it. "You should use this workbook in any way you darn well please," says Aron in a typical free-yourself comment.

So what is an HSP? Aron thinks one-fifth of humanity is born with more finely tuned perceptions than the rest. In primitive times, HSPs were the first to spot the lion lurking in the bush, the last to shoot the arrow--and the likeliest to hit the lion in one shot. Later, HSPs became the tempering priestly advisors to the more aggressive warrior kings. To be an HSP is a challenge and an opportunity, she argues. This book contains self-tests to determine whether you're an HSP, and if so, which kind: introverted, extroverted, sensation seeking, and other plausible categories. Some HSPs yearn for "earlids" to shut out sound, for instance. There are plenty of blanks to fill in as you analyze your childhood, health concerns, work history, and psychic wounds, with plenty of guidance on how to do it--sample entries as intriguing as someone else's diary. If you've ever wished you could go back and retort to somebody who said something hurtful that made you speechless, Aron has the exercise to channel your resentment into insight. She gives a quick course in dream analysis (Freud couldn't outdo her job on a dream about The A-Team's Mr. T and a tiger), and rather boldly invites you to envision and prepare for your death. There's also a practical guide to setting up HSP discussion groups with enough structure to prevent fizzle and poor focus.

Order Now!

cover
Living With The Active Alert Child
by Linda S. Budd

Bright, controlling, fearful, and highly energetic, active alert children are frequently misdiagnosed as hyperactive or learning disabled. This book shows parents and teachers how to raise, teach, and enjoy active alerts by offering:
-a clear description of common characteristics
-day-to-day parenting strategies with real case histories
-information on how active alerts learn and what school situations work best
-descriptions of active alerts as adults, and as parents themselves
Order Now!

cover
Nurture by Nature
by Paul Tieger & Barbara Barron-Tieger

This title is currently unavailable from amazon.com however it may be available from other book retailers.

cover
Parenting the Fussy Baby and High-Need Child
by William & Martha Sears

The bestselling authors of The Baby Book present a reassuring and wonderfully practical guide for parents of fussy babies and difficult children. Some helpful hints include proven baby calmers, a checklist of medical factors parents should watch for, sound advice on discipline, and much more.
Order Now!

cover
Raising Your Spirited Child:
A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More *Intense *Sensitive *Perceptive *Persistent *Energetic
by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

Recently, temperament traits have come to the forefront of child development theory. In Raising Your Spirited Child, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka's first contribution is to redefine the "difficult child" as the "spirited" child, a child that is, as she says, MORE. Many people are leery about books that are too quick to "type" kids, but Kurcinka, a parent of a spirited child herself and a parent educator for 20 years, doesn't fall into that trap. Instead, she provides tools to understanding your own temperament as well as your child's. When you understand your temperamental matches--and your mismatches--you can better understand, work, live, socialize, and enjoy spirit in your child. By reframing challenging temperamental qualities in a positive way, and by giving readers specific tools to work with these qualities, Kurcinka has provided a book that will help all parents, especially the parents of spirited children, understand and better parent their children.
Order Now!

cover
Raising Your Spirited Child - Workbook
(companion to the book)
by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

In this companion workbook, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka brings readers into her world-famous workshops, where she offers parents and educators insights, emotional support and proven strategies for dealing with spirited children. The key word that distinguishes spirited children from other children is "more" -- more intense, more persistent, more sensitive and more uncomfortable with change. Through exercises, observations and dialogue from actual groups, Kurcinka helps readers learn to identify the triggers that lead to tantrums and challenging behaviors. Included are:
clues to help you identify the little things that can make or break a day
tips for profiling your child's temperament and your own
cues that indicate intensity is rising
successful strategies for reducing and eliminating power struggles
By combining the intuition and compassion gained from parenting a spirited child with the wisdom of an expert who has worked with thousands of families, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka helps parents and educators view their unique challenge with perseverance, flexibility, sensitivity, and, most of all, enjoyment.
Order Now!

No Image
Available
Reflexes, Learning and Behavior:
A Window into the Child's Mind
by Sally Goddard

Order Now!

cover
Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World:
Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child
by Jeffrey Freed

Requiring only ten minutes a day, the program revealed in this groundbreaking book provides an effective, step-by-step method for helping children with Attention Deficit Disorder develop their special skills and individual learning styles and excel in a classroom setting.
Order Now!

cover
Transforming The Difficult Child:
The Nurtured Heart Approach
by Howard Glasser

Transforming the Difficult Child brings to life a new way of shifting intense children to a solid life of success. The Nurtured Heart Approach puts a refreshing spin on both parenting and teaching and reveals new techniques and strategies that create thoroughly positive behaviors.
Order Now!

Note: Amazon.com retains all copyrights on the above book descriptions only...except where noted as being written by someone else.