Books Recommended for Parents of Children and Adolescents and Their Families in Therapy.

The following books have a solid reputation as being incredibly helpful for any parent working with their kids. They have proven themselves over time and with experience. These publications are recommended for consideration of parents looking for practical resources that are useful for themselves and for parenting their children.

Links are offered to make purchase of these publications easy. Barnes and Noble is the vendor selected for these links. They offer lists of books with related topics, as well as books that are purchased by people buying the recommended one. Many other vendors are available for purchase, but Barnes and Noble has the recommended volumes available, and is a reliable, well known source.

Your Anxious Child: How Parents and Teachers Can Relieve Anxiety in Children. By John S. Dacey, Lisa V Fiore.

From the Publisher:
Your Anxious Child empowers you to teach your child essential coping skills for dealing with anxiety in engaging, creative ways. Through dozens of activities you can start using right now, your child will learn how to alleviate stress, build courage and trust, and become an innovative problem solver. Your Anxious Child is a book based on the acclaimed "COPE" program, which has been used successfully with children throughout the United States for more than fifteen years. The program offers physical, mental, and spiritual strategies for CALMING the nervous system; activities designed to help your child ORIGINATE a creative plan to relieve anxiety; approaches to help your child PERSIST in the face of obstacles and failures; and effective ways for you and your child to EVALUATE and refine your plan.

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children. By Ross W. Greene

From the Editors:
By teaching parents how to communicate with an inflexible son or daughter who feels there is no way out other than to throw a fit, The Explosive Child miraculously helps families unlearn the habits that lead to incendiary behavior. The book equips parents with the necessary skills to defuse and even prevent the intense situations that all-too-frequently arise with a volatile child.

From the Publisher:
A groundbreaking approach to understanding and parenting children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper and other intractable behaviours, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in this field, now updated to include the most recent research.

Almost everyone knows an explosive child, one whose frequent, severe fits of temper leave his or her parents standing helpless in their fear, frustration, and guilt. Most of these parents have tried everything -- reasoning, behaviour modification, therapy, medication -- but to no avail. They wonder if their child is deviant or just plain bad.

Dr. Ross Greene has worked with thousands of explosive children, and he has good news: these kids aren't bad, and neither are their parents. Rather, explosive children suffer from a physiological deficiency in frustration tolerance and flexibility. Throughout this compassionate book, Dr. Greene demonstrates why traditional treatments don't work for these kids and offers a new conceptual framework for understanding their behaviour, along with new language to describe it. He explains the latest neuroscience findings about the importance of flexibility, and, most important, he shows parents specific, practical ways they can recognize the signs of an impending explosion, defuse tension, and reduce frustration levels for the entire family.

Your Defiant Child: Eight Steps to Better Behavior by Russell A. Barkley, Christine M. Benton

From the Publisher:
Every child has "ornery" moments, but more than 1 in 20 American children exhibit behavioral problems that are out of control. For readers struggling with an unyielding or combative child, Your Defiant Child: Eight Steps To Better Behavior offers the understanding and guidance they need. Drawing on Dr. Russell A. Barkley's many years of work with parents and children, the book clearly explains what causes defiance, when it becomes a problem, and how it can be resolved. The book's comprehensive eight-step program stresses consistency and cooperation, promoting changes through a system of praise, rewards, and mild punishment. Readers learn tools and strategies for establishing clear patterns of discipline, communicating with children on a level they can understand, and reducing family stress overall. Filled with helpful charts, questionnaires, and checklists, Your Defiant Child helps parents get their child's behavior back on track and restore harmony in the home.

Taking Charge of ADHD The Complete, Authoritatve Guide for Parents by Russell A. Barkley

Although the book is targeted at the parents of ADHD children, it will serve as a useful resource for teachers and others involved in the care and education of these children....This book is unique in its up-to-date and clear presentation of the scientific underpinnings of the disorder and the pragmatic, empirically based approach to intervention that it encourages. It is also very well organized and readable; it is probably the best available resource of this type.

50 Activities and Games for Kids with ADHD by Patricia O. Quinn (Editor), Judith M. Stern (Editor), Kate Sternberg (Illustrator)

For ages 12 and up. The games, puzzles, activities, articles and resources in this collection offer more that 50 ways for kids to handle the challenges of ADHD. Along with practical tips for solving problms and getting organized, boys and girls can also read about real kids like themselves. And they can discover a wealth of ideas that make life more manageable.

How to Talk so Kids Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk By Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish, Brehl (Ed), Kimberly Ann Coe (Illus).

Annotation:
"provides communication methods to help cope with a child's negative feelings, like frustration, disappointment, anger, etc...also methods for expressing anger without being hurtful, and for engaging a child's willing cooperation."

From the Publisher:
Here is the bestselling book that will give you the know-how you need to be more effective with your children and more supportive of yourself. Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, the down-to-earth, respectful approach of Faber and Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.

Their methods of communication, illustrated with delightful cartoons showing the skills in action, offer innovative ways to solve common problems.

Synopsis:
This book provides all the know-how required for happier, more constructive parent-child relations. The Christopher Award-winning authors share their latest insights and suggestions based on feedback they've received over the years. Their real-world methods offer children's negative feelings; express anger without being hurtful; set firm limits and maintain goodwill; use alternatives to punishment; resolve family conflicts peacefully.

Living With Children New Methods for Parents and Teachers. By Gerald R. Patterson

Shows how children learn behavior and how they actually train adults to behave. Written in a programmed format that makes learning quick and easy. Great for parents as a practical guide.

Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks by Robert Reid Wilson

Annotation:
"...guide offering help to those who suffer from panic anxiety...explains how panic attacks occur and offers a five-step strategy for controlling those attacks."

From the Publisher:
Panic. Almost everyone has experienced it at one time or another, but in the form of a panic attack, it can be incapacitating. In this book, a leading expert offers an accessible and practical self-help program for reducing and eliminating these attacks. With insight and compassion, he explains how attacks occur, provides a detailed 5-step strategy for controlling the moment of panic and shows how to use breathing exercises, focused thinking and mental imagery to elicit the body's natural "Calming Response." Packed with useful information that can begin reducing the power of these attacks immediately, this perennial seller is an invaluable tool for the millions of Americans coping with this crippling condition.

A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer.

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."

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