The are hundreds of books about what to do when things go wrong with your child. But where are the books that nail down what healthy development looks like?
After 15 years of in-the-trenches work as a Tucson child psychologist, one book I keep recommending is called Ages & Stages: Tips and techniques for building your child’s social, emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive skills. Authored by seasoned child experts Charles Schaefer, PhD, and Theresa For DiGeronimo, this book is one of the most practical parenting books I have ever read and used in my professional practice !
One unique aspect of this book is it breaks up parenting tips by organizing them according to four key developmental stages composing the birth to age 10 period of child development. But this book does not stop there.
The authors not only explain key characteristics of each of these four critical stages, but further specify their advice by organizing it into the following categories: social, emotional, interpersonal, and cognitive skills. This highly useful format allows a parent to zero in on the information they are most interested in, instead of having to weed through to look for the nuggets.
More and more child related studies indicate the period prior to adolescence is critical, and parents need more references that help them precisely navigate this all important time of their child’s life. This book delivers on this count.
If you know of a parent to be, or a parent of a young child, I suggest you consider this book as a thoughtful gift. One thoughtful book on development will make dramatically more impact than any other type of gift. As a discussed in a previous blog, the greatest gift a parent can give a child is the gift of a better relationship, and this books gives you the tools to strengthen the child-parent bond.
Ethical disclosure: I have no relationship to the authors, and have not been compensated for this review. This review is purely based on my own research and experience with this book.
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