The Confident Child: Raising Children to Believe in Themselves

by Terri Apter

Overview

A renowned social psychologist's clear-cut, thoughtful, and practical strategy for parents who want to promote self-confidence in their child.

Raising confident, motivated, and caring children is a parent's greatest challenge. Drawing on her own extensive research on children and parents, Terri Apter has created a guide based on "emotional coaching"—learning to respond appropriately to a child's feelings—that helps parents raise children to solve problems, to be socially active and understand others, and to manage emotions, all of which are crucial to developing confidence and functioning successfully in society. Hugely insightful, reassuring, and accessible, The Confident Child is a truly necessary parenting guide. Winner of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Educator's Award.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393344059
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/06/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	703 KB

About the Author

Terri Apter is a writer, psychologist, and retired Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her ten books include The Sister Knot, Difficult Mothers, and What Do You Want from Me? She lives in Cambridge, England.

Editorial Reviews

"Self-esteem is now recognized as a key to children's successful development," notes Apter, a Cambridge University social psychologist and author of Altered Lives and Secret Paths, in the first chapter of this convincing, well-written and truly helpful guide. Focusing on children ages five through 15, she details behaviors that indicate low self-esteem in children and suggests means by which parents can deal with their children's (and their own) accompanying anxiety, anger and depression. Her methods are based on a technique called emotional coaching, by which parents enourage kids to identify and accept their feelings and to find acceptable ways to express them. With withering accuracy, Apter describes mistakes every "inevitably imperfect" parent makes and suggests ways parents can correct them. Even moderate displays of anger are damaging, she warns. "When Mommy's mad a mountain grows in my throat," a 6-year-old girl told the researcher. But parents can temper anger's effects by managing it and by compensating for anger-that can't be managed through spending special time with their children and making positive feelings clear-with hugs and smiles. Here is a book that takes the vagueness out of the term self-esteem and suggests concrete ways for parents to help their children like themselves and feel confident about their abilities to deal with the world around them.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

"Self-esteem is now recognized as a key to children's successful development," notes Apter, a Cambridge University social psychologist and author of Altered Lives and Secret Paths, in the first chapter of this convincing, well-written and truly helpful guide. Focusing on children ages five through 15, she details behaviors that indicate low self-esteem in children and suggests means by which parents can deal with their children's (and their own) accompanying anxiety, anger and depression. Her methods are based on a technique called emotional coaching, by which parents enourage kids to identify and accept their feelings and to find acceptable ways to express them. With withering accuracy, Apter describes mistakes every "inevitably imperfect" parent makes and suggests ways parents can correct them. Even moderate displays of anger are damaging, she warns. "When Mommy's mad a mountain grows in my throat," a 6-year-old girl told the researcher. But parents can temper anger's effects by managing it and by compensating for angerthat can't be managed through spending special time with their children and making positive feelings clearwith hugs and smiles. Here is a book that takes the vagueness out of the term self-esteem and suggests concrete ways for parents to help their children like themselves and feel confident about their abilities to deal with the world around them. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"Terri Apter convinces the reader that she is on our side. . . . Her wisdom is tempered by warmth and a rueful acknowledgment that she hasn’t always got it right herself, which is totally disarming."

Mary Hoffman