Book Club: Communicating with Children - How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen

The theme for this episode of Parents in Tech Book Club is communicating with children. We look at two best-selling parenting books. The first book was first published in 1982 and has been called “the parenting bible” by many media outlets such as The Boston Globe. This book is none other than "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk" by Adele Faber and Elaine Malzish. Fast forward 3 decades, the daughter of one of the authors, Adele, was inspired by her mum and wrote her own book, which is the second book we will talk about today - "How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7." by Julie King and Joanna Faber. Joanna is the daughter of Adele, and more than 300,000 copies of her book has been sold to-date. 

The two books complement each other very well, and when read in conjunction, they provide fantastic tools to help improve a parent-child relationship. They are very similar in content because they follow the same philosophy, although Joanna and Julie in their book provide more tools targeting kids with special needs. Both have sample dialogues, role-playing exercises, and cartoons that are both funny and insightful – if you are interested to practice the advice you have heard on this podcast, definitely do check the books out.  

So, what will we talk about in this episode? Both Adele and Joanna's books focus on helping us as parents to communicate with our children. We will summarize the key takeaways across 8 topics. Here goes:

1. Helping children deal with their feelings
2. Engaging cooperation
3. Alternatives to Punishment and Tools for Resolving Conflict
4. Problem Solving
5. Encouraging Autonomy
6. Praising
7. Freeing children from playing roles
8. When our child is suffering with autism or sensory issues

Welcome to the Parents in Tech Book Club! In each episode, we summarize lessons and takeaways from two best-selling parenting books, so you can save time, get your dose of parenting advice and get back to our families and careers.