When Harry Hit Sally - 9781847370402

Children have limited ways of telling adults and parents when they have a problem. If they don't have the language skills to articulate their feelings, they can often use behavior that is challenging, inappropriate, or downright annoying in order to express themselves. Making real sense of how children use behavior as a language, this book shows parents ways to interpret that language and gain a deeper understanding of their children, from birth to age 12. Ordinary childhood patterns—such as persistent lying, toilet troubles, sleeping and eating difficulties, sibling rivalry, aggressive behavior, and seemingly irrational phobias—are tackled with a calm, analytical approach that takes the anxiety and panic out of parenting. A fresh and empathic understanding of how children feel and express emotions is achieved with engaging and entertaining anecdotal material that brings the subject alive. The message is that no child needs a perfect parent. What they do need is a parent who wants to understand what their behavior is trying to say.