Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Now You Can Effectively Parent Your Strong-Willed Child
Does your child constantly misbehave and ignore or refuse your requests for proper behavior? Is your relationship with your child based on conflict instead of mutual respect and cooperation? With the help of this groundbreaking book, you can create a positive, respectful, and rewarding relationship with your child.
Inside are proven techniques and procedures that provide a refreshing alternative to the ineffective extremes of punishment and permissiveness. Parents and teachers alike will discover how to effectively motivate the strong-willed child and achieve proper conduct. You will learn how to:
·Understand and empathize without giving in
·Hold your ground without threatening
·Remove daily power struggles between you and your child
·Give clear, firm messages that your child understands and respects
·And much more!
"Eminently useful and readable! This book should be a part of every parent's and school's reference library." —Judy E. Hunt-Brown, principal, Elk Grove Unified School District
"A grand book that teaches everybody in the family new skills and encourages more peaceful, socially acceptable lives at home, school, in the office, or in any social group." —Barbara O'Donnell, principal, St. Francis Elementary School
"A highly recommended eye-opener; beautifully documented." —Stewart E. Teal, M.D., clinical professor of child psychiatry, University of California, Davis

Rating : - Very basic -- appropriate for the most challenged families
I found this book lacking because it doesn't address the fact that most children (at least some of the time) are ready to move onto learning how to identify choices on their own... i.e. how to instill values (oops... that might invoke shame) that will help them throughout the rest of their lives when you're not peering over their shoulders. It doesn't account for the fact that children are capable of empathy well before preschool and that there is value in teaching to that skill. In fact, the chapter on verbal communication is the shortest one at a mere 8 pages.

Unfortunately, there are families that are still struggling with the fundamental establishment of consistency and authority. For those families, this book is clear enough in its examples to help them get past this first stage... while helping other observers understand why such basic tools are necessary for certain children.