How to Talk so Kids Will Listen

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I just want to start off by saying How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish is an amazing book. The title pretty much tells you what the book is about: How to effectively communicate with your child as a parent, or in my case as a future teacher. I began reading this book with high expectation, hoping I could pick up a few things on how to communicate with my students in future classrooms. In general, parents and adults think that authoritarian actions speak far louder than words because kids should behave the way their parents expect them to. However, I was surprised to discover that just a few twisting of the words and some changes in the language could do the trick, while saving/and or creating the parent-and-child relationship. This book was aimed primarily at elementary-school-aged kids, but many of the lessons can be applied to toddlers quite easily, or even to adolescents and other adults. How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk provides true examples and confirmed ideas of how parents and teachers can improve their relationships with the children in their lives by improving their communication skills. The book is divided into seven chapters which address common ineffectiveness in communication, and how adults can help the child express the feelings evoked in the situation without acting out (i.e. describe the child’s feelings for him, listen and provide small feedbacks like “oh”, and avoid questioning), and think of the solution to the problem together and follow through instead of expecting the child to do what the adult wants, all the while leaving the child feeling empowered and unpunished. The book has a lot of cartoon examples, which make it a non stressful read, that show what to do and what not to do. For example, the most relevant cartoon to me has to do with a mother

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