The Whole-Brain Child
Insightful strategies for nurturing a child’s mental and emotional development.
Summary of 6 Key Points
Key Points
- Connect and Redirect: Balancing the Left and Right Brain
- Name It to Tame It: Telling Stories to Calm Big Emotions
- Engage, Don’t Enrage: Working with Your Child’s Developing Mind
- Use It or Lose It: Encouraging Mindful Practices
- Move It or Lose It: Integrating Physical and Mental Health
- S.O.S.: Being Sensitive to Children’s Needs
key point 1 of 6
Connect and Redirect: Balancing the Left and Right Brain
The ‘connect and redirect’ strategy emphasizes the importance of integrating a child’s left and right brain to effectively manage their emotional experiences. The right brain is involved in emotions, nonverbal communication, and the reading of social cues, while the left brain is associated with logic, language, and linear thinking. When a child is upset, the strategy suggests that a parent should first connect with the child’s right brain by empathizing with their feelings and validating their emotions, creating a nurturing and understanding environment in which the child feels safe and acknowledged…Read&Listen More
key point 2 of 6
Name It to Tame It: Telling Stories to Calm Big Emotions
The concept of ‘Name It to Tame It’ revolves around helping children deal with intense emotions through storytelling. The idea is grounded in neuroscience, which suggests that engaging the left brain’s linguistic capabilities can help to manage the emotional surges controlled by the right brain. When a child experiences a strong emotion, they are often caught in the grip of the right hemisphere’s fight or flight response. By encouraging the child to tell the story of what is upsetting them, you can activate the left brain’s logical side, which starts to process the feelings and brings about a sense of control and understanding…Read&Listen More
key point 3 of 6
Engage, Don’t Enrage: Working with Your Child’s Developing Mind
The concept of ‘Engage, Don’t Enrage’ focuses on the idea that when a child is in the midst of a meltdown or an emotionally charged situation, it’s crucial for parents to engage with the child’s feelings instead of escalating the situation by expressing frustration or anger. This approach is about connecting with the child and helping them to integrate their emotions and thoughts, rather than igniting a power struggle or a battle of wills. By engaging, parents encourage their children to use their ‘upstairs brain’, which is responsible for more sophisticated, thoughtful responses, rather than operating purely from the reactive ‘downstairs brain’…Read&Listen More
key point 4 of 6
Use It or Lose It: Encouraging Mindful Practices
The ‘Use It or Lose It’ principle refers to the concept that skills and abilities need to be practiced regularly in order to be maintained and strengthened. In the context of encouraging mindful practices, this principle emphasizes the importance of regularly engaging in mindfulness exercises to promote mental and emotional health. By consistently practicing mindfulness, children can develop better focus, awareness, and emotional regulation…Read&Listen More
key point 5 of 6
Move It or Lose It: Integrating Physical and Mental Health
The ‘Move It or Lose It’ strategy emphasizes the integral connection between physical activity and mental health. It suggests that when children engage in physical movement, they can shift their emotional state and help integrate their brain to better manage their feelings and reactions. The book explains that the right and left hemispheres of the brain need to work together, along with the various ‘upstairs’ (cognitive, controlling) and ‘downstairs’ (emotional, instinctual) parts of the brain, for a child to achieve emotional balance and well-being…Read&Listen More
key point 6 of 6
S.O.S.: Being Sensitive to Children’s Needs
The S.O.S. approach emphasizes the importance of being sensitive to children’s needs by tuning into their emotional and mental states. It stands for ‘Supporting’, ‘Observing’, and ‘Shaping’. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to support their children by acknowledging their feelings and experiences, offering comfort and security to help them feel heard and understood…Read&Listen More