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What Angry Kids Need: Parenting Your Angry Child Without Going Mad

Jennifer Anne Brown and Pam Provonsha Hopkins, authors of What Angry Kids Need, actually like angry kids.

“These are energetic, passionate children who understand that feelings need to be expressed, and that’s what they’re trying to do—however misguided they are in the methods they choose,” says Hopkins.

Kids who act out may also be misguided when they describe themselves as angry. Hopkins and Brown emphasize that you may act angry—in fact, you may believe you’re angry—when you’re really feeling rejected, frustrated, lonely, hurt or scared.

“These are emotions that make us feel vulnerable. Rather than admit that we’re feeling rejected, we may get angry,” the authors point out.

Kids often demonstrate anger more quickly than adults because of their limited life experience.

The authors identify four other developmental reasons for children's anger:

• Frustration tolerance. Kids have to learn to recognize cues of psychological distress; until they do, and until they learn to soothe themselves, they’ll have little tolerance for frustration.
• Impulse control. Children have less ability to control their impulses.
• Limited vocabulary. Children who lack the words to define and label their emotions are more likely to express themselves physically.
• Problem-solving. Angry children are often those who have not learned to identify a problem, its cause and possible solutions.

Developmental stages aside, some kids seem to be angrier than others. In What Angry Kids Need, Hopkins and Brown provide several possible explanations. For more information about these and how parents can work with angry kids, the Parenting Press publicity staff will be glad to provide contact information for the authors, who are mental health counselors in private practice in a Seattle suburb.

For more information, see the book description.

Solving the Parenting Puzzle: Four Thinking Styles to Unlock the Secret of Family Harmony

Left brain, right brain: how often we label people this way! What does it really mean? What else affects how we think and communicate? What else determines whether people get along or struggle with conflict?

In the newly introduced Preview Edition of Solving the Parenting Puzzle: Four Thinking Styles to Unlock the Secret of Family Harmony, parent educator and counselor Susie Leonard Weller gives us a fascinating look at research that has identified four thinking styles in addition to left- and right-brained. When we recognize our dominant brain style, we understand why we’re in sync with some people—and always at odds with others.

With quizzes, examples and scenarios, Weller shows us how we can have happier, more productive relationships when we understand how to communicate with people of all thinking styles. She also explains how practicing other thinking styles can improve our ability to handle tasks at home, school and work.

Advance praise for Solving the Parenting Puzzle"

• “Fascinating! It’s a book I wish I’d had 30 years ago!”
• “For parents of young children and for adults who are re-evaluating their lives.”
• “Love the fact that it acknowledges that all children are intelligent but that they learn in different ways.”

Not yet available in bookstores, the 144-page Solving the Parenting Puzzle can be ordered from Parenting Press by telephoning (800) 992-6657 or (206) 364-2900 or by using the Shopping Cart. The cost is $14.95 plus shipping and, for Washington state residents, state sales tax.

For more information, see the book description.

Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years

What do new parents do more than anything else? W-O-R-R-Y.

They worry about if a baby is healthy, happy, and developing intellectually, they worry about what behavior is coming next and they worry if they’re making the right choices. In short, they want to know if what they’re seeing is just a phase or something to call the doctor about.

That’s why Helen Fowler Neville wrote Is This a Phase? Child Development & Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years. It’s scheduled for publication in early 2007; you can reserve an autographed copy now at the special pre-publication price of $15.95.

Neville, a veteran Bay Area pediatric nurse and parent educator, has created a reference that belongs in every nursery. Written with concise descriptions and dozens of charts and graphs that will make it quick and easy to use for both fathers and mothers, this reassuring guide explains what to expect at every developmental stage between birth and age 6. Then it walks parents and caregivers through three dozen topics common in the first six years of life: everything from attention span and impulse control to death, divorce, and the red flags that signal reading readiness issues.

For more information, see the book description.

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