The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

everything that happens to us—the music we hear, the people we love, the books we read, the kind of discipline we receive, the emotions we feel—profoundly affects the way our brain develops.

Whole-Brain Strategy #2: Name It to Tame It: Telling Stories to Calm Big Emotions

What molds our brain? Experience. Even into old age, our experiences actually change the physical structure of the brain. When we undergo an experience, our brain cells—called neurons—become active, or “fire.” The brain has one hundred billion

Whole-Brain Strategy #4: Use It or Lose It: Exercising the Upstairs Brain

What else? Thoughts

help them learn to SIFT through all the sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts that are affecting them.

When kids spend time with the most important people in their life, they develop important relational skills like communicating and listening well, interpreting facial expressions, understanding nonverbal communication, sharing, and sacrificing.

Considering several competing alternatives, as well as the outcomes of those choices, gives a child’s upstairs brain practice, strengthening it and allowing it to work better.

“connect and redirect” method, and it begins with helping our kids “feel felt” before we try to solve problems or address the situation logically.