Parenting With Wisdom and Skill: A Practical Guidebook

This paperback book presents a series of parenting essays written by Dr. Richard Formica, Ph. D., psychologist and parenting expert.

The essays are practical, concrete guides for understanding and skill development, preparing parents to take effective action with their children.

The book comprises two sections. Section One presents nine chapters offering concrete guidance about common challenges of modern parents. This concrete guidance is based on the application of principles and skills related to the Rational Discipline Approach developed by Dr. Formica. Section One covers issues related to common parental challenges, such as: technology usage by kids; dysregulated anger in childhood; the development of emotional regulation; teaching empathy to children; helping children develop healthy sibling relationships, fostering healthy character development, and many more topics of concern to parents.

Section Two presents eight chapters which describe Dr. Formica's Rational Discipline Approach, and which also present the concrete skills parents need to implement this approach with their children. Skills taught include: how to understand and accept your child; how to communicate effectively with your children; how to foster change by creating and enforcing standards, rules and limits; how to encourage responsible choice-making in your children. Section two ends with an epilogue devoted to providing skills and approaches to help parents manage the challenges of raising children with ADD, ADHD, Oppositional/Defiant Patterns and Excessive Rigidity.

Section One Topics include: Principles for Parenting Pre-K Children; Principles for Parenting Elementary-Aged Children; Dealing With Your Child's Dysregulated Anger; Fostering Healthy Emotional Regulation; Teaching Yourself and Your Children to Practice Empathy; Cautions for Technology Use; Raising Psychologically Healthy Children; Helping Children Develop Healthy Sibling Relationships and Developing Healthy Character In Children.

Section Two Topics include: How to Develop Self-Acceptance; How to Accept Your Child; How to Communicate Effectively; How to Create Standards, Rules and Limits; How to Enforce Rules and Limits; How to Encourage Your Child to Become a Responsible Choice-Maker Who Learns From His Mistakes; and How to Parent Children With ADD, ADHD, Oppositional/Defiant Patterns and Excessive Rigidity.