The Secure Child: Helping Children Feel Safe and Confident in a Changing World

	by Stanley I. Greenspan
	Amazon price: (see Amazon)
	Publisher: Perseus Publishing (June 4, 2002)
	ISBN: 0738207500

Book Review

When faced with circumstances utterly beyond our control, it's hard enough for adults to remain grounded; children can have an even more difficult time of it when their parents are feeling this way. The Secure Child doesn't promise to make everything all right, but it does provide some basic guidelines that can help pull families in crisis more tightly together.

The first chapter introduces four basic principals: spending time together, expressing feelings, reassurance, and helping others. Whether your child is 2 or 17, these fundamentals vary only in the presentation, and specific details are addressed to each age group in later chapters. Author Stanley Greenspan discusses the characteristics that secure children show, and how those traits are expressed at every age. Also incorporated are simple ways--through play, daily chats, and volunteer activities--that allow parents to easily interact with their kids to relieve tension and supply real nurturing. Elementary parenting techniques are used, with reminders about choosing your battles, maintaining empathy, and setting limits attached to age-appropriate actions.

Helping someone else feel secure when you're afraid can be extremely challenging, but this short, simple guidebook will help your whole family rest a little easier. --Jill Lightner, Amazon.com