A well-researched book with helpful advice for parents and schools on how to better equip children with emotional intelligence for the 21st century. It's applicable to all kids, but best for middle and high school aged ones. It is written like a textbook, so I'd suggest reading in stages.

LT Early Reviewers ( )

A variety of great resources in this book, really diving into child development and growth. It is a well-researched look into the idea of emotional development, how it happens and what a parent can do to nurture and help their children in these areas.

I will say up front that the book is written for parents with children older than mine (4 and 2), but much is still applicable. The first half of the book seems to have a more academic than popular audience in mind, but being an academic myself, I appreciated that and the many recent, scholarly source references. The final section gave practical examples of dialogues and how the adult can frame the dialogue to teach lessons about empathy and emotion.

I'm the kind of person that typos jump out at, and I found (without looking) at least five in this book - small things, I can understand why the editors missed them.

In all, a lot of great ideas here. I would have liked to see more practical examples in the earlier chapters. The "tip sheets" were kind of vague and theoretical rather than giving concrete examples of activities. ( )

The word “empathy” gets tossed around these days as a sort of cure-all for our social ills. But what do we really mean by it, and how do we think it works? The Caring Child offers a critical distinction between what I think we often think of as “empathy“ and its matured manifestation as compassion: when both socio-emotional and cognitive skills are fully developed, the ability to feel with another but also distinguish that other from yourself and thus to sit with another in distress without discomfort. There are two charts in this book that put these inner resources into correspondence with authoritarian, neglectful, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles. Thinking about that correspondence was a paradigm shift for me that cast my occasions of reactivity to my young children in a different (and less self-blaming) light. There’s plenty of parenting book standard material in here for everyone, including family dialogue scenarios and real-world recommendations, though for me it was this framing that was the most fundamentally useful. As with most parenting books I read these days, it’s really as much about how we can reframe our relationships with ourselves as it is about how we interact with our children—the two are inextricable.

"The Caring Child" is an excellent resource for parents, teachers, psychologists, school counselors, and others who work with children. Starting with the frequent perception that children and teens nowadays, who seem to spend more time on their electronics rather than face-to-face interactions with others, are lacking in their emotional intelligence. With clear explanations and many real-life examples, the author shows ways that adults can help children develop empathy and compassion for others. Most valuable may be the several scenarios of possible adult-child interactions that show better ways for the adults to model stronger and better social and emotional skills.