The art of talking with children The simple keys to nurturing kindness, creativity, and confidence in kids

This is one of those helpful guides for parents that offers reasonable, solid advice on almost every page. Rolland relies on her experience as a speech language pathologist and professor at the Harvard School of Education to suggest myriad ways of connecting with children (toddlers through graduate students) in order to have meaningful and insightful conversations that develop empathy. She devotes entire chapters to broad emotional and social development areas such as embracing challenges, fostering curiosity, enhancing creativity, and raising global citizens, and provides strategies that help parents strengthen these qualities through daily conversation. Offering personal and professional anecdotes that support her observations, she also shares occasional flowcharts that clarify her thinking and sets of relatable scenarios and quizzes to help readers determine their child's basic temperament and adjust their own reactions accordingly. An extremely helpful appendix aligned with each chapter models age-specific conversation prompts and follow-up questions. Social-emotional learning curricula is a hot topic in many post-pandemic school programs. This current selection offers strategies and solutions for parents.

In over a decade as a speech language pathologist, Rolland has worked with students from preschool to graduate school. She believes that great conversations lead to connection and relationships, building a close, caring bond between parent and child. Here she identifies reasons that parents should set aside time for structured discussions with kids, including academic benefits (practicing language skills, creativity, and problem solving) and avoiding spending too much time online, which she says can spark isolation, depression, perfectionism, and anxiety. She points out other barriers to healthy conversation, including traditional schooling models and often-intensive contemporary parenting approaches. Rolland contends that processing thoughts and emotions through back-and-forth dialogue is key to mental health and that empathy, reflective listening, confidence, and independence are all skills that children can strengthen by practicing the art of conversation. VERDICT Readers of such volumes as How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk will find further help here in developing strong relational communication.