Parenting & Child Development
Featured Books
The Soul of Discipline: The Simplicity Parenting Approach to Warm, Firm, and Calm Guidance—From Toddlers to Teens
Full of gentle wisdom, this parenting book—though not written specifically for adoption or trauma—beautifully supports attachment-focused parenting. It reframes challenging behavior as a child’s signal of feeling lost and in need of guidance, offering a simple plan for setting loving, age-appropriate boundaries. Both encouraging and practical, it helps parents see misbehavior as a call for connection rather than defiance, promoting safety and trust without expecting perfection from parent or child.
Has Your Child Been Traumatized?
Psychologist Dr. Melissa Goldberg Mintz offers a clear, practical guide to understanding and supporting children who have experienced trauma. She explains what signs to watch for, what to expect, and how to respond with effective tools, while also outlining when professional help may be needed. With resources for families and a focus on hope and resilience, this book equips parents and caregivers to face challenges with confidence and compassion.
More Great Books
Parenting With Love and Logic and Parenting Teens With Love and Logic: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood
Parenting with Love and Logic is a tough-love guide that shows parents how to balance love with discipline to raise confident, motivated kids. With easy-to-implement steps, it helps families avoid power struggles, nagging, and anger while fostering responsibility. The companion book, Parenting Teens with Love and Logic, applies the same principles to adolescence, offering parents tools to guide teens toward making responsible decisions while maintaining a strong relationship.
Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too
An oldie but a goody, this classic parenting book helps families navigate sibling dynamics—from best friends to bitter rivals. With humor and hard-won wisdom, Faber and Mazlish offer practical strategies to reduce competition, encourage cooperation, and handle conflict without constant battles. They show parents how to intervene wisely, redirect hostility into creativity, and treat children unequally yet still fairly. A timeless, practical guide for fostering healthier sibling relationships.
Beyond Time-Out: From Chaos to Calm
This wise parenting book builds on the time-out technique with a discipline strategy rooted in restoring balance between parents and children. Through detailed guidance and realistic scenarios, Dr. Grosshans makes a compelling case that children thrive when parents confidently exercise authority. While not adoption-specific, its principles are especially valuable for families seeking to strengthen attachment and foster a sense of safety and stability at home. A thoughtful, practical resource for creating healthier family dynamics.
Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles: Winning for a Lifetime
In Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka helps parents navigate the daily battles of discipline by looking beyond behavior to the underlying issues. She reframes power struggles as opportunities to teach children vital skills—managing big emotions, problem-solving, and building resilience. With practical strategies and her trademark warmth, Kurcinka offers a refreshing approach to turning conflict into connection. A valuable guide for parents seeking calmer, more constructive ways to handle everyday challenges.
The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse
This accessible guide helps parents understand and respond to adolescent substance abuse. It covers common substances, warning signs, and related issues such as self-harm and disordered eating, while offering clear advice on identifying treatment options. The author also explains how to find the right counselor and ensure a good fit, giving parents the tools to seek effective help for their child. A straightforward, supportive resource for families facing one of the toughest challenges of adolescence.
Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning
Written by clinical child psychologist Dr. Joyce Cooper-Kahn, this book addresses ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and learning disabilities in children and teens. It guides parents from the diagnostic process to everyday support, offering practical tools and strategies to help kids strengthen skills like planning, organization, time management, and impulse control—or develop workarounds when those skills don’t come easily. A clear, compassionate resource for families navigating executive functioning struggles.
The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Differences
Many children who’ve experienced trauma, including prenatal substance exposure, also struggle with sensory processing differences (SPD), where the nervous system misreads sensory input. This book explains SPD, helps parents distinguish it from look-alike diagnoses, and offers drug-free strategies to support children who may be over- or under-responsive to sights, sounds, touch, and more. A hopeful, practical resource for understanding and helping kids with sensory challenges.
The Seven Core Issues Workbook for Parents of Traumatized Children and Teens
Written by two of our favorite leading adoption experts, this workbook explores seven core issues—loss, rejection, shame, grief, identity, intimacy, and control—and their connection to trauma. With clear explanations, activities, and exercises, it helps parents recognize and address their own struggles while supporting their children’s healing. Applicable to any child, tween, or teen who has experienced trauma, it is a practical and compassionate resource for nurturing growth within families.
Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic
This invaluable guide gives all parents insight into why children behave the way they do. With vivid examples and a positive approach, Dr. Mary Sheedy Kurcinka offers emotional support and a simple four-step plan for success. She shows how to use positive labels, understand temperament (yours and your child’s), and manage tantrums, mealtimes, bedtimes, school, and more. Practical and encouraging, this book equips parents with proven strategies to navigate tough moments while fostering connection and confidence.
Healing Big Hurts
Healing Big Hurts is written for parents of children and teens who have faced trauma, loss, and attachment ruptures. Too often, parents feel left on the sidelines of therapy, but research shows they are the key to creating the safe, steady presence children need to heal. This guide helps families understand what to expect in trauma therapy—how to prepare siblings, manage the pace of sessions, handle shifting priorities, and monitor their own emotions. With practical direction and reassurance, it equips parents to stay engaged, support their child, and walk together toward hope and healing.
Hello, Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times
Hello, Cruel World! by award-winning science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer is a hopeful, science-based guide for raising children who can thrive in today’s uncertain times. From climate change and political division to misinformation and violence, kids will inherit a complex world we can’t fix for them—but we can prepare them to face it with resilience and purpose. Drawing on research across psychology, education, technology, and more, Moyer outlines practical tools to help children build coping skills, strong connections, and meaningful values. This empowering book equips parents to raise kids who not only endure challenges but also help create positive change.
Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors
Parenting and neuroscience expert Robyn Gobbel helps parents rethink what they see when their child’s behavior seems impossible to understand. Gobbel breaks down complex brain science into practical, relatable insights that explain why kids act out—and how parents can respond with empathy and effectiveness. With easy-to-use, brain- and body-based strategies, she shows how to help children regulate emotions and build connection while also helping parents stay calm in the chaos. A must-read for anyone raising or supporting children with trauma histories, sensory needs, or other challenges.
Raising Badass Kids: The Savvy Parents’ Guide to Predator-Proofing Tweens and Teens
All parents worry about keeping their tweens and teens (ages 10–18) safe from predators, bullies, and online dangers. Drawing from her expertise as a danger prevention specialist, Scarlet empowers and teaches families how to spot grooming behaviors, respond to bullying and cyberbullying, recognize signs of abuse, and build confidence in any situation. With clear guidance and bonus resources, this engaging and practical guide gives parents the tools to raise strong, aware, and resilient kids who know how to protect themselves.
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