Even as the mom to many, I don’t have all the answers. Each child is so different and the moments with one where I felt I’d made a break-through, aren’t consistent with the next child. My husband continues to look at me lost and asking, “What is he/she thinking?” It’s a question I don’t even pretend to have an answer for anymore.
Times are different for my children than they were when I was growing up. They’re dealing with school, peer pressure, balancing friendships and relationships, home it seems the hormones creep up even younger with each child. I struggle to find my own balance in how to help them and even more importantly, understand them.
With The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Child & Adolescent Psychology I feel like I have a toolbox ready to help me. It addresses child behavior for those critical years (birth to 18!). There’s a chapter on topics that I want to address and some I haven’t even considered. It’s like making a phone call to Mom, only she really does have all the answers.
Like all the books in The Complete Idiot’s Guide series, the Guide to Child & Adolescent Psychology is a resource that understands folks sometimes just don’t have time to read and read to find an answer. Navigation is elementary with The Complete Idiot’s guide as it is divided into parts and begins with a How to Use This Book section at the very beginning.
The wealth of information in this book includes:
Part 1, Discovering Childhood
Part 2, Foundations of Personality
Part 3, A Child is Part of a Family
Part 4, The Big Picture
Part 5, Ages and Stages
Part 6, Issues in Child Psychology
Part 7, Therapeutic Approaches in Child Psychology
To make it an even greater resource there’s definitions, studies, advice and insight.
It’s written with the expertise of Jack Westman M.D., M.S. a child and adolescent psychiatrist, teacher and advocate for children and families. His experience comes from his service as Director of Child Psychiatry Division of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin and as an author who has published ten books and over 140 professional articles. In addition, he has hands-on experience as the father of three sons, a grandfather of a handful of grandchildren and a great personal belief in what he is teaching.
Westman’s expertise is joined by victoria Costello, an Emmy award-winning writer and blogger of Awakening Psyche. The duo knocks it out of the ballpark with The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Child & Adolescent Psychology.
I’ve given up on trying to decipher what is going on in my children’s mind. They tend to be alien forms to me sometimes. I have learned, however, that listening to them, without judging gives comfort to us both. It’s an opportunity to communicate and engage and I welcome this. I’m not the greatest mom, I certainly don’t have a degree in psychology. I’m hands-on and Complete Idiots Guide to Child & Adolescent Psychology delivers in layman terms, matter-of-factly and organized, making it invaluable.
About the Authors
Victoria Costello (San Francisco, Calif.) is an Emmy Award-winning writer in health and psychology who blogs about parenting and special needs children on Psychology Today.com and Mamapedia.com. Her published books include A Lethal Inheritance, A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness, the Parents’ Everything Guide to Childhood OCD, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Chemistry of Love.
Jack C. Westman M.D. M.S. (Madison, Wis.) is Professor Emeritus in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and served as Director of Child Psychiatry for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals. He has published 9 books and over 140 professional articles and continues to work nationally for greater recognition of the unmet needs of children, adolescents, and their families.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Child and Adolescent Psychology
ISBN: 9781615640638, July 2011, $19.95
Authors: Victoria Costello (San Francisco, Calif.) and Jack C. Westman, M.D., M.S. (Madison, Wis.)