Rating: 
Summary: Doing a lot better in Massachusetts
Review: I've been looking for a book that helped me understand my wonderful but very explosive 8-year old for a long time. This book not only helped me to understand, but also provided guidance on how to make things better. Things ARE better! Now I know how to talk to my child without both of us getting out of control.
Rating: 
Summary: FINALLY - Some Practical Help for Parenting a Defiant Child
Review: Tired of well-meaning family and friends saying, "If you would just be more firm..." or "You should..."? You've tried EVERYTHING, and nothing works? Finally, Ross Greene gives us parents of defiant children some practical help on how to parent these challenging offspring. After reading this, you may get even more criticsm on your parenting skills, but you will be armed with the assurance that they REALLY DON'T know what they're talking about! (Walk a mile in my shoes, and all that.) My only criticism of this sanity-saving book is that I felt I really needed professional help to try to implement its principles. It would have been great if Dr. Greene had been able to find a way to help parents step-by-step. Maybe a workbook to go with it?
Rating: 
Summary: Some important concepts, but large problems with the theory
Review: I loved about the first half of this book. I think it's so important for people working with inflexible and explosive children to understand they don't WANT to be that way, and to learn to give in on the more minor issues in order to not be in constant battle. However, by the end of the book, I was left feeling that there were large gaps in his ideas. For one, although we are told there are issues on which there should be no giving in, we are not really told how to enforce our stands on these issues, and since so many issues are said to be ones on which we must negotiate, I think that many children would be forgiven if they didn't think that we REALLY meant it on the issues we are NOT to give in on! A case study example about using give and take on one issue (going overnight to a friend's house when the child hasn't gotten enough rest lately) seems to me like it is basically just totally giving in---I don't think a child would learn any skills on give and take from how it was shown to be done. Also, call me old-fashioned, but I can't stand how many obscenities are used in examples in this book. I think we can get the point after a few that this is an issue Greene feels we should ignore! However, even with all these complaints, I think I did get some valuable ideas from this book, especially about what goes on in the head of an inflexible, explosive child.
Rating:
Summary: I've known it all along, but didn't understand it!
Review: I am a grandparent raising the son of our adopted son who is incarcerated. I am also an elementary school teacher. Inflexiblity is obvious to the parent and to many teachers, but what to do about it is the thing that keeps us awake in the middle of the night! I sincerely agree with Dr. Greene that these children WANT to behave, but because of their inflexibility/inability to transition, their best intentions melt in a flash. This helps me as a second time around parent and as a teacher, but know that there are lots of inflexible educators that haven't the foggiest notion that these children are not just manipulative, over-indulged brats! We've come a long way, but we have a long way to go. By the way, medication of our 41/2 year old has given us an edge that we didn't have with his father. He takes Adderall and Tenex and is now doing 90% better socially and in the learning setting at pre-school. I still wonder if his father had had medical/drug intervention at an early age, if he would be incarcerated today ... By the way, I am pro-inclusion as long as the student's behavior does not disrupt the learning environment for the other 24 students. I've had students that I could diffuse, and those I could not. Safety for my students is defintely in "Basket A." My school is beginning a program this fall to help children who have difficulty transitioning and difficulty in reading called Bala-Vis-X designed by Bill Hubert, a teacher at Hadley Middle School in Wichta, KS. He will have a book and video demo out this fall. The program, in a oversimplified explanation, consists of training in physical balance, eye tracking using bean bags and racquet balls, and the Brain Gym from the book, SMART MOVES. It's an awesome program with amazing academic and behavioral results.I am excited for my students!
Rating:
Summary: Real insight into life with an explosive child
Review: Over the years I have read many book that touched on aspects of this problem, but none that went into it as deeply. The stradegies are very helpful and offer hope to the many overwhelmed parents. The author helped me to understand that these children do not want to be this way, and truly need our guidance and understanding.
Rating:
Summary: a breath of fresh air
Review: ....................Our family has found this approach to be fresh, realistic, and EXTREMELY practical and, above all, helpful. Its as if Dr Greene lived in our house! I also found this to be the most optimistic book about my child that I've seen. First it gave me hope, then it worked. THANK YOU DR GREENE!
Rating:
Summary: The Explosive Child
Review: I was glad to finally find a book to help me deal with my daughter's issues. This book has been very helpful to me. It has offered insights and practical solutions to problem situations with my bipolar child. It was refreshing to learn so many other parents of behaviorally challenged children shared my feelings and concerns. I would recomend this book to anyone who has a difficult child. I don't necessarily agree with all the tactics used to control meltdowns but the reasoning and explanations are wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: Look elsewhere for real solutions
Review: If you've read much of anything on parenting recently, much of this book will be familiar: Choose your battles, Don't worry about the small stuff, Prevent tantrums rather than escalating them, Teach your child to think things through and problem-solve for him/her self, etc. However, I was completely disappointed at the LACK of REAL SOLUTIONS offered. The example cases seemed to overflow with poor outcomes. Kids ended up medicated and institutionalized. The author included far too many explicatives (as when a child addressed a parent in therapy) when a blank or symbol would do. We all get the idea that the kid swore. I don't want to have to read it over and over throughout the text. The author stated many times in fact to ignore children's swearing since it isn't a big deal. Well, to some of us it is. This book reads like a series of overlapping lectures with plenty of therapy play-by-plays thrown in for filler. It is neither concise nor very helpful which is what I, as the mom of three (only one of whom explodes) needed. Parenting with Love and Logic is a perfect book to cover the remedial parenting advice found in this book. As for a book dealing with real solutions for an inflexible child and ending the tantrums, I'm still looking.
Rating:
Summary: Rewarding-Providing hope for the future
Review: I found this book to be somewhat uplifting, providing hope to those who feel they are alone in the world with children that cannot be understood. This has been a very trying experience for our family, and after reading Ross Greene's book, I felt as if we were not alone in the world and left feeling as though we were not crazy and that there were people who actually understood what it was like to live with a child who has this disability. I first heard of this book through our psycologist, but also watched Dr. Greene on the Oprah Winfrey show, after watching that show I felt as though I could be one of those people on the show with him, it was like watching our life on T.V. This has been a very frustrating time in our lives, and we can only hope that we pull through, but reading this book did give me a much better insight as to understanding and dealing with our child, it has prooved to be a rewarding book. Thank You Dr. Greene.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a Lifesaver!
Review: My son is an adopted, emotionally-impaired 7 year old. He was neglected and abused as a baby. He has post-traumatic-stress syndrome, ODD, ADHD, and mild reactive attachment disorder, as well as asthma and allergies, some behavior-related. This book answered alot of questions about my son's "meltdowns" and inflexibilities that had always had us puzzled and feeling hopeless. The explosive-inflexible child IS my child, about 80% (the other 20% is the reactive-attachment disorder in acute phase.) Even my son agrees that "this book is really ME, the way I used to be". Using the suggestions from this book in the last month, I have seen a big decrease in meltdowns because I have changed the way I deal with him BEFORE the meltdowns. My son has always been neurochemically sensitive, and now alot of his former tantrums make sense. I now try to "head his tantrums off at the pass, BEFORE he goes over the cliff" emotionally, thanks to Dr. Greene's book. I have bought copies or loaned my copy to his teachers, former teachers, social workers, school psychologist, and his therapist. WE LOVE THIS BOOK!
|
