Rating: 
Summary: Innovative, Meaningful, Helpful
Review: "The Difficult Child" successfully does what many books try to do but fail: bridge the gap between knowledge gained from research to the adapting of parenting skills in everyday life. The research involved is mainly the work of Chess and Thomas on temperament traits. We all come into the world, not as blank slates, but wired genetically, neurologically, and physiologically to respond and act and be in certain ways. This "pre-wiring" affects many aspects of our lives, and includes the areas of overall energy level, general mood tendencies, degree of emotional expressiveness, comfort with routines, adaptability to change, comfort with unfamiliar situations, threshold of sensitivity to stimuli, impulsivity, and persistence. For each of these these temperamental traits, there is a spectrum, with each of us being at some point on each spectrum. These temperamental traits are the initial building blocks of our personalities and, along with our intelligence and our physical characteristics, they are the starting points or foundation of who we become. Of course, learning, parenting, environmental factors, and many other factors get added into the mix, but the primary ingredients always have some impact.Turecki and Tonner clearly describe these traits and discuss how parents can assess them in themselves and in their children, and thereby shape their expectations and their parenting techniques to be more effective. They also talk about parent-child trait mismatches. For example, a temperamentally cheerful, high-energy, expressive parent might have a child who is quiet, inexpressive, serious, and low-energy. It would be easy for that parent to misinterpret their child and be concerned about childhood depression. "The Difficult Child" is easy reading, informative, and would be helpful to any parent, and not just parents of difficult children. After all, no matter how wonderful they can be, are there are any "easy" children to raise?
Rating:
Summary: Innovative, Meaningful, Helpful
Review: "The Difficult Child" successfully does what many books try to do but fail: bridge the gap between knowledge gained from research to the adapting of parenting skills in everyday life. The research involved is mainly the work of Chess and Thomas on temperament traits. We all come into the world, not as blank slates, but wired genetically, neurologically, and physiologically to respond and act and be in certain ways. This "pre-wiring" affects many aspects of our lives, and includes the areas of overall energy level, general mood tendencies, degree of emotional expressiveness, comfort with routines, adaptability to change, comfort with unfamiliar situations, threshold of sensitivity to stimuli, impulsivity, and persistence. For each of these these temperamental traits, there is a spectrum, with each of us being at some point on each spectrum. These temperamental traits are the initial building blocks of our personalities and, along with our intelligence and our physical characteristics, they are the starting points or foundation of who we become. Of course, learning, parenting, environmental factors, and many other factors get added into the mix, but the primary ingredients always have some impact. Turecki and Tonner clearly describe these traits and discuss how parents can assess them in themselves and in their children, and thereby shape their expectations and their parenting techniques to be more effective. They also talk about parent-child trait mismatches. For example, a temperamentally cheerful, high-energy, expressive parent might have a child who is quiet, inexpressive, serious, and low-energy. It would be easy for that parent to misinterpret their child and be concerned about childhood depression. "The Difficult Child" is easy reading, informative, and would be helpful to any parent, and not just parents of difficult children. After all, no matter how wonderful they can be, are there are any "easy" children to raise?
Rating: 
Summary: A Relief to have some tools
Review: As with some of the other reviews I found the title to be a bit distracting but felt the author truly understood my child and our issues. I believe I am better equipped to understand and nurture my son now that I can identify the root of his behaviors.
Rating:
Summary: buy it!
Review: best book to get if you have a "difficult" child and you want to disipline using techniques other than spanking....that acctually WORK!
Rating: 
Summary: not enough help for us
Review: Dr. Turecki has a difficult child and he describes some personality traits that help one to understand one's child and the various obnoxious behaviors. That part was helpful. The reality is that he does give some clues to helping the behavior of some kids, but our son was 2.5 yrs old and there is little to help with a difficult age and a very challenging child. Perhaps the best part of the book was that our son didn't fit the category of "mother killer" close, but not really. I guess I can be relieved about that. The rest of the time, I wonder when my volcano boy will choose to erupt.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book for parents and professionals
Review: Dr. Turecki helps parents and teachers understand the "normal" difficult child and discusses how to manage behavior effectively for the child's benefit. His advice is practical and his compassion for the difficult child and his/her family is sincere. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book for parents and professionals
Review: Dr. Turecki helps parents and teachers understand the "normal" difficult child and discusses how to manage behavior effectively for the child's benefit. His advice is practical and his compassion for the difficult child and his/her family is sincere. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult Child - waste of money
Review: Great description of difficult children.
Sexist attitudes, no particularily good advice.
Read Raising Your Spirited Child instead.
Rating:
Summary: Living with a Difficult Child
Review: I can not even begin to express how much this book has helped our family. My son was difficult from the momement he came out of the womb. We had read numerous articles, lost tons of sleep, and felt that no one really understood our son or our issues.
This book pretty much nailed the types of behavior we were facing. Wild tantrums, obstence, etc. We read the book and started applying the techniques. Being frist time parents we were a little inconsistent with our applicatoin of the system and were having some mixed results and starting to doubt our ability to be successful parents. However, my wife and I were convienced that this was the only book that we had found that really dealt with the behavior issues we were facing.
After some discussion, we eventually called Turecki directly, spent an hour with him on the phone. Discussed our son, and Turecki's program. The results were amazing!!! Within a week we felt like were back on top of things and in control of our lives.
Our son is still a challenge but we've learned the diffence between temperment and tantrums. How to recognize them and how to effectively deal with them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is having trouble understanding why their child is acting up and needs insight into potential methods of dealing with them.
Rating:
Summary: A lifeline to parents of difficult children
Review: I cannot recommend this book highly enough! Not only does Dr. Turecki offer practical advice, he offers assurance to the parents of "difficult" children. All children can be difficult at times, but some children are on another playing field altogether. The explanations of tempermental behaviors and how to work with them is superb. I refer to this book often, and have passed it along to teachers and other parents.
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