You: “How was your day?”
Your child: “Fine.”
As a parent, you want to know what is going on in your child’s life, how school and friendships are going, if they’re feeling okay. As a kid you want to tell your parent what’s going on, but it can be hard to find the words. This book is brilliant because it makes finding those words easy, and you discover incredible stuff about each other.
How exactly do you make it happen? This accessible guide answers the million-dollar question by steering you, step by step through carefully supported and structured conversational platforms that encourage connection and strengthen relationship bonds. Written by two top clinical psychologists who have worked with families over many years they have, uniquely, designed it for you to read and experience, together.
Inside this book you will find a range of fun, illustrated child-friendly conversation activities, organised around four key themes: who are you? how are you? what helps? what gets in the way? There is powerful evidence that building good parent-child communication skills improves emotional wellbeing, physical health, academic and employment success. It helps set up a trusting relationship so you can navigate adolescence and later life successfully. It’s important to start early because it takes time to learn skills.
An innovative, accessible and cutting-edge resource from top psychologists, for parents and children aged 6+ to use together, a place to have conversations, to build strong relationships and wellbeing.
Author Bio:
Jane Gilmour and Bettina Hohnen are clinical psychologists and academics with a specialist interest in neuropsychology. They have over 20 years’ experience working at Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London with children, young people, families, school staff and delivering practical evidence-based training to parents and professionals.
Review:
“What a wonderful book, suitable for any (and all!) parents and carers, to help you to build a closer relationship with your child through conversations. The authors draw upon years of clinical psychology practice of supporting young people and families, to identify creative, fun conversation starters and concepts, which can help all parents and carers to develop more meaningful connections with their child, and better understand their child’s inner world. The book is compassionate and compelling, and acknowledges how tricky it can be sometimes be for all parents and carers to ‘find a way in’ with their child. It gives copious, helpful, wide-ranging advice. I will certainly be buying a copy, and highly recommending the book to parents, carers, families, professionals and everyone!” – Dr Sue Knowles, consultant clinical psychologist, lead for child and family services at Changing Minds UK, researcher, and author
“While the art of conversation is not easy for autistic children, the incredible conversation activities in this excellent book, will facilitate mutual understanding, self-reflection and emotion regulation. Although this book was primarily written for parents, I strongly recommend that psychologists, therapists, and teachers incorporate the activities in their work with children who have communication difficulties.” – Tony Attwood, professor of clinical psychology, Griffith University, and author.
