Product Description
A renowned social psychologist's clear-cut, thoughtful, and practical strategy for parents who want to promote self-confidence in their child.

Raising confident, motivated, and caring children is a parent's greatest challenge. Drawing on her own extensive research on children and parents, Terri Apter has created a guide based on "emotional coaching"—learning to respond appropriately to a child's feelings—that helps parents raise children to solve problems, to be socially active and understand others, and to manage emotions, all of which are crucial to developing confidence and functioning successfully in society. Hugely insightful, reassuring, and accessible, The Confident Child is a truly necessary parenting guide. Winner of The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International Educator's Award.

Amazon.com Review
"We understand far more about how self-esteem can be damaged in childhood--through neglect or abuse--than we do about how it can be fostered, preserved, and reinforced," author Terri Apter writes in The Confident Child: Raising Children to Believe in Themselves. Apter aims to help parents recognize problems in a child's "self theory" (a child's self-image and ideas about her potential), and to help the child "sustain positive attitudes and correct destructive ones." In clear, concise prose, The Confident Child focuses on the age span from 5 to 15, the time in life when self-esteem and confidence are at their most delicate and are the most sensitive to nurturing. Chapters cover assessing a child's self-esteem, being an imperfect parent without ruining your child's life (managing anger, grief, and disappointment), working within the delicate balance of discipline (teaching your child to be ashamed of her behavior but not of herself), success and failure at school, the effects of sibling rivalry, social confidence, and the early teen years. Much of the material in The Confident Child is original; Apter, a social psychologist and researcher and author of Altered Loves, conducted a five-year study that is the basis of this compassionate and practical book. Yet Apter also owes a debt to the works of Erik Erickson, Daniel Goleman, and others. --Ericka Lutz

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 4 reviews)

Insightful Advice for Parents

I first saw this book while browsing on ParentsDigest and thought the author's ideas about "emotional coaching" were very insightful. The self-esteem of children can be so fragile and this book helps parents to support and guide their kids through the difficult pre-teen years.
January 07, 2009

About the excerpt

I must qualify this commentary - I have not read this book. I was, however, interested in purchasing it. Unfortunately, I've seen too many books that use too many pages to describe the issue they are trying to address, and not enough pages describing techniques and methods to help where the help is desired. I don't need to know that I want to develop confidence in my child, I already know that! So it is unfortunate that the chosen excerpt only talks about the desire every parent has to take the right steps to develop confidence in their child, and doesn't give any examples of the techniques the book recommends. In other words, the excerpt lacks the meat needed to judge whether the book has merit.
September 03, 2008

The Confident Child

Excellent pointers on how to boost your childs self confidence and performance as a result.
November 01, 2007

Give your child the emotional tools they need.

I finally found a parenting book that doesn't preach to me, or give 'quick-fix' answers. Instead, "The Confident Child...", helps me understand myself, and why I parent the way I do. It helps me to understand my daughter's emotions better which in turn helps me help her.

I especially like the "How to be an Imperfect Parent Without Ruining Your Childs Life" chapter. Wonderful suggestions, that are working in the real world.

With the assistance of this book Terri Apter has helped me pinpoint why my daughter's self-esteem issues arise. She's not the angry perfectionist I thought she was. Now I know where to start!
May 09, 2000

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Raising Confident Boys: 100 Tips for Parents and Teachers
by Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer

Raising Children Who Think for Themselves
by Elisa Medhus

Parent Talk: How to Talk to Your Children in Language That Builds Self-Esteem and Encourages Responsibility
by Chick Moorman

Parents Do Make a Difference: How to Raise Kids with Solid Character, Strong Minds, and Caring Hearts (The Jossey-Bass Psychology Series)
by Michele, Ed.D. Borba, Michele Borba

The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids
by Jenn Berman
by Donna Corwin