About.com Rating
The Bottom Line
By T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D.; 228 pages. Subtitle: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish
One of those needs is probably a parent who doesn't spend so much darn time perusing parenting books, but if you just can't stop reading, this book by two child development gurus offers plenty of food for thought -- on families, childcare, schools, priorities, and respecting differences.
They're doing some dreaming here, but it's nice to imagine along.
About the Guide Rating
Pros
- Interesting structure gives overview, dialog and recommendations on each need.
- Includes thoughts on children with special needs and special education.
- Offers some concrete suggestions that parents can implement.
- Provokes thought on important topics.
- Both authors have engaging, well-thought-out points of view.
Cons
- Some suggestions involving societal change are probably wishful thinking.
- You may disagree -- strongly -- with some of the authors' opinions.
- Hard not to feel judged if you're not raising your child in the ways they propose.
- Thinking about what ought to be can make it harder to live with what is.
Description
- Chapter 1: The Need for Ongoing Nurturing Relationships
- Chapter 2: The Need for Physical Protection, Safety, and Regulation
- Chapter 3: The Need for Experiences Tailored to Individual Differences
- Chapter 4: The Need for Developmentally Appropriate Experiences
- Chapter 5: The Need for Limit Setting, Structure, and Expectations
- Chapter 6: The Need for Stable, Supportive Communities and Cultural Continuity
- Chapter 7: Protecting the Future
- The Touchpoints Model
- Functional Development Growth Chart and Questionnaire
- Organizations
Guide Review - Book Review: The Irreducible Needs of Children
If you lived in a perfect world, what would it look like? What kind of time would your family spend together, and what would you do with it? What would your children’s schools look like, their daycare -- would there even be daycare? Would your world be a safe and strengthening place for all children?
It can be hard to think about things like that, because the world we live in is so resolutely not perfect. Livings must be made, schools must be tolerated, time must be rationed in ways that have less to do with perfection than expediency. Though we may know what our children really need, it’s sometimes impossible to give it to them, or to make sure they get it from their teachers and childcare providers and communities.
Still, if you’re going to dream, it’s good to do so with the input of experts like Dr. Brazelton, a pediatrician and the author of 28 books including “Touchpoints,” and Dr. Greenspan, a pediatric neurologist and the author of 30 books including “The Child with Special Needs” and “The Challenging Child.” “The Irreducible Needs of Children” lets readers listen in on a dialog between the two, in which they discuss the way things are and the way things ought to be. You may cheer at some of their insights, and some may make you want to bonk one of them on the head or invite them to visit the planet on which the rest of us have to live. But they’ll make you think, and maybe take some small step to make your own world a little more perfect.
Discuss this book.