Best Parenting Books on Communication

Communicating effectively with your kids is an important and difficult venture. Successful communication can bring you closer and build trust. On the other hand, lack of or poor communication can damage your relationship with your children. Here are top picks in parenting books on communication to help you make the most of your interactions with your kids.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk

By Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

This book is focused on producing a happier, more productive relationship between you and your child through enjoyable interactions that bring satisfaction to both of you. A classic in the libraries of many parents and professionals, this book contains the authors’ advice gleaned from years in the field. In particular, this book will teach you how to encourage your child to express anger without hurting others, set productive boundaries for your children without hampering them, use constructive corrections instead of punishments, and create a comfortable family atmosphere at home.

In Their Own Way: Discovering & Encouraging Your Child’s Multiple Intelligences

By Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.

In this classic parenting book, Thomas Armstrong outlines the “eight ways to bloom,” or the different kinds of multiple intelligences that children and people exhibit. Anderson demonstrates how you as a parent can focus on your child’s particular area of skill and creativity to maximize learning. By refusing the conventional diagnoses of struggling students as underachievers or learning disabled, Armstrong explains how these children are often gifted in certain areas that many overlook.

Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children

By Thomas Gordon

In this book, Thomas Gordon uses P.E.T., or Parent Effectiveness Training, to outline a step by step process by which parents can resolve conflicts at home and communicate more meaningfully with their children. The book outlines how to avoid being too permissive with your children and teach your children to take ownership of their own problems.

Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach

By Howard Glasser

This book focuses on communication strategies for children with ADHD and other challenges in order to make them more harmonious at home and successful in the classroom. By building on the gifts and energy of these children instead of focusing on the negatives, Glasser demonstrates how parents can channel their children’s energy into productive communication and learning skills that will benefit them at school.

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