The Yes Brain

October 2, 2017
Siegel and Bryson dive deeper into the ideas introduced in their bestselling The Whole-Brain Child to offer parents the tools needed to develop a child’s “yes brain”—a receptive state of mind that encourages curiosity, compassion, and adaptation, qualities identified here as critical life skills that will lead children to “do more, learn more, and become more.” Buoyed by neuroscientific research, Siegel and Bryson’s plan focuses on fostering four crucial components of resilience—balance, resilience, insight, and empathy, with a single chapter devoted to each—and extols the importance of nurturing these traits while helping your child integrate all in order to “live meaningfully and find success.” Each of these chapters concludes with cartoons illustrating that section’s content that are meant to be shared with children, as well as tips to promote the same traits in oneself as a parent and individual. Siegel and Bryson have taken a high-level concept and broken it down into an approach that is easy to understand and implement. Parents, grandparents, teachers, clinicians, and other caregivers will find something in the plan that they can use to help the children in their care to excel.

October 15, 2017
Techniques to help your child grow and develop from a reactive to a receptive state. In their latest collaboration, Siegel (Psychiatry/UCLA School of Medicine) and Bryson, authors of The Whole-Brain Child (2011) and No-Drama Discipline (2014), continue their discussion on how to help a child grow into a healthy, productive adult. The authors emphasize the importance of integrating the entire brain, so all the different regions "become more connected, both structurally (meaning the way they physically connect via neurons) and functionally (meaning the way they work, or function, together)." Integration encourages communication and cooperation, producing constructive outcomes that increase flexibility, adaptability, coherence, energy, and stability in a child's outlook on life. In each chapter, the authors use concrete examples to demonstrate the techniques needed to create and maintain a balanced, resilient, insightful, and empathic brain, and each section is backed by various cartoons adults can use to teach these methods to children. Siegel and Bryson also encourage adults to follow their methodology to further aid the developing child. They illustrate the harm done when an adult dismisses, criticizes, and shames a child's feelings, the disadvantages of an overbooked schedule, and the necessity of adequate sleep. They discuss when to push a child beyond his or her comfort zone and when to offer comfort, how adults can remain calm during a difficult moment with a child, and how to encourage empathy on multiple levels. They also explore how the current cultural norms and expectations of "success" are creating stress, exhaustion, anxiety, and depression, and they suggest the definition should be refined. Easily assimilated and informative, the book will help adults enable children to lead physically and emotionally satisfying and well-rounded lives filled with purpose and meaningful relationships. Edifying, easy-to-understand scientific research that shows the benefits that accrue when a child is encouraged to be inquisitive, spirited, and intrepid.

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