Recommended Reading

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, Language of Listening® earns money from qualifying purchases at no cost to you.


3 Books to Help You Enjoy Every Moment with Your Child


Motivation!

Coaching Skills!

Healing!

 


Language of Listening® Examples—Know Just What To SAY

by Rose Clark and Camilla Miller

3 Language of Listening® Phrase BookletsLanguage of Listening® Phrase Booklets (PDF's)
You just want to know what to say or do…RIGHT NOW!!! And you love examples! Two of our authorized Language of Listening® coaches, Rose Clark and Camilla Miller, partnered to create this set of 3 example booklets (downloadable, printable PDF's). Booklets include HUNDREDS of examples of EXACTLY what to say to your child in MOMENTS YOU FACE EVERYDAY. Print your favorite pages to post on your fridge as reminders!

 


Hands Free Mama Books: Letting Go of Screens & Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!

by Rachel Macy Stafford

These books are strongly motivating and inspiring! Follow Rachel's weekly suggestions in Hands Free Mama, and by the end of the book you'll be looking your loved ones in the eye and giving them the gift of your undivided attention. Hands Free Life gives you nine intentional habits to help you take your new-found ability to be present into the rest of your life. Only Love Today sustains you with four seasons of inspiration, hope and encouragement. Live Love Now gives you tools for connecting with teens and preteens (and yourself) and a big sigh of relief.

 


SAY WHAT YOU SEE® for Parents and Teachers: More hugs. More respect. Elegantly Simple.

by Sandra Blackard*

Add three simple coaching skills to your parent or teacher tool kit with Sandy's classic. This short "how-to" handbook makes reward-free, punishment-free interactions with children easy. Imagine always knowing what to say and do. Now you can!
*Sandra Blackard is founder of Language of Listening® and coauthor of CPRT Treatment Manual (below)

 


The Parent Survival Guide: From Chaos to Harmony in Ten Weeks or Less

by Dr. Theresa Kellam*

Create life-changing playtimes with your own child one week at a time. Theresa provides detailed instruction and shares her compelling story of the difference "special playtime" made for her family. It's the therapeutic version of our Language of Listening® Mastery Class.
*Dr. Theresa Kellam is coauthor of CPRT Treatment Manual (below)

 


If Mama Ain't Happy

by Rachel Norman

In this countercultural book, Rachel Norman, Authorized Language of Listening® Coach, shows you how to cultivate a life you aren’t trying to constantly escape. She teaches you how to discover and claim your own limits and boundaries and shape your daily life and values around the few things that really matter. If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. But when mama is at peace? Everyone benefits.

 


Zero to Five

by Tracy Cutchlow

Want to save time? This easy to read book of 70 tips summarizes current research on interacting with babies and young children. The clear, one-page-per-topic layout includes sleeping, feeding, screen time, potty training, discipline, and more. Tracy also includes numerous references to Language of Listening®!

 


Parenting Infants

by Janet Lansbury

If you want examples of Language of Listening®-type interactions with infants and young toddlers, Janet's books and blog are the perfect choice. As a Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) teacher and student of pioneering child specialist Magda Gerber, Janet teaches parents and caregivers how to respectfully observe, follow, and trust the child from birth.
Elevating Child Care: A guide to respectful parenting is a collection of 30 popular and widely read articles from Janet’s blog that focus on some of the most common infant issues: eating, sleeping, diaper changes, communication, separation, focus and attention span, creativity, boundaries, and more.
No Bad Kids: Toddler discipline without shame, is a collection of Janet's most popular and widely read articles pertaining to common toddler behaviors and how respectful parenting practices can be applied to benefit both parents and children.

 


Between Parent & Child

by Dr. Haim Ginott

MUST READ! The roots of Language of Listening® and of Faber and Mazlish are evident in this revised version of the 1965 classic on listening respectfully to children. Loaded with everyday examples of effective communication.

 


Playful Parenting

by Dr. Lawrence Cohen

Playful Parenting is a psychological look at what works with kids. "Pretend... that we're really gonna be late and you're really mad." Imagine your child saying that when you're grumpy and trying to get out the door in the morning. Games work for kids and parents, too.
The Art of Roughhousing, co-authored by Lawrence Cohen, Ph.D. and Anthony DeBenedet, M.D., shows how appropriate rough-and-tumble play can nurture close connections, solve behavior problems, boost confidence, and more.
The Opposite of Worry, Dr. Cohen's most recent book, gives you easy-to-implement, playful solutions and strategies so you and your child can let go of worry, anxiety, and fear and embrace connection, trust, and joy.

 


How to Talk... Books

by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen... has sold almost 2 million copies, and Siblings Without Rivalry made it to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. These interactive books contain comic strip illustrations of the situations parents and teachers encounter daily and lots of examples of what to say, in the same vein as Language of Listening®.

 


Strength Switch

by Dr. Lea Waters

The Strength Switch - how the new science of strength-based parenting helps your child and your teen flourish: "This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. Most parents struggle with this shift because they suffer from a negativity bias, thanks to evolutionary development, giving them 'strengths-blindness.' By showing us how to throw the “strengths switch,” Lea Waters demonstrates how we can not only help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today’s pandemic of depression and anxiety."

 


Dr. Alfie Kohn's Books

by Dr. Alfie Kohn

Unconditional Parenting: Rather than asking, "How can we get kids to do what they're told?" Dr. Kohn begins by asking, "What do kids need, and how can we meet those needs?" A philosophical match for Language of Listening®.

Punished By Rewards: Instead of "do this and you'll get that," Alfie Kohn points the way to a more successful strategy based on working with people instead of doing things to them. "Do rewards motivate people?" asks Kohn. "Yes. They motivate people to get rewards." Seasoned with humor and familiar examples.

The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Parents are accused of being both permissive and overprotective, unwilling to set limits and afraid to let their kids fail. In his lively, contrarian style, Alfie Kohn systematically debunks these beliefs. New research reveals that helicopter parenting is quite rare and, surprisingly, may do more good than harm when it does occur. The major threat to healthy child development, Kohn argues, is parenting that is too controlling rather than too indulgent.

 


Dr. Daniel Siegel's Books

by Dr. Daniel Siegel

Neuroscience meets parenting:

In No Drama Discipline, Dan and co-author Dr. Tina Bryson explain how to connect and redirect. Their book explores the link between a child’s neurological development and the way a parent reacts to misbehavior. If you've seen anyone make a fist and demonstrate flipping your lid, that's Dan's model.

Aware is a hands-on guide with another visual model that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way. Great tool for cultivating "a state of receptive awareness" that will benefit you and your child.

In Brainstorm, Dan busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, Siegel explores exciting ways in which understanding how the brain functions can improve the lives of adolescents, making their relationships more fulfilling and less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide.

 


The Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Workbook

by Dr. Laura Markham

Dr. Laura's workbook walks you through a set of mindfulness skills and exercises that actually change your brain, so that you can become the calm, emotionally generous parent you want to be. Doing the exercises will help you identify your triggers, recognize your self-regulation successes, and change your reactions.

 


Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful

by Donna Goertz

This book written by the founder of the internationally acclaimed Austin Montessori School demonstrates the value of validation in the classroom for helping children turn their lives around. The skills Donna uses are very similar to those we teach in Language of Listening® Mastery Class.

 


Dibs in Search of Self

by Virginia Axline

Dibs will not talk. He will not play. The story takes you through his long journey from being labeled as "mentally defective," to emerging as a gifted and lovable young man. A captivating account that introduced play therapy to the world. Though we've removed questions and added boundaries, the play therapy roots of our Language of Listening® Mastery Class are clear in Axline's book.

 


Nothing Wrong With You... Books

by Cheri Huber

There Is Nothing Wrong With You: Going Beyond Self-hate outlines "a compassionate process for learning to accept yourself exactly as you are." Great book for anyone seeking the peace (and peaceful parenting) that comes from loving oneself more. Profound topic, simply presented.
There Is Nothing Wrong With You - For Teens, helps teens find self-acceptance right when they need it most, and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. Simple presentation, fun and easy to read. Highly recommended to open important conversations with teens!

 


Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT)

by Dr. Garry Landreth & Dr. Sue Bratton*

Definitive textbook for professionals co-authored by Dr. Garry Landreth, world renowned play therapist and mentor to the founder of Language of Listening.® Contains partial transcripts of his 10-session CPRT training.*Drs. Landreth & Bratton are coauthors of CPRT Treatment Manual (below).

 


CPRT Treatment Manual (1st ed.)

2006 companion to CPRT textbook by Bratton, Landreth, Kellam & Blackard*

Comprehensive treatment manual for professionals who wish to train parents to become therapeutic agents for their own children as Dr. Landreth did for *coauthor Sandra Blackard, founder of Language of Listening®. Includes 10-session CPRT outline, parent handouts, etc.

 


My Mommy's on a Business Trip

by Phaedra Cucina

A delightful children's book showing how play reveals a little girl's thoughts of mommy away on a business trip. Great for easing children's fears.