Book review: Talking to Toddlers

From about 18 months, toddlers begin seeing themselves as separate from their parents and they express their newly discovered independence by defying their mother and other adults, especially when they are given an instruction. Yikes! Sound familiar?

Welcome to the terrible twos – a stage which your once blue-eyed angel had you convinced you would never have to endure. Unfortunately, not many parents make it through this stage unscathed.

Before you lose your sense of humour, there are self-help books out there that can help you understand the changes that your toddler is going through during this period, which will in turn, help you to manage this tumultuous time better. Cue, Talking to Toddlers.

The audio book, which deals with the terrible twos and beyond, is written by Author, Parenting Expert and Certified NLP Practitioner, Chris Thompson. It is designed to help you build powerful skills of influence so that you can get your toddler to comply with your requests more often and (drumroll), reduce the occurrence of toddler tantrums.

Talking to Toddlers Author, Chris Thompson

Twelve tracks of key learning points

Talking to Toddlers is divided into twelve tracks. Each track has key learning points and homework (because even parents need to be reminded to follow through with what they learn).

Chris recommends listening to one, maximum two tracks per day and after listening to the book, I have to agree – you will want to implement his strategies straight away and you don’t want to try too much and confuse your toddler.

Pick your battles

The book will take you back to your own nursery school playground where rule one is: pick your battles. In Talking to Toddlers,Chris confirms what we don’t like to admit: we say no to our children, a lot. And most of the time, it’s because we are being physically and emotionally lazy. He suggests that we become more flexible in our thinking as when we deny something, we automatically open the door to a fight.

Creating the illusion of choice

Chris focuses largely on creating the illusion of choice and how your body language as well as your tone of voice should align with the verbal message that you deliver. He also stresses the importance of commitment and consistency as well as the rule of reciprocity when managing the behaviour of your toddler.

Practical and easy-to-follow advice

The advice given by Chris in Talking to Toddlers is practical and easy to follow, especially when he tackles the “P” word (yes, the dreaded punishment conundrum). According to Chris, the purpose of punishment is to create a negative association to a specific behaviour – he urges you to keep that goal in mind and never threaten punishment that you cannot follow through on (yes, we are all guilty of this).

Different to other self-help books

This book is different to other self-help-toddler-tantrum books in that it focuses on building compliance and not on negotiating with your toddler. It will re-ignite even the most dwindled of toddler parent spirits.

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Lara Bestbier

Writer. Creative. Word-nerd. Aspiring photographer. Old wife. Brand new member of the elite society called mommy-hood. Mom to the only drama queen more demanding than me. “Life’s too short to keep a straight face”.

Latest posts by Lara Bestbier (see all)

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• Book review: Talking to Toddlers - July 21, 2014
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