The Self-Driven Child ─ The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control over Their Lives

A clinical neuropsychologist and test prep guru combine cutting-edge brain science with insights from their work with families to make a radical new case for giving kids more control if you want to unleash their full potential.

Many of us know we're putting too much pressure on our kids--and on ourselves--but how do we get off this crazy train? We want our children to succeed, to be their best, and to do their best, but what if they are not on board?

A few years ago, Ned Johnson and Bill Stixrud started noticing the same problem from different angles: even high-performing kids were coming to them acutely stressed and lacking any real motivation. Many complained that they had no real control over their lives. Johnson runs PrepMatters, an elite tutoring service that teaches teens how to perform better on standardized tests. Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist who helps patients suffering from ADHD, anxiety, eating disorders, and depression. Both have devoted their lives to coaching kids and they have hit on a counterintuitive solution to unlocking their full potential: even at a young age kids need to feel that their views matter. They need more agency. A healthy motivation hinges on having a strong sense of control. So how do you do that without giving up all authority as a parent?

The Self-Driven Child offers a combination of brain science, the latest discoveries in behavioral therapy, case studies drawn from the thousands of children and teens Stixrud and Johnson have helped over the years, and concrete advice that you can act on tonight to teach you how to unlock your children's potential and set them on the real road to success. We can only drive our children so far. At some point, they have to take the wheel themselves. Those who have never been allowed to make meaningful decisions until then are likely to flounder. The Self-Driven Child will give you the tools to make sure your children navigate with confidence and determination and find their own path.

William Stixrud, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and the director of The Stixrud Group. He teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine and gives talks on learning; executive disorders; and the effects of stress, sleep deprivation, and technology overload on the brain. He has published many scientific articles and is on the board of the David Lynch Foundation and of the American Association of Health Professionals Practicing Transcendental Meditation.

Ned Johnson is the founder of PrepMatters, a leading tutoring and test-prep service in Washington, DC. He is the coauthor of Conquering the SAT: How Parents Can Help Teens Overcome the Pressure and Succeed and is a sought-after speaker and teen coach for study skills, parent-teen dynamics, and anxiety management. His work has been featured on NPR and PBS NewsHour and in U.S. News & World Report, Time, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.