Self-Reg ─ How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life

The first parenting book to bring the science and psychology of children's behavior together to build brain/body awareness for self-regulation and success

Self-Reg is a ground-breaking book that presents an entirely new understanding of your child's emotions and behavior that serves as a practical guide for parents to help their kids engage calmly and successfully in learning and life. Rooted in decades of clinical practice and research by leading child psychologist Dr. Stuart Shanker,Self-Reg realigns the power of the parent-child relationship for positive change. Self-regulation is the nervous system's way of responding to stress. We are seeing a generation of children and teens with excessively high levels of stress and, as a result, an explosion of emotional, social, learning, behavior, and physical health problems. But few parents recognize the "hidden stressors" that their children are struggling with: physiological as well as social and emotional. An entrenched view of child rearing is seeing our children as lacking self-control or will-power, but the real basis for these problems lies in excessive stress.

Self-regulation can dramatically improve a child's mood, attention, and concentration. It can help children to feel empathy and to develop the sorts of virtues that every parent knows are vital for their child's long-term well-being. Self-regulation brings about profound and lasting transformation that continues to mature throughout life. Shanker translates decades of his findings from working with children into practical, prescriptive advice for parents, giving them concrete ways to develop their self-regulation skills and teach their children how to do the same for optimal learning, social, and emotional growth as well as for overall well-being.

Dr. Stuart Shanker is a distinguished research professor of psychology and philosophy at York University and the creator of The MEHRIT Centre. He is a former president of the Council of Early Child Development. Dr. Shanker attended the University of Toronto, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. At the University of Oxford, he obtained his D. Phil. with distinction in philosophy. His expertise has been sought internationally, and he has been an adviser on early child development to government organizations across Canada and the United States in addition to Australia, Bosnia, Colombia, England, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Peru, Romania, and Serbia.