Tools You Can Use to Help Your Child
In social situations, certain children are more likely than others to be subject to emotional and physical harm by more aggressive children. Shyness, social anxiety, or a tendency to be withdrawn may underlie this socially vulnerability, as may awkwardness in social situations or an inclination to be impulsive or explosive. If your child struggles with any of these problems, there is much you can do to help him or her develop more effective social skills and learn to fit in better with peers.
In this book, the husband and wife team of Eisen and Engler provide you with a clinically proven set of coping tools and social-skill strategies you can tailor to your child's unique social and emotional needs. Use them to promote confidence, independence, and social ease in your child, whether in the classroom, on the playground, or at play in his or her peer group. As you help your child mange his or her emotions, you'll lay the groundwork for a more harmonious family life, better school adjustment, and ultimately, social success.
"Eisen and Engler have provided parents of socially vulnerable children a wonderful resource. They skillfully discuss the various reasons children may be anxious in social settings and what parents can do about it. This book will help parents, mental health professionals, and others who work with youth sensitively assist those children who have much to offer but are standing by on the sidelines of life."
-Mary A. Fristad, Ph.D, ABPP, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Ohio State University and director of research and psychological services in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
"Eisen and Engler have authored a truly valuable work. Social problems in children are often complex, misunderstood, frustrating, and difficult for parents. Helping Your Socially Vulnerable Child provides a reasoned and reasonable guide to understanding and helping children with social problems. These authors speak from science and experience. Their case-study approach provides an exceptional framework to assist parents in seeing the world through the eyes of their struggling children and providing much needed guidance and support. I will recommend this book without reservation to all of the families I work with. "
-Sam Goldstein, Ph.D., research professor of psychology at George Mason University and coauthor of Raising a Self-Disciplined Child
"The book is filled with practical, easy-to-understand strategies that parents can use to help their socially vulnerable children fit in better with their peers. If your child is shy, withdrawn, impulsive, easily frustrated, or difficult to get along with, you should read this book!"
-Martin M. Antony, Ph.D., ABPP, professor of psychology at Ryerson University and author of The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook
"Edward Decy maintains that 'the need to feel that you belong and are connected' is the first among the needs that are most motivating to a child. The development of social competence is as much an educational responsibility as is the development of academic skill. Unfortunately, this responsibility is often overlooked because social skill is expected to develop incidentally to being involved in the process of going to school. Where the system falls down, Eisen and Engler use their experience, empathy, and insight to give parents the means to stand up to the challenge of the socially vulnerable child. Helping Your Socially Vulnerable Child provides parents the objectivity to recognize when a problems exists and the tools to fix it. "
-G. Emerson Dickman, III, attorney specializing in the representation of children with disabilities and president of the board of directors of the International Dyslexia Association
