The Optimistic Child: A Revolutionary Approach to Raising Resilient Children

As a psychologist, social worker and mother of 2 I can easily say: This is the most important book to read!

This is a wonderful book. I have been suggesting to every professional and parent I've seen. Tonight, I'm speaking in a community recently torn apart by a shooting in their school and the thoughts in this book will be at the center of what I share...

Se si vuole capire qualcosa in più su come aiutare i nostri figli a crescere questo è un buon libro.

I serve on the board of directors for a health and human services organization that serves the needs of children, youth, and families in crisis. Moreover, I spent six and a half years in residential child care from the ages of 11-18. Throughout my life (I am now a very young 55) I have puzzled over the question of why kids given the same opportunities, within virtually the same environment experience success or failure, normalcy or dysfunction, happiness or despair, joy or hopelessness, in such varying degrees and with what seems like complete randomness. The question is as old as time and more complicated as any multivariable predictive model that one would design to determine which infants are bound for success and happiness.My mother was convicted of child neglect when I was ten years old, this, only months after my father had died of a heart attack. Without a better alternative and my mother's incarceration, I became a ward of the state. Today I hold an MBA and operate a successful consulting practice. My mentors were my caregivers, teachers, coaches, and fellow orphans.This book based upon the work of Dr. Seligman holds, I believe, a very important key to success. Hope or optimism is the thing without which one does not make an effort to change their current state. By starting early in life and teaching our children, youth, and young adults how to take charge of the negative thoughts and influences there is every reason to believe that they will be empowered to take control themselves. This book is prescriptive in how to apply the lessons learned from practical research and how to make a difference in the lives of people of all ages. Easy to read and without the need for a deep understanding of psychological jargon, any parent, mentor, or influencer of young lives can apply the lessons provided here. I have recommended that the therapists, staff, and volunteers at my organization each be provided copies.

There is a corrosive view that if you simply boosts people's self esteem they will achieve great things. Seligman shows, using real data and years of research, rather than the pseudo-science of the 'feel good' gurus shows that achievement boosts self-confidence and an internalisation that most setbacks in life are temporary and that "stuff happens" is a far stronger way of overcoming the obstacles of life. He uses that term 'explanatory style' which is the way in which we account for failures and successes in our lives. This has much more to do with success or failure than how highly we rate ourselves. He counsels realism and an acceptance of what is down to us and what must simply be endured. He demonstrates that a generation that has lived through two world wars is less prone to depression than children born in a time of unparalleled prosperity and relative peace. Seligman seeks to provide ways that we can 'immunise' the next generation against an epidemic of depression largely brought on by a general wisdom that life must be easy and happy or someone must be to blame - often ourselves. This a common sense book that elucidates with science rather than baffles with it. An easy to read style by someone who genuinely believes in what they are saying. A heavyweight amongst so many lightweights.