Best Selling Books by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

Newly revised, featuring the most up-to-date research, effective strategies, and real-life stories The spirited child—often called "difficult" or "strong-willed"—possesses traits we value in adults yet find challenging in children. Research shows that spirited kids are wired to be "more"—by temperament, they are more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and uncomfortable with change than the average child. In this revised edition of the award-winning classic, voted one of the top twenty books for parents, Kurcinka provides vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint. Raising Your Spirited Child will help you: understand your child''su00ad—and your own—temperamental traits discover the power of positive—rather than negative—labels cope with the tantrums and power struggles when they do occur plan for success with a simple four-step program develop strategies for handling mealtimes, sibling rivalry, bedtimes, holidays, and school, among other situations

The Essential Companion Workbook To The National Bestseller Raising Your Spirited Child, In this companion workbook, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka brings readers into her world-famous workshops, where she offers parents and educators insights, emotional support and proven strategies for dealing with spirited children. The key word that distinguishes spirited children from other children is "more" -- more intense, more persistent, more sensitive and more uncomfortable with change. Through exercises, observations and dialogue from actual groups, Kurcinka helps readers learn to identify the triggers that lead to tantrums and challenging behaviors. Included are clues to help you identify the little things that can make or break a day tips for profiling your child''s temperament and your own cues that indicate intensity is rising successful strategies for reducing and eliminating power struggles By combining the intuition and compassion gained from parenting a spirited child with the wisdom of an expert who has worked with thousands of families, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka helps parents and educators view their unique challenge with perseverance, flexibility, sensitivity, and, most of all, enjoyment.

From the author of Raising Your Spirited Child, the award-winning bestseller that has helped millions, a pioneering, research-based guide to help parents end power struggles and begin connecting with their child. Does bedtime mean struggle time, with your child negotiating for "just another ten minutes" every single night? Do most school mornings end with your child in tears? Does your child ignore your repeated requests to get up and do their chores and homework? Every family experiences power struggles, but these daily tugs of war are not inevitable. Beloved parenting expert Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D. addresses the everyday challenges of disciplining children, while understanding the issues behind their behavior. In Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles, Dr. Mary offers unique approaches to solving the daily, and often draining, power struggles between you and your children. She views these conflicts as rich opportunities to teach your children essential life skills such as how to calm themselves, to be assertive rather than aggressive, to solve problems, and to work cooperatively with you and others. In this book, you will find successful strategies for: · Understanding emotions · Managing intensity · Identifying triggers With Dr. Mary’s effective guidance, you''ll be able to identify the trigger situations that set off the struggles and get to the root of the emotions and needs of you and your child.

From the author of Raising Your Spirited Child, the award-winning bestseller that has helped millions, a pioneering, research-based guide for parents to help their children get the sleep they need. Does your child refuse to cooperate in the morning? Does he or she get into trouble for not listening? Are you finding that your child resists sleep and "loses it" over seemingly insignificant issues? You are not alone. An estimated 69 percent of American infants, children, and teens are sleep deprived. Studies have shown that sleep deficits can contribute to hyperactivity, distraction, forgetfulness, learning problems, illness, accidents, and disruptive behaviors. Often what our misbehaving kids really need isn''t more "consequences" or more medication, but more sleep. Sleepless in America offers weary and frustrated parents a helping hand and an exciting new approach to managing challenging behaviors by integrating research on stress, sleep, and temperament with practical strategies. Dr. Mary has helped millions with her effective parenting tips and insights, and her five-step approach enables parents to help their "tired and wired" children get the sleep they so desperately need.

Revised third edition of the award-winning bestseller that has helped millions, now providing the most up-to-date research and even more effective, practical tips and strategies Do you ever wonder why your child behaves the way he or she does? Are you struggling with tantrums and meltdowns? Do you find yourself getting frustrated and feeling like you’re at the end of your rope? You are not alone! Many parents are dealing with the same challenges. In Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition, beloved parenting expert Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D., offers ALL parents and caregivers a glimpse into what makes their spirited children behave the way they do. The key word that distinguishes spirited children from other children is "more" -- more intense, more persistent, more sensitive and more uncomfortable with change. Through vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint, this invaluable guide offers emotional support and proven strategies for handling the toughest times. Dr. Mary has devised a plan for success with a simple four-step program that will help you: · Understand your child''s and your own temperamental traits · Cope with tantrums and blowups when they do occur, and prevent them in the future · Develop strategies for handling mealtimes, bedtimes, holidays, school, and many other situations. · Implement discipline to win cooperation and establish clear boundaries · Teach your child how to be a “problem solver” and work well with others · … and more! Including charts and quick tips for today’s time-challenged parents, this newly updated edition of Raising Your Spirited Child will help you foster a supportive, encouraging, and loving environment for your spirited child.

“Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D., brings her expertise in raising spirited children to help you understand and soothe your spirited baby. Her research-based, parent-tested strategies will help your baby sleep better and develop a calmer, more resilient brain and nervous system.” —Dr. Laura Markham, founder of AhaParenting.com, and author of Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids From the beloved bestselling author whose award-winning parenting books have sold over 1 million copies—an indispensable guide to the unique needs of Spirited Infants™. Does your baby bursts into tears when another baby in the same situation sleeps soundly? Do the strategies your friends swear by not work with your baby? Do the upsets and shrieking come out of seemingly nowhere and take forever to subside? Moms and dads who answer “yes,” are the parents of a spirited infant. Spirited infants are the outliers—the exceptions to the “rules.” They are genetically wired to be alert and intense. Raising them takes special skills and patient perseverance. In this groundbreaking new book, beloved parenting expert Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, Ed.D., offers her findings in the fields of neuroscience, sleep, temperament, self-regulation, attachment, and parent-child interactions, and shares what she has learned from hands-on experiences with families to bring this much-needed perspective to the parenting of babies under eighteen months of age, including: A plan for success with the 5-step Spirited Baby™ Methodology How to master the “NUDGE” approach to help your baby thrive Parental Permissions – practical advice for parents to help them make sure their needs are met Resources to ensure the whole family unit finds balance and happiness Raising Your Spirited Baby is a shame-free, guilt-free how-to handbook that will be embraced by parents—and everyone who supports them—as a simple, trusted companion.

Research indicates 20% to 30% of all full-term infants present sleeping problems. Before the parents of these infants seek professional help an average of 9.2 months elapse (Papousek, Schieche, & Wurmser, 2008). This qualitative study was designed to explore the experience of parents who identified their infant as somewhat to very difficult, in relation to the temperament traits of activity level, intensity, and sensitivity and whose lack of sleep was problematic. In this study these infants were described as "spirited infants." This study specifically explored the cognitions of these parents in regard to sleep and crying related behaviors of their infants. The goal in conducting this research was to provide new insights for earlier identification of these families and to inform parent education practices. The key findings were obtained from in-depth, in-person interviews, telephone follow-up interviews and journal entries maintained by the parents. All of the infants were between the ages of six weeks and four months at the time of the study. Through the process of categorization and coding, seven themes emerged. (1) Shock: Participants described feeling overwhelmed, unprepared and exhausted. (2) The infants struggled to sleep. (3) Parents'' perspectives wavered between feeling distraught to believing they could figure it out. (4) Parents struggled to self-regulate. (5) Relationships changed. (6) Initially parents reported searching for the "right way" to respond to their infant, ultimately indicating that they had to find "their way." (7) Effectiveness of responses grew as parents became more sensitive to their infant''s cues, although no strategy was always successful. The traditional "cry-it-out method" did not work for these young infants.