Scaffold Parenting

Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety

By: Harold Koplewicz

Narrated by: Harold Koplewicz

Renowned psychiatrist Dr Koplewicz expertly guides parents through the strategies they need to raise empowered, capable children while building parent-child bonds that will survive adolescence and grow stronger into adulthood.

Prevent and counteract the general anxiety and emotional fragility prevalent in children and teenagers today - a new parenting philosophy and strategies that give children the tools to flourish on their own.

Just as sturdy scaffolding is necessary when erecting a building and will come down when the structure grows stable, good parenting provides children with steady and warm emotional nourishment on the path toward independence. Never-ending parental problem-solving and involvement can have the opposite effect, enabling fragility and anxiety over time.

In Scaffold Parenting, world-renowned child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz introduces the powerful and clinically tested idea that this deliberate build-up and then gradual loosening of parental support is the single most effective way to encourage kids to climb higher, try new things, grow from mistakes and develop character and strength.

Explaining the building blocks of an effective scaffold from infancy through young adulthood, he expertly guides parents through the strategies for raising empowered, capable people, including:

Lay a solid foundation: The parent-child relationship needs to be made from the concrete mixture of emotional availability, positive reinforcement, clear messaging, and consistent rules. From this supportive base, your will forge a bond that will survive adolescence and grow stronger into adulthood.

Empower growth: Skyscraper or sprawling bungalow - the style of your child's construction is not up to you! Scaffold parenting validates and accommodates the shape the child is growing into. Any effort to block or control growth will actually stunt it.

Stay on their level: Imagine being on the ground floor of a house and trying to talk to someone on the roof. The person on the roof will have to 'talk down' to you or yell. If your child's building and your scaffold are on the same level, you can speak directly, look each other in the eye, and keep the lines of communication open.

Drawing on Dr Koplewicz's decades of clinical and personal experience, Scaffold Parenting is a compassionate, smart and essential guide for the ages.

Some proceeds from the sale of this audiobook will be donated to the Child Mind Institute. Child Mind Institute, is a registered charity in the US with charity nos. 800478843. Twenty percent of the proceeds* received by John Murray Press from this audiobook will be made available to the charities for their work treating children and young adults with mental health and learning challenges.

*Proceeds means the cash-price or cash-equivalent price less sales taxes.

©2021 Harold Koplewicz (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A master synthesizer of attachment science, medical practice, and his own experience as a father, Harold Koplewicz capably and compassionately leads us through the art of scaffolding, from early childhood through the important adolescent period." (Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of The Whole Brain Child)