Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs Kindle Edition

Mind in the Making by Ellen Galinsky focuses on the seven essential life skills that children need in order to grow into successful adults. Each skill is backed up with examples and research, as well as various ways to foster these skills. In this book, Galinsky expands many of the skills beyond general knowledge. In the skill of communicating,for example, she talks about how important communication is, even in infancy, and how it isn't necessarily verbal. Also, in the skill taking on challenges, it is mentioned that children should be praised for their effort rather than their smarts. Research in the developmental field backs up Galinsky's writings, allowing us to know that infants, while nonverbal, can still communicate, and that receiving praise for a job well attempted can influence children to take on new challenges with greater effort. I would recommend this book, especially for those with a background in education or child development. I feel that these skills should be fostered in children, and that children who develop these skills will grow into well-rounded and successful individuals. It was an interesting read that had many take-home points that I will use in my work with young children.

I love non-fiction books and that is what y house is full ofThis is a great book to understand more about the neuroscience behind kids behavior and how to manage the situations that you will face or you have already experimented.I would say that it is a little too deep in every page. It is not a bed book at all. I have read some neuroscience books that I can easily read everywhere and that I can remember the page once I finished it. This is not one of those. You need concentration, and probably to go back to that sectionI may have missed that easy structures guide on how to do things in different situations that other books offer. Those books are easy to keep handy for those days you are inspired to deal with your child in a productive manner.But I really liked this book as a base for all we need to know about how our brains understand the worldPros- A lot of good information that is going to be really useful- Very well informed and amazing content- Lots of good advicesCons- Can be really heavy to read- Not a guide book but a "lecture" bookBasically I really liked it and I would recommended it to everyone even if you don't have kid.A MUST FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS!!!

This book is a must for parents and educators. It describes 7 life skills that we, adults, need to focus on in order to help children thrive in the 21st century. It is research-based information on child development but written in a very simple and straight forward way, for all types of public. At the end of every chapter there are tips for parents and educators and this is what helped me the most and that I found to be very useful as a parent. It has amazing tips to try with our kiddos!I wish I had read this book before the arrival of my first child!

Overall, this is a good book to have. It's full of good ideas for parents and educators (mostly parents), and it backs it up with easy-to-read discussions of all of the relevant research. However, many of the negative reviews of this book complain that it is too long, not well organized, and full of distracting tangents. It turns out those folks are absolutely right. Although I loved the ideas, I became so frustrated with slogging through personal anecdotes, extended quotations, countless headings and subheadings and asides that I simply stopped reading the book. When I picked it up again, I found myself writing the main idea at the top of the page just to keep track of what I was supposed to be understanding. I still recommend the book. The information and suggestions are well worth the effort, but keep a pot of coffee and a highlighter on hand.

I think that most of the content of this book is excellent and I would recommend that all educated parents, graduate students, teachers, and coaches read it. The book gives a detailed discription of 7 skills that are critical for a child's development.As someone that has coached and mentored children, I found chapter 6 ,which focuses on "taking on challenges" especially interesting. If you are old school like me and are disgusted that every child in youth sports receives a trophy you will enjoy this chapter. It domonstrates that these rewards can be damaging and are not beneficial to a child's development. This chapter goes into detail about Carol Dweck's research in which she has found when adults praise children's efforts..."you are working hard"...versus their personal attributes.."you are so smart or you are so strong," they are more likely to have children who are willing to take on challenges.The other chapter that I found especially interesting was the chapter on "perspective taking". Perspective taking is the foundation for empathy development. Because empathy is such a critical component of any individuals development and there is a critical period in which the development of this skill needs to occur, I think all parents should work on perspective taking with the children. If an individual fails to develop empathy, they will most likely engage in many anti-social behaviors throughtout their life-span. At one point the book actually puts forth the question as to why aren't we teaching "perspective taking" in schools when it is such a critical component of development? Well, why aren't we? But if we aren't ready to do that yet, parents can at least work on this skill with their own toddlers so that they develop empathy later in childhood.My only complaint of this book's content is that it's buy-in may be low for those that aren't educated and unfortunately, the children that typically need the most help are children that come from uneducated families of low socio-economic status. Therefore, how can this book be re-writen by Ellen Galinsky in order to communicate these complex ideas to parents that may not be well educated?

I'm impressed by this book. It has a lot of research behind its conclusions. It provokes a lot of thinking about yourself and your skills. It is really helpful to take it into consideration in your daily communication and learning with children. I highly recommend it to all parents who would like their children to learn skills that would help them to grow and prosper in this life

I found this to be extremely readable and is a great resource for anybody really. Parent, professional, people, hobbits. Check it out. - Antony Morris

This book is truly exhaustive in its coverage of the state of the art in children's psychology and child development. The language is fairly academic and not necessarily written to engage the masses. This book is for you if you want specific details about theories in brain development. I liked that Galinsky has given, in every chapter/section, suggestions for activities and behaviour that you can do with your kids to help develop skills such as focus, self control, empathy etc. However, these are not split up by age but according to skill set. I found this book a little difficult to read (had purchased it during pregnancy) because of the amount of detail in it, but have found myself referring to the play sections over and over again as my baby is reaching a year old.

Un análisis fuera de lo ordinario, la autora explora cuáles son las herramientas o habilidades esenciales para el desarrollo de los niños. Gran poder explicativo, escrito en una prosa amena que facilita la comprensión del tema sin hacerlo tedioso. La autora cita a mentes brillantes en el campo de la psicología y el desarrollo infantil. Este libro es una excelente recomendación para padres ocupados en desarrollar el potencial de sus hijos, ayudándolos a convertirse en la mejor versión de sí mismos. Además; pone ejemplos y estrategias para promover el desarrollo de las habilidades en adultos y niños.

too much psychology. though its a nice read but technical in terms of understanding. its not that free flow reading. though a very good book if you can commit your time.