This
book works to do a couple of things for parents, kids, teachers, students,
educators, and researchers (I fit into
several of those categories and often feel like a kid too!):
1.
Grabs Attention Through Vibrant
Watercolor Illustrations
-We designed these specifically to strengthen shrinking attention
spans. This year, according to The National Center for Biotechnology
Information, the average attention
span in
the U.S. is 8.25 seconds. You may
have heard that the attention span for a goldfish
is longer at 9 seconds! ACM Transactions on the Web studied
the average number of words folks read on a single website before
moving on; about 55 words, with 17 percent of browsers only looking at
a website for less than 4 seconds.
MAKING A QUICK, POWERFUL IMPACT IS CRITICAL IN LENGTHENING ATTENTION
SPANS.
-The National Education
Association
quotes expert, and Too Mad to Trust co-author, Linda Nathan, in a February 2015
article targeting how to help children focus in a bid to lengthen these
attention spans.
2.
Launches a Discussion Sparking
Self-Directed Initiatives
-If your son or daughter doesn't like to ask others to play, you'll
see a change in their attitudes after reading the book and discussing some of
the suggested questions at the end. Allow the message to become naturally interpreted
by your children and read the book several times on different days, dealing
with only one discussion topic at a time. Don’t forget to make sure your kids
are reading the book on their own too! This way, kids internalize the message
differently. They'll take the initiative to change a behavior when they're
ready, so you want to suggest that they ask someone else to play only after some time has
passed since you read and discussed the book for the third or forth
time. Often, you'll discover that they'll volunteer to ask...if you don't
push them. You merely wait for your son or daughter to naturally request to take
that initiative, which is how this book was designed from a social psychology
perspective.
3. Addresses Questions About Who to Trust (and Why)
-In this first book in a series about the types
of folks you want kids to trust and those you want them to be skeptical about,
you’ll find a special focus on trusting friends. What does it mean to be a
friend and why should you trust them? This topical theme is the heart and soul of
our book.
4.
Helps Adults Sense When to Address a
Child’s Fears Directly
-It’s challenging to know when to step in
and guide your children and when to let them figure out things on their own.
With 80-93 percent of all communication nonverbal, from our vocal inflections
to our gestures and facial expressions, we say so much without ever speaking a word!
This book helps parents, educators, and teachers better tune in to
nonverbal cues children provide that tell us whether we should intervene. But
you have to watch your son or daughter, listening more with your “eyes” than
your ears. It’s a different way of thinking, so it will take some time to
adjust just like anything else. Once you
know what to look for, you know when to jump in or stay away—all of which is
crucial in your child’s mental development.
-Stay tuned for more posts on nonverbal
communication cues, as we make this forum into more of a “reference library”
for you to access tools and tips easily. Or subscribe by giving us your information so we can notify
you each time a new tip emerges on our blog, our website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and a free content
website I post articles on that’s more research oriented called Academia. We’ll also have
YouTube videos coming soon!
5.
Stops a Speech & Language Disorder
Before it’s a Lifelong Plague
-When kids are deeply afraid of
something, it’s usually not about the things they
discuss with anyone. Fear of the dark, fear about going to a new
school, fear about making friends—all of these are fears your child will tell
you about. It’s the fears your child only tells you about through their nonverbal
cues that require attention to avoid some speech and language disorders
that grow worse with age. Stuttering can be one example that can stem
from anxiety rooted in fears. Selective mutism is another, which is kind of
like “selective hearing” only on a scale that requires treatment with a
certified clinical Speech-Language Pathologist like my Mom, Linda Nathan.
-This book is designed to flesh out those
nonverbal cues so you can more visibly notice the link between your kid’s fear
of one thing and the related beginnings of a potential speech and language
problem. It takes time to learn how to recognize these links, which is why I’ll
continue to add tips on our blog throughout the next year as we read to
elementary school students while studying the book’s effectiveness. Don’t beat yourself up just yet if
you have trouble discerning the signs or seeing the link between unchecked
fears and related disorders. Reading this book with kids and working with
it by yourself are the best first steps
you can take to help children!
You
may also want to head to some of the other social media sites I discussed, with
links above and throughout this website. They have articles that aren’t
necessarily on here, especially my work on LinkedIn and Academia. You can also
use those resources to see the work of other scholars studying the relationship
between emotions in children and speech-language disorders, although there is a
dearth of articles on the subject right now. That’s why we feel it’s critical
to study this book’s effectiveness. It expands and builds on a,
currently, very limited crop of research in the field.
Have a question?? Make sure to ask us and we’ll get right back to you!
We’re
here to help more than we’re here to sell books.
In
fact, this book is our way of starting a conversation and beginning to shine additional light on a growing problem in
America. As a university professor, I want you to feel you learn something every time you come to our website, read
an article or paper I wrote, or catch a speech I give. I’m also always open to
talking directly with you, coming into a school to help, or scheduling an event
in which we’ll work on these concepts together. I’m here to help you. That’s what
I do every day as an educator…and I love it!
Josh also has heads turning when it comes to his latest academic paper, which he will present at the conference.
