By Marissa Wells
“The Secret World of Children: Understand Why Your Kids Behave the Way They Do,” by Meri Wallace, is a new book for parents that presents nine natural developmental issues that are the underlying cause of their children’s behavior.
The nine issues that Wallace shares are the need for love, curiosity, aggression, the need for independence, urgent wishes, impulsivity, living in the moment, the need for pleasure, fears and anxieties.
Wallace’s career as a licensed clinical social worker and child and family therapist helped serve as inspiration for her book.
“I have a deep love for children and a wish to explain to parents why their children behave the way they do,” Wallace said. “In my work as a child and family therapist for over 30 years, I found that when parents understand the nine developmental issues I identified and use the positive parenting techniques in the book, they are able to raise their children to feel loved.”
Wallace describes her book as the parenting manual that parents have been waiting for. At the beginning of each chapter, Wallace provides an explanation of how each developmental issue develops from infancy through adolescence.
“Parents often misunderstand their children, and in moments yell or become punitive or use words like bad, stupid, or messy and harm their child’s self-esteem,” the author said. “As a result, children can grow up angry, depressed and insecure. I wanted to share all my knowledge about how to raise children lovingly so children could grow up feeling valuable, self-confident and happy.”
“The Secret World of Children” is intended for parents of infants through adolescence. The information shared may prove beneficial to children and families as the author imparts positive strategies for handling various situations with their children.
After reading the book, Wallace hopes parents will “feel calmer and more self-confident and treat their children more lovingly.”
In addition to being an author, licensed clinical social worker and child and family therapist, Wallace has been a columnist for several publications. This is her third book.
She is based in New York. For more information about the author and her work, visit meriwallace.com.
“The Secret World of Children: Understand Why Your Kids Behave the Way They Do” is available for $19.95 on Amazon.