The Optimistic Child: Proven Program to Safeguard Children from Depression & Build Lifelong Resilience
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Book Overview
The epidemic of depression in America strikes 30% of all children. Now Martin E. P. Seligman, the bestselling author of Learned Optimism, and his colleagues offer parents and educators a program clinically proven to cut that risk in half. With this startling research, parents can teach children to apply optimism skills that can curb depression, boost school performance, and improve physical health. These skills provide children with the resilience they need to approach the teenage years and adulthood with confidence.
For more than thirty years the self-esteem movement has infiltrated American homes and classrooms with the credo that supplying positive feedback, regardless of the quality of performance, will make children feel better about themselves. But in this era of raising our children to feel good, the hard truth is that they have never been more depressed.
As Dr. Seligman writes in this provocative new book, Teaching optimism is more than, I realized, than just correcting pessimism...It is the creation of a positive strength, a sunny but solid future-mindedness that can be deployed throughout life -- not only to fight depression and come back from failure, but also to be the foundation of success and vitality.
Customer Reviews
Rated 5 starsVery helpful for any parent
I got this book on a bit of a bad parenting day and really, really like it. I'm not really sure which of my kids fit in the "spirited" category but I don't think it really matters, because the information is really interesting and applicable to all family relationships. And, I like how the author talks about not trying to change your kids and how they are, but how to help them learn coping skills to adapt how they are to how...
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Rated 5 starsExcellent book
I had read this author's book "Learned Optimism" which was oriented to adults. The Optimistic Child gives an emphasis to the parent-child relationship instead which is a great addition to his prior work. I found it a little more technical in its writing than the adult version, but not too difficult to read. I highly recommend it for parents trying to help their children to be positive and optimistic in life.
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Rated 5 starsOptimism-an Emotional Intelligence Competency That Works
I'm an Emotional Intelligence coach. I work with adults teaching them EQ competencies, including optimism, and I've seen it work wonders! Since reading this book, I've been teaching it to children with the same results. It's particularly important in children with high IQs. Their propensity to perceive more deeply, and their perfectionism made them set-up for depression. They can get into trouble with their thinking (can't...
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Rated 5 starsGreat parenting book!
Seligman did it again! In this book, the author first explains what optimism really is and what is not. It is not perceiving a glass as half full instead of half empty and it is not an attitude of "Every day things get better and better", it is instead a matter of cricitally evaluating one's look at the world. It consists of questioning basic assumptions, looking for evidence for and against beliefs, looking for alternatives...
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Rated 5 starsExcellent Resource!
This book gave a lot of insite into optimism and signs of childhood depression. It was a valuable tool during my Master's internship. The school counselor I worked with had concerns about a child and the book offered us some strategies to try that were helpful. The inventories were helpful in looking at the child's emotional state. I feel that if any parent had reservations over the emotional state of their child, this...
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