The months leading up to the birth of a child are filed with joy, dreams, plans—and a few worries. As a caring parent, you want to start your child out in life on the proper foundation. But where do you go for the answers to such questions as: How do I communicate with an infant who doesn't understand words? How can I effectively teach boundaries to my toddler? Should I ever spank my child?

Over the years, millions of parents just like you have come to trust Jane Nelsen's classic Positive Discipline series. These books offer a commonsense approach to child-rearing that so often is lacking in today's world. In Positive Discipline: The First Three Years, you'll learn how to use kind but firm support to raise a child who is both capable and confident. You'll find practical solutions and solid advice on how to:

·Encourage independence and exploration while providing appropriate boundaries

·Use non-punitive methods to instill valuable social skills and positive behavior inside and outside the home

·Recognize when your child is ready to master the challenges of sleeping, eating, and potty training, and how to avoid the power struggles that often come with those lessons

·Identify your child's temperament

·Understand what the latest research in brain development tells us about raising healthy children

·And much, much more!

Containing real-life examples of challenges other parents and caregivers have faced, Positive Discipline: The First Three Years is the one book that no parent should be without.

Make a Difference During the Most Important Years of Your Child's Life

At a time when educational debate swings wildly between permissiveness and authoritarianism, this book offers a balanced and highly effective alternative. The Positive Discipline philosophy allows children to develop self-discipline by understanding the consequences of appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

The months leading up to the birth of a child are filed with joy, dreams, plans--and a few worries. As a caring parent, you want to start your child out in life on the proper foundation. But where do you go for the answers to such questions as: How do I communicate with an infant who doesn't understand words? How can I effectively teach boundaries to my toddler? Should I ever spank my child?

Over the years, millions of parents just like you have come to trust Jane Nelsen's classic Positive Discipline series. These books offer a commonsense approach to child-rearing that so often is lacking in today's world. In Positive Discipline: The First Three Years, you'll learn how to use kind but firm support to raise a child who is both capable and confident. You'll find practical solutions and solid advice on how to:

-Encourage independence and exploration while providing appropriate boundaries

-Use non-punitive methods to instill valuable social skills and positive behavior inside and outside the home

-Recognize when your child is ready to master the challenges of sleeping, eating, and potty training, and how to avoid the power struggles that often come with those lessons

-Identify your child's temperament

-Understand what the latest research in brain development tells us about raising healthy children

-And much, much more!

Containing real-life examples of challenges other parents and caregivers have faced, Positive Discipline: The First Three Years is the one book that no parent should be without.

Cheryl Erwin, M.A., is a marriage and family therapist and the coauthor of numerous books in Prima's Positive Discipline series on raising great children. She lives in Reno, Nevada.

Roslyn Duffy, also a coauthor of several Positive Discipline books, is a child care director with over seventeen years of experience, a counselor in private practice, parent and education specialist, and public speaker.

Acknowledgments

Prologue: By the Children

PART ONE: Welcoming Baby: Learning to Live in Your New Family

1. Setting the Stage for Raising Your Child

2. Getting to Know Your Child

3. Redefining "We": Living Together As a Family

PART TWO: How Children Grow: Learning and the Stages of Development

4. The Miraculous Brain: How Children Learn

5. Trust Versus Mistrust: "Can I Count on You?"

6. Autonomy Versus Doubt and Shame: "I Can Stand on My Own Two Feet (but Don't Abandon

Me!)"

7. The Value of Autonomy: "Me Do It"

PART THREE: Getting to Know Your Unique Child: Temperament and Age Appropriateness

8. Temperament: What Makes Your Child Unique?

9. Understanding Developmental and Age Appropriateness

PART FOUR: Sleeping, Eating, and Toileting: You Can't Make 'Em Do It

10. Sleeping: "I'm Not Tired!"

11. Eating "Don't Like That!"

12: Toileting: "It's My Job, Not Yours"

PART FIVE: Getting Along in the Great Big World: Discipline and Life Skills

13. Social Skills in the First Three Years

14. Discipline in the First Three Years

15. Building Healthy Self-Esteem Through Encouragement

16. Bonding, Feelings, and Language Development

PART SIX: Keeping Your Family Strong: Care and Support for Parents and Children

17. Who's Watching the Kids? Choosing—and Living with—Child Care

18. Building a Safety Net: Finding Support, Resources, and Sanity

Conclusion

Select Bibliography

Index