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Book Guide:

For parents who

want to learn more

A Guide To Choosing The right evidence based book for you.

By Leanne Tran

Hello There! 

My name is Leanne Tran. As well as a psychologist I'm an avid reader - I love reading myself for fun and for learning, and reading with my kids and clients too. 

I often get asked for book recommendations on different topics, and I've finally put all my faves in the one place.  These are books I've read and used - not just off the shelf (pardon the pun) recommendations.  

The links provided in this guide will lead you to Booktopia, just because that's a reliable source - but you can search and find them lots of places. 

 

Happy reading, Leanne

Skills for Big Feelings

A 12-week, all-in-one program for helping kids regulate their emotions, cope with their feelings, and manage their anxiety.

  • A Complete 12-Week Guide Designed For Teaching Relaxation, Regulation, and Coping Techniques To Children Age 6-12
  • Practical Tools and Advice For Clinicians and Educators, Including S.M.A.R.T. Treatment Plans and IEP Objectives, Family Handouts, Letters, and Surveys
  • A Fun 28-Page Colouring Workbook To Promote Stretches, Breathing Techniques, and Relaxation Skills
  • 16 Trauma-Informed Guided Relaxation Scripts For Helping Kids Destress
  • And a Wealth of Engaging Social-Emotional Activities Including Identifying and Accepting Feelings, Dealing With Unhelpful Thoughts, and More
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Hold on to your kids

This book is about how to have a solid relationship with your children – which is essential for their development and behaviour, and effective parenting and discipline. It talks about how parents can lose the ability to influence their children, what harm that can do to development, and how to get things back on track. There’s also some insight into why this relationship is essential for getting your kids to listen to you – if you feel like you can’t guide your child any more then this is the book for you.

My favourite line from the book:  "You cannot feed someone who is not at your table".

 
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Hey Awesome

This picture book is gorgeous and is a perfect addition to the library of anyone who has, or works with children. The book explores the concepts of strengths and selfesteem, which is relevant to all children, especially in today's society. If kids with anxiety could see their strengths, they would feel so much bigger than their anxiety. They would feel bigger than everything - as though a tiny, tip-toed stretch could have them touching the top of the world from where they are. This book is a reminder for all kids that everything they need to be brave, strong and brilliant is already in them.

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Raising Human Beings

Well, that's a title that covers the total experience of parenting isn't it?!  This fantastic book is about creating a collaborative partnership with your child. And essentially what that means is jointly solving problems with your child. Problems can be anything from your kid not brushing their teeth to using their phone too much, to doing risky stuff with their friends!

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Coping Skills for Kids Workbook

The Coping Skills for Kids Workbook can help teach children to calm down, balance their energy and emotions, and process challenging feelings. It includes over 75 innovative, fun and engaging activities developed from her experience in schools, outpatient mental health clinics and as a mother. This resource is probably most useful for allied health professionals and I would therefore not recommend it for teachers/parents because there are many more suitable books in this guide. This is not a book I currently own but one I have used several times as a colleague of mine keeps a copy in our clinic. This is a great resource for working through emotional awareness, understanding, expression AND regulation. It is suitable for children and young teens.

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The Invisible String

It’s a great book to introduce the concept of connection while people are apart, and the use of the string gives helps make the concept easy to understand. Kids from about age 4 can grasp the concepts – and although it’s a picture book kids of bigger ages will like it too.  I read this book early on with my kids, and even as they grew older they would refer to being connected by the string.

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How Full is Your Bucket?

This is a great book kids told through the story of a boy who learns a valuable "bucket filling" metaphor and watches it come to life as the day moves along. I use this book so often and create several activities with it throughout my therapy sessions. This book explains to children how being kind not only helps others, it helps them, too. Using the metaphor of a bucket and dipper, the book explains why the happy people make us feel good, while the others leave him feeling bad, and how we ourselves can impact others, whether intentionally or not. This is a book that would work in any environment: classroom, home, or clinic space. 

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