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What I Learned From a Penguin: A Story on How to Help People Change
Too often we pay attention to negative behavior and ignore the positive. We are rarely taught the benefit of positive reinforcement, and instead focus on the negative and expect automatic change.
This children's book is based on a true story as experienced by Dr. Amen himself. One day while watching a penguin named Fat Freddy take part in a stunt show at a local amusement park, he is astonished to see the penguin perform so well. Frustrated by his own son's behavior, Dr. Amen decides to talk with the trainer after the show to find out how she got the penguin to follow all of her directions. Through clever rhyme and storytelling, the trainer shares with Dr. Amen the power of positive reinforcement.
Though designed with elementary school students in mind, this story has taught people of all ages a valuable, life-changing lesson.
This children's book is based on a true story as experienced by Dr. Amen himself. One day while watching a penguin named Fat Freddy take part in a stunt show at a local amusement park, he is astonished to see the penguin perform so well. Frustrated by his own son's behavior, Dr. Amen decides to talk with the trainer after the show to find out how she got the penguin to follow all of her directions. Through clever rhyme and storytelling, the trainer shares with Dr. Amen the power of positive reinforcement.
Though designed with elementary school students in mind, this story has taught people of all ages a valuable, life-changing lesson.
Audible Audio
First published May 1, 2005
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About the author
Daniel G. Amen
194 books1,469 followersThe Washington Post called Dr. Daniel Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America and Sharecare.com named him the web's most influential expert and advocate on mental health.
Daniel Amen is a life-long Christian and graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. He is a double board-certified psychiatrist and multiple NY Times bestselling author, with such blockbuster books as Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, and The Daniel Plan, co-authored by Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman. In November 2016, he and his wife Tana published The Brain Warrior's Way.
Dr. Amen is the founder of Amen Clinics, which has 6 locations across the United States. Amen Clinics has the world's largest database of brain scans related to behavior, totaling more than 125,000 SPECT scans on patients from 111 countries.
Dr. Amen's research team has published more than 70 scientific articles on a wide variety of topics related to brain health. He is the lead researcher on the largest brain imaging study on active and retired NFL players and was a consultant on the movie Concussion starring Will Smith. In 2016, Discover Magazine named his brain imaging work for psychiatric diagnoses as one of the top 100 stories in all of science.
Dr. Amen has also hosted 11 national public television shows about the brain, which have aired more than 80,000 times across North America and raised more than 75 million dollars for stations.
You can connect with Dr. Amen on Facebook and Twitter
Daniel Amen is a life-long Christian and graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. He is a double board-certified psychiatrist and multiple NY Times bestselling author, with such blockbuster books as Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, and The Daniel Plan, co-authored by Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman. In November 2016, he and his wife Tana published The Brain Warrior's Way.
Dr. Amen is the founder of Amen Clinics, which has 6 locations across the United States. Amen Clinics has the world's largest database of brain scans related to behavior, totaling more than 125,000 SPECT scans on patients from 111 countries.
Dr. Amen's research team has published more than 70 scientific articles on a wide variety of topics related to brain health. He is the lead researcher on the largest brain imaging study on active and retired NFL players and was a consultant on the movie Concussion starring Will Smith. In 2016, Discover Magazine named his brain imaging work for psychiatric diagnoses as one of the top 100 stories in all of science.
Dr. Amen has also hosted 11 national public television shows about the brain, which have aired more than 80,000 times across North America and raised more than 75 million dollars for stations.
You can connect with Dr. Amen on Facebook and Twitter
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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September 25, 2016This doesn't work with omega oils. Omega oil take a long time to take out the waste in the brain mylin so I suggest just building a habit of taking it as a nag until the habit forms. Just from personal experience if you think your parents are drugging you with omega oils it just easy to do the difficult chance and just forget about rewarding happy thoughts and shove that fish oil down any chance you get. I hear it takes like a year for the brain fat to cycle all the waste so it's not really a PRN look at life. Routine, then continue with the reward good behaviour and so on. Helped me, jimmy niggles.
October 12, 2019
The rhyming was passable, the art, rather laughable. The message, however was quite unsurpassable.
September 28, 2024
Not sure if this is for adults.
If I write all my feelings about this book/pamphlet it will be longer than its content. The audible version is 9 minutes long and first 4 minutes is silly rhymes nothing to do with how to help people change. Last 2 minutes, I didn't bother to listen as he said the end and just some music played and typical audible book outro about copyright etc., (I went back and finished just out of curiousity to be sure). So, in remaining 3 minutes, he says that you should encourage good behaviour rather than criticize bad behaviour. Thats it. Nothing else.
If I write all my feelings about this book/pamphlet it will be longer than its content. The audible version is 9 minutes long and first 4 minutes is silly rhymes nothing to do with how to help people change. Last 2 minutes, I didn't bother to listen as he said the end and just some music played and typical audible book outro about copyright etc., (I went back and finished just out of curiousity to be sure). So, in remaining 3 minutes, he says that you should encourage good behaviour rather than criticize bad behaviour. Thats it. Nothing else.
August 26, 2020
For kids and parents alike!
November 8, 2022
It is so short. Only 9 minutes 😂🤣
February 24, 2024
Very creative!
August 4, 2024
Cute & True!
July 23, 2025
Not at all what I expected. Now I want a penguin.
July 17, 2015
Fat Freddy, the penguin, made a life changing impact on Daniel Amen. Amen shares his story about this realization in a lyrical story. It's a children's book, but the message is truly for readers of any age. It's about looking for the good and building on the positive over the negative. Amen and Payne shared a fun story with a serious message. If you want to help people, you need to be positive and emphasize the good behavior over the bad behavior.
An annonymous female narrator shares the introduction, then Daniel G. Amen picks up the dedication and the rest of the book. The women returns at the end of the audiobook to share additional information of the book and the publisher. There is a muscial bed beneath most of the story. The music changes to fit the story (about six different times). It's cheery and upbeat. I don't think it distracted from the story. It give this lyrical non-fiction book a little boost. Amen did well reading his rhyming lines. Sometimes rhymes can follow a very definite (and annoying) pattern when read aloud, but he emphasized it just right. I would be interested to hear him again.
Reviewed from an Audiobook Jukebox copy. Thank you, Blackstone Audio!
An annonymous female narrator shares the introduction, then Daniel G. Amen picks up the dedication and the rest of the book. The women returns at the end of the audiobook to share additional information of the book and the publisher. There is a muscial bed beneath most of the story. The music changes to fit the story (about six different times). It's cheery and upbeat. I don't think it distracted from the story. It give this lyrical non-fiction book a little boost. Amen did well reading his rhyming lines. Sometimes rhymes can follow a very definite (and annoying) pattern when read aloud, but he emphasized it just right. I would be interested to hear him again.
Reviewed from an Audiobook Jukebox copy. Thank you, Blackstone Audio!
November 14, 2015
Listened to this on Hoopla. A sweet rhyming book about the power of positivity to create change. Daniel G. Amen's nonfiction books about the brain have challenged me in the past, and I am certain this small tale about training a penguin could have a profound influence on teachers and students. When we focus on the negative, things deteriorate quickly. Keeping track of our positive to negative ratio is a constant street fight in a classroom. I'm glad I listened to this book.
January 12, 2011
Wasn't as great as I thought it would be... good concept, but the focus seemed to be more on rhyming, rather than on having good content and story. My kids were bored about 1/3 of the way in, and I was too.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews