The Irreducible Needs Of Children: What Every Child Must Have To Grow, Learn, And Flourish

by T. Berry Brazelton, Stanley I. Greenspan

What do babies and young children really need? This impassioned dialogue cuts through all the theories, platitudes, and controversies that surround parenting advice to define what every child must have in the first years of life. The authors, both famed advocates for children, lay out the seven irreducible needs of any child, in any society, and confront such thorny questions as: How much time do children need one-on-one with a parent? What is the effect of shifting caregivers, of custody arrangements? Why are we knowingly letting children fail in school? Nothing is off limits, even such an issue as whether every child needs or deserves to be a wanted child. This short, hard-hitting book, the fruit of decades of experience and caring, sounds a wake-up call for parents, teachers, judges, social workers, policy makers-anyone who cares about the welfare of children.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Education, Psychology, Childrens

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Thomas Berry Brazelton was an American pediatrician, author, and the developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS).

Reviews

[Jenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Irreducible Needs is power packed with great ideas born from the minds of two experts who have obviously been immersed in these issues for their professional careers. Their thoughts are highly deserving of consideration. I believe this book would make a fantastic textbook for child development and family studies classes. In part, The Irreducible Needs of Children acts like the marching orders for a generation of public policy leaders given by the highest and longest ranking officials in the field. This is a must read for early childhood educators, teachers and administrators. Parents can greatly benefit from Chapters 1-5 but will find that there is a great deal of big picture, society level thinking presented in the book.

[Nancy Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr Greenspan was my son's doctor when we lived in Maryland. His floorime approach and book A Child With Special Needs made a tremendous difference in my son's life

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of parenting books seem mainly to be recommendations or aggregates of specific parenting techniques that may or may not apply. The two authors here do a great job of telling you not what their personal opinions are, but what every growing child needs in their life, regardless of parenting style may be. This is a wonderful book for any soon-to-be parent, or any parent with a young child or infant.

[Lisa]

Brazelton AND Greenspan? It's like paradise in the kid-psych aisle!

[Whilliam · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an incredibly disappointing read. This book has been on my to-read list for at long time. I was expecting to learn more about attachment but the authors only touch on it quite superficially. There is an over-emphasis on issues that, although severe, only affect a minority of children, such as alcohol and substance abuse, and an under-emphasis on the question of how to create secure attachment relationships, which challenges virtually every parent and child in western culture.

I was also expecting a searing criticism of the society and culture we live in in westernized countries. Instead, the authors seem caught between what they seem to know to be true (that western culture is simply terrible at providing even remotely optimal conditions for healthy child development and attachment) and a strange conservatism by making recommendations that try to fit the culture even though they are practically impossible to implement in any satisfactory way.

The language and ideas presented are typically and stereotypically American in the sense that they seem to think they should be exporting opinions and making recommendations about child-rearing all over the globe without paying much attention to the obvious economical and political reasons children are in some ways worse of in developing countries as a direct consequence of American and associated policies, wars and power-struggles.

Not to mention some of the amusingly lunatic suggestions such as removing fetuses from the uterus at 7 months if by who knows whose authority they are deemed more likely to succeed in their development by maturing in an artificial environment. Or the idea of state-mandated abortions for women deemed (again, by whose authority?) to be unfit to be a mother.

Utterly disappointing, would not recommend.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't even get through but 20% of it. I read this and similar lines too many times "most daycare is bad and should be avoided and basically kids that are at home fare better." It's not an option to not work. It's a choice to afford a home and food and basic needs so both parents have to work now. It's just the times we are in (well lots of us are in). Just very off putting and guilting to working moms

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading for all parents, future parents, and caregivers to kids.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dated.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bit more dense and scholarly than I'd expected but I'm learning quite a lot about exactly what the title says - what every child must have to grow, learn, and flourish. I wish the authors of all those parenting books out there would read this before spreading more advice that is actually detrimental to kids. (I actually haven't finished it - I'm mostly skimming it at this point but I would recommend it just to the first few summary pages of each chapter.)

[Capella]

interesting....I probably won't finish it. I had to order it from the library when I saw the title...anything with "irreducible" in it must be good.

[Kymberley Moffett]

Excellent

[Nilanthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a little dry, compared to some of the other books of Brazelton's that I have read. Still a lot of great information, though!

[Rosemary Generali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, informative book. Probably the best childrearing book I've ever read.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this is good, but if you've read some of his other books you know he's pretty traditional and not science/evidence-based.

[Maria Serafini · Rating 4 out of 5]

un po' per esperti del settore in alcuni tratti, ma molto interessante anche per i genitori

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invaluable

[Amber]

1 Copy Available