There's No Such Thing As 'Naughty': The groundbreaking guide for parents with children aged 0-5: THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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Challenging behaviour is a form of communication. If the teacher is able to become someone who is able to understand what is being communicated, their classroom and the lives of the vulnerable pupils in it will be transformed. Young children’s brains are works in progress, and it takes time to develop capacities of understanding. Rooted in the latest science - explained really simply - this engaging, accessible and warm parenting guide will redefine how you see and raise your children, with a new understanding that for under-fives, there can be no such thing as 'naughty'.

The parent’s lizard and baboon aspects can also freak out. Silverton describes lots of situations where her children activated her stress response reactions—fight, flee, freeze. But adults have a wise owl to help them figure things out and calm themselves down, so the focus can be on helping the child with what they need. She is the president of the venerable American nonprofit, Kindred World, a contributing editor to Kindred, the first global eco-parenting magazine, an advisory board member of Attachment Parenting International and the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health, APPPAH. One of the common refrains or self-talkreminders she mentions when her child has a tantrum is “It’s not about me. Something must have happened.” In There’s No Such Thing As ‘Naughty’, mum to two young children, journalist and children’s mental health advocate Kate Silverton shares her groundbreaking new approach to parenting under-fives that helps to make family life so much easier and and certainly a lot more fun! The lizard brain is oriented to staying alive. It does not choose to react but does so instinctively. If this part of the brain is stressedtoo much in early life, it can establish long term anxiety. It needs outside help to calm down until the third part of the brain, the owl, is well developed.

The third aspect of the brain she names the wise owl is not apparent in young children. Instead, they have a fluffy owlet. The owl is thoughtful and reflective but it matures later (taking three decades as parents of 20-year-olds know). But it’s the parent’s wise owl that helps with challenging situations. Instead of reacting like a baboon to a child’s refusals, the wise owl self tries to find out why the child is reacting as they are.

In a 2020 analysis of top scientists, Narvaez emerged in the top 2% of scientists worldwide. Of the eight million scientists in the world, the analysis concerned those who had at least five articles published in scientific journals between 1996 and 2017-- over six million scientists. Individuals were ranked according to various criteria, including number of citations of their work. Endorsed by leading figures in the field of children’s mental health, at the heart of the book is a simple and revelatory way to understand how your child’s brain develops and how it influences their behaviour. Darcia Narvaez is a Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She is the founder of the public and professional educational outreach project The Evolved Nest Initiative whose nonprofit mission is to share her science research into developing appropriate baselines for lifelong human wellness by meeting the biological needs of infants. This wellness-informed baseline is imperative at this time as the United States ranks 41st out of 41 developed countries in public policies that support families.

Narvaez’s book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, was chosen for the 2017 Expanded Reason Award from among more than 360 total entries from 170 universities and 30 countries. Narvaez received the prize, including a substantial monetary award, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Vatican City on September 27, 2017. The book also received the William James Award from the American Psychological Association in 2015. Instead of approaching a child’s behavior with an attitude of “What’s wrong with you,” the brain-aware parent activates the attitude of “What’s going on for you right now that I need to help you with?” We are baboons, we need to build up our strength and use our muscles and expend our energy. Weneed to play!”