First Aid for your Child's Mind

This is a great book and I'm really glad I got a copy of it. As the parent of a sensitive child, I always appreciate tips, tricks and strategies to quell his anxiety at the doctor or dentist office. The tone of the book is educational, soothing and confident. I really enjoyed the conversational and reassuring style of Alicia Eaton. If your child, like mine, is sensitive or has mild anxiety from time to time, I really recommend this book!.

In a time where anxiety is becoming more common and talked about, even in young children, I was intrigued to read First Aid for your Child's Mind to learn some more and discover strategies that can help children cope and feel better.

The book is split into four sections: Making Sense of it All, Steps to Success, First Aid Techniques and Strategies and Putting it Into Practice. The first section introduces anxiety and about the mind. I found this very interesting and the way it is explained makes so much sense and makes you think about what and how you are saying things to children. Even something insignificant to you can be interpreted as something bad or to cause worry or anxiety to a child if they lack understanding about something or their mind sees it differently.

The second section is good to help understand what we can change to help children be more open about their feelings and change the environment/way things are done to help children cope. This is filled with lots of tips and ideas that seem so obvious but might not have been considered to have an effect on the anxiety of children.

The third section includes so many different techniques and strategies which are fantastic as there will be something to help children of any age and if one doesn't work you can try out another. Each technique has a step by step guide and reasons why and how it works so you can really help and understand how to cope with children's anxiety.

The last section of the book has examples of children's anxieties in different categories which is very helpful to know what kind of techniques work with which type of worry. I like that we get to see how the strategies have helped these children as it gives hope that you can make these strategies to work too.

I really enjoyed reading this book and have learnt so much from it. I particularly liked the parts which discussed the importance of positivity when talking to children rather than using the negatives all the time, definitely something I need to practice! This is a brilliant book I think everybody should have, definitely worth a read if you have or know children who may be anxious or worried about things!

Alicia Eaton's First Aid For Your Child's Mind provides helpful and practical tips for helping children overcome their fears, anxieties, and phobias, complete with treatment courses she's used to help clients. I can see this book being very helpful for those who have little ones in their lives who struggle with a wide range of things as the chapters discuss what to do when a child is afraid of dogs, all the way to being afraid and refusing to go to school. This book taught me a few new techniques like tapping and anchor points, and expanded on others such as breathing and visualization. The techniques can extend to adults as well, although this isn't the primary purpose of the book.
Overall, this seems like a great starting point for those dealing with similar parenting issues and I highly recommend it for that purpose or those interested in child psychology.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.