Praise: Voice Lessons for Parents

• Angela Duckworth
  —Author, Grit

  "Wisdom for parents of children of all ages from one of the most astute psychologists on the planet. Dr. Mogel explains the art and science of communicating with the people you love most."

• Andrew Solomon
  —Author, Far From the Tree

  “In this intelligent and useful book, Wendy Mogel explains how the tenor of your remarks may make as much difference as their content. In accessible terms, she shows how minor adjustments may help lower the inherent tension of parent-child relationships.”

• Madeline Levine
  —Author, The Price of Privilege

  “For all parents who have heard themselves yell when they meant to simply question, or have clammed up when they meant to be curious (and that, of course, is all of us) here’s your new bible. With her trademark deep empathy, Mogel once again is absolutely on point as she challenges parents to talk to their children compassionately, and to listen a whole lot more. How lovely to hear her sage voice in these pages.”

• Barry Schwartz
  —Author, The Paradox of Choice and Why We Work

  “In this brilliant, compassionate book, Wendy Mogel has something to offer every parent. By practicing what Mogel recommends, parents will find the dance they do with their children as they wend their way to adulthood less uncertain, less painful, and more joyful that it is now. Read it and teach yourself how to do it."

• Christine Gross-Loh, Ph.D.
  —Author, "Parenting Without Borders," Co-author, The Path

  “How we speak matters, and there can be no wiser guide to the art of communicating with our children than Wendy Mogel. Voice Lessons is at once practical, commonsensical, compassionate, and humorous. Mogel convincingly shows us that small tweaks can lead to big changes when speaking not just with our offspring but also with partners, teachers, grandparents, coaches, nannies, and more.”

• Pamela Druckerman
  —Author, Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting

  “Generous and wise…Wendy Mogel gives me the rare and comforting feeling that parenting problems actually have solutions. She delivers these not as rules from on high, but as a series of insights that credit our intelligence and bring out our best selves.”

• Booklist
  

  Voice Lessons for Parents stands out in the somewhat-saturated parenting genre. Mogel offers parents, teachers, and caregivers the power of using correct communication tools, and she includes examples to demonstrate how to use pitch, volume, tempo, pauses, tones, cadence, and more to improve how adults connect with children. She explains that it’s not just our choice of words that matter; it’s how we physically speak and what posture we use. Sections of the book are separated by gender, along with comparison charts, which is helpful. The author isn’t suggesting that we force children into norms—in fact, she recognizes that there is a spectrum of gender—but how to communicate with boys and girls based on their personality traits and styles of communication. Mogel has a PhD in social-clinical psychology and several popular books on the shelves (The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, 2001; The Blessing of a B Minus, 2010), making this a good choice for public, school, and academic libraries.