What Your Explosive Child Is Trying to Tell You: Discovering the Pathway from Symptoms to Solutions »

Dr. Douglas A. Riley is a clinical psychologist whose practice focuses on children and adolescents who are explosive, oppositional, depressed, or have difficulties with concentration and learning. He is the author of The Defiant Child: A Parent's Guide to Oppositional Defiant Disorder as well as The Depressed Child: A Parent's Guide for Rescuing Kids.

From the author of The Defiant Child comes the first book to connect From the author of the groundbreaking The Defiant Child comes the first book to connect explosive behavior—when kids go from Jekyll to Hyde and back in the blink of an eye—with its underlying causes

Does your hitting, kicking, screaming child explode with so little provocation that you can't help but wonder if he’s possessed? Are his extreme tantrums becoming the stuff of playground legend? And are you about to lose your job because his daycare or school repeatedly asks you to pick him up early?
Dr. Douglas Riley’s ear-to-the-ground insights will give much-needed help to desperate parents who have one overriding question: Why does my child act like this? This compassionate yet no-nonsense therapist explains that explosive behavior is the mere tip of the iceberg. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all strategy, Dr. Riley identifies the eleven most common causes of explosions and accordingly tailors his treatment strategies to address the underlying cause of the behavior.
What Your Explosive Child Is Trying to Tell You is a lifeline for parents who are at their wits’ end.

DR. DOUGLAS RILEY is a clinical psychologist whose practice focuses on children and adolescents who are explosive, oppositional, depressed, or have difficulties with concentration and learning. He is the author of The Defiant Child: A Parent’s Guide to Oppositional Defiant Disorder as well as The Depressed Child: A Parent’s Guide for Rescuing Kids.

Publishers Weekly

Riley (The Defiant Child and The Depressed Child) offers answers as to why some children are especially prone to violent meltdowns, paired with techniques that train a child to avoid such outbreaks. According to Riley, a clinical psychologist, there are several reasons a child may explode: a kid with "road map issues" may become unglued when confronted with anything unexpected, while a child with unknown allergies can be adversely affected by certain foods. A child may be defiant and in need of discipline, or suffering from ADHD and in need of special handling. Once parents determine why a little one explodes, the book offers appropriate solutions for modifying the behavior. Riley's approach for dealing with explosive children is sympathetic without being overindulgent. A certain amount of hard work is required by the parents, who will generally have to change the way they respond to their offspring's outbursts. That said, Riley is not a particularly charismatic writer; even his case studies of epically explosive children read rather drily. Still, his sensible, well-structured, age-appropriate advice may be able to help many frustrated parents. (Sept.)

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Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xv
I Am Not a Brat, Just a Child Who Needs Help     1
Changes and Transitions Make Me Explode     12
My Allergies Are Affecting the Way I Feel and Behave     56
I Don't Like Rules!     75
I'm a Wiggler and a Daydreamer     101
I Can't Control Myself at School     116
I Worry About Everything     131
Maybe I'm Depressed     146
It Seems Like Everyone Learns Faster Than Me     162
But I Like Playing with the Younger Kids     176
My Socks Aren't Right!     189
I'm Tired!     196
Ockham's Razor: A Guiding Principle for Decreasing Explosions     213
Final Thoughts on Living and Working with Explosive Children     219
Notes     223
Index     237