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Bestselling author Michele Borba offers a 9-step program to help parents cultivate empathy in children, from birth to young adulthood—and explains why developing a healthy sense of empathy is a key predictor of which kids will thrive and succeed in the future.
Is the Selfie Syndrome Undermining Our Kids’ Future?
Teens today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Why is a lack of empathy—which goes hand-in-hand with the self-absorption epidemic Dr. Michele Borba calls the Selfie Syndrome—so dangerous? First, it hurts kids’ academic performance and leads to bullying behaviors. Also, it correlates with more cheating and less resilience. And once children grow up, a lack of empathy hampers their ability to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve—all must-have skills for the global economy.
In UnSelfie Dr. Borba pinpoints the forces causing the empathy crisis and shares a revolutionary, researched-based, 9-step plan for reversing it. Readers will learn:
-Why discipline approaches like spanking, yelling, and even time-out can squelch empathy
-How lavish praise inflates kids’ egos and keeps them locked in “selfie” mode
-Why reading makes kids smarter and kinder
-How to help kids be Upstanders—not bystanders—in the face of bullying
-Why self-control is a better predictor of wealth, health, and happiness than grades or IQ
-Why the right mix of structured extracurricular activities and free play is key for teaching collaboration
-How to ignite a Kindness Revolution in your kids and community
The good news? Empathy is a trait that can be taught and nurtured. Dr. Borba offers a framework for parenting that yields the results we all want: successful, happy kids who also are kind, moral, courageous, and resilient. UnSelfie is a blueprint for parents and educators who want to kids shift their focus from I, me, and mine…to we, us, and ours.
