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Emotional Muscle is not just another typical parenting self-help manual. Instead, the Novicks have given parents a delightful and valuable book which presents unique contributions to the realm of parenting. One contribution it makes is the concept that developing parenting skills is like developing muscles; it takes practice and is critical for being a strong (i.e., successful) parent. The book also helps parents understand their children's behaviors and what is relevant at each different developmental stage.
Emotional Muscle is nicely organized and succinctly presented so that parents can read it from cover to endnotes or read chapters relevant to a particular age. It offers practical summaries at the end of each chapter of the children's needs as well as parents’ needs. The book focuses on parenting newborns to five-year-olds. The authors, experts in child development, provide clinical material to illustrate children's behaviors and parents’ emotions. They have much data to draw on, presenting case examples (both child and parent) from their day care center at Allen Creek (Ann Arbor, Michigan).
In addition, Emotional Muscle gives to parents an increased understanding of development by combining research with practical parenting ideas. For example, the authors present information on brain development. Furthermore, the book puts psychological or psychoanalytical concepts and terms into layman's terms, thus giving parents a far greater understanding of child development than many other parenting books. The authors present both the viewpoint of what the child is doing and learning, in the context of typical developmental milestones, and parents’ behaviors, needs, and reactions. Thus, another unique contribution is understanding the feelings and dynamics behind behaviors and emotions for both the child and parent. Throughout Emotional Muscle different theories are woven into the rich parenting material: social learning, developmentally appropriate behaviors (temper tantr