The coronavirus pandemic is creating new challenges for children's friendships. This funny, useful, and FREE guide, created by the authors of Growing Friendships: A Kids' Guide to Making and Keeping Friends, offers practical help with a big dose of humor for kids who are feeling lonely, anxious, or angry due to the difficulties of social distancing.
Endorsements for Growing Friendships: A Kids' Guide to Making and Keeping Friends:
“Growing Friendships is the secret playbook you’ll wish you’d had when you were growing up. It’s packed with clever strategies that help kids handle the awkward, upsetting, and confusing social situations that happen to everyone. The fun cartoons make the advice light-hearted and easy to swallow.” -- Diane Debrovner, deputy editor of Parentsmagazine
“Funny, practical, and not at all preachy—Growing Friendships offers spot-on, research-based friendship advice for girls AND boys. Highly recommended! This must-read book is the Google Maps to friendship that every kid needs.” Michele Borba, author of Unselfie
Amazon Reviews:
"This is a wonderful book with exercises in teaching children how to make and keep friends. It includes tips on how to notice other people's body language, how to say "no", how to handle bullying, and how to forgive someone when they do wrong. Some of the activities are more "reflective", getting the child to think things through and understand how one action might be better than another. Overall, this is an excellent book for introducing social skills to children who might lack them.”
"Love this book. Some social skills do not just come naturally to one of my kids, but he loves this book and reads it independently and takes in the concepts. I sometimes read a chapter with my younger ones at bedtime, and they relate to the concepts and think about the practical application of some of the suggestions. It's the sort of stuff that we tend to assume that all kids know or figure out quickly as they grow up, but for some, especially visual learners, it's very helpful to have the information specifically outlined. The cartoon cat/dog friendship interactions are funny and offer a lighthearted footnote to each chapter. This book should be available to all elementary school guidance counselors and read by teachers, coaches and playground monitors."
Author bios:
Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, is an author and clinical psychologist, based in Princeton, NJ. Her most recent book for children, co-authored withChristine McLaughlin, is Growing Friendships: A Kids' Guide to Making and Keeping Friends. She has also written or co-authored four books for parents: Kid Confidence, Smart Parenting for Smart Kids, The Unwritten Rules of Friendship, and What’s My Child Thinking? She is the professor for an audio-video series from The Great Courses, called Raising Emotionally and Socially Healthy Kids.
A trusted expert on parenting and child development, Dr. Kennedy-Moore serves on the advisory board for Parents magazine, and her blog, Growing Friendships on Psychology Today, has almost 4 million views. Dr. Kennedy-Moore has been a featured guest on Live with Kelly and Ryan, The Today Show, Good Day Philadelphia, and dozens of major radio shows and podcasts. She has been interviewed and quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Parents, Real Simple, Working Mother, and Woman's Day.
Christine McLaughlin is a prolific freelance writer, editor, and author, whose work focuses primarily on parenting and health. She has published several hundred articles in national magazines and high-traffic websites. She is also author of The Dog Lover’s Companion to Philadelphia (Perseus), Philadelphia: A Photographic Journey (Twin Lights Publishers), BAYADA: 40 Years of Compassion, Excellence and Reliability (Bayada), and co-author of the American Red Cross: Dog First Aid and Cat First Aid books. She and her husband live in the Philadelphia area with their three children and loveable golden retriever. Visit her at www.ChristineMcLaughlin.net.
Links to Eileen’s blog posts about the virus:
Coping With Worries About the Coronavirus
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/growing-friendships/202003/coping-worries-about-the-coronavirus
How to Love the Ones You’re With During Coronavirus
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/growing-friendships/202003/how-love-the-ones-you-re-during-coronavirus
