"Based on groundbreaking research that has the power to change the lives of countless children--and the adults who love them."
--Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts.
A book that offers hope and a pathway to success for parents, teachers, psychologists, and child development experts coping with difficult children.
In Tom Boyce's extraordinary new book, he explores the "dandelion" child (hardy, resilient, healthy), able to survive and flourish under most circumstances, and the "orchid" child (sensitive, susceptible, fragile), who, given the right support, can thrive as much as, if not more than, other children.
Boyce writes of his pathfinding research as a developmental pediatrician working with troubled children in child-development research for almost four decades, and explores his major discovery that reveals how genetic make-up and environment shape behavior. He writes that certain variant genes can increase a person's susceptibility to depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and antisocial, sociopathic, or violent behaviors. But rather than seeing this "risk" gene as a liability, Boyce, through his daring research, has recast the way we think of human frailty, and has shown that while these "bad" genes can create problems, they can also, in the right setting and the right environment, result in producing children who not only do better than before but far exceed their peers. Orchid children, Boyce makes clear, are not failed dandelions; they are a different category of child, with special sensitivities and strengths, and need to be nurtured and taught in special ways. And in The Orchid and the Dandelion, Boyce shows us how to understand these children for their unique sensibilities, their considerable challenges, their remarkable gifts.
Über den Autor W. Thomas Boyce
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Tom Boyce, MD, is professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and heads the Division of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also co-director of the Child and Brain Development Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Dr Boyce's research addresses the interplay among neurobiological and psychosocial factors leading to differences in childhood health and disease, leading to his book The Orchid and the Dandelion. He frequently gives talks on his groundbreaking work. He is the parent of two wonderful adult children, one orchid and one dandelion. He is also an avid sailor who likes to tie sailing knots and untie scientific ones.Philippa Perry is a psychotherapist who, in an attempt to demystify psychotherapy, wrote the graphic novel, Couch Fiction. She has written for The Guardian, the Observer, Time Out and Healthy Living magazine and has a regular column in Psychologies magazine. She is the author of How to Stay Sane and The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read. She lives in London and Sussex with her husband, the artist Grayson Perry and enjoys gardening, cooking, parties, walking, tweeting, and watching telly.
