[.ca] The Procrastinating Child: A Handbook for Adults to Help ... (ISBN 0385659709)

Amazon.ca:
In The Procrastinating Child, author Rita Emmett provides strategies for adults who want to help children end the debilitating habit of putting things off. The author, who first helped adults to blast away procrastination in her seminars and best-selling book The Procrastinator's Handbook, points out that procrastination is not an intractable personality trait but a habit that can usually be changed. Left unchecked, the problem can lead to children with damaged self-confidence and increased anxiety. Emmett helps readers to look for signs that dawdlers are fearful, overscheduled, or overwhelmed by perfectionism. She advises parents to tie in house rules with a loss of privileges and let children decide which reward will get them going: "The children soon figure out that they make the choices whether they are going to enjoy themselves or not, depending on whether they do what they are supposed to do." Emmett's aim is a more harmonious household with chores finished, homework completed, and goals achieved. She notes that parents and caregivers often experience another benefit as they tackle a child's procrastination--they make changes that improve their own life as well. Parents, teachers, babysitters--really, anyone who interacts with children--can learn to give up energy-draining prodding in favour of loving, effective, and creative strategies that reward children for their success. But one suspects those who should really rush to buy the book are children who want their parents to stop nagging. --Carolyn Leitch