Educating yourself on how to deal with toddlers can be a lifesaver for both you and your child. Here are our 7 best parenting books for toddlers to help you discipline, communicate and connect with your toddler.
Best Parenting Books For Toddlers
- How To Talk So Kids Will Listen by Adele Faber
- The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel
- No-Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel
- Toddler Discipline for Every Age and Stage by Aubrey Hargis
- Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Laura Markham
- The Happiest Toddler On The Block by Harvey Karp
- How To Con Your Kid by David Borgenicht

Are you navigating your way through the terror of the toddler age or want to get a handle on how to deal with that age before you get there?
Check out the reviews below of our top parenting books for toddlers.
1. How To Talk So Kids Will Listen by Adele Faber
This bestselling book was written in 1999 and is still cited as a must-read for all parents. Not only is it a great parenting book for toddlers but the lessons learnt can be applied to children of all ages.
Perfect for parents who find themselves in a constant power struggle with their young ones this parenting book for toddlers is easy to read and is packed with practical tips, real life examples and exact scripts. By learning important skills such as how to show empathy, validate their feelings and listen to their children with intent it can help you stop battling with your kids and instead live and work as a happy family.
This book helps remind you that no one is perfect when they are not calm and good communication with other humans especially toddlers requires patience and understanding.
2. The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel
If you have ever wondered what the heck your child is thinking then this book is for you! While it is a little bit on the science side it makes up for the slightly heavy reading with the amount of practical
Strategies and tools it provides.
By understanding what is happening in your child’s brain you can then use strategies that work with your child’s brain rather than against it. This then helps nurture healthy brain development which ultimately leads to a healthier, happier and calmer child.
The whole brain child shows you how to nurture healthy emotional, intellectual and cognitive development so that your children can lead meaningful, connected and balanced lives. This parenting book for toddlers is recommended by many health practitioners to parents across the globe making it a no brainer to add to your parenting book library.
3. No-Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel
What does discipline really mean? Not to shout and punish but instead to guide and explain. No drama discipline takes a look at the relationship between your child’s neurological development and the way that a parent reacts to their misbehaviour. By understanding the engrained changes that are happening within your child allows you to respond and communicate in a way that your child can comprehend.
Especially around age 2 when you child is learning autonomy and how to assert themselves it can be hard to shift and understand as a parent. A lot of the time is we tend to lose our cool which then spirals a toddler into an emotional tornado.
This parenting book for toddlers gives effective and compassionate strategies for helping deal with tantrums and tears without making it worse and causing a scene which is exactly what all parents of toddlers need to know how to do. Using some of the tools in this book will help you turn a pending meltdown into an opportunity of growth and thus stopping the cycle of negative emotions that can happen with a toddler and their tantrums.
With real life stories and fun illustrations to help get the authors point across this book is a must for parents of toddlers.
4. Toddler Discipline for Every Age and Stage by Aubrey Hargis
Need some basic strategies to help with toddler discipline without having to spend hours reading and studying. This short and simple book is exactly what you need! Full of practical, age-appropriate strategies to discipline your toddler and ways to help manage the everyday challenges of raising them this book has it all.
Written by a child development expert this parenting book for toddlers help’s you understand the behavioural challenges your toddler goes through while trying to develop important lifelong skills such as independence, curiosity and confidence. The book shares proven discipline techniques for toddlers that will help manage their behaviour and develop a closer relationship between parent and child throughout those important developmental years.
This parenting book for toddlers will ultimately help you as a parent stay calm and in control during those frustrating moments with your toddler.
5. Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Laura Markham
If you are constantly dealing with tantrums and power struggles with your toddler and always looking for a ‘consequence’ or ‘discipline strategy’ but nothing works then this is the parenting book for you. Based on scientific research on brain development and clinical experience of the author this book helps parents to foster an emotional connection with their children to help create real and long-lasting change. When that connection is established you don’t need to use discipline techniques such as pleading, nagging, threatening, bribery or punishment.
Many parenting books for toddlers focus on their children’s behaviours but this book offers a different perspective in taking a look at the parents’ behaviours and getting them in check with their own emotions. This helps them set healthy limits, create empathy and have better communication. Filled with step-by-step examples and exact phrasing of communication this book will leave you feeling ready and empowered to take on those toddler years.
Overall, this book gives a bunch of practical tools to help you raise capable, responsible and happy kids.
6. The Happiest Toddler On The Block by Harvey Karp
We all know toddlers are hard work and we spend a lot of those years in constant battles of ‘no’ and ‘don’t do that’. This isn’t the way it has to be though but you have to know how to speak ‘toddler’. The author states in the book that due to their immature brains and crazy outbursts instead of treating toddlers as mini humans we should treat them as mini caveman.
Instead of usual techniques that often fail this parenting book for toddlers describes that the key to effective communication was to speak to them in their own primitive language – toddler talk! By speaking to them in a way they understand the author found it was easier to soothe their outbursts.
Once you understand the stages of development and how to communicate within each of these phases it becomes much easier to apply behavioural techniques specific to each stage. Then as you experience all of the challenges that come with toddlers such as sibling rivalry, toilet training, sleep problems, biting, picky eating, separation anxiety – just to name a few – it will become a lot easier to handle in a way that makes your toddler feel heard and understood. If you use the techniques and strategies in this parenting book for toddlers then you will have a happier toddler who has less tantrums and meltdowns.
7. How To Con Your Kid by David Borgenicht
Let’s finish this list off with a bit of a sneaky parenting book for toddlers. How to con your kid is one of the most useful parenting books for toddlers you will ever come across while at the same time being fun!
Within this book are hundreds of strategies, tips and techniques to help you get your child to do exactly what you want them to do. Whether that be eating their greens, taking a bath, sharing their toys or taking their medicine. It is like a parenting bible for getting kids to do what you want!
The book is easy to navigate and you can go the page of the problem you are having to find different ways to ‘con’ your toddler into doing what you want them to do and most of the time what they need to do. It is one of those parenting books for toddlers you can keep going back to every time you need it.
Top Parenting Books For Toddlers Of 2020 Wrap Up
So there you have it! Our best parenting books for toddlers are sure to help you with parenting your toddler. Remember these books are meant to be a guide with a bunch of practical skills for you to implement in your day to day life with your toddler. Reading them is great but it’s taking action that makes the real difference. So try and incorporate some of these suggestions with your toddler and remember toddlers are busy so make sure you engage them in lots of activities to help their brain and their self develop.
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