Appreciating Differences - Jack Falt - Ottawa area, Ontario, Canada

Return to Home Page

List of articles by Jack Falt

Book Review by Jack Falt

Ward, Jim & Ruth, Coaching Kids: Practical Tips for Effective Communication, Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1999, ISBN 1-57312-250-5, 130 pp

This is an excellent book to give to parents to help them raise their children from a Jung/Myers theory perspective. Jim is a Baptist minister and Ruth, his wife, is and author and a family counsellor. I reviewed one of Ruth’s previous books: Self-Esteem: Gift from God. There is also another book of hers called Blending Temperaments which is on couples and temperament. The authors have led a number of parenting workshops.

What I particularly like about these books is the very down-to-earth style they are written in. Even though they cover the basics of Jung/Myers theory, they are still interesting reading as they give incidences of the preferences you may not have thought about before.

The book has several chapters on general child-raising principles that are common to most books on parenting: breaking the cycle of doing it like your parents did, speaking respectfully to your children, and communication skills. Then the next six chapter look at the overall concept of Jung/Myers theory and the four dimensions of behaviour. The authors have their own chart listing the characteristics of the sixteen types. They give several case studies where they have used Jung/Myers theory to sort out the difficulties the families were experiencing. Finally, they discuss the difference between punishment and discipline.

This would make a good book to recommend if your are doing family counselling or leading parenting workshops. It is also short enough that it is likely to be read.

The authors do seem to have some confusion between temperament and type. Otherwise I felt they are accurate in their preference descriptions.

Return to Home Page

List of articles by Jack Falt