Heart-First Parenting

For parents of children aged 5 and under, child and family psychiatrist and world-renowned neurobiology research pioneer Martha G. Welch, MD shares a simple yet powerful method for transforming your relationship with your child in as little as 15 minutes per day.

Emotional connection is more than just a warm feeling. It is a biological process necessary for children to thrive. When parent-child connection breaks down, behavior does, too. The good news is that breaks in connection can be fixed. Through regular practice of parent-child exercises, you can strengthen that emotional connection and help even “inconsolable” or “uncontrollable” kids become calm, confident, and empathic—without the need for punishments, rewards, or other behavior-management strategies.

Drawing on more than fifty years of research and clinical experience, Dr. Welch offers a groundbreaking, science-based understanding of how emotional connection shapes child development. Parents will learn why emotional behaviors begin, and are regulated, through a unique heart-to-heart connection.

Heart-First Parenting’s compassionate, proven approach centers on strengthening your emotional bond, through proximity, eye contact, vocal tone, and story-sharing, to build a relationship with your little one that can ease challenging behavior in a short period of time.

Warm, practical, and grounded in science, this essential guide shows parents how to:

• Proactively build a strong relationship with their child, even as a baby, through Dr. Welch’s research-backed method
• Confidently navigate upset, tantrums, and other moments of disconnection
• Turn everyday challenges, transitions, and separations into opportunities for reconnecting
• Create the conditions for their children (and their whole family) to thrive

Heart-First Parenting provides a new way of parenting—one that helps you better understand your relationship with your child, and lays the groundwork for a lifetime of heart-to-heart connection.