Let’s Make a Contract
A Positive Way to Change Your Child’s Behavior
- 2022 INDIES Finalist
- Finalist, Family & Relationships (Adult Nonfiction)
Jill C. Dardig and William L. Heward’s Let’s Make a Contract presents tools for reaching parent-child agreements.
Sharing the insights and skills needed to craft contracts between parents and children, so that both can get what matters to them, this pragmatic book draws on psychological, behavioral, and educational research to promote collaboration and clear communication. Its work stands to foster relationships whose depths transcend the contracts themselves, helping families to flourish, minimizing conflict, and building trust and accountability within both generations.
The first part of the book features stories for parents and children to read together that illustrate what contracts are, what elements they need, and how to address common issues. These stories empower young audiences to be part of the process, and the discussion questions will equip parents to invite their children’s ideas in, and to help them understand relationship dynamics.
The second part of the book includes clear instructions about making your own contracts. Their general formats boil down to a task and a reward. Most often, the task is for the child and the reward is from the parent, but the book also includes reverse examples, as well as contracts between siblings. Its instructions for picture contracts for preliterate children are of particular use, showing that no child is too young to be a part of the process. The book’s illustrations further invite children into this work; they feature children of different ages, ethnicities, and abilities who face a variety of problems. The result is a welcoming book for every child and every kind of family—and one whose work promises tangible results.
The instructive self-help text Let’s Make a Contract will help to ease conflict within families.
Reviewed by
Melissa Wuske
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
