Big Reactors, Claire Lerner
Big Reactors, Claire Lerner
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Big Reactors
Practical Strategies for Parenting Highly Sensitive Children

Author: Claire Lerner

Narrator: Susannah Mars

Unabridged: 7 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/06/2026


Synopsis

An invaluable, practical guide that shows parents how to help their highly sensitive child learn to manage their big emotions and thrive.

Highly sensitive children (HSCs) process and react to experiences more deeply than other children. They are sometimes called "spirited," "deeply feeling," or "big reactors." These children are amazing—fierce and feisty, persistent and passionate, insightful and empathetic—but are also prone to more intense and frequent meltdowns. Parenting a big reactor can be challenging and exhausting, but it doesn't have to be.

In Big Reactors: Practical Strategies for Parenting Highly Sensitive Children, child development specialist Claire Lerner helps parents develop the tools to support their HSC's strengths while also showing them how to cope with everyday challenges. She details the key traits of HSCs, describes the science behind the traits, and shows how parents and other caregivers can help them thrive. Through detailed case descriptions from her decades of work in the trenches, Lerner reveals the process she guides parents through to understand the root cause of their child's challenges and come up with sensitive, effective strategies that work in real life, not just in theory. Big Reactors shows parents how they can be supportive and loving while also setting the limits their kids need.

About Claire Lerner

Claire Lerner, MSW, is a licensed clinical social worker and child development specialist. She served as the director of parenting resources at ZERO TO THREE for more than eighteen years. Claire has also been a practicing clinician for thirty-three years, partnering with parents to do the detective work of decoding their children's behavior to solve their most vexing childrearing challenges. She also provides training to local preschools and pediatric residents. Claire is the author of hundreds of parenting resources, including books, blogs, podcasts, and videos. She writes a column for PBS Kids and her work has been published by multiple parenting publications. She has served as a content expert for numerous national daily newspapers. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and two, also very spirited, pups.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jess on September 03, 2025

What I love about this book is that the author provides solutions that are practical and adaptable, rather than one-size-fits-all (that doesn't actually fit most!). Instead of making parents feel ashamed for not succeeding with certain approaches, she offers strategies that you can adapt to your uni......more

Goodreads review by Renee on September 11, 2025

Reading Claire Lerner’s book, Big Reactors was an eye-opener. In her book, one is made aware that how a parent views what makes a child happy could actually produce the opposite - an unhappy, uncooperative, fearful, out-of-control young person. The concern of being a tyrannical, demanding parent oft......more

Goodreads review by Cheryl on October 31, 2025

This book is pure gold. I feel like it was written specifically for my family and the challenges we have with our daughter. Claire Lerner clearly specializes in these unique children and offers practical solutions and realistic changes to your parenting style that are effective and not available any......more

Goodreads review by Rich on September 04, 2025

I didn't think there could be a more insightful and useful book than Claire Lerner's first book, "Why is My Child In Charge". But this might be it. "Big Reactors" is practical and real. Claire Lerner has a wealth of experience and clearly knows about what she writes. Any parent facing challenges wit......more