The Crucial Years, Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler
The Crucial Years, Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler
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The Crucial Years
The Essential Guide to Mental Health and Modern Puberty in Middle Childhood (Ages 6-12)

Author: Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler

Narrator: Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler

Unabridged: 11 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Harvest

Published: 05/06/2025

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

**Narrated by the Author**An essential guide for parents and caregivers, this book offers insights, strategies, and understanding to navigate middle childhood (ages 6–12). Dr. Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler, a seasoned clinical psychologist and mother, highlights ways to foster resilience, encourage open communication, and build lasting connections during this crucial period.There is a pivotal sea change happening in children’s development. The age of puberty has been trending earlier for decades, and now starts as young as 8 years old in girls and 9 in boys. Bullying doesn’t just happen on the playground, but over text and DM. Depression and anxiety are drastically on the rise. Couple earlier puberty with ill-equipped, developing brains and the onslaught of new media and stressors that never existed when we were kids, and it’s clear that parents need a new guide to raise this new generation.The Crucial Years is your essential handbook to navigating the often misunderstood and overlooked years of middle childhood (ages 6–12). As a mom and clinical psychologist, Dr. Sheryl Ziegler knows firsthand how challenging these years can be for some and for others how they are years where a parent thinks they can finally catch their breath in between the gap from preschool and middle school. Dr. Ziegler masterfully unlocks the enigma surrounding modern puberty and offers evidence-based strategies, interventions, and answers to middle childhood’s most perplexing questions and concerns. In these pages, she provides:
Science-based advice to recognize and navigate puberty.Candid and actionable guidance for getting your kids to talk about their complicated feelings and understanding their moods.Insights into the changing world of gender and sexual identity, body image and disordered eating.A clear explanation of the invisible threads linking mood swings, self-confidence, and social media exposure.Road-tested, real-world guidance to handle social stress and other pressures.
With The Crucial Years, you have all that you need to guide your child through the unexpected ups and downs of puberty and help them emerge as well-rounded, confident teens.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler

Dr. Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Denver, with more than two decades of experience treating tweens, teens and their families in the areas of anxiety, trauma, depression, chronic stress and adjustment disorders. Ziegler is the creator of Start with The Talk™, a puberty skills course for parents and kids available in-person and online that has helped over a thousand families and counting. She’s a nationally recognized expert on the intersection of puberty and mental health and is regularly featured in the media as such. She is the author of Mommy Burnout: How to Reclaim your Life and Raise Healthier Children (Dey Street, 2018), which won Best Parenting Book of the Year by the International Latino Book Awards Foundation.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dusty on May 09, 2025

Having 6 children from 5-19, I've read a lot of parenting books over the years. This author got it right that the age group of 6-12 is often overlooked in them. You get tons of focus on the early developmental years of birth-preschool and then the tween-teen years. This book can bridge the gap. Zieg......more

Goodreads review by anj (acozyday) on April 30, 2025

As a mom to 6.5- and 9-year-old boys, this book landed in my lap at exactly the right time. It dives into “middle childhood” (ages 6–12) , a stage that’s apparently always been important, but is now supercharged thanks to tech overload, rising stress, and puberty onsetting earlier. (Fun fact: it sta......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on May 26, 2025

I received this audiobook as an ARC. I related to Sheryl, the author, immediately because our kids are about the same age. They are about into Kindergarten, 5th grade, and 10th grade. This book covers an age I feel isn't focused on enough in most parenting books. I've read a lot of them and the 6-12......more

Goodreads review by Lauryn on May 11, 2025

Thank you to HarperAudio Adult and NetGalley for the advance listening copy of this audiobook. The Crucial Years by Dr. Sheryl Gonzalez Ziegler is an absolute gem for anyone raising or working with kids in middle childhood (ages 6 to 12). I just finished the audiobook, and my appreciation for it only......more

Goodreads review by Heather on April 15, 2025

An eye opening look at the importance of parenting a child ages 6-12. Each chapter dives in to important topics and how to best help your child learn. This book covers many topics and has tons of studies backing it up and helpful suggestions. I think every parent should read this book! From puberty,......more