A Book From the President of the Child Mind Institute

Just as sturdy scaffolding is necessary when erecting a building and will come down when the structure grows stable, good parenting provides children with steady and warm emotional nourishment on the path toward independence. Never-ending parental problem-solving and involvement can have the opposite effect, enabling fragility and anxiety over time.

In Scaffold Parenting, world-renowned child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz introduces the powerful and clinically tested idea that this deliberate build-up and then gradual loosening of parental support is the single most effective way to encourage kids to climb higher, try new things, grow from mistakes, and develop character and strength. Explaining the building blocks of an effective scaffold from infancy through young adulthood, he expertly guides parents through the strategies for raising empowered, capable people.

Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, is one of the nation’s leading child and adolescent psychiatrists. The founding president and director of the Child Mind Institute in New York City and San Mateo, California, he has been repeatedly named in America’s Top Doctors, Best Doctors in America, and New York magazine’s “Best Doctors in New York.” He has appeared on Today, CBS News, CNN, Oprah, and Anderson Cooper 360 and he is quoted regularly in the New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York City.