The Best Science-Based Parenting Books

Unlike most other tasks we take on in life, parenting doesn’t come with a how-to guide. There’s a lot of advice out there, but it can be a challenge to know whose advice to take. This is especially true if your child is neurodivergent.

You probably already know a lot more about parenting than you realize, and it’s important to trust your gut. At the same time, being equipped with the latest research about children and what’s healthy for them can help you feel more confident that you’re on the right track.

In this article, I’ve gathered 11 of the best science-based parenting books that give you research-based advice on how to parent your child.

12 Principles of Raising Your Child With ADHD by Russell Barkley

This is one of the best science-based books about parenting when your child has ADHD. Its author, Russell Barkley, is an award-winning clinician and researcher and one of the foremost experts on children with ADHD.

In this book, Barkley walks parents through 12 key principles of parenting a kid with ADHD. He writes from the perspective that parents, and their parenting style, can make an enormous difference in their children’s lives and success.

Some of the key principles discussed in this book include being a guide rather than the creator of who your child is, using external clocks to help show your child the passage of time (a skill that many people with ADHD struggle with), and more.

Screen-Smart Parenting: How to Find Balance and Benefit in Your Child's Use of Social Media, Apps, and Digital Devices by Jodi Gold

There’s a unique parenting challenge today that parents of 50 years ago didn’t have to deal with: balancing screen time. It’s difficult to know how much screen time, exactly, is okay for your child to have, especially because different parenting “experts” say different things.

Jodi Gold, the author of this book, is a practicing child psychiatrist and a mother of 3. In this book, she breaks down the scientific knowledge behind both the benefits and the harmful effects of technology for kids of all ages, from toddlers to teens. 

Gold teaches parents how screen time affects kids’ cognitive development and gives no-nonsense advice on how to place boundaries around technology that work for the whole family. She even gives parents recommendations of apps and programs that can improve their child’s creativity and cognitive skills.

Parenting From The Inside Out: How A Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, by Daniel J. Siegel And Mary Hartzell

Daniel Siegel is one of the world’s foremost experts on mindfulness and child psychology. He is the clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, and executive director of the Mindsight Institute. He’s written many books, including The Whole-Brain Child.

In this book, he’s partnered with early childhood expert Mary Hartzell. They write about how our own experiences in childhood can affect the way we parent. The book is based on scientific research about how relationships (especially the ones we have in early childhood) and communication impact our brain development, which then affects our parenting experiences. The authors provide parents with a step-by-step guide on how to develop a deeper self-awareness of their own childhood experiences (and their effects) and form healthy and lasting bonds with their children.

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know, by Emily Oster

To be clear, the author of this book, Emily Oster, is not a medical professional or a scientist. She’s an award-winning economics professor. When she, herself, was pregnant, she decided to use the principles of economics to gather data about pregnancy, and what pregnant women should and shouldn’t do.

Pregnant parents like that Oster’s book lays out this data in an easy-to-understand way. She questions traditional pregnancy recommendations and gathers evidence to bust important myths.

With that said, if your OB-GYN gives you advice that seems to contradict this book, it’s important to always listen to your doctor and tell them about any concerns you’re having. 

The Self-Driven Child, by William Stixrud And Ned Johnson

One of the authors of this book, William Stixrud, is a clinical neuropsychologist who works with children with ADHD and anxiety. Stixrud and his co-author, Ned Johnson (who runs an elite tutoring service) have written a book about how parents can give their kids more control over their own lives.

As parents, we want our children to succeed. And this means that sometimes, however well-intentioned it is, we have a tendency to take too much control over our children’s lives. This results in kids with low motivation, who feel like they don’t have any agency or voice. They may even develop problems like anxiety.

This book uses a combination of brain science and behavioral theory to teach parents how (and why) to allow their kids to take the wheel and make some of the important decisions themselves. When your kids feel like they have some autonomy over their own lives, they may feel more self-motivated and less anxious.

Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children's Behavioral Challenges, by Mona Delahooke

Mona Delahooke, an internationally recognized child psychologist, writes this book on problematic behaviors in children. It’s especially helpful for children who have behavioral challenges, like those who’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and other disorders that may cause a child to have “problem” behaviors.

Delahooke describes these behaviors as just the tip of the iceberg. She helps parents and educators understand why children may behave the way they do using science and research. This isn’t a book of “quick fixes” to change your child’s behavior, but it’s one of the best ones to help you truly understand and connect with your child.

The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping Our Children Thrive When The World Overwhelms Them, by Elaine Aron

You may have heard of the Highly Sensitive Person or HSP. Elaine Aron, a psychotherapist and the author of this book, was the first person to identify the Highly Sensitive personality. Since then, numerous research studies have been conducted to explore and measure this trait. In this book, Aron uses her research on child temperament and the information she’s learned about HSPs to describe HSCs – Highly Sensitive Children.

Much like HSPs, HSCs can be sensitive and reflective, but also easily overwhelmed. Parents of kids with ADHD may see their children in Aron’s descriptions of HSCs. She provides parents with self-tests to better understand their HSCs as well as guidance on how to support them during every stage of life.

The Science Of Parenting: How Today’s Brain Research Can Help You Raise Happy, Emotionally Balanced Children, by Margot Sunderland

Margot Sunderland is the Director of Education and Training at The Center for Child Mental Health London as well as a child psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience. In this guide, she brings together all of the latest scientific and neurobiological research to help parents understand what’s going on inside of their children’s brains.

Dr. Sunderland states that every piece of advice presented in this book is scientifically proven. However, many parents argue that some of the evidence cited in this book is weak or unsupported. Parents may want to compare any claims made in this book with the research.

The Whole-brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, by Daniel J. Siegel And Tina Payne Bryson 

This is the other parenting book written by the aforementioned Dr. Dan Siegel, and it’s one of the most respected parenting books in existence. Siegel and his co-author layout, in an easily digestible way, the science behind a child’s brain and how it develops over time. They also focus on teaching parents how to help their kids use both sides of their brains.

At the heart of this book are 12 key strategies that parents can use to foster healthy brain development. These include teaching your kids that feelings come and go, identifying (naming) emotions to calm them, and more. This book from one of the world’s foremost leaders in brain science can help you to parent with brain science in mind.

The Science of Mom: A Research-Based Guide to Your Baby’s First Year, by Alice Callahan

The author of this book, Dr. Alice Callahan, is a Ph.D. scientist and parenting blogger. She wrote this book out of empathy for new parents who are inundated with new study after new study about what’s best for their babies. With this book, Callahan provides a complete guide explaining the science behind the most popular “science-based” parenting advice.

If it’s important to you to base parenting decisions on evidence and research, but you don’t know where to start, then this book may be helpful for you.

Takeaway

New parents everywhere struggle with not knowing what to do and who’s advice to take. This is doubly true for parents of kids with ADHD.

There are a lot of parenting books out there. Remember that not all parenting books are created equal. These 10 parenting books, among others, are examples of guides that help you make sound parenting decisions that are actually based on science.