Right From Wrong

Right From Wrong: Instilling a Sense of Integrity in Your Child (Perseus Books, March 2002) by Michael Riera, Ph.D., and Joseph DiPrisco, Ph.D., is a wise and reassuring guide to fostering integrity in young children.

Does your child have a conscience? Is he remorseful when caught in a lie? Integrity does not happen simply as a result of unconditional love, healthy genes, or good luck. It emerges — if it does — because parents make it a priority to exercise influence in this arena.

Right From Wrong combines stories of children experiencing the day-to-day struggles of growing up, along with compassionate, in-depth analysis and pragmatic counsel. This book makes nurturing the qualities of integrity tangible to parents and others who are actively involved in guiding a child's moral life.

Through the authors' discerning eyes we witness children as they experience loss or sadness, react to sibling rivalries, schoolyard violence and academic pressures, or even as they interact at the dinner table. The ways in which parents use listening, praise, discipline, honesty, and consequences to react to these situations reinforces a child's sense of right and wrong. From these choices readers will learn valuable lessons about a parent's power to nurture character and morality in young children.