Bonnie and Thomas Liotta explain why asking “why” keeps parents stuck in correction and conflict — and how shifting to skill-based parenting transforms meltdowns, defiance, and power struggles.

ADHD. ODD. DMDD. PDA. Labels don’t solve behavior — they often reinforce it. In this episode, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta explain why most modern parenting methods (timeouts, consequences, lecturing, “positive discipline,” and behavior modification) plant toxic seeds that produce resistance, defiance, and escalation. You’ll learn why renewing your mind is the true beginning of transformation, how to shift from controlling behavior to guiding behavior, and why your child’s “defiance” is often a sign of missing life skills—not a broken child. Visit LearnToSpeakKid.com to begin a new parenting journey.

Are you accidentally creating the very behavior you’re praying would stop?

In this powerful episode, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta unpack what it really means to “exasperate” your children—and how so many expert-approved methods quietly provoke anger, discouragement, and defiance.

Together, they walk you through:

Grounded in scriptures like Ephesians 6:4, Proverbs 22:6, Colossians 3:21, and Proverbs 15:1, this conversation shows how modern control-based parenting—even when dressed up as “gentle” or “peaceful”—often contradicts the very principles we say we believe.

If your child has been labeled “defiant,” “explosive,” “strong-willed,” or even diagnosed with ADHD or ODD, this episode will help you see them in a brand new light: as a genius spirit watching you, learning from you, and desperately needing you to become a true life preparer—not just a behavior manager.

Your children are the fruit of your root. When you change the seed, you change the fruit.

To go deeper and learn how to guide behavior instead of punishing it, visit:

https://learntospeakkid.com

What if every interaction with your child planted a seed that would grow into tomorrow’s behavior, beliefs, and relationship with you?

In this episode, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta use one unforgettable image—a child covered in red lipstick with the mirror and white carpet to match—to unpack the idea of “black seeds vs white seeds” in parenting. Black seeds are born from negative thoughts and feelings: anger, frustration, and the urge to control. White seeds grow from validation, leadership, and a commitment to teach life skills instead of just correcting behavior.

You’ll hear:

If you’re exhausted from putting out fires, repeating yourself, and feeling like the “bad guy,” this conversation will help you shift from managing behavior to growing capable, confident, cooperative human beings—one white seed at a time.

Learn more and start your magical parenting journey at LearnToSpeakKid.com.

Does it feel like your child’s meltdowns come out of nowhere — and nothing you’ve tried is really working?

In this episode of the Learn to Speak Kid podcast, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta from Creating Champions For Life explain why your child’s behavior isn’t random, disrespectful, or “just ODD.” It’s a language.

You’ll discover how to:

- Hear what your child is really saying during a meltdown

- Replace labels like “terrible twos” and “defiant” with practical life skills training

- Reframe hitting, lying, and “attitude” as communication you can guide

- Stop trying to regulate your child’s emotions for them and start teaching them how

- Move from exhausted, reactive parenting to calm, proactive leadership at home

If you’ve ever thought, “I’ve tried everything and I still feel like a broken record,” this conversation will show you what’s been missing — not in your child, but in the tools you were given.

Press play to learn how to:

- Name the cry instead of labeling the child

- See your child as a genius in training, not a problem to fix

- Turn chaos and overwhelm into cooperation and connection

Learn more or start your journey at: learntospeakkid.com

What if every interaction with your child planted a seed that would grow into tomorrow’s behavior, beliefs, and relationship with you?

In this episode, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta use one unforgettable image—a child covered in red lipstick with the mirror and white carpet to match—to unpack the idea of “black seeds vs white seeds” in parenting. Black seeds are born from negative thoughts and feelings: anger, frustration, and the urge to control. White seeds grow from validation, leadership, and a commitment to teach life skills instead of just correcting behavior.

You’ll hear:

If you’re exhausted from putting out fires, repeating yourself, and feeling like the “bad guy,” this conversation will help you shift from managing behavior to growing capable, confident, cooperative human beings—one white seed at a time.

Learn more and start your magical parenting journey at LearnToSpeakKid.com.

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” In this episode of the Learn to Speak Kid podcast, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta explore what your child’s meltdowns, hitting, and “lying” are really trying to say.

They explain why kids can’t think abstractly until around age 13, how constantly hearing “no” leads to power struggles and “terrible twos,” and why today’s culture is quick to label behavior instead of learning to “name that cry.” You’ll hear practical stories about newborns, toddlers at the counter, classroom chaos, and lying teens—each showing how behavior is a language of unmet needs and missing life skills.

Instead of punishing meltdowns, hitting, or lying, Bonnie and Thomas show you how to model what you do want, teach touch-soft and truth-telling, and begin seeing your child as a brilliant, unfinished human who needs training, not shame.

To begin a new, empowering, and joyful parenting journey, visit LearnToSpeakKid.com and discover how to transform defiant behavior into healthy, happy, cooperative kids.

Discover why forbidding becomes forbidden fruit and how to transform your parenting approach from restriction to empowerment. In this episode, Bonnie and Thomas share practical examples of applying the "let them" principle—from a 2-year-old's lip gloss fascination to a 14-year-old's first bush party request. Learn how teaching life skills proactively (instead of baby-proofing and redirecting) builds neural pathways for focus, self-control, and responsibility. Find out why becoming your child's "big kid trusted advisor" creates cooperation, connection, and lasting relationships—even into adulthood. Want more? Click here.

What if everything you're doing to fix your child's behavior is actually making it worse? In this eye-opening episode, Bonnie and Thomas Liotta introduce the Karma Principle - the revolutionary idea that you reap what you sow in parenting.

Discover why timeouts, takeaways, and traditional punishment strategies plant "anger seeds" that grow into the exact behaviors you're desperately trying to stop: lying, sneaking, defiance, and aggression. Learn the shocking truth about why therapy and medication often fail to create lasting change, and why more seclusion rooms in schools signals we're addressing symptoms instead of root causes.

Through biblical wisdom, personal stories, and 40 years of experience working with thousands of families, Bonnie and Thomas reveal the missing ingredient in modern parenting: planting love seeds instead of anger seeds. They explain how shifting from control and punishment to guidance and empowerment transforms even the most defiant children with ODD, ADHD, and behavioral diagnoses.

If you're exhausted from feeling like a broken record, ready to stop the power struggles, and want to actually enjoy your kids again begin your new empowering journey here.

Are you working overtime to give your kids everything you never had? This episode will make you rethink everything.

Bonnie and Thomas Liotta dive into a shocking truth from Napoleon Hill's 1928 Law of Success: "An easy life can often become a greater handicap than the human being can even survive."

Discover why parents who do everything for their children—buying them everything, removing every struggle, solving every problem—are actually crippling them. Learn the science behind why struggle develops strength, resilience, and confidence, and why removing it creates dependent, unmotivated children who lack the life skills to thrive independently.

In this episode, you'll learn:

If your child struggles with defiance, lack of motivation, or behavioral challenges, this episode reveals the root cause you've never considered—and the solution that doesn't require medication, therapy, or harsh punishment.

Featured Quote: "Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance, self-control, strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues that the idle will never know." —Napoleon Hill