Author, speaker and parent educator Mary Sheedy Kurcinka has a word for children the rest of us might call “hard to handle” – it’s “spirited”. And, Kurcinka argues that the word that distinguishes these “spirited” children from other children is more. More intense, persistent, sensitive, perceptive, and uncomfortable with change than other children. She says these children are the Super Ball in a room full of rubber balls. Other kids bounce three feet off the ground, while the bounce of the spirited child hits the ceiling.

Kurcinka is the author of the bestseller “Raising Your Spirited Child”.

Today, Where We Live, we'll talk to Kurcinka about what parents need to know about raising and disciplining spirited children. From tantrums to mealtime to bedtime.

*This episode originally aired on March 18, 2009.