I didn’t actually read this book, just a pdf shared with us by a behavioral therapist. The counting technique from this book is the number one way we get our kid to do things. Telling them to do something NOW has no effect and makes everyone involved annoyed at each other. That said, in our case there’s an important reason it works- our kid has major auditory processing delays and needs those cues and time to catch up. So this way of giving directions feels like a scaffold rather than a threat. It’s saved us a lot of yelling/repeating and because they are so responsive to it we hardly ever get to the time-out part. Our household is calmer and more stable because of this method. I know some people think people using time outs causes irreparable harm to kids but that’s not borne out by evidence and doesn’t account well for neurodiversity. This ADHD family is grateful to have a tool that works, and I feel fairly secure in saying that my kid feels loved and that I parent better when things are structured. My kid is not going to suddenly be capable of hearing auditory information on the first try, so I think it’s important we have alternatives to cajoling, badgering and yelling. Two additions, modifications we use- removing a distraction before asking for focus to get eye contact first and sometimes adding a one word reminder of the request on 2 (“That’s two, shoes.”) Bottom line, don’t be afraid to try this technique and don’t buy into shame if it works (or doesn’t!) work for you. But maybe you don’t need to read the whole book either.