The Gentle Discipline Playbook for Toddlers

Josephine Chavez is a parenting educator, early childhood development specialist, and the voice behind the popular newsletter *Small Humans, Big Feelings*, where she helps thousands of parents navigate the toddler years with empathy and confidence. She holds a master's degree in Child Development from California State University and is a certified Positive Discipline parent educator through the Positive Discipline Association.

Josephine spent over a decade working directly with families as a parent coach and home visitor before shifting her focus to writing and speaking. Her work is shaped by her years in community-based early intervention programs, where she partnered with parents from diverse backgrounds facing everything from daily power struggles to deep behavioral challenges. That frontline experience gave her an unshakable belief that every parent has the capacity to create a peaceful, connected home when given the right tools—and that those tools should be practical, not pie-in-the-sky ideals.

Her writing draws on the latest research in neuroscience, attachment theory, and child development, but she is known for making complex science feel like a conversation over coffee. She lives in Southern California with her husband and their three children, who have collectively put every gentle discipline strategy she teaches through rigorous, real-world testing. When she is not writing or speaking, she can be found attempting to keep her sourdough starter alive, hiking local trails with her family, or reading yet another parenting book with a highlighter in hand.

Josephine is a regular contributor to *Motherly*, *Parenting*, and *Scary Mommy*, and she speaks at parenting conferences nationwide. *The Gentle Discipline Playbook for Toddlers* is her second book, following *Listen So They'll Talk*, which explored communication strategies for connecting with children through every developmental stage. She believes deeply that the way we treat our youngest children shapes not just individual families but entire communities, and she considers it the honor of her career to walk alongside parents during these beautifully messy early years.