My toddler's teacher suggested I buy this to read at home, because my little one can get handsy every once in a while. And he reads it with me now and says "hands are not for... xyz! Hands ARE FOR xyz!" And it's so so precious. They also have great resources as well that you can access!

nice little book to explain what your hands are used for.

Our daughter had a little hitting problem,. And ever since we started reading this book it has a made difference. Now she knows our hands are for say Hi and giving hugs. I would reccomend this book to anyone in need.

This review is for the Board Book which is supposed to be for children up to 4 years old. I know some reviews mentioned it is a lot less substantive than the paperback yellow cover version but that is because that is for the 4-7 year old age group. I bought this version as my son is two and a half and has been begun hitting. The simplicity is good for his age but I do wish it would talk more about why it's not good to hit (perhaps the 4-7 year old version does that?). It just says "Hands are not for hitting. What are hands for? then has a page showing playing, building, hugging, etc." It's showing various things you can do with your hands in general but doesn't address when you are mad you should do this instead. Like when a toddler is mad, he isn't thinking "o yes, hands are for building sand castles". I'm trying to find a book that shows a child upset/mad and that hitting others isn't the answer... tell a parent or teacher what is wrong i.e. use your words instead. Also, it doesn't explain that hitting hurts, it's not nice, etc. We started adding to the Hands are not for hitting pages saying... "No hitting. Hitting hurts." and he seems to get the message. He hasn't stopped hitting all together yet but I do ask him here and there... do we hit? and he says "no hitting... hitting hurts. ouch" lol. Our son does like reading the book (nice illustrations) and it's definitely a good start so I would recommend it but there is some room for improvement in the text. If I find anothor book that would also be good to read along with this, I will update this posting.

Such a simple board book but the topic was necessary with my 1.5 year old. The wording and pictures are simple and entertaining enough that my toddler loves it! The statements are so simple that I’ve memorized most of them and can repeat as needed when a hitting episode arises.

this is wonderful to read and help teach my toddler!

Adore this book! I use it daily with clients to stress the importance of using kind hands and helping others. It's all about replacing hitting with a positive way of expressing how our hands are wonderful tools. Super effective and engaging

Update September 2nd 2019: After a few weeks of using this book I can say it has for sure worked. I changed the stars from a 4 to a 5. My son wants to read it every night and will repeat after me after I said “hands are not for hitting”. When he does try to hit now I repeat that snippet from the book to him and he instantly realizes that it was a no no and repeats the snippet back. We’ve seen a great reduction in hitting/pushing/aggressive behavior since using this book. I highly recommend it Original August 16th: My 2 year old toddler is delayed and his tantrums are epic meltdowns due to a lack of communication skills. Some of these chaotic meltdowns involves him hitting. We have worked really hard and used numerous tools to get him to understand that hitting is not okay. This book is a very colorful tool that helps make the lessons more tangible for a child with receptive language difficulties. Pictures make everything a bit easier for my child to grasp and I was able to sign along to some of the simple phrases for him to understand better. I agree with another reviewer that this book is too long and too much for a child under 2. I’d even go as far and say this is better for the 3 and up range and I wish I would’ve tried the board book first. However, I do like that this is a book he can grow into and have for years to come. Hands are not for hitting also has a lesson for parents and information in the back of the book. If your child has issues with hitting this is a great tool to try to get them more involved in the learning process of what is appropriate behavior for our hands. I can’t say if it really helped or not at this time since we’ve only had one read through, but it is a Book I will for sure be reading at every bedtime. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.