When Daniel Hernandez took Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' hand and asked her to squeeze his if she could hear him, he was applying a form of Verbal First Aid.

What is the explanation for kids who kill? For the kids who fail to internalize social norms? For the kids who grow into narcissists or psychopaths? Are they just born defective through some blameless anomaly?

What has happened in our culture and in our families that we are more worried about whether our kids like us than whether we properly prepare them for a life?

That our words have not only emotional impacts on others, but measurable, magnificent physiological effects is nothing short of astounding.

Therapeutic suggestion is particularly effective with children. Logic and expectation are not yet the barriers they become for adults and it is easier to reach them with healing suggestion.

The mother's words and her tone not only soothe her child emotionally, they begin to slow down the inflammatory response so that a disaster is averted.

The goal is for parents to make sure physicians attend not only to the medicine but to the positive emotion that contributes to healing and reduces pain and to forge an alliance.

Behavior management with children is a way of life, not a one-time application. It is a way of communicating and relating over time.

Children don't use words. But they do SIGNAL. They scream. They cry. They fuss. They pout. They cling. What do they signal for? Proximity and relief. The promise of safety.

Children need adults to regulate their emotional arousal so that a traumatic event is encoded in a way that promotes a healthy concept of themselves and their ability to survive.

Nothing moves us faster, spreads faster or stops us faster than fear. If we can create panic, can't we also create calm?

According to a growing number of experts, a human's need -- and search -- for safety starts at conception.