Families are busier than ever and one of the things I find they often struggle with is effective communication. When a family describes a situation where they feel “stuck” or as though they tend to face the same problems on a frequent basis, improving the family’s communication skills can be very helpful. Having effective communication …Read More
Helping Your Child Succeed In School I: Healthy Food and Exercise
Sep 16, 2010
A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog about measuring teacher effectiveness. While I was writing this blog, I reflected on how many different factors influence children’s success in school, and how you can’t just pin everything on the teacher. This gave me the idea to write a series of blogs about many of …Read More
Coping With Grief
Jan 18, 2010
How do I help my child grieve the loss of a loved one? There are several things you can do to help your child grieve the loss of a loved one. Perhaps the most important is to help them find ways to process the loss. Consider these ideas as you help your child grieve: Initiate …Read More
Coping with Childhood Stress
Jan 10, 2010
According to an article entitled The Kids Aren’t All Right, published in the January edition of the Monitor on Psychology (a publication of the American Psychological Association), a significant number of children ages 8 to 17 experience significant stress. Specifically, in a recent survey, 44 percent of children reported sleep difficulties related to worrying, over …Read More
What Works in the Treatment of ADHD in Children
Dec 29, 2009
Given that ADHD is the most prevalent psychiatric diagnosis in childhood, it seems important for researchers to understand what interventions are most effective for children with ADHD. The MTA study is one of the first large scale, NIMH funded projects to compare the effectiveness of several different intervention approaches. The MTA study consisted of a …Read More
At What Age Should Children Be Allowed to Play Video Games?
Dec 1, 2009
When should children be allowed to play video games? This is a difficult question with which many parents struggle and can apply to many forms of technology (e.g., TV, computer, cell phones, iPods). Such issues will probably grow thornier as technology advances and becomes even more ubiquitous. As a kid, I grew up playing video …Read More
Can Praise Be Harmful to Children?
Dec 1, 2009
It seems like it is common wisdom to praise our kids for things like their athletic skills, musical ability, intelligence, creativity, talent, and so on. We want them to internalize all of our praise and have high self-esteem, right? Interestingly, the research does not bear this out. Praising kids for things that are not directly …Read More
Helping Your Child to Grieve
Dec 1, 2009
There are several things you can do to help your child grieve the loss of a loved one. Perhaps the most important is to help them find ways to process the loss. Consider these ideas as you help your child grieve: Initiate conversations about the lost loved one. Tell your child gently about the loved …Read More
Building Resiliency
Oct 26, 2009
According an article in Monitor on Psychology, a publication for the American Psychological Association, nearly 20 percent of today’s children will experience depression at some point in time. This has led researchers to question if it is possible to utilize curriculum and teaching strategies to decrease the risk for depression symptoms. The researchers found that …Read More
"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell (book recommendation)
Jan 2, 2009
I recently finished Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers. I highly recommend it as an enjoyable and informative read. In this book, Gladwell engagingly analyzes what it takes to become “successful,” which is a loaded term in and of itself. Many people often conflate success with happiness. Although these terms are related, we all know people who are …Read More