New situations are difficult for many children. Going back to school is a filled with new situations—a new classroom, teacher, classmates, schedule, and responsibilities. Think about how anxious you would be about starting a new job every year of your life and you will know what children experience with the start of the new school year. But there are ways to reduce your child’s anxiety…
Back to School – 10 Ways To Reduce Back-To-School Anxiety
Back To School – Child’s Back-To-School Anxiety
How do we recognize kids’ anxiety? And how do we know if our child’s anxiety level is typical or problematic? Typical anxiety Some anxiety about returning to school is typical in kids. Most kids have a little anxiety about who their teacher will be and what the new year will bring. Kids may have some difficulty falling asleep or some nightmares at the very beginning…
10 Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew
10 things every child with autism wishes you knew 1)First of all I am a child. I have Autism. I’m not only “Autistic.” My autism is only one aspect of my character. Does not define meas a person. You are a person with thoughts, feelings and talents. Or you’re just fat, skinny, tall, short, short-sighted. Perhaps these are some things I notice when you meet, but this is not necessarily what you are. As an adult, you have some control of how they self-define. If you want to delete a feature,can be expressed differently. As a child I’m still discovering. Neither you or I may know what…
Raising Successful Children
Raising Successful Children PHRASES like “tiger mom” and “helicopter parent” have made their way into everyday language. But does overparenting hurt, or help? Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the optimal parent is one who is involved and responsive, who sets high expectations but respects her child’s autonomy. These “authoritative parents” appear to hit the…
Traits of the ‘Get It Done’ Personality: Laser Focus, Resilience, and True Grit
Traits of the ‘Get It Done’ Personality: Laser Focus, Resilience, and True Grit Angela L. Duckworth (left) of the U. of Pennsylvania studies personality traits, including grit, that help people succeed. The Successful Academic People who get things done and accomplish their goals often share these traits: Resilience The ability to recover from setbacks and cope effectively with stress Grit Perseverance and passion for challenging long-term…
What Colour Best Represents Who You are
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT Imagine you are an artist. You are asked to paint the dress of the girl in the illustration. You have before you an array of colors: 1. RED 2. PINK 3. YELLOW 4. ORANGE 5. BLUE 6. PURPLE 7. GREEN 8. BROWN 9. BLACK 10. WHITE You are asked to use a color to convey an emotion or feeling. (Write…
How to Overcome Being Anxious About Being Anxious
Anxiety sensitivity is “the tendency to respond fearfully to bodily sensations associated with fear and anxiety.” Put simply, it’s “the fear of fear.” People who are prone to anxiety sensitivity tend to catastrophize, or automatically assume that the worst will happen. According to authors and clinical psychologists Margo C. Watt, Ph.D, and Sherry H. Stewart, Ph.D, in their excellent book Overcoming the Fear of Fear: How…
“Helicopter Parents”? “Monster Parents”? “Free-range Parenting?” – Part 4 Free-range Parenting
Definition Free-range or slow parenting (just like slow food), refers to parents who try to give their kids more independence—those who step back and let their kids learn from experience. Free-range parenting is based on the notion “that we can give our children the same kind of freedom we had [as kids] without going nuts with worry”. The idea is to “Prepare the child for…
Five Things to Know About Anger
Anger is a frequently misunderstood emotion. People confuse it with aggression and violence, they think of it as mostly unhealthy, and they fail to recognize the times in their lives when their anger has been positive. To try and rectify those misunderstandings, here are five important things to know about anger. Anger is different from aggression Often, anger is confused with aggression. However, the two…
“Helicopter Parents”? “Monster Parents”? “Free-Range Parenting?” – Part 3 – Monster Kids: The Case in Hong Kong
“Monster Kids” refers to a group of children who are spoiled by their parents, resulting in lack of basic self-care ability. Characteristics of Monster Kids in Hong Kong “Princess / Prince Disease” – they are unable to brush their teeth, to eat, to get dress and even to go to the toilet. They need a maid or their parents to do it for them. Bossy…