Anger Management for Children

Has your child lost their temper? Did your child yell or scream or want to hit something?  Everyone gets angry and when kids are treated unfairly, they try to stand up for themselves by reacting in anger. It is important to teach children what to do and not to do when they are angry. Children have a lot of emotions. Anger is one emotion they…

Why Your Teen Doesn’t Talk to You

So that title might sound harsh.  You’re thinking, “Oh, so now it’s MY fault that my teenager doesn’t talk to me?  When I try so hard?” If you can realize some of the things you’re doing that are accidentally off-putting to your child, you’ll be better able to connect with him or her. 1)  I’m not doing anything other than talking to them.   Meaning:…

The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development

Pretend play or make-believe play (the acting out of stories which involve multiple perspectives and the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions) reflects a critical feature of the child’s cognitive and social development. The values of such imaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child. Studies have demonstrated cognitive benefits such as increases in language usage including subjunctives, future tenses,…

7 Tips for Helping Your Child Manage Stress

Like adults, kids also struggle with stress. Too many commitments, conflict in their families and problems with peers are all stressors that overwhelm children. The key to helping kids manage stress is teaching them to problem-solve, plan and know when to say yes and no to activities and commitments, she said. It isn’t to “make everything smooth and comfortable.” “If you don’t teach [your kids]…

10 Tips For Raising Resilient Kids

Childhood isn’t exactly stress-free. Kids take tests, learn new information, change schools, change neighborhoods, get sick, get braces, encounter bullies, make new friends and occasionally get hurt by those friends. What helps kids in navigating these kinds of challenges is resilience. Resilient kids are problem solvers. They face unfamiliar or tough situations and strive to find good solutions. Resilience isn’t birthright. It can be taught. A parent’s job…

Failure Helps Kids Succeed

Children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. “We focused on a widespread cultural belief that equates academic success with a high level of competence and failure with intellectual inferiority,”…

Stop Yelling So Your Kids Can Hear You

Yelling at your kids just makes you a “poster adult” for temper tantrums. Doing this unfortunately also gives your kids the message that you are not in control. It is also crucial to understand that kids feel unsafe when they perceive that their parents have no control. When you yell your children will likely either yell back or act out in some other negative way. As a…

Why Parents are Pushy

Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University, told Time, “Our research provides the first empirical evidence that parents sometimes want their child to fulfill their unfulfilled ambitions — for example, that they want their child to become a physician when they themselves were rejected for medical school.” Pushy parents seem to share a common trait: They view their children as part of themselves. Those…