School has been in session for a couple of months now, but winter break is still weeks away. This is prime time for kids to start to be a little less focused, distracted, and perhaps even daydream during school time. In our culture of hyper-stimulation and constant information flow, the idea of daydreaming often get met with judgmental glances and even reprimand from teachers. While we all want our...
Preschoolers aren’t exactly known for their patience and self-control. Have you ever counted how many times a day your young child says, “mom” or “dad” followed by some sort of question or request? Although preschoolers are still learning skills like patience, research is teaching us that how we interact with them may help them learn these lessons. In a recent study, researchers followed...
Do you remember learning to read in school? I vividly remember the nervousness I felt when the teacher asked me to read aloud for the whole class. I was a pretty good student, but even I felt put on the spot in these moments. Now imagine that you are a student who is struggling to read. You might mispronounce words or not know how to even start reading a new word. How would you feel in front of all...
The Science Behind Yelling: How Emotion Affects Listening Remember the last time you “lost it” with your kids? I mean yelling, of course. As parents, we’ve all had times when our kids pushed our buttons a bit too far and we couldn’t contain our strong emotions. Have you wondered how the strong emotion in your voice affects how your kids listen? Does yelling make them listen to your instructions...
Many of us are now aware of the damaging long-term effects of growing up in poverty. The stress experienced by adults and kids who struggle to meet their basic needs can put kids at risk for lower academic achievement, health problems and emotional difficulties. On the other side of the economic spectrum, however, we are finding that kids who grow up in an environment of affluence may also be at risk...
As parents, we are faced with an onslaught of products that claim to improve our child’s learning and intelligence. Manufacturers of toys, games, and electronic devices all try to convince us that they will make all the difference in your child’s development. It turns out that perhaps the easiest gift we can give our child’s developing brain is sleep. We all know the importance of sleep, but...
