Angela Hanscom is a pediatric occupational therapist who has written important (and popular) posts on this blog about child development and the unfortunate way that many schools fail to meet the needs of young children. Her first, in 2014, was…
Rewards and punishments are conditional, but our love and positive regard for our kids should be unconditional. Here’s how to change the conversation and the behavior. “I feel a sense of dread as bedtime rolls around. Here we go again.”…
Last month, I picked up my children from their first day back in American elementary school after three years at a French school in Belgium. They both looked glum. “Did you make any friends?” I asked hopefully. “What’s the point?”…
Imagine a drug that could enhance a child’s creativity, critical thinking and resilience. Imagine that this drug were simple to make, safe to take, and could be had for free.https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/national/doctor-s-orders-let-children-just-play/article_2feb1c29-26c9-5d7b-ae2c-2318a24a8d4f.html
Why not let them walk to school alone? Parents and communities are figuring out ways to give their children more independence—and it just may help them to become less anxious, more self-reliant adults. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-overprotected-american-child-1527865038 (Wall Street Journal subscription required)
Most American kids don’t spend large chunks of their day catching salamanders and poking sticks into piles of fox poop. In a nation moving toward greater standardization of its public-education system, programs centered around getting kids outside to explore aren’t…
As parents, we want our children to be emotionally resilient — able to handle life’s ups and downs. But parents’ ability to foster resilience in our children hinges a great deal on our own emotional resilience. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/well/family/to-raise-resilient-kids-be-a-resilient-parent.html?smid=pl-share
SHOEBURYNESS, England — Educators in Britain, after decades spent in a collective effort to minimize risk, are now, cautiously, getting into the business of providing it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/world/europe/britain-playgrounds-risk.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times&action=click&contentCollection=todayspaper®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Benefits of early education found to persist for years, bolstering graduation, reducing retention, and reducing special education placements. www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/11/lasting-payoff-early-ed
When I published The Hurried Child in 1981, I was labeled a Pop psychologist and the book was not even reviewed iContemporary Psychology, the prestigious monthly book review journal of the American Psychological Association. Over the last decade or so…