Dr. Tali Shenfield holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Toronto and is a licensed school and clinical psychologist. She has taught at the University of Toronto and has worked at institutions including the Hospital for Sick Children, Hincks-Dellcrest Centre, TDSB, and YCDSB. Dr. Shenfield is the Founder and Clinical Director of Advanced Psychology Services.
Almost all children go through a period of being afraid of the dark. This may manifest as a simple fear of darkness itself or as a fear of monsters or intruders who only come out at night. What’s more, these fears often last longer than parents realize; according to a study conducted in Australia, 64% of preteens and teens (those ...
One of the biggest myths about children is the idea that they lack empathy by nature. In reality, though children can be self-focused and lack knowledge and perspective, they’re hard-wired to feel empathy for others. How much this quality develops, however, is largely dependent on how a child is raised. Empathy is, after all, part instinct and part learned ...
For years, low self-esteem was used as something of a catch-all scapegoat. If a child was bullying others, failing at school, or getting into trouble, his (or her) self-esteem was the first place parents and teachers looked when trying to solve the issue. Recently, however, research has corrected some of our prior assumptions about self-esteem: In actuality, low self-esteem is ...
One of the best parts of being a parent is getting to witness how your child changes and develops. Watching your child take her first steps, say her first words, and get dressed by herself for the first time invariably evokes feelings of pride and joy. Most parents enthusiastically do their best to facilitate these changes: They hold their child’...
When we hear the phrase “learning disability,” the first thing that usually springs to mind is the image of a child who struggles to read or stay focused at school. We immediately think of the academic issues these kids face and overlook what is, for them, often the most upsetting aspect of being “different”: Not fitting in. The vast majority ...
With schools and extra-curriculum activities being completely shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, our children are locked at home and have to go through major adjustments. While talking to parents, I learned that most of them quickly gave up on screen time restrictions as they don’t want to hear constant complaints from their children about how bored ...
Young women have always struggled with societal pressures where body image is concerned. For girls coming of age in the era of social media, however, this pressure has become substantially more intense and pervasive. Not only are girls today expected to grow up to be powerful, confident career women, they feel they have to compete with the heavily edited physiques ...
With cases of coronavirus continuing to mount around the world, it’s all but impossible to shield kids from news that make them anxious. Though COVID-19 virus generally does not cause serious illness in children, that doesn’t stop kids from worrying about the implications of dealing with a frightening new disease. Kids can be exposed to misinformation about coronavirus, ...
So here you are. Your child has done something wrong or hasn’t done something they should have done. In ...
Politics has always been a controversial topic, but rarely has our political climate been as divisive as it is right ...
Sometimes classroom behavior problems signal giftedness. Brad and Karen were at their wits end. Their grade school children once again ...
