Most human beings have a tendency to assess things from the outside in, using measurable external factors such as performance and achievement to ascertain how intelligent (or “gifted”) a person is. Indeed, the standardized psychological tests used to detect giftedness entirely overlook the behavioural and emotional aspects of giftedness. This sets up a damaging precedent, one that leads to gifted ...
For the past few months, I am asked almost daily about the new sex education curriculum introduced by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and how it is going to affect sexual orientation and gender identity in young children. There is not much research on this topic, most relevant is a six year study of 12000 adolescents conducted by Dr. Ross O'Hara from ...
Anxiety disorders are found in children much more often than many people realize; ten to twenty percent of all children will suffer the symptoms of a full-fledged anxiety disorder prior to the age of 18, making this the most common mental health issue in young people. It's often overlooked, however, as it's difficult for parents to ascertain the difference between the ...
There can be few things more devastating to a family than a suicide of a child. Not just one person is lost but the whole family loses something that it can never get back. Most suicides, however, could have been prevented. This is why it is so vital for families to learn to identify the signals of potential suicide to ...
Parenting is one of the most demanding jobs one will ever have. A parent’s desire to do the right ...
Politics has always been a controversial topic, but rarely has our political climate been as divisive as it is right ...
Too often, the emotional side of giftedness is overlooked; for all that we laud the intellectual complexity of giftedness, seldom ...
From fun to addiction. How to deal with your child's obsession with gaming? Imagine the horror – You are looking across the breakfast table at your 12 year-old and you suddenly realize beyond a doubt that you are staring into the bleary eyes of an addict. Questions flood your mind. How could this have happened? Why didn’t I notice it before? ...
As popular media started using psychological term 'executive functions', more and more parents are learning about the importance of increasing executive functioning capabilities as a critical developmental stepping stone in virtually every area of child’s life. But what is ‘executive functioning’ and how does it relate to your child’s development into a teenager and young adult? First, executive ...
So here you are. Your child has done something wrong or hasn’t done something they should have done. In some way your child has not behaved as you want them to. For many parents this signals a need for discipline. And for most of parents this more often than not means negative discipline. It means taking something away such ...
Imagine the following… You've just arrived at your destination without the conscious realization that you were driving for the past 30 minutes; you were on autopilot. Or… you finished half bag of popcorn at the movie theatre without consciously realizing you've gobbled so much popcorn that now your stomach is on edge. Or yet another… you catch yourself day-dreaming and realize ...
