While finding out that your child has taken something which does not belong to her is stressful regardless of your child's age, it's often particularly upsetting when dealing with an adolescent. Unlike younger children, who sometimes steal “accidentally” solely because they do not yet understand the concepts of ownership and/or transaction, teenagers are old enough to understand that such ...
Too often, the emotional side of giftedness is overlooked; for all that we laud the intellectual complexity of giftedness, seldom do we contemplate—let alone praise—the emotional depth and complexity that accompanies it. The added emotional complexity of gifted children manifests in many different ways. It cannot be said that gifted children simply feel “more” than their non-gifted counterparts; ...
Dear Young Reader, Are you in trouble? Not the kind of trouble that might land you in juvie like stealing a car. But the kind of trouble that finds you in hot water with just about everyone in your life including the few friends that you might still have. It might be your parents being upset that you haven’t ...
Narcissism screams from the headlines nowadays. Google searches for “narcissism” have doubled since 2013. Writers hotly debate on the narcissism of each USA presidential candidate. Closer to home, doting parents worry they may unwittingly be raising a narcissist. As a former teenage narcissist and member of a multi-generational narcissistic family, here's a few pointers for how not to raise a narcissist ...
Not every relationship works out. This is true whether the relationship in question is a friendship, romantic relationship, or the ...
As children grow older, their behaviours change dramatically. While a hysterical tantrum over something minor is completely normal at two ...
For parents, even the little white lies that children sometimes tell - e.g., claiming to have completed their homework ...
Anger is a notoriously infectious emotion, easily setting off the desire to react in like kind. Many of us were not taught how to effectively deal with anger during our own childhoods, so when we experience anger in a child, we struggle to react in the way we feel we ought to. Keeping ourselves calm and judicious may prove possible, ...
I recently stumbled upon the article "Music Lessons Increase IQ" written by my former UofT professor Dr. Glenn Schellenberg and published at "Psychological Science". His research studies show that 3 years of weekly music lessons resulted in 6-7% increase in IQ in 9 year olds. This research findings highlight the importance of music for developing child's brain. Music is a fundamental part ...
Teen depression is notoriously difficult for parents to understand and manage; not only is telling the difference between normal moodiness and depression sometimes challenging, parents are confronted with the fact that they cannot simply intervene and protect their child as they would have when he or she was younger. While parents are an essential source of support, a teen—like ...
Mindfulness is a concept which has, in recent decades, received quite a lot of attention both from mental health professionals and within the media. Mindfulness is generally defined as a process wherein an individual learns to pay focused, mindful attention to his or her internal and external experiences, and so becomes more aware of the present moment. He or she ...
