Praise has long been extolled for its virtues as a positive parenting tool. When used correctly, praise is a great way to let kids know which behaviours are appropriate, help them rebound from setbacks, and build their self-esteem. Unfortunately, praise also has a dark side: Excessive, nonspecific admiration from parents has the potential to encourage narcissistic traits – while actually harming ...
Occasionally testing limits and boundaries through acts of defiance is a normal part of child development. Most kids break the rules to define their social role and express their desire for autonomy, which is why rebellious behaviour occurs most frequently from ages 2-3 and during early adolescence. For kids with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), however, being hostile and uncooperative isn't ...
Knowing when and how to discipline a child is never easy, but gifted kids present unique challenges that require patience and careful consideration. With their combination of emotional intensity, keen language skills, and need for fairness, gifted children can seem rebellious and argumentative – but their behaviour is often driven by good intentions. By knowing what to expect when parenting a ...
Kids misbehave for a wide variety of different reasons, and some children are inherently easier to parent than others. Finding the right methods of guidance can therefore feel confusing and overwhelming, especially if techniques that worked with one of your children don’t work with his or her siblings. However, while it’s true that parenting is an adaptive and ...
The last two years have been a period of prolonged stress and isolation for many people, leading to an increase ...
As a psychologist living and working in Toronto, where 51% of residents were born outside Canada, I deal with immigration related ...
Too often, the emotional side of giftedness is overlooked; for all that we laud the intellectual complexity of giftedness, seldom ...
Though much attention has been paid to the harmful effects of physically disciplining children, until recently relatively little research had been done into the psychological impact of yelling. Many people - experts and parents alike - were therefore surprised when a recent study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and published in the Journal of Child Psychology revealed that harsh ...
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, ...
