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 ...
It's natural for parents to get somewhat desperate when faced with a stubborn child, and to escalate the severity of rules and punishments in the hope of provoking obedience, but as most parents know, this approach is hit-and-miss at best. It's ultimately more effective to have a ready supply of clear, enforceable rules memorized beforehand, so that one can apply ...
We want our children to be successful. And we want them to be happy. That goes without saying. But what exactly does that mean? For most parents that means doing well academically at a great school. It can also mean following in a parent’s successful career. Doctors want their children to become doctors. Restaurant owners assume their children will ...
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 ...
Anxiety disorders are found in children much more often than many people realize; ten to twenty percent of all children ...
Autism has been in the spotlight for many years. In movies, television, and novels, autistic characters are portrayed to have ...
With climate change becoming an increasingly common theme in politics, news, and even entertainment, it’s no wonder more young ...
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 ...
Many years ago I remember a New Yorker cartoon depicting two parents bringing their child to school for the first time and talking to the principal. To paraphrase what I remember from the cartoon their comment was something like this: “We have raised Johnny so that he has never experienced a harsh word or any negativity in his whole life. ...
Even if you feel that your child could never be the target of bullying and you've ingrained into their mind your admonishments against bullying others, bullying is something that every parent should know as much about as possible. Bullying affects not just the bullies and their victims. It affects everyone. Bullying can tear apart a classroom, a school or an ...
