by Susie Windle | Oct 16, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, Your Child's Brain
By the time your toddler is twenty-four to thirty months old, he or she will be able to create mental symbols and ideas. These multisensory pictures allow your toddler to form a mental image of his or her wants and desires, and your toddler can label it with words....
by Susie Windle | Oct 9, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Whining, that fussy tone of voice between talking and crying, is commonly heard from toddlers, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a spoiled child. Often, children whine when they can’t truly express their feelings. You are most likely to hear whining when...
by Susie Windle | Aug 28, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Every child, even an only child, has the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that are commonly associated with the catchphrase “sibling rivalry.” If you look underneath the conflicts that go along with sibling rivalry, you will usually find questions: Am I truly and...
by Susie Windle | Aug 21, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Having clear family rules about fighting that hurts is important. A good place to set these rules is at a family meeting. Family meetings model communication with words, not fists. Working out problems through talking rather than physical fighting is supported by...
by Susie Windle | Aug 14, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Preschool is one way to gently introduce children to a school setting. When school is viewed as inviting and tempting, a love of learning is more likely to develop. Preschool is appropriately a time for children to explore, feed their curiosity, take initiative, and...
by Susie Windle | Aug 7, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Children can be, and most often are, quite resilient. That does not mean they are immune to stress, however, or to the resulting responses in the brain and body. In fact, children are highly vulnerable to stress during the first few years of life. As a parent, you can...
by Susie Windle | Jul 31, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
As parents, we become expert about a child’s body. For example, we know that a fever occurs when our child’s body temperature is above 98.6 degrees, and we know to clean a cut he or she has suffered to avoid infection. It is also important for parents to understand...
by Susie Windle | Jul 24, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Research findings suggest that the quality of conversations we have with our children make a strong case for putting down our cell phones. To learn more about children’s language development, researchers attached small digital recorders to a group of children as a way...
by Susie Windle | Jul 10, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Parents do need to set limits, and the hard part about doing this is deciding which lines to draw. Your personal values and attitudes will guide you, and it will also be helpful to remember to set your boundaries wide and then enforce them while keeping your child’s...
by Susie Windle | Jul 3, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Fear is a basic human emotion. We have all felt fearful at some time. Fear is even necessary for survival. So, when we are helping our children deal with their feelings of fear, we want them to develop courage. How can parents help young children look at and release...
