by Susie Windle | Aug 10, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Really listening is active. When you, the parent, really listen to what your child is trying to tell you, it’s important to let him or her know that you are willing to listen and want to understand. It is important to try to sum up what you think your child is saying...
by Susie Windle | Aug 3, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
It’s that time of year again—the beginning of a new school year. Whether this is your child’s first school experience or he or she is starting sixth grade, the new school term will present new challenges. As a parent, you can help make the transition back into the...
by Susie Windle | Jul 20, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Feelings enhance life, but they can also create some complications. If you have more than one child, quite different feelings may occur during a single shared situation. One child may feel excited about going to a first soccer game, for example, while the other...
by Susie Windle | Jul 13, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
To be emotionally intelligent, we need to operate a dimmer switch of sorts on our emotions rather than simply turn them on and off. In other words, emotional competence requires an ability to modulate emotions—even strong emotions—safely, respectfully, and directly....
by Susie Windle | Jun 15, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
As your toddler reaches the age of about eighteen months, he or she will realize that his or her angry “me” and loving “me” are within the same person. During this time, your toddler will also realize that the people he or she trusts and loves can also be the people...
by Susie Windle | May 18, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Your preschooler’s ability to describe a variety of feelings is one sign of emotional thinking. A year ago your child may have acted out angry feelings through aggressive behaviors, but more recently you may be noticing that he or she expresses ideas about anger...
by Susie Windle | Apr 21, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
Every child experiences stress in a variety of forms. As your child grows and develops, predictable types of stress might include being afraid of the dark, transitions inherent in going to school, peer pressure, and struggling with how to fit in. When ordinary stress...
by Susie Windle | Mar 30, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
How can we help our children develop a sense of responsibility? Let’s consider some of the possibilities. First, children need to experience their own feelings. We want to protect our children, yet we cannot shield them from all of life’s experiences and the emotions...
by Susie Windle | Feb 3, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
All parents experience times when their children exhibit challenging behaviors. Understanding the causes behind those challenging behaviors can help. If we make the mistake of looking only at children’s behavior rather than their level of distress and needs, we miss...
by Susie Windle | Jan 6, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
In reality, all parents lose their patience from time to time. As long as a child is not frightened when this happens, an angry response is unlikely to cause adverse long-term effects on the development of a child’s social and emotional brain. Most likely, when a...
