by Susie Windle | May 8, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
According to many research studies, moving our bodies directly affects our brain chemistry. When we change our physical state, we change our emotional state. This means that moving can help kids reset emotionally, and resetting emotionally will allow them to feel...
by Susie Windle | Mar 13, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
For a toddler, the reasons to resist bedtime and sleep can be many. Some toddlers feel they are losing control when they let sleep take over. Others have a hard time giving up the fun they have when they are awake and with the rest of the family. Some toddlers feel...
by Susie Windle | Jan 23, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play
“Floor time” does not have to occur on the floor. Floor time simply refers to time spent interacting with your child on his or her own turf, where your child’s interests, resourcefulness, and thoughts are considered. When you play on a level that is eye to eye, which...
by Susie Windle | Dec 26, 2012 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Most parents tell their children, “Talk to us if you are upset or have a problem.” Yet sometimes that statement can be more accurately translated as, “Talk to us if you are upset or have a problem, when it is convenient for us.” A child can find it hard to believe...
by Susie Windle | Sep 19, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Words can hurt. In fact, words—along with the tone of voice that delivers them—can do real damage. Just think about comments that have been directed your way over the years. Comments of criticism, shame, rejection, anger, or mockery have an impact on our feelings,...
by Susie Windle | Sep 12, 2012 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
As emotional beings, we all need more than food and water to feel satisfied and healthy. Eric Berne, a psychologist, first coined the term “psychological hungers.” Three of the psychological hungers he first identified were stimulation, recognition, and structure....
by Susie Windle | Aug 29, 2012 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
When all is going smoothly—meaning the children are happy and the parents are too—it seems easy to be respectful. When kids are doing something they aren’t supposed to be doing, such as pulling on the dog’s tail, knocking over a sibling’s tower of blocks, or avoiding...
by Susie Windle | Aug 22, 2012 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
How we all make sense of things and create meaning from our experiences depends on our state of mind. As parents, our state of mind importantly affects how we create the meanings tied to the behaviors exhibited by our children. Specifically, it’s important to notice...
by Susie Windle | Aug 8, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Empathy—feeling what another person might feel—is an emotional capacity more common in early childhood than during the preceding toddler years. Empathy is one of the important motivators of healthy social behavior that leads to sympathetic responses of concern and...
by Susie Windle | Jul 18, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Most parents know from experience that telling stories can both distract and calm down children. Now there is science to explain how and why stories are so important and powerful. The right side of our brain processes emotions and autobiographical memories. It is our...
