by Susie Windle | Mar 8, 2017 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Downtime is important for the healthy growth and development of your child. Your child’s brain needs breaks in order to process the incoming flood of new information. Being idle allows the brain to take what it already knows and then think, reflect, and change. Idle...
by Susie Windle | Jan 18, 2017 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Your Child's Brain
If you have ever taken your child with you shopping, you probably realize that stores—especially stores with toys—can activate the seeking system in your child’s brain. Curiosity, exploration, willfulness, drive, expectancy, and desire are a part of this system. In...
by Susie Windle | Dec 21, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Your Child's Brain
Did you know that you can help your kids improve their ability to remember? Memory is a brain function that gets stronger with practice. The more we exercise memory, the stronger it becomes. So, when you give your kids practice at remembering, you improve their...
by Susie Windle | Sep 21, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
As scientists learn more about how the brain works, they find extensive links between movement and learning. No wonder kids move so much! For example, some research has revealed that gesturing and pantomiming speed up the process of learning to talk. They also...
by Susie Windle | Sep 7, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Children develop their ability to reason at different chronological ages. Some children arrive at the age of reason when they turn four while others are seven or eight years old before they have reasoning powers. It makes sense then to instruct children accordingly....
by Susie Windle | Jul 27, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Your Child's Brain
Inhibition is that little voice that reminds us we might need to forego what we want right now in the interest of our long-range or larger goals. The brains of babies and young children have yet to develop this little voice of inhibition, which means they can and do...
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 22, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Your preschooler is learning like a sponge soaking up water. She is learning to use her senses, move her body, regulate her behavior, and engage you in conversations. When she learns while combining more than one of these activities, her nervous system gets a better...
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...