by Susie Windle | Sep 3, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Your Child's Brain
Learning, practicing, and acquiring good social skills is an important process. Good social skills include having the ability to grasp another person’s perspective, to create mental models of others, and to understand that the beliefs and intentions of different...
by Susie Windle | Aug 27, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Children thrive in our world when they thrive on the inside. The inside—where personality, imagination, heart, and mind reside—often seems to receive less attention than the behaviors and interactions we observe on the outside. Yet a shift that occurs in that internal...
by Susie Windle | Aug 13, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Parents can pass on moral values to their kids, but it takes a little thought and energy. Values are passed along based on what kids see and hear and by what they experience in their parent-child relationship. If they see honesty, they learn honesty. If they...
by Susie Windle | Aug 6, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
For many reasons, parents want to believe they can control their child’s toilet training. Some parents feel pressure from friends and family to get started while others simply want a break from smelly laundry and the cost of disposable diapers. However, it is a good...
by Susie Windle | Jul 23, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Sibling rivalry can be seen in children’s ordinary skirmishes over the TV’s remote control or a video game’s joystick. However, what about chronic physical or verbal abuse? And what if chronic physical or verbal abuse is directed primarily at one sibling? That’s...
by Susie Windle | Jun 4, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
When you stretch out conversations with your toddler, you give your child an opportunity to connect his or her inner thoughts with the outside world. It’s really simple to stretch out the chatter when you take time to talk about everything under the sun. Conversation...
by Susie Windle | Apr 23, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
What are some of the healthy ways you can get your toddler to cooperate? Here are just a few ideas: Frame your request with an outcome that appeals to your child. For example, “We are going home now and then we can _________.” A toddler’s natural sense of fairness is...
by Susie Windle | Apr 2, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
The amount of time you spend face to face with your child matters. When you spend time face to face, you are sending the message that you delight in just being together. For your child, there is magic in your eye contact, smile, and voice. You are sending the...
by Susie Windle | Mar 26, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Power is a human attribute that comes in a number of forms. Confidence is a kind of power that if pinpointed on a negative-positive spectrum would tip toward the positive end. Examples of confidence include standing up for what is right, a willingness to be safely...
by Susie Windle | Mar 19, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
At times, a child’s challenging behaviors are fueled by his or her need for emotional contact with you, rather than a desire for attention. The need for emotional contact is genetically programmed, so if a child feels that connection is lost, he or she may act...
