by Susie Windle | Feb 26, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
We all have to wait from time to time—in supermarket lines and traffic, at restaurants and doctors’ offices—and sometimes we must wait with our children. Successfully managing waiting time with a young child starts with adjusting everyone’s expectations—yours and your...
by Susie Windle | Feb 5, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Bullying is a big problem. It affects millions of kids—including victims, the bullies, and bystanders—and can have long-term damaging effects on the brain. Bullying is an issue to be taken seriously by parents, teachers, and caregivers. Some bullies use physical...
by Susie Windle | Jan 15, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
As we have discussed before in Parenting Playbook, it is important for children to learn about, understand, and have words for their feelings. It is also important for children to understand that feelings are temporary. This temporary state means that emotions are...
by Susie Windle | Dec 4, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Temper tantrums typically occur because connections in a child’s brain have not yet developed in a way that allows for powerful feelings to be managed in socially acceptable ways. This week, we will look at distress tantrums, temper tantrums that are the result of...
by Susie Windle | Oct 30, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Structured activities for and with your child can be fun . . . some of the time. For example, it might be fun for you and your child to enjoy an art, gymnastics, or Kindermusik class. Just be sure to balance structured activities within the context of your already...
by Susie Windle | Oct 23, 2013 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Board games provide a great way to spend time together as a family, and playing games as a family is one way to practice social skills—particularly around developing a healthy attitude toward winning and losing. In order to teach how to win and lose gracefully, a few...
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 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...
