by Susie Windle | Jan 5, 2011 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Making connections with our children (and others) involves verbal and nonverbal communication. When scientists look at the way the brain functions as we connect with one another, they see that the processing that occurs in the brain’s left hemisphere is connected to...
by Susie Windle | Dec 8, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Parents: Practice Self Care
Heightened feelings of stress are familiar during the holidays because this time of year often includes the extra to-dos of the season, worries about finances, and additional time commitments. The holidays also set the stage for renewing family connections, which can...
by Susie Windle | Mar 17, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
A lot happens during the first half of your baby’s second year of life. You may have already received your baby’s first kisses and hugs or noticed your (now) toddler’s attempts to speak in full phrases. Another developmental accomplishment is also in the making: your...
by Susie Windle | Feb 3, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Imagine a mother holding and gazing at her baby, perhaps pursing her lips to make a kissing motion. At that, her baby’s lips move inward. Mother then widens her mouth and lips into a slight smile, to which baby responds by relaxing his or her lips, hinting at a grin....
by Susie Windle | Jan 6, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Adolescence is a tough developmental stage because during this part of their life kids are pulled in opposite directions. They have one foot still in childhood, with all the dependence of that age, and the other foot in adulthood, stepping toward independence....
by Susie Windle | Jan 7, 2009 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Social experience plays a part in the development of emotional understanding. In fact, preschoolers whose parents explicitly teach them about diverse emotions and frequently acknowledge their children’s emotional reactions calmly and with care are better able to judge...
by Susie Windle | Dec 10, 2008 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Temper tantrums for control, referred to as “Little Nero tantrums” by educator and author Margot Sunderland, are very different from distress tantrums. During a distress tantrum, a child’s brain and body are flooded with stress chemicals, and the child experiences and...
