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...
by Susie Windle | Jun 8, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parents: Practice Self Care
Eating a nutritious diet is important for parents because certain foods produce key chemicals that influence emotions. Developing a habit of eating regularly and healthfully will help you control your mood and your sense of well-being, making it easier to do the hard...
by Susie Windle | Feb 17, 2016 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Self-talk is powerful because having conversations with ourselves—even silently—links thought, language, and action. Self-talk is really like a delay switch to action allowing us to think things through. Children are great teachers for showing us how language can...
by Susie Windle | Jan 6, 2016 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
In reality, all parents lose their patience from time to time. As long as a child is not frightened when this happens, an angry response is unlikely to cause adverse long-term effects on the development of a child’s social and emotional brain. Most likely, when a...
by Susie Windle | Apr 8, 2015 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Parents: Practice Self Care, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Thinking clearly is a lot easier if we have a way to keep our emotions in check. Some researchers refer to this as “separation of affect.” This ability to detach from emotions caused by frustration is a skill that allows people to think through solutions to problems...
by Susie Windle | Dec 3, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Sensory Information
The holiday season is here, and it is often during this time that one personality trait stands out—perfectionism. The holidays are the time of year that seems to bring out the desire for everything to be “perfect”—creating the perfect meal, planning the perfect family...
by Susie Windle | Jul 30, 2014 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Last week Parenting Playbook looked at the distinction between sibling rivalry and bullying at home. This week, let’s look at some ideas to consider when siblings disagree. When siblings are in the throes of a disagreement, it can be easy for parents to feel like...
by Susie Windle | May 21, 2014 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Parents: Practice Self Care
As parents, learning to control our own behavior influences our children and their actions. When parents and children feel out of control at the same time, a caring and constructive interaction is rarely the outcome. One way to stay connected to both feeling and being...
