by Susie Windle | Jan 12, 2011 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Early experiences influence your child’s later life. What your child learns about the world today influences how he or she will interpret new events as well as shape what is learned next. What is learned next then influences the theories developed about the world as...
by Susie Windle | Dec 29, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Parents: Practice Self Care
New Year’s resolutions center around changing habits. Regardless of whether you are hoping to ditch an unhealthy habit or adopt a healthy new one, you will need to get your mind involved in your plan. You not only have to be aware of the changes you want to make, you...
by Susie Windle | Apr 14, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Though boys and girls are different, most psychological gender differences are malleable. Knowing how sex differences emerge is important if you want to reduce stereotyping and cross-train the minds of children to allow them to develop all of their abilities. One...
by Susie Windle | Aug 26, 2009 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
The beginning of the school year has arrived for many children, so taking a look at the importance of recess seems timely. Recess is defined as a break in the school day that offers children a chance to engage in free, unstructured, active play. Research about recess...
by Susie Windle | Jun 10, 2009 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, The Power of Play, Your Child's Brain
Children can be passionately possessive of a toy, and a couple brain-based reasons are behind their feelings of ownership. First, emotional attachment releases opioids in the brain—even if the attachment is to a toy. A child gets a sense of well-being when playing...
by Susie Windle | Jan 28, 2009 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Disciplining is more than managing behavior. Disciplining your child involves teaching. Through discipline, you will develop your child’s social, emotional, and moral intelligence. The words you choose when you discipline can either activate the higher thinking brain...
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 31, 2008 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
As Lawrence J. Cohen says, there are a lot of great reasons to choose a “meeting on the couch” over a “time out.”* Whenever a problem of any kind arises, a meeting on the couch will allow parent and child to reconnect. Having “a problem” means that somewhere a...
by Susie Windle | Dec 17, 2008 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions, Your Child's Brain
Distinguishing between a tantrum for control and a distress tantrum is important so that you can respond in a way that will be most helpful to the development of your child. The two tantrum types require two different reactions in order to nurture essential brain...
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...
