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 | 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 | Aug 21, 2013 | Discipline and Trying Times, Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Having clear family rules about fighting that hurts is important. A good place to set these rules is at a family meeting. Family meetings model communication with words, not fists. Working out problems through talking rather than physical fighting is supported by...
by Susie Windle | Aug 8, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, The Importance of Emotions
Empathy—feeling what another person might feel—is an emotional capacity more common in early childhood than during the preceding toddler years. Empathy is one of the important motivators of healthy social behavior that leads to sympathetic responses of concern and...
by Susie Windle | May 30, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Our relationships with others affect nearly all aspects of our lives. When people have good social skills—and the strong interpersonal relationships that follow—they feel good about themselves, are more productive, experience greater job satisfaction, and are...
by Susie Windle | Mar 14, 2012 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Effective social behavior is fundamental to living life. Caring about others, getting involved with others, recognizing friendship, and appreciating intimacy are important parts of our lives. We need connection with other humans, and social activity is foundational to...
by Susie Windle | Jun 15, 2011 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
An attitude, or our state of mind in the moment, is more transient than a belief. Yet this temporary state of mind does affect how we perceive, interpret, and respond in any given situation. Our attitude in the moment shapes how we feel about someone or something, and...
by Susie Windle | May 18, 2011 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills
Knowing when to step in to help your child if he or she is being picked on or left out of a group is sometimes difficult for parents. Children do need to have some challenges to develop skills. For example, they need to get into arguments to learn how to resolve them,...
by Susie Windle | May 12, 2010 | Parenting Playbook, Parenting Skills, Your Child's Brain
Beliefs are our ideas about how the world works, and beliefs are at the center of how we get to know ourselves and others. What we believe is cultivated by repeated experiences, which become the basis of generalizations in our minds—generalizations about how the world...
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...