Creative Success Depends on Long View
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In this podcast, we feature author Taylor Marsh, who [read more]
Listen Up Moms: Trust Your Judgment
Research in education and psychology.
Over the last thirty years, research in education and psychology that is focused on struggling children produces one consistent truth—early identification and intervention trumps waiting and acting later. [...]
Homework Shenanigans: Turning Down The Heat
It would be interesting if we could take a psychological temperature reading across the country while homework is being conducted.
Typically from four in the afternoon to about 9 o’clock at night. My sense is that, in many households, the [...]
Lost Opportunities In Every Day Interactions
Marnie, a five year-old came to my office accompanying her mother who wanted to talk to me about her older sister, Jocelyn.
When I went out to greet the mom, Marnie was on some type of head set connected to a small screen device. Marnie [...]
Hedonistic Pirates: Modern Indulgences
One day I was working in one of my favorite local café’s to focus down and get work done.
Sitting close by was the unwitting subject of this discussion.
The café is a public place. There were lots of people sitting around doing what they [...]
“Help, My Child Is Drowning In Worksheets”
I recently met parents of a kindergarten child named Cameron who is showing all of the signs of early school struggling.
As parents will often do, they brought in sample of the child’s work. They showed me worksheets that Cameron has had [...]
On Zombie Pigs, Aliens & ADHD Boys
There are competing agendas out there within the professional realms that I operate.
On one hand there are the parents and the schools trying to get a segment of the population (ADHD boys) to get on track and be connected to the mandated curriculum. [...]
Why Your Kids Are Tuning You Out
Modern parenting can make you nostalgic for the good old days.
You know, the days when kids went outside to play and basically didn’t see their mother for a solid eight hours (except when she made them a nutritious bologna sandwich on white [...]
10 Parenting Resolutions For The New Year
The more miles I have logged in working with children and their parents the less definitive I find myself.
There are few absolutes when dealing with kids and the complexity of variables that are affecting them. Variables such as the child’s [...]
Letting Parents Off the Hook (sort of)!
It’s a two way street for parents.
When their kid is a dutiful citizen, smiling in circle time, raising his or her hand, getting the homework handed in on time, the parents swells with pride, thinking something like, “We’ve done a good [...]
Is the Parent Badgering Factor Running Too High?
It’s December.
We’re into the second quarter of the school year. The dance is in full swing.
All across America each evening this dance is being played out in millions of homes. It’s the “Don’t You Have Homework To Do?….”No [...]
“Go Up To Your Room and Start Your Work”
How many households in America each night hear the refrain, “Go up to your room and start your homework”?
Recognizing that each household is set up differently, it is hard to make generalizations about how and where a child should be doing [...]
Is Your Child a Shut-Down Learner?
Matthew age 15, comes into my office with his mother.
Right from the start it was clear that Matthew had not read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Matt was clearly shut down and sullen. The last place [...]
The “Curriculum Ship:” It Has to Get to the Other Side!!!
I met with a kid today who is going to be soon falling off the Curriculum Ship.
This Ship leaves port every September with one apparent mission – to get to the other side.
The captain will keep the crew focused. “We can’t stop the Curriculum [...]
Kindergarten Mom: Help, My Child is Shutting Down
Anxiety over your child’s school-based problems can start very early.
A mom recently contacted me after reading The Shut-Down Learner.
“My son is drowning in school. Do you think he could be a shut-down learner?”
After asking a few more [...]
School Struggles
Janine, is a sweet 8-year-old child.
She is charming, bubbly, spontaneous and fun to be around. Janine is also struggling at school and the gap is widening between where other children are in her grade level and the reality of where she is [...]
Getting Beyond the IQ Score
More than IQ score
When I do testing one of my least favorite questions that I inevitably get is, “So what’s his/her IQ?”
In previous blogs, I have tried to illustrate how the IQ can hold a child hostage to not receiving services he/she [...]
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