Coping Skills for Kids–part 2
Yesterday, I defined coping skills. Today, I'm listing some on how to help your child improve their coping skills. * First, talk to your child about emotions. They need to be able to recognize their own emotions (as well as the emotions of others) in order to cope with them!
Coping Skills for Kids, part 1
A coping skill is any trick, technique, or habit that you use to "deal with" something. For example, when you feel anxious, you might say to yourself: "I'm okay, I can handle this, it's going to be okay." That's called "positive self-talk.
WOW! I really like how you clicked on that link just now! ;^)
Praise is another one of the classic parenting techniques that is now subject to some controversy. I don't mind tipping my hand here--I'm firmly in the pro-praise camp. But, like so many other areas of parenting, the devil's in the details, so to speak... The way that praise is given makes a huge difference.
Book Review: When I Feel Sad
"When I Feel Sad," by Cornelia Maude Spelman, is a great book that I frequently recommend to parents. It's a book for children, ages 2-9 or so... There are only a few words on each page, and the book starts with descriptions of times that kids feel sad: "Sometimes I feel sad. I feel sad when someone won't let me play."
How Does Play Therapy Work?
A dad I know asked me about play therapy the other day. Does it really work? How does it work? How can play be therapy? "Oh," I said, "Good Question!" ;^) Children aren't cognitively or verbally able to process everything that happens to them in their lives (shoot, neither am I!) nor do they have the cognitive or linguistic [...]
Teaching Kids about Emotions
Teaching emotional intelligence is an enormously important thing for a parent to do. But how? For younger kids, it's all about giving them the language to conceptualize and communicate about their experiences. This is worth repeating: kids must acquire language tools that will allow them to (a) conceptualize their experiences, and (b) share/communicate about them-and the child's emotions are [...]
Top Parenting Conflicts, part 1
It can be such a relief to know that other people are struggling with the same challenges that you are. It can also be comforting, in a way, to find out that there are problems out there that you don't have. (well, it's true!) To that end, this post is the first in a multi-part series about the most common [...]
Oh, Good Question!
Earlier this week I had an initial appointment with a physical therapist. Towards the end of our visit, he gave me some instructions for things to do at home. I sortof understood, but wanted clarification, so I asked a question. This is where things went downhill.
Teasing
Is your school-aged child being teased? Kids can really be mean to each other, and when our kids hurt, we hurt, too. The older they get, the harder it is to fix things for them. The good news is that there are concrete, positive steps you can take to help your child handle teasing. Respond to this problem on two [...]
Kids, Food Additives, and ADD/ADHD
The February 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics has an article in it that I found to be practically earth-shaking. The journal's editors and the article's author, Alison Schonwald, MD, FAAP, review a very recent British study that looked for possible links between hyperactivity and food preservatives and/or artificial colorings. And the short answer is-they [...]
