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2021 Holiday Gift Guide by Parent Like a Professional is a thoughtfully selected list of toys that will help kids to grow and develop, not just entertain them. Get everything you need to parent like a professional... even on the holidays!

It's a common complaint amongst parents: “My kids just don’t do what I ask them to do.” The problem is that repeatedly asking our kids to do things and then not enforcing that they actually do it has led to our words becoming less meaningful. FREE DOWNLOAD available!

One of the most common day-to-day frustrations for many parents is when it’s time for your child to stop doing something that they love (e.g., playing with toys) and start doing something that they don’t love (e.g., brushing teeth). This proactive strategy will help with successful transitions. FREE DOWNLOAD available!

There has been a significant amount of research conducted on the idea of “creativity.” But creativity wasn’t believed to be a behavior. It was a characteristic or personality trait – something a person is born with; right? Not so! There are actually things that we can do to increase our child’s ability to creatively play and problem solve. FREE DOWNLOAD available!

Being told ‘no’ can be disappointing (for kids and adults!), but it's also guaranteed to happen throughout life. So, it's best for parents to work on teaching kids how to best understand ‘no,’ respect it, and manage the resulting emotions because words are meaningful and powerful. FREE DOWNLOADS available!

If you have done the work to promote good communication, then at least you will be aware of what is going on with your children during this potentially difficult stage of life. In order to promote this dialogue, you must create and prepare opportunities for meaningful conversations. FREE DOWNLOAD available!

In another post, I talked about how we used a sticker chart to increase our daughter's book reading (Read: How to Use Sticker Charts to Effectivel...

Parents often consult with us on getting their children to go to bed – and stay in bed! – until a reasonable time in the morning.Every parent has ...

Do you think that you would have a more peaceful home if you could work on decreasing some of your child's misbehavior?  In Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), we can intentionally reduce unwanted (or problematic) behavior by identifying what the current reinforcer is for the given behavior (i.e., why the behavior is occurring), teach the child a more appropriate means of getting their needs met (read more on how our children's misbehavior is communication), and then withholding the reinforcer when the unwanted behavior occurs, which eventually leads to a dying off of that behavior. 

In the behavior world, we call sticker charts "token economies;" children can earn tokens for identified "good" behavior, and after earning a set amount, they can trade those tokens in for something reinforcing (e.g., a piece of candy).