Articles

From the time that they are born, babies begin absorbing everything around them.  Long before they ever utter a word on their own, they learn the names of things and categorize what they are exposed to. Speak to your baby LONG before you expect your child to start making sounds and talking… 

One of the most common questions we get from parents is, “How do I get my kid to stop [insert undesirable behavior here]?” The answer is: Extinction. Our children frequently try to access our attention through their misbehavior, and so the process of extinction involves NOT providing attention when the behavior occurs…

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!

Once each of my kids had a strong enough grasp on language, we started prompting them to say ‘please’ when making a request and ‘thank you’ at the time of receiving something. Reinforcing sincere usage of these magic words is vital to helping children understand the concept of gratefulness…

Sometimes, working through a specific behavioral challenge with our child can be utterly exhausting.  Most of the time, a behavior plan only requires one person to actively be implementing at any given point. Develop a system where you can ask for help from your partner, co-parent, family or friends…

If one of our main purposes in life is to teach our children by helping them learn things, then we better learn the best way to do that; right? To start, there is a huge difference between helping your child and doing for your child. One action encourages independence whereas the other action encourages dependance.…

The reality is that kids are bound to witness their parents disagree, argue, and maybe even fight.  For children, parents are models of adulthood, relationships, communication and more. So, we would like to argue (no pun intended!) that it’s actually incredibly beneficial to allow our children to observe healthy argument and disagreement…

Our parental instinct is to protect our children and help them to succeed. But, if we don’t allow our children to fail – to do something on their own, the wrong way – then we rob them of the opportunity to learn how to do it better next time. It’s not winning or losing, like everyone says. It’s winning or learning… 

Having too many OPTIONS can cause a myriad of issues. When children jump from one thing to the next too quickly, they're deprived of the opportunity to fully explore a singular toy, to develop persistence, stay engaged, and get creative. Cycle your kids' toys to keep them interested, and not overwhelmed…

If you notice your child engaging in a higher frequency of inappropriate attention seeking behavior, let that be a cue for you to provide more attention at other times. We firmly believe that there is no such thing as a “bad kid,” but rather that our kids do bad things to communicate what they need from us.  It’s our job to tune in and listen…

If you acknowledge the curse word and use that moment to teach your young child that it is not an appropriate word to use, you run the risk that your child might not understand or care about your lesson. Worse yet, the attention provided may be enough to increase your child’s use of the word in the future…

If you establish a healthy house rule, and that boundary never shifts regardless of how you are feeling, then your child will come to understand and follow the rules more easily.  As a result, you can fall back on implementing your boundaries rather than allowing your emotions to take over…