Using food as a reward or as a punishment can undermine the healthy eating habits that you’re trying to teach your children. Giving sweets, chips, or soda as a reward often leads to children overeating foods that are high in sugar, fat, and empty calories. Worse, it interferes with kids’ natural ability to regulate their eating. It also encourages them to eat when they’re not hungry to reward themselves.
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We receive lots of questions from parents about evaluations: Does my child need one? Or should we just start treatment? An evaluation by a psychologist or a multidisciplinary team can be a valuable tool in understanding your child’s strengths and weaknesses and provide a roadmap for next steps. It can reveal whether what seems like distraction, laziness or reluctance could actually be a sign of mental health or learning challenges. Read more ›
Hear what child development experts have to say about what parents, teachers and other caregivers can do to help prepare and protect kids from all the scary news out there, whether it’s fighting overseas, a school shooting, devastating wildfire or a global pandemic. Read more ›
Hiring a private specialist to conduct a psychoeducational evaluation of your child is a big commitment of time, effort, and money. To find someone competent, ask other parents or school staff for their recommendations. You’ll probably want to interview more than one specialist before choosing the person who will work with your child. Read more ›
You’ve decided to have your child evaluated. The next question is: How? You can request that the school do the testing , or you can hire a private evaluator . Each option has benefits and drawbacks. Which one is best depends on your and your child’s needs and preferences. Here are the pros and cons of each. Read more ›
At a time when all life’s challenges have been amplified by the pandemic – and awareness of burnout, at home and at work, has never been higher – stress might seem to be our baseline condition. For most of us, these periods of pressure pass relatively quickly. Even serious stress can be temporary and, given the chance to recover, we usually will. Read more ›
A lack of socialization over the past two years has a lot of parents worried about their children’s language development. In fact, one of the most viewed articles in our online Resource Library right now focuses on speech delays in young children during COVID. How do we know when our kids should be progressing from first words to full sentences? Have masks and social distancing affected typical language development? Where should we turn if we’re concerned? Read more ›
Research has found that providing children from birth to five with consistent, language-rich experiences – such as talking, reading, and singing – can have important benefits on their brain development and future school success. Read more ›
As a parent, you know your child best. If your child is not meeting the milestones for his or her age, or if you think there could be a problem with the way your child plays, learns, speaks, acts, and moves talk to your child’s doctor and share your concerns. Don’t wait. Acting early can make a real difference! Read more ›
Simple interactions between you and your children help build children’s brains foundation for all future learning. Vroom is a set of tools and resources designed to inspire families to turn everyday moments into “brain building moments” by layering activities that are essential to healthy brain development onto existing routines. Read more ›
