Children with high anxiety spend much of their time “on guard,” on the lookout for potential dangers. You can use dramatic play to help loosen up this hypervigilance. Here’s three games you can play to confront fear and anxiety. When … Continue reading
For child caregivers
Attending to Children’s Attention Issues
“My son is struggling in school. He loved it at first, but now he’s getting into trouble. He wants to play more, he gets other children laughing, and disrupts what the teacher is trying to do. I know he’s a … Continue reading
Parent Education: Listening and Limits
The touch of someone we love calms, soothes and decreases stress. When someone is in physical or emotional pain, we move toward them with physical expressions of warmth and comfort. Clearly, touch is an important channel of communication and a … Continue reading
Parent Education: Dealing with Emotions
“Don’t be so emotional!” “Don’t let your feelings run away with you!” “Big boys don’t cry.” “Calm down and let’s be rational about this.” Life is full of warnings to keep our emotional lives in check. Yet emotion, and the human connections … Continue reading
Parent Education: Connect with your Children
Connection is essential to raise healthy, capable, successful children. But don’t take my word for it. There is lots of fascinating science on the subject that makes surprisingly good reading. For example, Dr. Daniel Siegel of the UCLA School of … Continue reading
Helping Children Exposed to Shocking Events
We all struggle to deal thoughtfully with natural disasters and senseless violence. A cascade of feelings is triggered in each of us when we are exposed to images of death and strife. It’s shocking to witness the human and material … Continue reading
Intervention for School Bullying or Exclusion
This is an intervention for school bullying that many Parenting by Connection parents have tried in their children’s schools. It has worked well, and has alleviated the teasing or bullying dynamic when the parent doing the intervention has had the listening skills to … Continue reading
Helping Super-Competitive Children Relax
My son seems like he’s in the midst of a contest every moment. He needs to be first to get to the car, first to choose his seat, first to finish his dinner. This is a very irritating fixation. What can I do to help him not be one of those super-competitive children and just live his life, rather than try to prove over and over again how good he is? Continue reading
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