Limiting Screen Time During a Pandemic: A Guide for Parents
The COVID-19 lockdown has taken our usually functional (and sometime dysfunctional) dependence on technology as a society to a new level. For example, as a child and adolescent psychiatrist specializing in internet and video game addiction, I have converted my practice to video conferencing. Naturally, with the lack of in-person school, camps, and outdoor activities,…
Read MoreShould My Child Be Evaluated for ADHD During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Many parents may be wondering whether or not their child can be evaluated for ADHD right now, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, many clinicians are currently performing ADHD evaluations, both in person and remotely through videoconferencing. Before deciding whether your child should be evaluated now, and whether an in-person or a remote telehealth evaluation…
Read MoreOnline Learning | Teaching Students How to “Work From Home”Ask The Expert
Calming Down and Cooling Off
Help Children with ADHD Learn to Regulate Their Emotions If you have a child with ADHD, you are probably intimately aware of the fact that people with this diagnosis often have trouble managing their feelings. This difficulty is referred to as emotional dysregulation. For clarification, emotions are physical states whereas feelings are the conscious…
Read MoreReplace Suspensions with Reset Rooms
A restorative practice innovation Have you spent more time in the principal’s office as a parent of a child with ADHD than you ever did as a student? ADHD is difficult to manage in school, for students and teachers. Parents dread discipline calls from school—the ones where the school notifies you that your child is…
Read MoreThe Imagine Neighborhood, Where Children (and Adults) Learn About Feelings
Joyce Cooper-Kahn, PhD, interviews Scotty Iseri and Sherri Widen, PhD Imagination and pretend play have long been considered a foundation for the development of behavioral and emotional regulation—see, for example, the work of psychologists Dorothy and Jerome Singer. Both the process of imagining and the specific rehearsal of situations that are part of pretend play…
Read MoreWhat Is School Readiness and Why Is It Important?
The capacitY TO FORM POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS is an essential aspect of healthy child development. Children’s relationships and daily interactions with their parents contribute to developing a set of skills that help children succeed in the classroom once they start kindergarten. Collectively, these skills are referred to as “school readiness.” They generally include children’s language and literacy…
Read MoreFearless Advocacy
Pro Tips for School Team Meetings FOR MOST PARENTS, school team meetings provoke dread, anxiety, and frustration—especially when you’re still new at this. Some of us charge into the meeting like the mighty lioness defending her cubs. Others feel more like the baby rabbit staring helplessly into the headlights of a speeding car. Having…
Read MoreParenting Skills and Behavior Challenges in Children with ADHD
Any parent of a child with ADHD faces challenges in reacting calmly and consistently to impulsive, risky, and sometimes dangerous behaviors. Our children with ADHD become bored easily, continually seek rewards, and sometimes get angry when we set limits to keep them safe. Eventually, most of us feel frustrated and worn down, and we may…
Read MoreUnderstanding Others, Regulating Emotions
Executive Function, Theory of Mind, and ADHD This research update focuses on how executive functioning relates to how youth with ADHD understand others and regulate emotions. There may be a link between executive function deficits and theory-of-mind challenges in children with ADHD. Theory of mind refers to the ability to infer other people’s emotions, intentions,…
Read MoreImproving Anger Behavior
“I think the issue is we really don’t communicate, even with ourselves, to know what we need in our world, or we don’t communicate well enough with others to tell them what we need and how we can each help to make each other’s worlds better,” says Dayle Malen, LCSW, MEd, a therapist based in…
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