At Home
Video Games
On my recent post about children being developmentally ready for games with winning and losing, somebody asked me if the same information applied to video games, which was a great question. I think the umbrella […]
Elementary
Elementary
Inconvenient
Autism, ADHD, and several other conditions — especially the type diagnosed often in childhood — are the same way. Emphasis on being the type that are diagnosed in childhood. Because when children are inconvenient, their […]
At Home
Everything is Sensory
PSA: Everything is “sensory”! (And, again, like I mentioned yesterday…”sensory” is actually an adjective, not a noun…that’s me being pedantic, but it is something that really indicates to me whether I’m talking to somebody who […]
At School
Let Them Be 5
There is no need to borrow worry from the future. And that’s exactly what this kind of thinking is: it’s borrowing worry. 5 year olds are not just future adults. They are also present 5 […]
At Home
“Sore Loser”
To speak in very general terms of averages — because that’s all I can talk about, is average child development, not your kid’s specific child development — 5-6 is when children start to really become […]
Child Development
Things We Don’t Know
“Sometimes, my son asks me a question. If I tell him I don’t know the answer—and I truly don’t know the answer—he’ll get mad and protest, ‘you DO know!’ How do I explain to him […]
At Home
Diagnosing
If a child called “oppositionally defiant” could label the adults in their life, what kinds of things might they call them? Needlessly antagonistic? Endlessly demanding? Perhaps their adults themselves would receive the diagnosis of ODD […]
At Home
Everyone is Sensory
PSA: Everyone is “sensory”. 😊 (A second, more pedantic, more pet-peevy PSA: “sensory” is an adjective, not a noun!) Everyone in the world has a sensory system. Everyone interacts with the world around them through […]
At Home
The Dividing Line
When you start to understand how thin — or nonexistent! — the dividing line is between “playing” and “learning/growing”, suddenly so much more of what children do makes sense. And suddenly so much more of […]
Babies
Three Scenarios
Imagine three scenarios. You’re holding your child on your lap. Your child is sobbing and screaming at the top of their lungs, curled up against you. In one scenario, they have just tripped, fallen, and […]