children

Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?

“Something we now know, from doing dozens of studies, is that emotions can either enhance or hinder your ability to learn,” Marc Brackett, a senior research scientist in psychology at Yale University, told a crowd of educators at a conference last June. “They affect our attention and our memory. If you’re very anxious about something, [...]

The one week TV ban

This time a few weeks ago, give or take a few hours, I was standing dripping wet in the lounge room, looking at my kids in total disbelief. Seconds into my shower they had decided to battle it out, and I had to come back in to negotiate calm. As I stood there with conditioner [...]

Parents, please stop letting kids drink

Parents who provide alcohol to someone else's child, thus jeopardising that child's mental development, display an abhorrent lack of competency, not just as a parent but as a member of society, as a human being. There is no excuse for such a crime. Parents who do such a thing should face several years in prison. [...]

By |2013-09-30T13:00:04+10:00September 30th, 2013|Categories: Drugs & Alcohol|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

“Smacking never did us any harm!”

How often have you heard that line? How often have you said it?   I’m not here to tell you how to parent your kids. I’m learning every day just how hard a job it is. But I can’t help thinking to myself, whenever I hear this:   “Yeah, smacking never did us any harm, [...]

Proactive Grief Recovery: An ideal or a great idea?

With recent focus on emotional intelligence, it seems now is the perfect time to analyse whether we are doing enough in classrooms to support our children through the process of grief recovery. As an educator, I believe our Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Institutions should be implementing (PGR) Proactive Grief Recover - addressing grief related [...]

Racism Impacts Mental Health of Teens

An international review of published studies has found children and young people experience poor mental health, depression and anxiety following experiences of racism. University of Melbourne researchers say the study, which found 461 cases of links between racism and child and youth health outcomes, is the first of its kind. Lead researcher Dr. Naomi Priest [...]

Media, minds and neuroscience: the developing brain in a media-rich environment

The development of the human brain is fascinating. We see a huge migration of cells to various parts of the developing brain in the second trimester of pregnancy, and in the early years after birth the infant brain grows in density and wires up in response to what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt and [...]

Dads with smaller testicles are better fathers, study shows

Men who have smaller testes are more likely to be better dads to their toddlers, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from Emory University in Georgia set out to determine why some fathers invest more energy in parenting than others, after prior research has shown that [...]

Supporting families as they manage separation and divorce

In Australia nearly one in two marriages end in separation and divorce. This directly impacts many children in our schools and adults in our workplaces, parishes and social networks, and quite possibly our own family too. Coping with the family changes that result can be challenging for children and their parents, and for those supporting [...]

Sex, Drugs, The Media & Our Kids

In the weeks since that Miley Cyrus performance at the VMAs, more fuel has been poured onto the fiery debate around the overtly sexual messages our kids are receiving thanks to the media.   Add this to the heady mix of alcohol, violence and drug use with the apparent rise of such related anti-social behaviour [...]

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