A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
You may have read my column a couple of weeks ago about how schools are banning playground games because students lacked the resilience or social skills to handle losing. This week I came across research from Deakin University and VicHealth that supported the idea that younger Australian kids are “bubble wrapped” more than their UK [...]
Leading children's author Mem Fox finds it ''heartbreaking'' to see small children left alone with smartphones and tablets to entertain themselves, saying an increasing reliance on technology to teach children how to read could inhibit their empathy and social skills. Fox said parents must keep reading books - either paper or ebooks - with their [...]
Is it April Fool’s day? Of course it isn’t. So why am I reading ridiculous headlines like this? Melbourne schools ban playground games because of lack of resilience The report stated that schools were banning Tiggy because kids would just give up when they were tagged, and quoted the Victorian Principals Association president Gabrielle [...]
The teen years are often fraught with door-slamming, eye-rolling and seeming insensitivity, even by kids who behaved kindly before. Some parents worry that they're doing something wrong, or that their children will never think of anyone but themselves. New research shows that biology, not parenting, is to blame. In adolescence, critical social skills that are [...]
LARGE numbers of girls with high-functioning autism may be going undiagnosed because they have taught themselves superficial social skills, such as making eye-contact and smiling at the right time. Deakin University research psychologist, Alexandra Head, yesterday said data indicating four times as many boys as girls had high-functioning autism - such as Asperger syndrome - [...]
Children with involved fathers have better social skills, more successful relationships, stronger self esteem, more self-control and higher grades than those who do not. They are also less likely to be overweight, suspended from school or bully, take drugs, engage in risky sexual behaviour or crime. As fathers take a more active role in parenting [...]
As children grow up, they become increasingly distant from their parents and while some parents think that the dwindling time spent with their teenager is simply a sign of their child's budding independence and evolution into adulthood, new findings suggest that private parents-child encounters during the time of adolescence are especially important for an individual's [...]
At any age friends play an integral part in people’s lives. For young people the forging of friendships is important for their social and mental development. However the process of making and keeping friends is not always easy. Children who feel they do not have friends may become withdrawn, exhibit antisocial behaviour and even become [...]
