Within Western cultures, self-sufficiency is highly prized. When we talk about children we talk of self-regulation, self-settling, and independence. And when we say, ‘independence’ in reference to children we almost always mean that the children are self-sufficient rather than autonomous. In terms of emotions, there’s a persistent cultural tendency to believe that the earlier children […]
You may have heard that when your child is distressed you should be responsive: responding in a compassionate and caring way. You may also have heard that you should reflect back to your child their feelings or their desire (‘you are feeling sad’ or ‘you’d really like that ice-cream’) and problem-solving the situation with your […]
I recently gave an ignite presentation on self-soothing, ‘Self-soothing during infancy and toddlerhood: Our dangerous misconceptions’, at the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science’s international conference in Sydney. An ignite presentation is quite a unique style of presentation! You get 5 minutes and 20 slides and the slides auto-advance. I’ve recorded my ignite presentation and uploaded […]
Toddlers are busy learning all about their world, including learning about their internal, emotional world. Emotional development is just as important as cognitive, motor or language development. Children who have a better understanding of emotion are better able to succeed in the classroom and in the playground. As parents, we can support our children’s emotional […]
One of my pet peeves is this particular phrase “she’s only doing it for comfort…” It is a phrase you hear frequently and often with a dismissing air, the subtext being that as it is only for comfort she should hurry up and stop doing it. Oh, how this phrase frustrates me! It frustrates me […]