Current Newsletters
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A message from Jane Anderson, MD:
On a regular basis, I, along with my professional colleagues, will offer you new scientific research that we hope will be practical and useful in your daily lives.
Current Newsletters
Teaching Children Self-Control
Why is self-control important? Many studies have demonstrated that children who have self-control are more likely to do better academically - obtaining higher grades in school and higher salaries as adults. They also do better emotionally – having more friends and making healthier choices with less drug use as adults. So – if self-control is so very important, can we as parents teach this skill to our children? Fortunately, the answer is yes and this newsletter has tips to show you how.
Read MoreHazards of Marijuana
Marijuana use is becoming more common and many states have now legalized marijuana for medical or general usage. This has contributed to the increasing perception that marijuana use is harmless. However, the truth is that marijuana can have serious and long-lasting effects. The American Academy of Pediatrics released an updated statement on marijuana use during pregnancy and breastfeeding to highlight the medical concerns for women and children. In this newsletter we will highlight some of the major concerns regarding marijuana use for pregnant women and children of all ages.
Read MorePreventing Teen Depression
The prevalence of major depression has been increasing, especially among adolescents. The most recent data revealed an estimated 2.2 million American adolescents aged 12 to 17 had at least one major depressive episode with severe impairment in the past year. While this newsletter focuses on teen depression, the fact of the matter is that preventing teen depression doesn’t start once your child is a teen. Preventing teen depression begins as early as the newborn stage. Many of the healthy habits discussed in this newsletter must be established long before a child reaches adolescence if they are to be truly effective in ensuring that your child enjoys positive mental health and emotional well-being.
Read MoreHow Birth Order Impacts Parenting & Child Development
Birth order has been noted to be important in family relationships since Biblical times. Although controversy still surrounds this topic, we hope this newsletter on birth order will provide you with clues to better understand your child’s development of intelligence and personality traits so that you can better match your parenting to your child's unique needs.
Read MoreHelping Your Child Make Friends
Research consistently demonstrates the importance of our social relationships, including friendships, in our overall health. However, the social skills necessary to develop friendships must be learned and reinforced in childhood to assure lifelong skills. This is even more important in today’s environment, filled with social media in which friends are more virtual than real. This newsletter is designed to provide parents with practical information on helping their children develop and maintain healthy friendships.
Read MoreTeaching Children Forgiveness
Forgiveness involves voluntarily and deliberately pardoning another person for a wrong inflicted without any attempt to inflict harm, retaliate or seek revenge with the ultimate goal of restoring the relationship. In this newsletter we will provide some simple things you can do to help your child understand the concept of forgiveness and practice it.
Read MoreThe Importance of Fathers
Psychologists have long acknowledged the important role that fathers play in the lives of their families. Now studies published this year have shown that a father’s health can even impact the development of the unborn baby. This goes to show that from conception, when fathers are involved with their children, the children are more likely to excel academically and they have better physical and emotional health. This newsletter will describe some of this new research as well as ideas for fathers to enhance their parenting skills.
Read MoreBuilding Relationships
Research continues to accumulate regarding the influence of technology / screen usage on infants and children, and unfortunately, it often shows an adverse impact on language development and relationship skills. One study found a significant connection between the amount of handheld screen time and expressive speech delay. Another study found that after just five days without screen time, adolescents improved in their ability to correctly interpret other people’s emotions – both in pictures and videos.
This newsletter provides simple strategies for you to help your children develop language and relationship skills.
Teaching Kids and Teens Respect
Teaching respect can reap benefits for both parents and child. Parents benefit as they can take their children out in public without worrying about misbehavior, so parents are more relaxed and can ultimately enjoy their children more. Children benefit as respect is inherent in the concept of self-control and discipline, and how a child views her parents will essentially determine how that child will later view her school teacher, her boss, and law enforcement. Studies show that lack of discipline, direction and control creates insecurity in both young and older children. We hope this newsletter will provide you with tips and resources on teaching children and adolescents respect--respect for themselves, respect for parents and respect for others in general.
Read MoreTeaching Children to Take Initiative
Initiative is dependent upon developing internal rewards (pride of accomplishment, creativity) rather than external rewards (money, grades). Some research states that intelligence accounts for less than 25% of life success, while personal character traits such as initiative are the most important determinant of achievement. The overriding concept is – allow your children to do tasks for themselves, provide a supportive environment that allows for failure, and role model this trait yourself. We hope the suggested concepts in this newsletter will encourage you to provide your children and adolescents with opportunities to develop this important character trait.
Read MoreYour "Smart" Child
We often use the word “smart” to indicate how intelligent an individual is – and by intelligence, we are usually referring to the ability to problem solve on an IQ test. However, several researchers are encouraging parents and educators to rethink the concept of “smart” to include eight different forms of intelligence and problem solving: word smart, logic smart, picture smart, music smart, body smart, nature smart, people smart, and self-smart.
Read MoreBuilding Independence in Childen
As parents, it is easy to recognize our role in parenting our infants. Babies are dependent and rely on us as parents to meet all their needs – physical and emotional. We would be most dismayed, however, if our adolescents demonstrated that same dependence – yet, parents often fail to recognize that it is through teaching, mentoring, and practice that our children learn the skills that help them become independent, self-reliant individuals who can contribute positively to their families and society.
Read MoreSensitive or Positive Parenting
Sensitive or responsive parenting refers to family interactions in which parents are aware of their children’s emotional and physical needs and respond appropriately and consistently. Sensitive parents are “in tune” with their children and provide a secure base from which children can explore their environments – and thereby learn. They understand individual developmental and temperamental differences, respond quickly and appropriately to their children, and provide encouragement and support during times of distress. Research shows tremendous benefit to children when parents interact responsively and supportively.
Read MorePositive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a very powerful and effective teaching tool that can help shape and change behavior. Positive reinforcement, initially promoted by B.F. Skinner, works by presenting a motivating item (reward) after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen again. This newsletter provides information on how parents can identify and reinforce positive behaviors in children through positive reinforcement.
Read MoreFears and Phobias
Fear, or anxiety, is a common emotion experienced by everyone, and can often be beneficial as the emotion heightens our state of alertness and may protect us from dangerous situations. Even infants demonstrate the fear of strangers, and, interestingly, children’s fears change in a predictable manner as they age and mature. As parents, we need to be mindful of how we respond to our children’s fears. We want to assist our children as they face and, hopefully, overcome their fears. In order to help our children with their fears, parents must acknowledge their own fears and temper their personal reactions when their children are present. In this newsletter, we will provide information on age-specific fears, along with helpful ways parents can respond.
Read MoreTeaching Children to be Resilient
Resilience – the ability to manage stress and overcome adversity – is one characteristic that has been identified as contributing to success in life. “Bouncing back after hardship” is an important skill to develop, since each child will experience adversities and difficulties, despite our best efforts to protect them. In fact, since children actually benefit from experiencing difficulties, it is important that we, as parents, allow our children to experience adversity and failure, rather than always protecting them from it. Children need to learn that things do not always turn out the way they would like, but they can benefit, even from difficulties. Fortunately resilience can be taught or developed in children by skillful parenting.
Read MoreADHD – What does recent research tell us?
It is widely acknowledged that the prevalence of ADHD has been increasing, with the CDC reporting in 2011 that approximately 6.4 million children between 4 and 17 years of age have been diagnosed with ADHD. 7.8% of children in America were diagnosed with ADHD in 2003, but by 2011 that percentage had increased to 11%. Many factors most likely contribute to this increase, and a few recent articles provide some clues. Some theorize the affected children are manifesting an immaturity of their prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for strategizing and controlling impulses. Genetics also seems to play a role, as does parenting, nutrition, and environment.
Read MoreParental Monitoring - Evidence of Benefits
A television broadcaster in the 1960s, Tom Gregory, was known for asking parents, "It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?" The need for parents to monitor their children's activities is even more important in today's society - and scientific research demonstrates the numerous benefits of parental involvement, especially in the lives of their adolescents.
Read MoreVolunteering
Volunteering is a wonderful way to help children learn beneficial values and develop personal characteristics that will last them a lifetime. Compassion, empathy, gratitude, community awareness and responsibility – even job skills – can all be learned through volunteering. At this time of year the available options for families to volunteer together are numerous, and we encourage you to take time this season to think of helping others. As the research documents, you will also be helping yourselves and your children – in your emotional well being, but also your physical health.
Read MoreCell Phones – What does the research tell us?
As technology affects more of our lives, researchers are beginning to investigate the effects of that technology. One study performed by a global security software maker surveyed 2200 mothers from 10 developed nations, including the US and Canada, who had children between ages 2 and 5 years. The survey found that more of these preschool children could use technology than could tie their shoes, ride a bike or swim.
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