Blog

December 31, 2021 – Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows , a provocative new picture book by Jamaican poet and Chevening Scholar Juleus Ghunta, has been released today by CaribbeanReads, a St. Kitts-based publishing company. The book follows the title character, Rohan Bullkin on his journey from reluctant to enthusiastic reader. Rohan’s reluctance to read is fuelled by Shadows – manifestations of his adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress. He improves his literacy with the guidance...

By Claudia M. Gold, MD, December 20, 2021 Three-year-old Bella’s frequent tantrums since the birth of her baby sister Julia brought the family to my behavioral pediatrics practice. Her father Jose began our visit with an explanation. “She’s jealous and is trying to get attention.” He even had a solution. “Maria (their mother) just needs to spend more special time with Bella” and “She needs to set more firm limits.” I felt as if he had read the book; reciting the lessons I’d learned years ago...

By Ellie Kaverman, Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), December 9, 2021 “There’s nothing like waking up and worrying if today they’re going to turn a utility off or wondering how much time you have to come up with the money to prevent that from happening,” Patricia, a mother of four in Michigan told us. For her, economic security would mean “not having to beg and borrow if you don’t have it or try to come up with last resort tactics to make sure you have groceries.” The Center for...

Young children receive many messages about what boys and girls should look like and how they should act--from their families and the bigger world in which they live. What can parents do to help children develop a positive and confident sense of who they are? Here are some ideas from ZERO TO THREE to guide your action. Click here to access this parenting resource.

By Juli Fraga, Psy.D., Parents, September 1, 2021 With the stress of the pandemic, some parents are struggling with compassion fatigue. Here are some symptoms, causes, and expert-backed advice on how to handle it. After a grueling year of pandemic parenting, many parents are depleted from the never-ending roller coaster of anxiety. And now with the new school year, parents are also helping their kids readjust to in-person learning and trying to ease their fears about the Delta variant . On...

Latchkey Urchins & Friends is a podcast by me* and my co-host Anne Sherry, a therapist. We explore different topics within The Nurturance Void, the space left when we experienced childhood emotional neglect. Childhood emotional neglect happens between parents and their kids, within families, across generations, in communities, in nations, and in policies and programs. We seek to heal through humor and holding space. Each week a guest shares their childhood emotional neglect stories,...

By John Woodrow Cox, Mark Berman, and Steven Rich, Photo: Oakland County Sheriff's Office/AP, The Washington Post, December 9, 2021 She had seen her grandson’s red, spiral-bound notebook before that night, but now, as Catherine O’Connor sifted through its pages for the first time, what she read astonished her. “School Shootings,” Joshua O’Connor had titled the first page, above a reconstruction of the Columbine High School massacre that left 13 people dead. In the pages that followed,...

Storytelling Storytelling serves many purposes. It can help to build memory, imagination, attention and focus. It can connect children to generations past and present, raise cultural awareness and build a positive sense of identity. Here are a few ways to incorporate storytelling into your next visit: Ask patients over 3 to tell you about a holiday they celebrate Model storytelling by narrating during the visit Encourage parents to think about storytelling when they are reading, going beyond...

By Alison Gopnik, Illustration: Jared Briggs/The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2021 The great Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget used to talk about “the American question.” In the course of his long career, he lectured around the world, explaining how children’s minds develop as they get older. When he visited the U.S., someone in the audience was sure to ask, “But Prof. Piaget, how can we get them to do it faster?” Today it’s no longer just impatient Americans who...

By Anne Vasquez, Photo: Allison Shelley/All4Ed, EdSource, December 13, 2021 After 18 months of distance learning, I took a breath before the start of this school year. What would the new normal look like? I feel like I’m still holding my breath, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop that comes in the form of an end-of-semester report card. As the mother of a newly minted middle school student and a high school junior, I knew this year would test my personal code of ethics about grades:...

By Julia Hotz, Photo: Getty Images, Scientific American, December 13, 2021 When COVID shut down life as usual in the spring of 2020, most physicians in the U.S. focused on the immediate physical dangers from the novel coronavirus. But soon pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris began thinking of COVID’s longer-term emotional damage and those who would be especially vulnerable: children. “The pandemic is a massive stressor,” explains Burke Harris, who is California’s surgeon general. “Then you have...

By Zoraida Ramirez, Rise Magazine, December 08, 2021 A Hard Decision I left my son with a family friend in 2007 when I was 20 years old and he was one and a half. I had run away from foster care and had nowhere to live and no money for food. I was also dealing with depression and trauma—and an abusive partner. I didn’t have support from my family and felt uncared for and alone. The family friend lived in a cozy, nice home. She suggested that I leave my son with her and write a statement...