fbpx

Parenting Blog

Teenager multitasking while doing homework

The Brain Costs of Multitasking

Are Kids Juggling Too Much?

Is this scene familiar to you? You think your child is diligently doing homework. You knock and hear a cheery “Come on in.” As you enter, your daughter is holding the telephone in one hand, a message is popping up on her Facebook page, and the latest song from her favorite group is blaring from her…  Read More

Back of teenagers head looking at computer with phone near her

Managing the Multitasking Generation

I just wrote a post about the brains of the multitasking generation and the cognitive costs of juggling too much at the same time. Here are some tips for parents to make sure your children have multitasking under control. Their brains will thank you! Explain to your child that his or her brain is like…  Read More

Teenager looking at cell phone.

Teenage Sexting: How to Respond?

Teenage sexting dominates media headlines, but like any hot issue making a big splash in the news, is sexting really happening and is it really a big deal? There is a huge range in the research because the data depends upon how you define and measure sexting. In one recent study, about 12% of teens…  Read More

Baby sticking tongue out in response to the same from a grown up, example of mirror neurons

Media Violence and Mirror Neurons

Dear Dr. Dave, There was recently a bomb threat at my son’s high school. It seemed like the plot was right out of a video game. I can’t help but think that there is a relationship – are kids just copying what they see in their entertainment? What does this have to do with mirror…  Read More

Teaching empathy by attending to emotional cues of baby

Teaching Empathy

Dr. Dave just wrote a post about mirror neurons, exploring our built-in capacity to grasp the minds and experiences of others by simulating them in our brains. While he focused on the relationship between media violence and mirror neurons in that post, he also shared that mirror neurons are the basis for empathy – the…  Read More

Neurons in brain development photo of inner brain

Brain Development Basics

Each child is walking around with a miracle perched on top of their shoulders. For a long time, the brain was a very difficult thing to study. Now powerful machines allow us to peer into the inner workings of the brain. We have a better sense of how the brain works and how it grows…  Read More