The power of stories We human beings come from a long line of storytellers. For many centuries our ancestors sat around campfires telling tales. Though the hearth of the kitchen table replaced the campfire for contemporary U.S. families, the storytelling didn’t stop. The stories came in all different sizes and shapes. Some recounted the news… Read More →
Can praising kids be a bad thing? Not as long as we remember a couple of helpful strategies. The right kind of praise and encouragement help our children develop the self-confidence and knowledge they need to reach their potential. That is why it is so important to really understand what good praise looks like –… Read More →
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 →
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 →
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 →
As parents we want to protect our kids from harm and pain. Yet we also need to prepare them for life! So what does it look like to nurture resilience in children? We’ve written a lot about stress and the brain. Too much stress is harmful while too little stress robs children of practice problem… Read More →
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 →
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 →
I took away my teenager’s phone last weekend and she made it seem like I had destroyed her social life. She seems obsessed. What is the deal with teenagers and cell phones? Maria, New Mexico Think you can live for a week without your cell phone or the Internet? It’s might be tough. But for… Read More →
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 →
