Speaking

Is Facebook depression real? Is social media use contributing to teen anxiety? Or is social media actually connecting and inspiring us? In this interactive and energizing presentation, our guest speakers cut through conflicting messages to explain how technology is impacting mental health. You will leave understanding the key ingredients for digital wellbeing as well as practical tools and strategies to reduce risks and nurture digital strengths.

The youngest among us are no strangers to digital technology. One-third of children under three years of age go online daily and 28% of children under two have televisions in their bedrooms. Families are getting conflicting advice about the impact of these technologies– on one hand companies promise that media can boost their children’s intelligence while on the other America’s pediatricians urge parents to limit screen time in the early years.

In this workshop, our speakers explore the latest research on the power and impact of screen time in early childhood and shares the ingredients that young children need to thrive in a world dominated by screens. Using stories and warm humor, our speakers help parents or professionals identify ways to use technology and media to support children’s learning and development.

While news headlines suggest that media and technology are either good or bad for children and youth – evidence suggests that they are powerful. The good or bad depends upon how we use them. In this interactive and energizing presentation, our speakers use brain science, stories, and humor to explain how technology is changing the ways that kids grow up, socialize, and make decisions.

Talking to kids and teens about online safety is important, but not sufficient, for preparing them to thrive in a digitally connected world. Our speakers will help you reclaim your role as media mentor in children’s lives. Media mentors build digital citizenship skills, leap across digital divides, and model digital wellbeing. This workshop can be tailored to includes the following topics:

• Racism and hate speech online
• The protective power of media production
• Cyberbullying and sexting
• Over-use and addiction
• Focus/attention/multitasking
• Monitoring and trust

One of the most precious and valuable resources that children and teens have today is their attention. In this energizing and engaging presentation, our guest speakers explore the brain science of attention, memory and multitasking in the context of a digitally connected world. Learn more about the distraction economy, the seeking brain, and practical strategies for building focus as children shift their attention between homework, YouTube, texting, and each other.

Based on the best selling book Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain, our speakers explain exactly what happens to the adolescent brain on the path from childhood into adulthood. Revealing the latest scientific findings in easy-to-understand terms, our guest speakers show why moodiness, risk-taking, and miscommunication are so common – all are linked to physical changes and growth in the adolescent brain. Using this information, you will learn three ingredients for working with or parenting adolescents in ways that build on their strengths and gives them the support they need to grow into capable and caring adults.

As a culture, we are obsessed with stress. You can buy stress busters, stress exterminators, and stress eradicators. Yet stress is a part of life. New experiences, transitions, real and perceived danger, academic pressure, and unknowns can all evoke feelings of anxiety in children and youth.

We know that too much stress impacts health and shapes the brain’s developing architecture. Yet learning how to handle appropriate stress is a healthy and normal part of development. Kids who haven’t had practice handling stress or taking responsibility for their actions can become more anxious and risk averse. By overprotecting them, we inadvertently make them more vulnerable.

Using warmth, stories, science, and humor, our speakers will explain the impact of stress on the brain and share practical strategies for  resilience.

• Executive function development
• Exploring sources of stress including racism, sexism, and other -isms
• Protective power of relationships and systems change

You don’t have to go far on the Internet these days to find tips for how to “stay productive” and ideas for how to motivate kids despite changing routines and stress. The reality on the ground though is that productivity and high motivation can be difficult to find during times of uncertainty. Understanding the science of motivation can help us keep our eyes on how to nurture it in our kids – not just for the sake of getting more done but for everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.

Worry is one of the brain’s superpower. It helps us think ahead, consider possibilities, and plan for our own safety. But when worry takes over, it can take over family life and erode children’s mental health. It is essential to help kids distinguish between the kind of worry that keeps us safe and the kind of worry that keeps us from living. The challenge is that the dominant ways parents are told to respond to worry tends to make it stronger. . Learn more about how worry show up in kids and teens and ways to respond that build your family’s resilience and wellbeing instead of eroding it.

Setting limits is always a challenging part of parenting. It can be especially hard to know when to be flexible and when to hold the line. Learn more about why kids and teens need boundaries and how to be both flexible and firm when your kids need it most. Parents will learn how to clarify their limits and follow through with consistency and care.

We are born hardwired to connect. But that doesn’t mean that navigating relationships is easy. Indeed, skills like empathy, self-management, and conflict resolution are works-in-progress for children as they learn to navigate “me to we” dilemmas at home and in the classroom. While the impulse to step in and protect children from distress and disagreement with peers is strong, these interactions can be critical sites of learning and growth. In this warm and engaging workshop, Erin Walsh will explain the neurological basis of social and relationship skills and share ways to help children practice healthy conflict and repair.

In many ways, children today are growing up in a world with more expansive understandings of gender than generations before. At the same time, studies show that rigid gender roles continue to be engrained in our expectations, language, and culture. This isn’t without consequence for kids, as decades of research link belief in rigid feminine and masculine norms to lower health, education, and economic outcomes. Many researchers think about gender norms as a “gateway belief system” for children, meaning that when a child internalizes them it negatively impacts other areas of their life as well. Children begin learning these norms right away, influenced not only by family but also by cultural institutions, media, advertising, political coverage, and social observation.

So how can parents and educators tackle rigid gender norms and create a different future for our kids? We translate the latest research in child development into easy-to-understand language to help families see how children “learn gender” and internalize gender bias. Using warmth, interaction, and humor, our speakers help families and educators identify doable and concrete strategies for disrupting rigid gender norms at home and at school.

Learn more about the impact of stress on the brain and why “too much” stress hijacks learning and growth and why “too little” stress can make students more anxious and risk averse. Learn what educators and professionals can do to protect young people from the harmful effects of stress and nurture practical strategies for resilience.

Our reliance on screens has increased as school, socializing, and work move online. One of the most precious and valuable resources that students have today is their attention. Explore the brain science of attention, memory and multitasking in the context of a digitally connected world. Learn more about the distraction economy, the seeking brain, and practical strategies for building focus as children shift their attention between homework, YouTube, texting, and each other.

You don’t have to go far on the Internet these days to find tips for how to “stay productive” during the pandemic and ideas for how to motivate students despite changing routines and high uncertainty. The reality on the ground though is that productivity and high motivation become more elusive as the pandemic wears on. Understanding the science of motivation can help us keep our eyes on how to nurture it in our students – not just for the sake of getting more done but for everyone’s mental health and wellbeing.

We have experience creating workshops to help support the specific needs of parents, school systems, and community educators. Contact us with your needs.