Cell phones

Teenage girl trying to study amidst lots of digital distractions

Digital Distractions and Building Your Child’s Focused Attention

A number of years ago a parent, Eleanor, contacted me after a talk to ask me a question about digital distractions. Eleanor had recently attended her son Jeremy’s school conferences and was surprised to learn that he was having a very difficult time focusing in class. “Dr. Walsh,” she exclaimed, “It doesn’t make any sense!…  Read More

Two teenage boys playing video games

Video Game Addiction: Symptom Checklist

Are you worried about your child’s video game habits? Take a look at this video game addiction symptoms checklist I created to see if you have cause for alarm. While this is not a diagnostic tool, it can help you assess whether or not games are an unhealthy part of your child’s life and if…  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

Teen looking sadly at phone while two other teens laugh in the background, indicating that she is experiencing cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying Tips

Preparing our children for kindness online and offline is part of raising kids in the 21st century. It can be tempting to wait until there is an incident to have serious conversations about cyberbullying, cruelty and online drama with your kids. Yet our kids need us to talk early and talk often. As soon as…  Read More