Every child lives out his or her unique life story. Each one is a story about an individual human being on his journey through life, living through countless unique experiences. Inevitably, many of these experiences will be difficult and stressful. It may make a huge difference to his future life if he can share these difficulties with someone. Can we as parents and child caregivers be there for our children and how do we best support them?
Distressing childhood events don’t remain in our past; they can impact heavily on us during adulthood, causing both physical and mental ill health.
A confident child is the most amazing magnet, drawing friends, opportunities and success to himself with absolute ease. A confident child is often a popular child, sometimes the teacher’s pet, and often the centre of attention when the family gets together. On holiday it doesn’t take long before a new friend is made. Things just come so easily to him.
Nutrition is an important factor in providing children with the building blocks they need for optimal cognitive development, and recent research highlights the role omega-3 fatty acids may play in reading, cognition and behaviour in children.
The benefits of adding background music during learning are numerous. Music, one of the joys of life, can be one of the joys of learning as well.
Planning a trip with your new family, but concerned about the burden travel places on the environment? Joanne Austin has some eco-friendly ideas.
Happily, more and more parents are trying to cultivate good eating habits in their children at home and at school, and are educating themselves on nutrition. This is good news because the shift towards healthier food is becoming irreversible. But what about the annual birthday party, with its tradition of high-sugar foods and loaded goodie bags – how do we cope here?
How often do you find yourself the centre of unwanted attention in the supermarket, as your three-year-old screams louder than ten vuvuzelas? Ann Gadd takes a look at children’s more unattractive habits, starting with tots who have tantrums.
Feeding children a wholesome, nourishing meal at school has never been more important. If you would like your children to be able to sit still and concentrate during lessons then it is vital that they are fed properly.
There can be little doubt that electronic technology has opened the way to another form of soul addiction, promising to offer ever-more powerful and interesting gratification to the hungry unsatisfied soul of the child. Computer game, Internet and cellphone addiction disorders are not yet formally recognised as clinical psychological conditions, yet many clinics and rehab centres worldwide are treating them as full-on addictive disorders, recognising that the salient features fulfil all the criteria used to define an addictive behaviour disorder.