How is driving on the opposite side of the road like your kid hitting their sibling? *** My family recently moved to a new country. Now I’m driving on the right side of the car and the left side of the road, instead of the left side of the car and the right side of … Read more
Last year, when I was writing my book, I was trying to find a source and got sidetracked reading a bunch of stuff about moral development in children (as one does) and I was just cracking up reading it because it was like this study about children age 4-8 and the researchers showed them pictures … Read more
Do you understand the difference between wishes, limits, and boundaries? If you find yourself saying the word “want” or “need”, a lot of times you are expressing a value, a wish, or a feeling. Same with the word “let”, as in “they won’t let me…” Limits are a decision that you are enforcing about the … Read more
Sometimes success can’t be measured because in this instance, success literally means becoming unmeasurable. The meltdown that didn’t happen. The dysregulation that lasted only for a few beats before their safe adult was there. The day when “nothing getting done” was far superior to “everything going wrong”. The trip that was able to exist instead … Read more
As soon as I had a spare moment at my new work (and some spare mats), I made a keyboard mat again like the one I had in England. 😁 I just love so very much all the possibilities it has. Human bodies learn from big, to small. When children are first learning to form … Read more
One of my absolute favorite things about our new life in Australia is that we’ve made best friends with the neighbours, who have several kids close in age to both of my children. All of our kids are neurodivergent and watching these gorgeous ND friendships flourish is giving me life every day. (All of this … Read more
I have a guessing game called, “Which of these ‘behaviors’ is actually a sign of developmentally appropriate schema play in toddlers and babies?” (if you don’t know what schema play is, I’ll explain in just a sec 😉 ) Okay, so here are your options: a) Throwing toys, even after the adult has told the … Read more
#5 – Culture does not dictate children’s development. Just because a teacher, grandparent, friend, book, or person on the internet thinks your child “ought to be ready by now” does not necessarily mean that they are. #4 – Hurting kids—emotionally, physically, or mentally—does not make anything better. If you’re looking for a book to tell … Read more
A year ago, my children, who were 5 and 6 at the time, had similar-aged friends come over to the house. The four of them all played together, running around the house and roughhousing. One friend didn’t really get physically hurt, but the play got too rough and they were emotionally a little overwhelmed and … Read more