This is not a parenting advice column. Most parents don’t need more parenting tips. They just need a break from taking care of their kids. I took an informal poll over the weekend, asking my parent-friends how they practice self-care. Their answers: They drink, they smoke weed, they play video…
A toddler who gets overwhelmed when she hears a lawnmower. A kindergartner who can’t read your facial expressions. A grade-schooler who repeats the same phrase over and over. A teenager who will only wear one color. These can all be signs of neurodivergence: natural variations in the human brain. At…
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in every 5 adults in the US suffers from mental illness. And those who don’t suffer personally, likely know someone who does. This means that, inevitably, your kids will at some point encounter a mental illness, be it a personal…
Authoritative parents have high expectations but also respond to the emotional needs of their kids. They set clear rules, utilize positive reinforcement, and encourage independence. According to Developmental Psychologist Dr. Diana Baumrind, authoritative parenting is the “optimal” parenting style, as it enables kids to build self-esteem, perform well at school,…
Being a child or teen with a learning disability can be challenging and frustrating, especially if the learning disability goes undetected. Therefore, we must work to understand the symptoms one might experience at different ages and get children and teens the proper assistance they require at school. Symptoms of Learning…
Playing sports might protect boys from depression. A study from the journal Biological Psychiatry examined how exercise might impact the development of depression in children. It analyzed over 4,000 kids ages 9 to 11 and saw that sports participation was linked to fewer depression symptoms specifically in boys. Researchers found…
Exposure to traffic-related air pollution can contribute to anxiety in children. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center studied brain MRIs from 145 children with an average age of 12 years old. They looked specifically at levels of the metabolite Myo-Inositol, or MI: as increases…
Music can help kids excel in complex subjects like math and physics. Many kids are intimidated by these subjects in school. But music can help them better understand difficult equations and theories, according to researchers from the Athena Research Center’s Institute for Language and Speech Processing. For example, students used…
A machine learning algorithm was used to analyze children’s speech and identify depression and/or anxiety with 80% accuracy. Three features proved to indicate these illnesses: low pitch, repeated speech inflections and subject, and a higher pitch when surprised. Kids came up with a three-minute story on the spot, of which…
Most kids and teens aren’t getting enough physical activity. Researchers from the University of Jyvaskyla and LIKES Research Center for Physical Activity and Health analyzed activity levels in different age groups. They discovered that children and adolescents are becoming increasingly less active. The team says that four out of five…
Most youth football helmets lack sufficient front padding. This, from the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, which rated every youth football helmet on the market. Only seven of these helmets received a perfect score for effectively reducing head acceleration during impact. Those with lower ratings typically had front padding that was…
Watching too much TV can impair preschoolers’ development. University of Montreal researchers say spending many hours in front of the TV is harmful during this critical stage of development. It can prevent preschoolers from engaging in more enriching developmental activities and lead to emotional trouble in teenhood. This study found…
