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"Cutting" is a visible sign to the world that you are hurting.

The teenage years require a delicate balance between the young person's need to gain independence, and the parent's need to retain authority.

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

Children do not develop on their own - they only develop within relationships.

If you (parents) tend to overreact to your child's misbehaviour - your child learns that he can't trust you. Mom, Dad, stay regulated!

Some hope their children will be like sponges soaking up the truth and wisdom imparted by their parents. However appealing this philosophy might be, it seldom seems to catch on with their children.

The challenge of adolescence is to balance the right of the parents to feel they are in charge with the need of the adolescent to gain independence.

"To be a man, a boy must see a man."  (J.R. Moehringer)

A tantruming toddler is a little ball of writhing muscle and incredible strength. It's like trying to carry a greased pig past a slop bucket.

"Parents aren't the cause of ADHD, but they are part of the solution." (Kenny Handleman, M.D.)

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Brain Fact # 9

A Healthy Brain

Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School was asked – “Is there one main characteristic of a healthy brain?”

His answer – “There are 100 billion neurons in the brain. Each neuron has about 10,000 connections (synapses) to other cells. We have 1 quintillion (10 to the 18th) synapses and there are 1 quintillion transactions per second between neurons. A healthy brain is thus a very complex, dynamic and efficient system. One main characteristic of  a healthy  brain is the ability to being modified (being plastic).

The circumstances of our lives change very fast, too fast for genes to be able to modify our brain and make us able to cope with these changes. So nature invented plasticity, the capacity of the brain to be modified to cope with the changes. We have realized that a healthy brain is a brain that has the right amount of plasticity; not too much and not too little but optimal plasticity. Plasticity changes the nature of synapses and the number of synapses in the brain. These changes can occur following any type of activity of the brain”.

Guess what ?   Reading this blog just changed the synapses in your brain!

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

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+ Lick Your Kids

  “Lick Your Kids” (figuratively not literally) (2 hours) First […]

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+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

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+ Taming a Toddler

Many parents wonder what hit them when their sweet little baby turns into an unreasonable toddler – ideas for dealing with mealtime, bedtime, temper tanturms, toilet training, noncompliance, etc.

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See more of our workshops


Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

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Parents' Comments

“We are foster parents who took in a 13 year old girl (going on 18!) and she ran us through the wringer. Rick helped us learn how to set limits that made the difference.”

(G.E. – Strathroy)