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

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

Removing a child from a traumatic environment does not remove the trauma from the child's memory.

Hurt people hurt people.

Relationships matter:  change comes through forming trusting relationships. People, not programs change people.

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

There has been an explosion in the prescribing of medication for very young children, particularly preschool and kindergarten boys (Juli Zito , Univ. of Maryland)

Children today are under enormous pressures rarely experienced by their parents or grandparents. Many of today's children are being enticed to grow up too quickly and are encountering challenges for which they are totally unprepared.

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.

"Unexpressed feeling never die. They are buried alive and come back later in ugly ways." (Stephen Covey)

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Tactics for Tantrums (part 1)

My next several posts will offer ideas about handling toddler’s tantrums. They are based on the premise that some tantrum throwing will and should occur and that our job as parents is to make it as painless as possible for all participants. 1. The Ignore Tactic To use the ignore tactic the parent totally ignores the child’s dramatic performance. Look busy. Bustle around the house, sweeping, dusting or stacking magazines. Do not, however, try to […]

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What Does a Parent of a Child With ADHD Look Like ?

Sometimes like this:   frustrated stressed out frightened angry exhausted discouraged burned out Parents often feel blame, guilt and shame. They frequently believe that they have somehow “messed up” their child

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FASD – Late Adolescence (17 – 22)

The main goals : move out of home establish his own life learn to cope with societal rules – increase personal expectation with diminishing parental support (lots of teens without FASD have trouble with this) Trouble Areas: undereducated poor money management loneliness lack of boundaries poor judgement He may lack the emotional and / or the educational maturity to embark on an independent life but he still has the internal and societal programming that makes […]

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FASD- Early Adolescence – guidelines for teachers

the FASD adolescent still requires consistency, strong academic supports, and patience hormones are present but without the boundaries & social skills the teen may appear to be functioning higher than he really is sequencing problems may still persist teen will require immediate feedback other emotional problems may coexist – depression – eating disorder – suicide ideation – emotional alienation outrageous behaviours may continue (eg. temper tantrums) school suspensions

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FASD – Late Childhood (aged 8 – 12)

The main developmental task for children of this age is to develop a sense of industry. Family stresses are likely to increase as FASD children can be exhausting. Caregivers will benefit from counselling and respite care may become necessary. Peer and sibling relationships can become more difficult because the child may have legitimate  difficulty with following the rules, turn taking, cheating, stealing, breaking things and being unpredictable. Children with FASD do not understand the feelings […]

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

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

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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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+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

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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

“Rick’s approach is so logical. He helped us clearly define the problem, analyze what has happened and select the best strategy. We now feel empowered to do something positive for our kid”

(A.N. – Tillsonburg)