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You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

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

When a child is disregulated - is the time parents need to be regulated.

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

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

The quickest way to change your child’s behaviour is to first change your own.

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. (Peggy O'Mara)

Criticism is not a motivator.

Children fare better when expectations on them are clear and firm.

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The History of Ritalin and ADHD

In 1937, a psychiatrist by the name of Charles Bradley prescribed amphetamines to 32 children with behaviour problems who were suffering from extreme headaches as a result of a procedure called pneumoencephalography (ie. spinal tap – analyzing fluid in the spine). He was hoping the amphetamines would relieve the pain. The amphetamine (benzedrine) did little for the headaches, but teachers noted 17 of the children experienced a striking improvement in their school work and behaviour. The children themselves noted their improvement and called the medicine “arithmetic pills”

Bradley published his observations in several medical journals but 25 years passed before anyone attempted to replicate his observations and another couple decades passed before stimulants (ritalin) became widely used for ADHD.

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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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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

“Our daughter was the joy of our life until she turned 13, then all hell broke loose. Rick helped us understand what was happening to her and we made some adjustments that helped us get through it. She’s now in University and doing well.”

(D.A. – St. Thomas)