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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.

Don't wait for him to turn 10 before you reveal that you are not in fact the hired help whose job it is to clean up after him.

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

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.

The best inheritance  parents can give their children is a few minutes of their time each day.

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

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

If there is no relationship - nothing else matters !

It is what we say and do when we're angry that creates the very model our children will follow when dealing with their own frustrations.

Being a parent of a teenager can cure a person of narcissism.

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Brain Facts # 1

    The traditional school environment works well for children when their natural love for learning is sound and for children whose brains are hardwired to be able to sit, behave and stay focused in a classroom. The traditional environment however does not work well for those children who are not so blessed. Welcome to the world of the Child & Youth Worker  whose job it is to figure out how to make life  better […]

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Reading Rescue – the sequence – steps 4 , 5, 6

Step # 4 Use the Blending Book to introduce the long vowel sound “a” with the silent “e”. Add the other long vowel sounds with silent “e” at an appropriate pace. Step # 5 Introduce the consonant blends (eg. “br”, “cl”, “sm”, etc.) and the digraphs (eg. “ch”, “th”, etc.) Step # 6 Once the child is able to blend the sounds in a automatic way, replace the Blending Books with flash cards. While you […]

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Reading Rescue – the sequence – step 2 & 3

Step 2 Once the child can match and produce the correct sounds for the letters in grouping # 1, introduce the short sound “a” from list 2. Step 3 The blending od sounds together is frequently a problem for some children. A Blending Book is used to address this problem. The child is shown a page with the letter “m” in view and asked to say that sound and hold it for a long time […]

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Reading Rescue – the sequence -step 1

The initial skill required in reading is to be able to match a specific sound with a letter. Example: “m” says ___________ “s” says ____________ Reading Rescue uses Cue Cards to help children make the connection between letter and sound. On one side of the Cue Card is a printed letter and on the other side is a picture of an object that begins with that letter. Simple games are used to teach the sound […]

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Reading Rescue – theory part 3

Most children are able to learn the basic individual skills needed for reading in the conventional manner and begin to assimilate the more obscure skills on their own and become proficient readers as you have done. There are however a significant % of children who for a variety of reasons have been unable to grasp these skills and consequently have great difficulty in learning to read. Meanwhile most of their peers are “getting it”. Reading […]

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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)