welcome image

We should not medicate the boys so they fit the school; we should change the school to fit the boy. (Leonard Sax, M.D. Ph.D)

If there is no relationship - nothing else matters !

Good parenting requires sacrifice. Childhood lasts for only a few brief years , but it should be given priority while it is passing before your eyes

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

It's more effective to reward your child for being "good" (appropriate) than to punish him for being "bad" (inappropriate).

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

Parents are the external regulator for kids who cannot regulate themselves.

Many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than suggest parenting changes. Jennifer Harris (psychiatrist)

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.

Learn more.

Toilet Training (part 1)

 

 

“I am a grown man with a university degree. I consider myself to be mature, well adjusted and able to exist adequately in our modern society . As such, I never would have believed the exhilaration and pride  I experienced when my son did his first “slam dunk” in the potty” (a parent of a toddler)

Often times parents get in too much of a hurry to toilet train their child resulting in frustration on their part as well as their child.

Seldom is a child ready to begin toilet training before 18 months old and a significant percentage  are still not ready at thirty months. The neural pathways and the designated muscular groups must be sufficiently developed to exercise  the control necessary for toilet training.

Once these systems are sufficiently mature, the development is controlled by:

  1. the child’s will to comply
  2. his / her determination to defy
  3. the skill and cunning of the trainer

Many toilet training difficulties are really non-problems. Subsequent posts will outline a toilet training procedure that may be helpful.

What parents need most are ideas because with ideas we get options.Rick Harper has been providing ideas to parents for over 40 years.

Back to Top

Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

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

Learn more

+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

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

Learn more

+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

Learn more

+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

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

Learn more

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

Archive


Parents' Comments

“I am no longer overwhelmed with a child who has unending discipline and behaviour problems.”

(P.S. – London)