We know that outdoor play improves kids' physical health. All that fresh air and exercise — what's not to like? The truth is, there may actually be more to like. Outdoor play is increasingly linked scientifically to stronger mental muscle.
Parents have long thought of outdoor play as the icing on the cognitive cake: Finish your homework, attend to all of the after-school lessons and clubs intended to gain you admission to Stanford or Cal, and then, and only then, can you go out and play. A growing body of research, however, suggests outdoor play offers such a positive bump in brain power, it should perhaps be a priority.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Food additives and ADHD
Do synthetic dyes, flavors and preservatives make the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) worse?
Missing a child's ADHD diagnosis
Missing a child's ADHD diagnosis can have a cascading impact that ranges from limited success for an individual to severe consequences for society.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Client-Centered Therapy What Is It?
Client-centered therapy is a therapeutic approach that was introduced in the 1940s by an American psychologist named Carl Rogers.
As its name implies, client-centered therapy places significant focus on the client. According to Rogers’s view of client-centered therapy, the client-centered therapist refrains from asking questions, making diagnoses, providing reassurance, or assigning blame during his or her interactions with the client.
Interpersonal Therapy What Is It?
Interpersonal therapy focuses on social roles and relationships. The patient works with a therapist to evaluate specific problem areas in the patient’s life, such as conflicts with family or friends or significant life changes. While past experiences help inform the process, interpersonal therapy focuses on improving relationships in the present.
Existential Therapy What Is It?
Behind the existential movement are such philosophers as Heidegger, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and others. Existential psychologists evaluate an individual’s experience in four dimensions of existence: the physical, social, psychological and spiritual. They believe that conflict stems from confrontations with the “givens” or “ultimate concerns” of existence. These include:
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Transgender Identity and Sexuality
What is Transgender?
Transgender people are a diverse group of individuals who cross or transcend culturally defined categories of gender. Typically, sex is assigned at birth, most often based on genital appearance, Gender identity (one’s inner sense of being a boy/man or girl/ woman) is usually congruent with one’s assigned sex. However, transgender people show us that this is not always the case: Their gender identity may vary significantly from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender people include transsexuals (those who desire or have had hormone therapy or surgery to feminize or masculinize their body); crossdressers (those who wear clothing associated with the other sex and/or spend part of the time in the other gender role); drag queens and kings (those who combine hyperfemininity with hypermasculinity, usually for entertainment); and other individuals who may describe themselves as bigender or two-spirit (both man and woman), gender questioning (especially common among youth), gender variant or gender queer (who are people challenging gender norms in various ways).
Teenage Internet Addiction Symptoms & Treatment Help
Teen Internet Addiction Overview
It’s no secret that many teens are big fans of video games and the Internet. But for some young people, what started as an interest in technology, a means of entertainment, or a way to keep in touch with friends may morph into a serious behavior disorder.
Teen Internet addiction is much more than just a strong desire to be online. As is the case with other behavior disorders — such as compulsive gambling — teen Internet addiction is marked by a progressive loss of control over one’s ability to avoid, regulate, or limit a behavior. In this case, the behavior in question is spending time on the Internet.
Monday, January 27, 2014
U.S. children: overweight and oversexed?
Psychologists decry the cultural and marketing trends that are undermining children's mental—and physical—health.
Whether it's Tony the Tiger or the Pussycat Dolls, today's children are bombarded with advertising and entertainment images that negatively affect their development-and in the name of social justice, psychologists need to help curtail those trends, said psychologists at APA's Annual Convention.
How to respond if your child has bullied someone else online
If you found out that your child has bullied someone else, or your child reached out to you for help
handling the situation, what would you say or do?
You are the expert on your own child. But, this likely will be a sensitive conversation, so here are some general tips to work towards a positive interaction, and specific strategies to help you handle the situation.
How to respond if your child has been the target of online bullying
If your child has reached out to you and asked you for help to handle a bullying situation, what would you say or do? Below I provide some general tips and strategies to help you have a successful conversation and handle the most frequently reported problems of bullying. Remember, you are the expert about your own child and also the role model for how to handle difficult situations.
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