learning/our-schools/etz-chaim-learning-center/keris-korner

Say No to Yourself First.

Parents are often at fault, directly or indirectly, when children and teenagers become hooked on electronic media, playing video games or sending texts many hours a day instead of interacting with the real world and the people in it. And as discussed in last week's column, digital overload can impair a child's social, emotional and intellectual growth.

This sad conclusion of many experts in child...Read more...

Dearest Parenting Experts,

What advice do you have for dealing with feigned incompetence in previously capable, competent children? When a student suddenly regresses, claiming they can't complete skills I know they have mastered, or when a child suddenly loses the ability to do the laundry, say, flailing his boneless, ineffectual arms about as he jabs at buttons on the washing machine, wailing all the while that he can't...Read more...

According to psychologist Carol Dweck, adults and kids who possess a growth mindset “believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work,” while those people who favor a fixed mindset “believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits.” Having a growth mindset seems to be connected closely with the traits of persistence,...Read more...

My experience growing up highlights the value of benign neglect. I had ample time alone to roam the woods around my neighborhood, ride my bike, and just goof off. As an introvert, I kept my social group small, and I often spent large chunks of time in solitude. My parents weren't negligent, but neither were they overly involved in...Read more...

Developmental psychologists have long been interested in how parents impact child development. However, finding actual cause-and-effect links between specific actions of parents and later behavior of children is very difficult. Some children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar personalities. Conversely, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have...Read more...