Blogs

Every parent has heard the importance of detecting learning difficulties as soon as possible to ensure your child’s academic success. Could this same concept apply to childhood bullying and depression? Bonnie J. Leadbeater, professor of psychology at the University of Victoria, believes it does.

by James Lehman, MSW

In Part II of Motivating Underachievers, James explains what you can do to get your child on track before school starts—and how you can motivate them to do their school work during the year.

"I believe that when kids are so-called lazy, that's really an attitudinal issue about 'Why bother, my life's not going to get any better anyway.'"

For a teen-ager, there are many ways to say “screw you” to your parents. And for underachieving kids, being motivated to do nothing is one of those ways.

by James Lehman, MSW

Are you facing the new school year with dread because you have an unmotivated or underachieving teen or pre-teen? Is your child’s answer to everything, “I don’t care” or “It doesn’t matter?” In Part I of this two-part series, James Lehman, MSW explains why your child does have motivation—and how you can coach them to better behavior.

When our children reach school age many parents eagerly and lovingly send their little ones off to kindergarten at the local school, be it public or private. We openly trust our children to receive a quality education and learn to function in society. What many parents don’t consider prior to enrollment is the potential impact on whether or not their child may become physically or socially aggressive.

Fr. John Hardon, S.J.
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Excerpted from a speech originally given by Fr. John Hardon, S. J. at a home school seminar in Oct. 1991, St. Paul, MN. Reprinted with permission. Fr. John Hardon, S.J., a noted theologian and home school advocate, is also the author of numerous books. He resides at the University of Detroit-Mercy in Detroit, MI.

Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD) versus Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

Parents severely struggling with their young child’s attitude often turn to their family practitioners for a diagnosis that can be treatable with a lifetime subscription to mood altering medications. This is due, in part, to the similarities of ADD (or even ADHD) and ODD.

Nowadays, children behave differently than they did many years ago. This is why new ways of rearing a child are constantly being discovered. Child rearing method for every child is different. As a parent, this is something you should acknowledge. You have to be able to guide your child in every aspect of his life so that he may become a good person someday. In order to raise your child well, you need to know how to do it the modern way.

Drug abuse and alcohol consumption has always been discouraged among youth, including teens. While depression, low self-esteem and breakups in relationships are the primary reasons of teens falling to drugs, beginning alcohol consumption begins more out of peer pressure or for having fun.

Ever wondered that you’ve had a temperature since yesterday and your sixteen-year-old son hasn’t walked into your room and asked about your health? Teens’ involvement with the family, for household chores or general discussions has reduced. As a parent, how often do you ask your teens how they are doing in their geography project or on a physics assignment? If we feel that since we don’t understand geography and physics and so we don’t ask, this is a serious slip-up.

Most families rely heavily on TV ratings when it comes to appropriate programs for their children to watch. They trust that “kids” channels will broadcast limited to no violent content and rarely feel a need to monitor those programs. According to a study published in March of 2009 TV ratings don’t accurately reflect aggressive content leaving your child viewing interactions you may otherwise disprove of.