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Some kids speak non-truths because they wish those things actually happened. I remember a 5-year-old little boy I worked with who was busy telling his friends and teachers that he was superman, that he flew off buildings, that he was a policeman and a fireman, that he had a gun, and so forth. Was he lying? NO! […]

Last week, we focused on the many reasons why children might hesitate to say the truth. What can we do to help kids get out of a pattern of lying? In this blog post, I will share a few strategies to tackle this challenge. Strategy #1: Do NOT set up the child to lie. In

I’ve recently been asked by several social skills coaches and parents what to do about children who are dishonest (I personally don’t like to call kids “liars” and instead, use words such as “dishonest,” “non-truth,” etc.)First, we must understand why kids hide the truth, and based on the reasons, apply solutions and strategies.The truth is,

In the beginning of the school year, I shared a color-coded weekly school calendar for a high school student who was feeling overwhelmed with all the subjects, teachers, and materials required for each class. (Below is the calendar we set up at the start of the school year. You might recall this visual.) Several weeks

Hi!In the last two blogs, we discussed how anxiety can be experienced as panic (physiological symptoms), as worry thoughts (cognitive symptoms), and finally as avoidance or behavioural problems (behavioural symptoms). This week, I’ll share some strategies for behavioural symptoms. In DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy), it is called “Opposite Action.” In CBT, it is known as

Hi!Sometimes children feel their anxiety in their bodies as panic symptoms. It results in physiological symptoms. Sometimes the anxiety comes as “worry thoughts.” These are known as cognitive symptoms. Finally, anxiety can also express itself as a behaviour, such as when a child avoids going to school, going swimming, or doing things that lots of his friends

One of my very young (7-year-old) students was experiencing a variety of worries and anxiety symptoms. We learned and practiced a number of strategies, including identifying red thoughts that increase anxiety, and green thoughts that lower anxiety.One of his more challenging symptoms was panicky sensations, such as sweating, shivering, shaking, breathing heavily, heart beating fast,

(30-second read)After completing a school evaluation recently and deciding that a school behavior chart might be very helpful, I showed a lovely mom some sample behavior charts and asked her if she’d have the time to make one for her son’s school staff. She readily agreed.I did not expect it to look this pretty. In

(One minute read)What do you do when a child constantly finds reasons to complain, and does not show appreciation even when you try so hard to please him?Last week, we discussed the strategy of validating the child’s feelings of disappointment, sadness, etc. But what if you’ve done this for weeks on end and the child

Happy Chanuka!! So you made the effort to buy each child a special Chanukah gift that they would hopefully enjoy. And there’s that one child in the family who is never satisfied. She wants what her brother got (a remote control car), or she wants what her sister got (the pink scooter) even though you