Behavior & Environment

Every day we negotiate with the kids and adults we interact with. They’re most often small negotiations like what activity to do or how to best address a challenging behavior. Being able to quickly and comfortably navigate these small negotiations throughout the day plays a big part in maintaining a positive, (relatively) stress-free environment for […]

One of the most important set of skills you can teach the kids you care for are conflict resolution skills. These skills will help them in their personal relationships with parents, friends, teachers, coaches… pretty much everyone in their life. They will also help them learn to share their personal perspectives, better understand the perspectives […]

We all know modeling is one of the best ways to teach kids. To encourage kids to be polite we say please and thank you, to demonstrate empathy we show concern for a someone that is sad, hurting, or just having a tough day. We share, we put things away after using them, we patiently […]

Every child is born with a particular temperament. Ask any parent and you’ll hear stories about who their child is at their core. They share things like “He’s been an anxious kid from day one,” or “She’s always been a laid-back kid. Things that upset other kids just roll off her back.” Although kids are […]

When kids fight with each other, it can be really frustrating and tiring. It’s also one of the toughest behavior challenges to overcome. Here are some ways that you can take the pressure off yourself as the referee while also teaching cooperation and problem-solving. 1. Set clear expectations of respect and kindness. Kids may do lots […]

Engagement between children and caregivers through responsive interactions is what developmental researchers at Center on the Developing Child at Harvard have coined as “Serve-and-Return” interactions. This is the way that infants bond and learn from the caregivers in their lives through a back-and-forth exchange. Let’s look at an example: an infant looks at the adult […]

Restorative justice has a lot of practices that can be used effectively in the in-home environment. Let’s start with the basics; what is restorative justice? The University of San Diego defines restorative justice as “a philosophy and a theory of justice that emphasizes bringing together everyone affected by wrongdoing to address needs and responsibilities and […]

Teaching kids to problem-solve by using real world issues can be incredibly effective if approached with structure to support the intended outcomes.  Children’s lives are full of problems that need solving, we just often think of them as just our problems as the adults. By having children participate in the brainstorming, filtering of ideas and […]

Almost every caregiver has dealt with a toddler that bites or hits. It’s a common phase and, at that age, developmentally appropriate. That doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. It’s hard in the moment and sometimes harder when you have to explain to a parent why their child was bitten or hit in […]

We previously talked about facilitating simple brainstorming sessions with kids as a means to teach kids to problem-solve. Now we’ll focus on how to evaluate those ideas and choose the ones you want to try. Before you start filtering ideas, make sure everyone has had a chance to contribute and the ideas are listed where […]

Effective problem-solving is one of the most helpful life skills we can teach kids. It helps them develop positive solutions to the challenges they face with family, friends, in school, on teams, and countless other situations. Kids as young as five can participate in simple brainstorming sessions. As you can imagine, brainstorming with kids, especially […]

Do your kids love to roughhouse? As a caregiver, it can be scary to let kids roughhouse because we worry they will get hurt on our watch. However, roughhousing has a lot of advantages and lessons for kids that are important to healthy development. 1. Physical Touch As kids get older, the amount of physical […]