Neuroscience

A Bundle of Nerves: Kids and School Anxiety

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

If you saw Inside Out 2 over the summer, then you know that Anxiety is the main antagonist but not necessarily the villain. The film does a great job explaining this complex emotion and why it has a notable presence in our kids today. Being former gifted kids, we’ve definitely felt academic anxiety in high school; but is this really occurring for our elementary kids?

Fears and worry are typical for kids as they grow and experience the world, especially when it comes to school. A 2023 survey reported that 86% of school-aged children worry, mostly on a regular basis (once a week or more), with majority of their concerns (64%) being school-related.

Although the term anxiety has become a catch-all for any emotion related to apprehension or unease, it’s helpful to know the variations and their differences:

Continue reading →

Child(ish) Review: Inside Out 2

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When we first saw the trailer for Inside Out 2, we knew we had to get it on the blog ASAP. From the Whole-Brain Child to executive function, our posts cover a lot of a child’s emotional development as well as physical development. So we made it a movie night and now are bringing you our first actual Child(ish) movie review.

Continue reading →

Prepping for Healthy Gaming

| Patti Webb

In my Healthy Gamer book review, I shared a bit about my brother’s and my relationship with video games growing up. I’ve also shared about my husband Troy being a serious gamer well into his adulthood. And now that we have two kids who are ready for beginner video games, we’ve had to create a workable plan for having them in our home.

Continue reading →

Child(ish) Reads: Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors, Pt. 2

| Patti Webb

Back with Part 2 of our Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors review.

We got into what goes on in our kid’s brain when they are dysregulated and showing bad behavior. But it takes two to tango, and how we react to our kids during the tumult matters.

So here are the parent takeways that help us keep our heads:

Continue reading →

Child(ish) Reads: Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors

| Patti Webb

First Child(ish) Reads review of the year!

Today’s post is on Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors: Brain-Body-Sensory Strategies That Really Work by Dr. Robyn Gobbel. And of course, it has the magic word: sensory.

Dr. Gobbel is a psychologist with a Masters in Social Work, so this book is all about the neuroscience behind challenging child behavior. It had some pretty lofty goals in the Introduction: to completely change the way you parent. Challenge accepted.

Continue reading →