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.
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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:
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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.
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For the record, not all behaviors are bad. Our kids are figuring out how to navigate their world while simultaneously learning who they are and advocating for themselves. What constitutes challenging behavior is when their actions hinder their ability to learn, complete daily tasks, or engage appropriately with others. While some behaviors occur once in a blue moon, like that total meltdown at grandma’s house, it becomes a problem when it’s consistent (aggression/defiance at grandma’s house, at the store, at school, at a party, you get the idea).
In this post, we’re getting down to the bottom of these behaviors: why they’re happening, why they continue, and how we can help our children manage and reduce them. So grab your magnifying glass Watson, because we got some investigating to do.
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The shrieks! The screams! The calamity of it all!
No, this isn’t a trailer to the newest horror flick. It’s just another day in my house with the kids. *sigh*
Children are not easy obviously, but especially so when their behaviors are on another level. But behind every bit of challenging behavior lies a need that your child can’t quite articulate.
Last fall, I took a CEU course called “Identifying the Root of Challenging Behaviors.” So this week, we are giving you the parent takeaways. This first part on the developing child brain is a lot of what we’ve previously written about, but it sets the stage for how all of these parenting/OT approaches and strategies come together effectively.
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Child(ish) Advice 