How To Talk To Kids About Anything

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about the financial skills they need to manage money throughout their lifetime. From saving, spending wisely, giving and investing, this podcast gives you the talking points! Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews financial advisor and best-selling author of Stress-Free Money and Smart, Not Spoiled, Chad Willardson.

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This podcast will focus on the art and skill of talking to kids. How do we engage in conversations that spark curiosity, foster empathy and encourage kids to embrace challenges? Let’s move discussions from surface to substantial. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Rebecca Rolland on How to Talk to Kids about Anything today.

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The post How to Talk to Kids about the Power of Emotions with Dr. Julia Di Gangi appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to girls about body image, body acceptance and body resilience. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Drs. Lindsay Kite and Lexie Kite, sisters and co-directors of Beauty Redefined about this important topic, helping girls learn that their bodies are instruments, not ornaments.

The post How to Talk to Girls about Body Image and Body Resilience with Dr. Lindsay Kite and Dr. Lexie Kite – Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Weight, Size, Body Image and Fitting in with Ian Karmel and Alisa Karmel, PsyD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Climate Change with Bill Weir appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on how to raise a curious, responsible, kind toddler using the Montessori methods. From setting up a calm, paired-down environment to supporting your child while setting limits, this interview with Simone Davies, author of The Montessori Toddler gives strategies and scripts to help parents and toddlers thrive together. No more terrible twos—and much more terrific toddlerhood!

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The post How to Talk to Girls about Collaboration and Confidence with Dr. Katie Hurley and Riley Hurley appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on talking to kids about navigating the digital world. How do we help them to shape their digital reputation? Use apps? Understand how to cope with cyberbullying, sexting or exposure to possible predators? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Diana Graber for a second time.

The post How to Help Kids Build Healthy Technology Habits with Diana Graber Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Puberty with Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll-Bennett appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Laura Markham Dr. Laura Markham trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University. She is the mother of two, now ages 21 and 25. Dr. Laura is the author of the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How To Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life. And she has a new workbook out called the Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Workbook that you are sure to love. You can find her online at http://www.ahaparenting.com

The post How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting with Your Kids with Dr. Laura Markham – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Procrastination with Ned Johnson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Stay Connected With Your Teen with Yshai Boussi appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

There is no question- there has been a marked increase in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, and other neurological disorders. We have also heard of increases in food sensitivities, social problems, screen usage and medication use and a decrease in getting out into nature, going out for recess and unstructured play. Are these things connected? And if so, what can we do about it all? To answer these questions and more, we are turning to Dr. Robert Melillo.

Dr. Robert Melillo is a world-renowned chiropractic neurologist, professor and researcher in child neurological disorders, and creator of the Brain Balance Program. Since 1994, his program has helped thousands of children with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, and other disorders. His Brain Balance Achievement Centers are located throughout the United States. He is the author of Disconnected Kids, Disconnected Kids, Reconnected Families, Reconnected Kids and more. You can learn more about Dr. Melillo and his work at DrRobertMelillo.com

The post How to Help Kids with Autism, ADHD and Other Neurological Disorders Gain Better Brain Balance with Dr. Robert Melillo – Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Money Basics with Julia Cook appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast episode focuses on talking to tweens about topics that range from sexuality and technology to the changing parent-child relationship. How do you approach tweens so that both people feel heard? Michelle Icard suggests the BRIEF method which stands for: Begin peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview to collect information, Echo what you’re hearing, and give Feedback.

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The post How to Talk to Kids about Setting Goals and Achieving Dreams with Jesse LeBeau appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on specific issues like divorce, apologies, responsibility, sibling rivalry and friendships and exactly what to say and do when kids won’t listen. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews best-selling authors, Joanna Faber and Julie King, the authors of the new book, How to Talk When Kids Won’t Listen. This is the second podcast episode that Dr. Silverman has done with Faber and King.

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The post How to Talk to Kids about Good Manners with Brooke Romney appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Coping Skills with Janine Halloran, M.A., LMHC appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Bed-wetting and Day-time Accidents with Dr. Steve Hodges appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Raise Joyful, Change-Making, Socially-Aware Girls with Dr. Janice Johnson Dias appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Digital Safety and Pornography Exposure with Kristen A. Jenson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Parents about How They Discipline Kids with Mr. Chazz appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special guest: Catherine Weiss As parents, it is normal to have some stressful thoughts. We might be in conflict with our child and think; “he’s not listening to me,” “she’s so spoiled” or “he’s sucking the life out of me.” But what if we turned these statements on their ear to evaluate their truth but also look inward to see what the actual truth might be? We have the greatest of intentions and love our children—but it is often that we live in the moment. The moment of running from here to there, picking up, dropping off, cooking, cleaning, helping, orchestrating, planning—and getting frustrated, angry or upset when life’s little irritating moments get in our way—our children fighting with us, fighting with each other, not going along with what we deem “the flow.” And I get it—as a mother I am there with you and get this frustration deeply. Today, let’s look into self inquiry so that we can learn to prepare for the long haul rather than the fleeting moment, connection rather than disagreement and love rather than fear. I’ll be going on this journey with you as I am hanging out in the same boat, needing to learn and practice the same lessons and gain the same insights from our next guest who is ready to help us.

Catherine Weiss is the author of a radically different parenting book for mothers, currently 5-stars on Amazon, called, The Present Mother: How to Deepen Your Connection With the Present Moment, Yourself, and Your Child. The New York Times bestselling author of The Conscious Parent, Dr. Shefali Tsabary wrote the foreword to The Present Mother and in it says, "Any parent who reads and practices the insights in this book will not only heal their own wounds from childhood, they will change things for their offspring for all generations to come." Catherine's readers call The Present Mother THE parenting book and that it takes Conscious Parenting to the next level.

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The post How to Talk to Kids about Difficult Feelings in Friendship with Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on raising independent teens so that they can become young adults who can take care of themselves and make good, wise choices on their own. What skills do they need? What must they learn? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Lisa Heffernan from Grown and Flown on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast.

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You’ve probably noticed it—whether or not your child is an athlete. You’ve heard the stories. Athletes burning the candle at both ends, playing multiple sports at high levels, trying to balance school and sports for hours each day while sacrificing sleep, eating well, and blowing off stress in productive ways. Parents, with their hearts in the right places, pushing their kids to edge up—work harder, get in front of the right people, get more practice, get the right positions, get more playing time—only to burn their children out, blow their bodies out, obliterate their interest in the very activities they once loved. But how could they now try? Their kid is so talented- they seem to adore it—it’s not work, it’s fun…until it’s not. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Let’s discuss it today with Kirsten Jones.

The post How to Raise Empowered Athletes and Resilient Kids with Kirsten Jones appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Are you finding that kids these days are “running on empty?” While there is no lack of high-achieving kids that are arguably more accomplished, better educated, and more privileged than ever before, they also seem to be more stressed, unhappier, and struggling. We have heard in numerous podcast episodes with top experts that kids are suffering from anxiety, depression, and burnout at younger and younger ages. My next guest says that thrivers are different though: they flourish in our fast-paced, digital-driven, often uncertain world. Why? It turns out that they’ve aced the traits that set them on a happy, healthy, high performing path--confidence, empathy, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance, and optimism. These traits will allow kids to roll with the punches and succeed in life. How? For that we will turn to my friend and colleague, Dr. Michele Borba.

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The very thought of what's going on in our child's brain probably baffles most of us. I mean, how many times might we contemplate why our, why our child acts the way that they do, or what made them meltdown in the grocery store, or flare up at their sister, freak out when they need to write a book report, bring food in their room, get up from the table and just leave their dish right there. I mean, wait a second. I might've just morphed into talking about my own kids there. Our children's brains and development are complex, but my next guest is going to simplify, simplify things for us so that we can help them get back on track. After losing so much ground during the pandemic, we can make some simple changes and add some easy activities that can help our children thrive.

The post How to Impact Brain Development to Help Kids Thrive with Rebecca Jackson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast provides tips and scripts for talking to kids about suicide. What are the risk factors? What are the protective factors? And what should we say if a child seems that they are hopeless, helpless or have said that they are thinking about ending their life. This is an uncomfortable topic- but one that we should and need to discuss.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Suicide Risk and Prevention with Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW- ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

We’ve all heard the labels. Strong-willed, spirited, explosive, and highly sensitive. As parents of kids who have been marked as “difficult” we need an alternative road map to guide us where conventional parenting tools have failed. We need a way to calm the chaos. My next guest explains that there are five steps to calming the chaos, each step bringing us closer to family success even as emotions run high so that we can build a safe haven in our homes that support healthy kids.

The post How to Calm the Chaos in Dysregulated Kids So They Can Thrive with Dayna Abraham appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The world today can feel overwhelming- complicated, overloaded, moving at the warp speed! What do kids need to thrive—so that they catch their breath before facing the next hurdle, cope gracefully with the ups and downs of life and bend not break? My next guests provide 10 essential, actionable strategies that we can use to raise kids who can. Who can roll with punches, connect, deal with frustration, bounce back and ultimately thrive. For this, we will be talking to my new friends, Catherine, Heather and Jennifer.

The post How to Raise a Kid Who Can with Catherine McCarthy, MD, Heather Tedesco, PhD, and Jennifer Weaver, LCSW appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special guests: Joanna Faber & Julie King. What do you do with a little kid who won’t brush his teeth? Screams in his car seat? Pinches the baby? Refuses to eat her vegetables? Throws books at the library and runs rampant in the restaurant? We’ve all been there. How many of us have seen the parent with the child at the supermarket who is throwing one big tantrum in the cereal aisle because s/he won’t buy the super sugar rainbowloops that he had to-- HAD TO-- have? How many of us have BEEN that parent with that child? No judgment- we are here to discuss it and get some strategies and scripts to all parents who have ever had some trouble with their young kids.

Many of you who are hungry for parenting and teaching knowledge probably know the blockbuster best-selling book, How to Listen So Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. It’s a staple on my shelf. Well, Adele Faber has a daughter, Joanna Faber who not only grew up being the recipient of all the strategies Faber and Mazlish described in their mega-bestseller, but also wrote a follow up book with her childhood best friend, Julie King that takes a similar structure, using common challenges of young children and provides tool after tool to help anyone with children ages 2-7.

Joanna Faber and Julie King are the authors of How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 (Scribner 2017). The book has been ranked #1 as a best-seller on Amazon, and is being translated into 17 languages world-wide. Joanna and Julie created the soon-to-be-released app Pocket Parent, a companion to their book, as well as the app Parenting Hero. Joanna and Julie lead workshops online and in person, consult privately and give lectures in the U.S. and internationally. Visit them at HowToTalkSoLittleKidsWillListen.com or on Facebook.

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We live at a time when many parents, out of love, do so much for their kids—so much so that kids are not learning the skills they need in order to thrive. This is one of the reasons why I created one of my free bonuses for the How to Talk to Kids about Anything book launch—118 Skills to Teach Kids by Age 18—a checklist of 118 skills that allows you to ensure your children are ready to thrive on their own by the time they leave your home. You can access that bonus list and several more at DrRobynSilverman.com, under the tab “book.” Now—what about when you are NOT raised in a home where your parents are doing a lot for their kids—maybe because they can’t, maybe because they won’t, maybe their life situation dictates that the children need to be independent to survive. Yes, what is you are raised in a home where you wonder if you’ll have food on the table and anger and shame are the norm? How can we learn to show up for ourselves, strategize ways to succeed, hustle, learn and become? And then, how, as a parent, can we instill these lessons so they can live boldly- no matter where they started in life? I think we can all learn something from my next guest who created the life she wanted by discovering the strength she needed was within her all along.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Living Boldly and Creating the Life they Want with Nicole Walters appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to help struggling kids reach their full potential.

Approximately 5% of school aged children have a learning disability and 13% of all public school students receive special education services. Another 15% are struggling due to an unidentified learning or attention issue. Struggles can look different in different children at different times of their childhood. Their struggles may be an issue with listening, concentrating, motivation, focus or other under-developed executive functioning skills. Children with learning disabilities not only cope with the disability itself but often misunderstanding of the disability. People may think that their lack of concentration is due to laziness, for example. They may believe that their impulsivity is linked to rudeness or feelings that their needs and wants are more important than other people’s needs and wants. So it’s not surprising that sometimes, with misunderstanding comes mislabeling. “That child is rude.” “So and so is a lazy child.” Mislabeling can linked to behavioral problems and can cause a lot of anxiety in children as they struggle to either prove someone wrong—or, prove others right as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Children with learning disabilities also must cope with teachers, administrators and parents jumping to an intervention that may not address the actual problem. How do we talk to kids and help kids who are struggling with learning disabilities so that they can reach tier potential and achieve their goals? For this, we turn to our guest, Dr. Karen Wilson.

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I’m so excited today for this special podcast where Dr. Robert Melillo is interviewing me on my new book, How to Talk to Kids about Anything! It’s out now wherever books are sold and I hope you have yours—it’s currently #1 on Amazon in the School-Age Children Parenting Category—and that’s because of all of you. Thank you for your support- and please review it- those 5-Star reviews make a huge difference in the algorithm. So TODAY- I want to introduce Clinician, brain researcher, and Best-selling author, Dr. Melillo is one of the most respected specialists in childhood neurological disorders in American and has been helping children with learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia and more for over 30 years. He’s the author of Disconnected Kids- and we interviewed him here on that very book, along with several others including Reconnected kids- and there’s even a TV show based on that one. We’re flipping the script again so here is my guest interviewer for How to Talk to Kids about Anything, so take it away, Dr. Robert Melillo!

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We have a lot of TOUGH talks on this podcast. We’ve talked about sex, porn, suicide, bullying, neurodiversity, failure, death and so much more. It was always my aim to present you with the entire child development pie and invite amazing guests on the show, bestselling authors and top experts, who could dig deep, providing you with the deep slices of that pie so that you can have these conversations with your children and teens—and that they will come to us when they need someone to talk to as well. One thing I know for sure is that if we want our kids to talk to us about anything, we have to be willing to talk to our kids about everything.

Today’s guest in the hot seat is ME! Ha! Since my book comes out today, October 10th, and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with all of you. You’ve been part of my village and my community since 2017—we have been through a lot—and talked about some very intimate things—I will ask now, as I’ve never asked before, would you please go to wherever you get your books—Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Target, your local Indy Book store and order How to Talk to Kids about Anything right now. It’s been 6 years of work—interviews, researching, this podcast which I have never charged for- writing and editing-- and I know you will find it worth it and love it—and once you order it and receive the book, please give those 5 star reviews because that will get more people to know about it, buy it, use it, and make a difference with their kids. Would you do that now please? Thank you in advance!

And now for my amazing moderator for today, none other than, my husband, whose been through it all with me. So I hope the Dads will give a good listen to what he has to say, he’s been through it all with me. The good, the bad, the ugly and the utterly hilarious. Jason Silverman and I have been married for almost 25 years- he’s a brilliant marketer, the founder, Chief Executive Officer and president of Silverman Consulting and Systems Success Mastermind, he’s a business development coach, my partner in Powerful Words Character System, and my partner in life—so welcome to the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast, and now, I’ll flip to guest mode!

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This episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything focuses on effective communication tools that parents can use to best reach their children as they enter middle school and the teen years. How do we engage in respectful and effective dialogue, give constructive feedback, problem-solve and provide boundaries and still navigate the complex terrain of teenhood? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews William Stixrud and Ned Johnson in this lively and fascinating exchange.

The post How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance & a Happy Home with Dr. William Stixrud & Ned Johnson – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

What to do when your child throws a tantrum? How to react when your child hits, punches, or bites? How do we help to co-regulate our child’s nervous system? And how do we head-off tantrums before they happen? As you know, we’ve entered a new way of helping our children through big emotions—moving far away from the ways our parents used to parent us and their parents used to parent our parents. Instead of pushing big feelings under the rug, hiding them in the closet or stuffing them down into our bodies like a batch of old brownies, as our understanding of developing brains has increased, today’s parents are looking for a new way to help their children understand their feelings and learn to process them. Who is leading the way for us today? Alyssa Blask Campbell is joining us for her second time today.

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This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about anxiety and OCD. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Eli Lebowtiz about the key to helping kids cope with their anxious behavior—acceptance and confidence. This podcast provides many scripts and strategies for parents and educators.

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Well folks, we are in a digital age where we track our children’s every move through apps—access their grades within minutes of the teachers posting them, send photos at a push of a button before we’ve even considered whether or not we should share or have consent to share—yikes. I was interviewed on Good Morning America about this topic because of how the number of likes affects how a tween and teen feel about their worthiness! This can lead to the creation of an online persona that teens create to attract likes even if the persona doesn’t represent who the child is at the core— how can our kids cope with zero privacy and constant judgment? Let’s bring in my friend and friend of the show, Devorah Heitner.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Growing up in Public with Dr. Devorah Heitner appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

We’re probably all felt it—this ever-more competitive race that today’s students run each day towards the best possible future—feeling the crushing pressure to do more, more, more, jamming their schedules full of resume-padding activities, AP classes, tutoring and whatever else that can give them an edge over the rest so that they can get into the right colleges, that gets them on the right path towards the right future. At the same time, we have skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and more—is it possible to help kids strive towards excellence without having the process crush them while on their way? For this, we are speaking with Jennifer Wallace.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Toxic Achievement Culture with Jennifer Wallace appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Kara Kinney Cartwright – This podcast will focus on teaching boys to recognize the humanness in everyone—to be kind and to NOT be an assh*le. How can we teach our sons to have positive interactions, make good decisions and recognize when they are being jerkfaces? We talk about all of it on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast with guest and author, Kara Kinney Cartwright.

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How can we remain mindful when we are rushing around and doing so much as parents? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews best-selling author, Hunter Clarke Fields, on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast. Hunter’s new book, Raising Good Humans Everyday, is featured.

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This podcast is about how to parent without perfection. While we may have pictured smiling, complaint-free kids frolicking in meadows, taking out the trash without prompting, and feeling carefree ease as we baked cookies in a clean and organized home before we had kids-this is not reality. Kids are not perfect and neither are we. Far from it. The quicker we accept that life is messy, with spills, frustration, disorganization, and yes, some quarreling too, the better. Families and life moments can be both beautiful and contentious at times. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Kristen Howerton on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast.

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Special guest: Katie Hurley

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, approximately one out of five teens has a mental health disorder, diagnosable by clinical methods, and nearly one-third show symptoms of depression. Now you might be thinking- well, many teens seem depressed to me, their moods and their emotions are all over the place! Stress is overwhelming! Yes, that can be true- symptoms of depression in adolescents aren’t always easy to identify because they often appear as normal adolescent behavior. But if we keep an eye open for consistent depressed behavior and indicators like, fatigue, changes in sleep patterns, changes in eating patterns, social withdrawal, and/or anger- these can serve as early warning signs that can allow us to get help for our teens as depression is absolutely treatable but NOT fixable on its own. Teens who have depression need therapy, support at home and yes, some also need medication. There’s no quick fix and thankfully, we have Katie Hurley here to explain how we know if our child needs help, what we and our teens can do at home to assist and what exercises and tools we can use to improve mood, self-esteem and motivation.

Katie Hurley, LCSW, is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting expert, and writer. She is the founder of “Girls Can!” empowerment groups for girls between ages 5-11. Hurley is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook” “No More Mean Girls,” (both subjects we have interviewed Katie on previously on How to Talk to Kids about Anything) and her new workbook, The Depression Workbook for Teens, which is the #1 new release on Amazon for Teen and Young Adult Self Esteem and Self Reliance Issues. Her work can be found in The Washington Post, PBS Parents, and US News and World Report, among other places. She practices psychotherapy in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and earned her BA in psychology and women’s studies from Boston College and her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between California and Connecticut with her husband and two children.

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Childhood is supposed to be filled with good times and laughs—but of course, some children may experience a significant loss during their childhood or adolescence. It’s actually more common than you might think. According to the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, as of 2021, one in 14 American children will experience the death of a parent or sibling before the age of 18. Still, it’s not easy to talk about grief with adults, let alone kids—but as the key adults in our children’s lives, we need to be able to step in and navigate ethe thoughts and feelings that they are experiencing as they cope with their loss. They likely will have many questions when a grandparents, parent, sibling or other close family member or friend dies. They might wonder if they are at fault, if they are safe and who will make their grilled cheese sandwich and take them to soccer if the person who passed away was the one who did those things for them. When we shut down, don’t talk about grief and death with kids or make the mistake of assuming if they aren’t talking about it, they must be fine, kids can wind up filling in their questions with their own answers based on misunderstandings and incorrect information. We need to help them get the conversation going through a variety of techniques that allows them (and also us!) to manage grief in productive ways. We’ve discussed talking about death and grief with Joe Primo, in the past, and we’ve talked about suicide with Dr. Dan Reidenberg and Dr. Jonathan Singer—and now we will discuss grief through a new lens with Katie Lear who uses child-friendly activities to comfort kids and help them to overcome sadness, fear and loss.

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Parents have struggled with how to manage their time for generations. There is so much to do— so much to balance! In the age of extracurriculars— from travel baseball, soccer, gymnastics, piano, to tutoring classes, art and enrichment, the question of how to fit everything in, complete the car pool, get dinner on the table, help with homework, get to the store, get some work done, give your kids undivided attention—and still take care of yourself—seems nearly impossible. How do we do this? DO we do all of this? To hold our hands and help us all shift from having it all to getting it right in the moment— is best-selling author, Julie Morgenstern.

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Imagine getting a knock on your door from someone who could derail your whole life and take away your child. That knock came for my next guest—not because she was abusing or neglecting her child, actually, quite the opposite- it was because she was listening and responding to her child in the most loving way possible. She was allowing her child to live life as the gender she felt she was—a girl. The topic of transgender youth has been contentious, to say the least. From the outside, when the person looking in is cis gender—meaning you were say, born and labeled a girl at birth and, you feel like a girl, it can be hard to imagine that some people don’t feel that alignment. The only way that I feel like we can really explain that is to switch it– for you to imagine that other people are referring to you, if you are a girl or a woman, as a boy or a man—with pronouns that reflect that, names that reflect that and you keep saying, but that’s not who I am! Some kids know from a very young age that they are not the gender they were assigned at birth. And it’s important to listen to this—because transgender people can have a very high suicide rate- a very high rate of being bullied, attacked, even murdered. Trans women, because they must contend with a profound amount of discrimination, also are at high risk of alcoholism, poverty, homelessness and lack of good healthcare. The solution is not fixing the transgender person but rather, acceptance. Let’s talk about it with my next guest who has personal experience with her own transgender child.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Transgender People with Carolyn Hays appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how parents, teachers, and coaches of children K-12 can start talking more openly about sexual harassment and sexual violence. In order for this kind of behavior to stop, everyone much address the norms and stereotypes that fuel it, so all young people can grow up safe, respected, and valued.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Sexual Harassment with Lara Kaufmann & Dr. Christia Spears Brown – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

When I asked my next guest to come back on the show and I wanted to know what she’d like to discuss this time because she has such interesting perspective and a way with words—and she said, she’d like to talk about how “kids don’t thrive when they’re raised like dogs on a leash who have to go a certain way to please their owner (parent).” You see my next guest did this amazing, extremely popular Ted Talk in 2016 entitled “How to Raise Successful Kids- without Over-Parenting” which has just about 7, 500, 000 views now. And in it she talks about how mapping out our children’s every move, check-listing their childhood so that they get into the right colleges and get the right jobs doesn’t actually make a successful, fulfilled person unless success is only moving up a preconceived and narrow ladder that may not actually feel like success for your child. How can we, as parents, drop the rope—or the leash—that is keeping our children from their passions, from their individuality, from their destiny—and how can we talk to our children about embracing who they are, learning who they want to be and willingly taking the steps to forge their own path? For that, we are turning to Julie Lythcott-Haims.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Becoming Individuals Without Interference with Julie Lythcott-Haims appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on answering some of kids’ toughest questions about sex and changing bodies. From puberty to erections, masturbation and what sex is, we’re going in! Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews sexuality educator and author, Dr. Logan Levkoff on the latest episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything.

The post How to Answer Kids’ Toughest Questions about Sex with Logan Levkoff, PhD ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the science and sense of giving your kids more control over their lives. What can we do and say to help show our kids that we believe in them, trust them and feel confident about them making key decisions in their lives about what they need and want for themselves. When we take over, we weaken them and say “don’t trust yourself- trust me instead.” When we externally motivate and incentivize, we don’t allow them to look within themselves and find what intrinsically motivates them. If we want our children to be “self-driven,” we need to allow them to make decisions, make mistakes, learn from them and apply their new knowledge to the next set of decisions. In an interview with Dr. William Stixrud, best-selling co-author of The Self-Driven Child, we learn that this sense of control, while feeling supported by key adults, will benefit our children in all areas of their lives.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Being Self-Driven, Self-Motivated & Self-Controlled with Dr. William Stixrud – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Many of us have been there. We walk out of an appointment with our child’s doctor or teacher and we feel concerned—and a whole host of other feelings from fear to anger to sadness, confusion and of course, love. We all hope that our children are healthy and cruise through life fairly unscathed- so when reality hits and we hear that our child has common challenges like ADHD or learning disabilities or more severe challenges like feeding issues, asthma, food allergies, anxiety or depression, we can become alarmed. As we may flip into roles beyond the typical parenting caregiver to medical scheduler, diagnosis researcher, health advocate and more- we may find that money, time, access and a feeling of calm is in short supply. What can we do to cope with and talk with our kids about challenging medical diagnoses and how to proceed through life with one? For this, we turn to Dr. Kelly Fradin.

The post How do we talk to kids about Health Challenges & Medical Diagnoses with Kelly Fradin appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on the conversations that need to occur around racism, inequities and social justice in a world where black and brown boys are routinely marginalized, mistreated and made to feel inferior. How can advocates, educators, parents and activists become mentors and guides for black and brown boys? How can we empower our young people to speak out and create change? How can we change the stereotypes of this group of young people by highlighting the good, changing our expectations and altering the old systems that no longer serve? Dr. Robyn Silverman speaks with educator, Jason B. Allen, about how we can make a difference.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Equity, Racism and Social Justice with Jason B. Allen – Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

How do we raise good humans? Parents need to know their North Star, have some good tools and be ready to parent for the long haul. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Aliza Pressman on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast.

The post How to Raise Good Humans with Dr. Aliza Pressman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on teaching kids and talking to kids about money values and money mindset. How do we help kids to understand how to save, spend and give? What money stories and money beliefs are we passing forward and what do we want them to learn or relearn? And how do we leave a money legacy that sets them up for success? Dr. Robyn Silverman speaks with Chelsea Brennan during this money episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Money Values, Spending & Giving with Chelsea Brennan – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on talking to kids about outsmarting worry.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Outsmarting Worry with Dawn Huebner, PhD – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

How do we talk to kids about diversity and inclusion? Beth Leipholtz, inclusion and accessibility advocate discusses what to consider when our own child has a disability as well as how to answer other children’s tough questions about a child’s disability or difference.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Differences and Inclusion with Beth Leipholtz appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on how to raise resilient, self-reliant and secure kids in an age of anxiety. The most common health disorders among children are mental health disorders. That’s 17 million children! We must help children cope with stress and learn from their mistakes—and we can do this through scaffold parenting. Scaffold parenting is a framework based on structure, support and encouragement. Dr. Robyn Silverman speaks to Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, founding president and medical director at the Child Mind Institute and author of the new book, The Scaffold Effect, on the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast.

The post How to Raise Resilient, Self-Reliant, and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety with Dr. Harold Koplewicz – Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how we can support our highly sensitive children in a world that is often loud, fast and overwhelming for them. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Jenn Granneman of Introvert, Dear.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Being Sensitive in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World with Jenn Granneman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast is about how to help ourselves and our children navigate middle school successfully. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Judith Warner, author of “And Then They Stopped Talking to Me,” about middle school friendships, relationships, emotions, frustrations, screen time, and more.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Middle School with Judith Warner Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Many would agree that most teenagers are emotional. Sometimes those emotions are worn on the sleeve while other times they are more covert but often ever-present. How do we understand our teenagers’ intense and often fraught emotional lives—and how do we support them through this critical developmental stage? For that, we have the pleasure of having the fabulous Lisa Damour back on our show today.

Recognized as a thought leader by the American Psychological Association, Lisa Damour, Ph.D., co-hosts the Ask Lisa podcast, writes about adolescents for the The New York Times, appears as a regular contributor to CBS News, works in collaboration with UNICEF, and maintains a clinical practice. She is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls (we had Lisa on the show to discuss it!). She has a NEW book out! Wooohoo! It’s called The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents which is the #1 New Release in Popular Adolescent Psychology on Amazon! She and her husband have two daughters and live in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

The post How to Talk about the Emotional Lives of Teenagers with Dr. Lisa Damour appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on mindfulness and how it can help the way we parent and teach our children. The podcast episode provides how to train yourself to stay calm in tough situations, how to calm down more quickly and how to teach your children to be more mindful as well.

The post How Mindfulness Can Positively Impact the Way We Parent Our Children with Dr. Laura Markham Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will talk about how many people have the wrong idea about adoption and kids. Adoption is nuanced and those involved in adoption are human! Experts in adoption have found that children, adoptive parents and birth parents may grapple with seven different core issues in adoption and permanency. Let’s discuss them today and find out how to talk about them with our children and teens.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Adoption, Foster Care and Attachment with Allison Davis Maxon, LMFT appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on talking to our kids about being brace and having uncomfortable conversations about race and racism. Don’t let the discomfort get in the way! Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews coauthors, Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman, about their book, Courageous Discomfort.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Race and Racism with Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on boys, consent, masculinity, hook-ups, love and porn—and how to open up conversations with boys about these topics that will help them to become more informed boys and better men.

The post How to Talk to Boys about Sex with Peggy Orenstein Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on breaking the cycle of reactive parenting so that we don’t get derailed by everyday challenges, irritations, and frustrations while parenting. Hunter-Clarke-Fields provides specific strategies for all parents to use so that we can bring more calm and peace into our daily lives.

The post How to Break the Cycle of Reactive Parenting with Hunter Clarke-Fields, MSAE appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the 5 love languages and how they apply to blended families. Blended families must learn how to navigate step parents, step siblings, step grandparents with all of their nuances, needs, rules, emotions, concerns and ways that all of these different people want to feel valued and important. Stepfamilies must deal with the pain of the past, the complexities of new relationships and the unique challenges that come with creating one family. As parents and stepparents, how can we have these important conversations about fear, loss, inclusion, empathy and connection—tying the binds between the biological family members and the new family members? How do we find love, strengthen it and keep it in a step family? This podcast addresses these unique challenges.

The post How to Talk to Kids about StepFamilies and Blended Families with Ron L. Deal, MMFT ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on talking to kids about finding meaning, connection, and purpose even if they are not raised in a religious family—or if they are raised in a family without religion at all. Tips and scripts are provided by our guest, Katherine Ozment, author of Grace without God.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Meaning & Purpose in a Secular Age with Katherine Ozment Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the good news about bad behavior! Looking into some of the top parenting models, Katherine Reynolds Lewis and Dr. Robyn Silverman discuss how best to help our children thrive in different situations. Inspired by parenting models from authors and podcast guests, Dr. Ross Greene and Vicki Hoefle (among others), we discuss how to best handle different scenarios that are common in households across the world. Ultimately, we want to use connection and communication to help children learn strategies that help them to become more capable—and also allow them to learn self-regulation.

The post The Good News about Bad Behavior with Katherine Reynolds Lewis – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast is about the gifts and challenges of raising neuro-diverse children and how we, as adults, educators and typically-developing children can support, encourage and help atypically-developing children thrive. What do we need to know about ADHD, autism, giftedness and more? How can we reframe, understand and pro-actively plan to help neurodiverse kids show their gifts rather than ask them to conform? Debbie Reber, author of Differently Wired, will shine high beams on solutions.

The post How to Talk to Kids about the Gifts & Challenges of Neurodiversity with Debbie Reber ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on self-compassion, especially in moments when we mess up as parents. We need to remember, being a great parent is not the same thing as being a perfect parent. When we show ourselves self-compassion, we don’t judge ourselves and we show our kids that it’s okay to make mistakes and move forward.

The post How to Show Self-Compassion When You Mess Up as a Parent with Carla Naumburg appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on common stressors that military families—and, in particular, military kids, must cope with because they are in military families. From frequent moving to deployment, injuries and even death of a loved one, military kids must endure a great deal of anxiety and change. How can we talk to military kids about their fears, concerns and feelings? Dr. Julie Kinn, who works with the Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency, discusses what our military kids need in terms of support as well as how technology can help them feel like they are part of a community that can provide what they need through the uncertain times.

The post How to Talk to Military Kids about Common Stressors and Concerns with Dr. Julie Kinn Rerelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on the “truths” teen girls should know as they go through the adolescent years. What do they need to know about friendships? Romantic relationships? Reputation? Their strengths? We will discuss some important topics that apply to teen girls and how to best connect as they flourish and become the best versions of themselves.

The post How to Raise Teen Girls and Grow a Relationship with Your Teen Daughters with Kari Kampakis – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on talking to kids about ignoring it when siblings are driving them nuts. We will be discussing how to deal with siblings who annoy, pester, bully, or fight using the “Ignore It!” system developed by Catherine Pearlman.

The post How to Parent with Intention with Destini Ann Davis appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on talking to kids about ignoring it when siblings are driving them nuts. We will be discussing how to deal with siblings who annoy, pester, bully or fight using the “Ignore It!” system developed by Catherine Pearlman.

The post How to Cope with Siblings who Annoy, Bully or Fight with Catherine Pearlman – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast episode provides important lessons antibias and antiracist practices as well as how to address some uncomfortable conversations with kids, in the moment, when biased things are said.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Antibias and Antiracist Practices with Liz Kleinrock appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the key skills kids need to thrive in middle school and beyond as well as how parents and educators can help. In this interview with school counselor and psychotherapist, Phyllis Fagell, LCPC, author of Middle School Matters, we discuss how to talk to middle schoolers when so much is changing in their lives- physical, social, emotional—and when they are riding the line between needing their parents and wanting to individuate. How do we stay connected but also step back and allow them to shine? How do we shift our role to manager to coach? And how do we encourage our children to take risks in this low-stakes period of life when everything seems big, scary and consequential? Dr. Robyn Silverman and Phyliis Fagell discuss all that relates to middle school matters.

The post How to Talk to Middle Schoolers about What Matters Most with Phyllis Fagell, LCPC – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Having a conversation about death and dying is not typically a conversation people are excited to have with their kids. And yet, we all know it’s necessary. A friend of mine came over to me at a party the other day. She had just found out that her mother-in-law had stage 4 cancer. While dealing with her own whirlwind of emotions, knowing that I provide tips and scripts to have these tough conversations with kids, she asked me; “What do I tell the kids? What if they ask me if she’ll die? What do I say when she does?” The concept of dying can be scary, sad, confusing, angering and upsetting for many of us. Our own emotions, our concern about our children’s emotions- how they are going to take the news- how they are going to cope with life when someone they love dies- how might they grieve—what’s normal- these can make us worry about having the conversations in the first place. Not to mention, our confusion over what to say and how to say it can make this topic on how to talk to kids about death and dying- a real tough one.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Death & Dying with Joe Primo – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast episode provides an in-depth look at the lives of adolescent girls and their mental health.

The post How to Talk to Girls about Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media with Donna Nakazawa appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Childhood Illness with Dr. Jen Pratt appeared first on drrobynsilverman.com.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Childhood Illness with Dr. Jen Pratt appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on trauma recovery so that our children can find their homes and focus on hope and healing. Whether it’s bullying, racism, sexism or some other kind of oppression, trauma is real and we need to help kids to process the feelings that go along with it and take action.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Trauma Recovery with Dr. Thema Bryant appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Middle School is a time of incredible growth—kids change a great deal while learning and practicing vital social skills that they will use throughout their lives—how to get along with others, talk about tough topics, compromise, still to your values, be an ally, show up as a good friend and so much more. How do we help open up these topics to kids so that they know what to say when they find themselves in sticky situations? For that, we turn to Catherine Newman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Useful Social Skills for Life with Catherine Newman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on mental disorders and diagnoses stem from a difference in wiring in the brain—and that these differences, while providing some challenges also often come with amazing gifts!

The post How to Talk to Kids about the Power of Different with Dr. Gail Saltz – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the collision between self-esteem and gender identity- especially for children who don’t have the support they need to truly embrace who they are. For kids who identity as LGBTQ, they don’t need a “perfect” parent who knows exactly what to say, but rather, one who will ask the questions, stay curious, and above-all-else, be a supportive advocate for their child. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews nonbinary author, activist and social media star, Jeffrey Marsh.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Self Esteem, Gender Identity & Being Yourself with Jeffrey Marsh appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to help little kids navigate big emotions in specific common situations. Alyssa Blask Campbell of Seed and Sew will help us understand what to do and say to help our kids (and ourselves) through those frustrating situations so we don’t get derailed and get to the other side!

The post How to Talk to Kids about Emotions, Boundaries, Transitions & Conflict with Alyssa Blask Campbell appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how parents can get away from the pressures of perfectionism and the rules of what they “have to do” as parents. Mothers and fathers need to learn how to parent outside of the lines, tap into their own wisdom and connect with their child in order for their families to thrive. Forget helicopter parenting, tiger moms, positive parenting or being mindful in the middle of a meltdown and instead discover relatable ways to stay connected to your kids.

The post How to Forego Impossible Parenting Standards & Tap into Our Own Wisdom with Meghan Leahy ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to raise kids who don’t act like jerks—who aren’t racist, sexist, rude bullies and instead show up in this world as empathetic, kind good people. Melinda Wenner Moyer, who writes for Scientific American and The New York Times, offers her insights from assessing thousands of research studies on kids on this latest episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything.

The post How to Raise Kids Who Don’t Act Like Jerks with Melinda Wenner Moyer appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to raise and antiracist—actively pursuing ways to challenge stereotypes, discriminatory norms and racist structures while teaching kids to use empathy and ask critical questions about what they see, hear and feel regarding race. We will learn how to raise an antiracist from this week’s guest, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.

The post How to Raise and Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on answering key questions for parents of LGBTQ kids that lead to greater understanding and support. However, please note that ALL parents should be listening to this podcast episode. As my guest says, during the interview; “If you are a parent of any child, learning about the LGBTQ community, learning how to make your home one that is loving and welcoming to people of all sexualities and all gender identities, making your conversations inclusive is so powerful because you never know how your child is identifying and you never know who is in your child’s life who might be going through things…This is a message, this is a podcast, this is a conversation for all parents- not just the one who think their child might be gay or who are gay.”

The post How to Help Parents Understand & Support their LGBTQ Kids with Kristin Russo – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast helps parents and educators discover how to build resilience in teens. As young people are working to gain more independence, they make more mistakes and must learn how to recover. Sometime they need to learn how to get back up after a big fall while other times they must learn how to move forward after small, everyday blunders. How can we help kids learn how to believe in themselves, their own skills, their own sense of control and adaptability while also knowing we are here when they really need us? We talk about the 7 Cs of resilience with Dr. Ken Ginsberg and receive some beautiful tips and scripts that help us know the dos and don’ts while raising teens who thrive no matter what twists and turns they encounter.

The post How to Build Resilience in Teens with Dr. Ken Ginsburg ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how we can stay curious about ourselves and ensure that we are growing and learning so that we can encourage our children to do the same. There are many areas of life that are being questioned and evolving right now- from questions about race, gender, sex and identity. How can we engage in conversations with our kids about these topics that engages curiosity instead of fear? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Cathy Cassani Adams for answers and insight.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Self-Awareness, Identity, Gender and Diversity with Cathy Cassani Adams appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast episode focuses on how to teach kids to behave from the inside out! Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Charles Fay about helping kids develop responsibility, strong self-concept and self-control by using example, experience and empathy. Allow the low-risk mistakes to happen, the consequences to play out and the learning to happen by remaining consistent, empathetic and a great model for how to deal with daily frustrations.

The post How to Get Children to Behave from the Inside Out with Dr. Charles Fay – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the range of different types of families there are—especially families that were built through adoption and families that are headed up by two-dads or two-moms or a range of others who love them (grandparents, single parents). What makes a family? It’s about process not structure—it’s who loves and takes care of you, not their gender or biology! Thank you to Professor Abbie Goldberg, recognized scholar, speaker and author, for all her amazing eye-opening information.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Diverse Family Structures with Abbie Goldberg, Ph.D appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids when tragedy strikes- school shootings, traumatic weather events, local fires, acts of terror or other disasters. What do we say? What do we do? What if our children are feeling particularly anxious and vulnerable? Dr. Robyn Silverman and Karen Young talk about best practices, tips and scripts so that parents and key adults know how to respond so that our children feel safe and supported.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Traumatic Events and Natural Disasters with Karen Young – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the art and skill of talking to kids. How do we engage in conversations that spark curiosity, foster empathy and encourage kids to embrace challenges? Let’s move discussions from surface to substantial. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Rebecca Rolland on How to Talk to Kids about Anything today.

The post The Art and Skill of Talking with Kids with Rebecca Rolland, Ed.D appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to parent kids with ADHD.

The post How to Parent Kids with ADHD with Cindy Goldrich – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the negative habits women and girls need to be aware of so that they can own their power, channel their confidence and find their authentic voice. How can women and girls stop blaming themselves, comparing themselves, downplaying their success, seeing vulnerability as a weakness and more so that they can reach their potential without apologizing for it? Given the cultural landscape and the societal pressures that women and girls put on themselves, now is the perfect time to redefine themselves and sharpen their mental strength. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews international best-selling author, Amy Morin, for the third time on How to Talk to Kids about Anything, about her new book, 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do.

The post How to Talk about the 13 Things Mentally Strong Women and Girls Don’t Do with Amy Morin, LCSW – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the insider’s take on ADHD from someone who knows. Peter Shankman gives us the tools, tricks, life hacks and insider’s understanding from someone who has ADHD and grew up feeling misunderstood. Of course, he grew up to learn how to use his “faster than normal” brain and to become incredibly successful in business, writing and speaking as an entrepreneur, best-selling author and highly-paid keynote speaker. Peter helps us to understand the gifts of ADHD and how to help kids with “faster than normal” brains to use them to their advantage.

The post How to Talk to Kids about the Gifts, Tools and Rituals of the ADHD Brain with Peter Shankman – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on talking to kids about navigating the digital world. How do we help them to shape their digital reputation? Use apps? Understand how to cope with cyberbullying, sexting or exposure to possible predators? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Diana Graber for a second time.

The post How to Help Kids Build Healthy Technology Habits with Diana Graber appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on how to parent the Danish way—lessons from the happiest people in the world! Happy, peaceful children grow into happy, peaceful adults who raise happy, peaceful children—and the Danish way of parenting seems to breed happy people! Jessica Alexander and Dr. Robyn Silverman talk about some of the unique methods of Danish parents that help to develop empathy, encourage play and incite togetherness that are foundational to the Danish culture. Walk away with some easy-to-follow tips that can bring peace and wellness to your family during chaotic times.

The post How to Parent the Danish Way with Jessica Alexander – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

As children grow and enter their preteens and teens, they experience a lot of changes. Social changes, emotional changes, cognitive changes, and yes, physical changes as well. Many girls and boys feel dissatisfied with their bodies. Countless studies have shown that negative body image in girls has been linked with depression and eating disorders as they receive message after message that thinner is better and in fact, thinner is synonymous with being beautiful, well-liked, popular and good. Boys also are pressured to look a certain way—they get the message through toys, commercials, social media, TV and movies that “real men” are athletic and muscular. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a third of teen boys are trying to “bulk up” due to being dissatisfied with their bodies- and did you know that boys and men account for 25% of eating disorder cases? Talking about body image, nutrition, weight and the messages kids receive about their bodies is necessary to keep our children healthy, physically and mentally, as they grow and develop. Let’s discuss it! We have Charlotte Markey on today to talk about body image in both boys and girls!

The post How to Talk to Kids about Body Image and Self Care with Charlotte Markey appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to girls about body image, body acceptance and body resilience. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Drs. Lindsay Kite and Lexie Kite, sisters and co-directors of Beauty Redefined about this important topic, helping girls learn that their bodies are instruments, not ornaments.

The post How to Talk to Girls about Body Image with Dr. Lindsay Kite and Dr. Lexie Kite appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

The podcast provides tips and scripts around screen-time and digital footprint. How much screen-time should kids be allowed to use? How can we help to monitor screen-time and what do we need to discuss with children around posting online? Dr. Susan Bartell discusses social media rules and how to talk to kids about screen-time and digital footprint on this week’s podcast episode.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Screen-Time and Digital Footprint with Dr. Susan Bartell – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about the financial skills they need to manage money throughout their lifetime. From saving, spending wisely, giving and investing, this podcast gives you the talking points! Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews financial advisor and best-selling author of Stress-Free Money and Smart, Not Spoiled, Chad Willardson.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Money Skills with Chad Willardson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast focuses on how to raise a curious, responsible, kind toddler using the Montessori methods. From setting up a calm, paired-down environment to supporting your child while setting limits, this interview with Simone Davies, author of The Montessori Toddler gives strategies and scripts to help parents and toddlers thrive together. No more terrible twos—and much more terrific toddlerhood!

The post How to Raise Curious, Responsible Toddlers the Montessori Way with Simone Davies – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on specific issues like divorce, apologies, responsibility, sibling rivalry and friendships and exactly what to say and do when kids won’t listen. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews best-selling authors, Joanna Faber and Julie King, the authors of the new book, How to Talk When Kids Won’t Listen. This is the second podcast episode that Dr. Silverman has done with Faber and King.

The post How to Talk When Kids Won’t Listen with Joanna Faber & Julie King appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to help struggling kids reach their full potential.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Learning Disabilities with Karen I. Wilson, PhD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Today is a Talk to Kids Shortie—which we are having because it has been revealed that Instagram is worse for kids than we thought. And I know this really worries my listeners. Specifically- New documents reveal that Facebook knows just how harmful its Instagram app is for many tween and teen girls. The Wall street journal shared findings of what Instagram’s internal researchers called a “teen mental health deep dive,” including a study that found Instagram makes body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Instagram and Social Media with Devorah Heitner appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Lydia Denworth This podcast episode focuses on friendship and how important it is—not just to our psychological wellbeing but to our physical health as well. Friendship, as it turns out, affects us down to our cellular level. How can we talk to kids about these important benefits and how loneliness and lack of […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about the Lifechanging Benefits of Friendship with Lydia Denworth appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Dr. Gail Dines is a Professor Emerita of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston. She is the author of numerous books and articles, and her  latest book,  Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, has been translated into five languages. Dr Dines is the founding president of the Non-profit, Culture Reframed.  Dedicated to building  resilience and resistance […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Porn with Gail Dines – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about anxiety and OCD. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Eli Lebowtiz about the key to helping kids cope with their anxious behavior—acceptance and confidence. This podcast provides many scripts and strategies for parents and educators.

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Special guest: Diana Graber. Snapchat, Instagram, Fortnite, cyberbullying, sexting, and technology addiction are some of the digital concerns that keep today’s parents up at night. Some of the statistics being quoted are scary: Common Sense Media reported that 50 percent of teens feel “addicted” to their phones. The Pew Research Center reported just last year […]

The post How to Raise Humans in a Digital World with Diana Graber – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything focuses on effective communication tools that parents can use to best reach their children as they enter middle school and the teen years. How do we engage in respectful and effective dialogue, give constructive feedback, problem-solve and provide boundaries and still navigate the complex terrain of teenhood? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews William Stixrud and Ned Johnson in this lively and fascinating exchange.

The post How to Talk with Kids to Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance & a Happy Home with Dr. William Stixrud & Ned Johnson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special guest: Seth Perler. What is executive functioning and what does it have to do with our children’s success in school and life? My next guest explains that Executive Function is what it takes to get stuff done (such as homework, writing a paper or cleaning a room, etc.). In other words, it’s the ability to “execute​” […]

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The post How to Help Kids Learn Friendship Skills and Avoid Social Isolation with Caroline Maguire – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast episode focuses on talking to tweens about topics that range from sexuality and technology to the changing parent-child relationship. How do you approach tweens so that both people feel heard? Michelle Icard suggests the BRIEF method which stands for: Begin peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview to collect information, Echo what you’re hearing, and give Feedback.

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Special Guest: Dina Alexander We are surrounded by media messaging everyday. The TV we watch, the billboards we see, the radio we listen to and the social media we read and share just to name a few. A great deal of our media is good- fine- interesting and even helpful—but there is a lot of […]

The post How to Talk to Kids About Media Literacy and Deconstructing Advertising with Dina Alexander – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Jonathan B. Singer, PhD, LCSW This podcast provides tips and scripts for talking to kids about suicide. What are the risk factors? What are the protective factors? And what should we say if a child seems that they are hopeless, helpless or have said that they are thinking about ending their life. This […]

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Judith Warner – This podcast is about how to help ourselves and our children navigate middle school successfully. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Judith Warner, author of “And Then They Stopped Talking to Me,” about middle school friendship, relationships, emotions, frustrations, screen-time and more.

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Special Guest: Debbie Reber Debbie Reber is a New York Times bestselling author and the founder of TiLT Parenting, a website, top podcast, and social media company for parents who are raising differently wired children. Her next book, Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, comes out in June 2018. She currently lives with her son […]

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Cooper Lawrence, PhD – This podcast is about celebrities and the impact they have on our children through social media, movies, TV shows and more. How do celebrities get such a hold on people? Why does what they do and say influence what our children do, say and believe? Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Cooper […]

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Special Guest: Jessica Herthel This podcast is aimed to help parents and educators understand how to knowledgably and compassionately talk about transgender youth and gender expression with children. Especially when many people have their own preconceived notions about gender, it can be hard to speak about the spectrum of gender expression in a non-biased and […]

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Special Guest: Dr. Dehra Harris Children who are differently wired, and in particular, children with ADHD, can often feel like something is “wrong” with their brain. “Why can’t I pay attention?” “Why am I getting yelled at right now?” While there are some clear challenges that children with ADHD face in school and in some everyday […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Impulsivity & ADHD with Dr. Dehra Harris – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Andrea Umbach All people, young or old, experience fears or anxiety at one time or another in their lives. These feelings are often normal- even protective- because they tell us when we need to use caution, run, fight or get help. Kids may fear the dark, or spiders, or being separated from their […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Fears & Phobias with Dr. Andrea Umbach Re-Release appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Carrie Goldman Bullying is a hot topic these days- of course it is. Studies tell us that, more and more, bullying can have a lasting effect on a person’s mental health. Not to mention, we hear tragic stories about children feeling hopeless and helpless when they are being bullied- even some who have […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Bullying with Carrie Goldman – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Caroline Knorr Ever see an ad for a toy, movie, TV show or book and wonder, is that right for my child? Wish you had knew from a completely unbiased, well-researched, independent child-focused organization how to pick the best apps, best websites and best educational videos for your kids at the most optimal […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Media & Technology with Caroline Knorr of Common Sense Media – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Kara Kinney Cartwright – This podcast will focus on teaching boys to recognize the humanness in everyone—to be kind and to NOT be an assh*le. How can we teach our sons to have positive interactions, make good decisions and recognize when they are being jerkfaces? We talk about all of it on the How to […]

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Special Guest: Sue Scheff In today’s digitally driven world, disaster is only a click away. This is the written on the front flap of my next guest’s new book, Shame Nation. On this podcast, we’ve talked about the good and bad of the digital world- it can be a place of immense resource and positive education- […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Preventing and Overcoming Online Shaming with Sue Scheff – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Lisa Selin Davis – This podcast will focus on gender and identity. What it means to be a tomboy in 2020? How is kids’ concept of gender formed? Lisa Selin Davis and Dr. Robyn Silverman discuss “boy territory,” “girl territory,” and what happens when the boundaries get blurred.

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Dr. Christine Koh – This podcast will focus on minimalist parenting- getting more out of life by doing less. Are you finding life seems to be about acquiring more, doing more, overscheduling and overparenting? It’s time to stop the madness! This podcast episode helps us to declutter, pair-down and pull back from the hamster-wheel of […]

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Special Guest: Gretchen Rubin We all have different kinds of kids that we parent, teach or coach. Think about it. Some seem easy as pie and others drive you absolutely bonkers. You give one kid a responsibility or perhaps you help one kid set a goal- and he’s on it. Committed and ready to whatever it […]

The post How the Four Tendencies of Personality Can Help Us Better Understand Our Kids with Gretchen Rubin – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Christine Pearce Rampone & Dr. Kristine Keane – This podcast will focus on talking to kids about what really helps a person to succeed in sports and in life- learning from failure, handling pressure, building confidence, being accountable and strengthening their mental and physical skills. Dr. Robyn Silverman talks with sports icon, Christie Pearce Rampone […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Succeeding in Sports and in Life with Christie Pearce Rampone & Dr. Kristine Keane appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dina Alexander

So who wants more information about how to have THE talk with their kids. You know the one. THE SEX TALK! This is one of those conversations that often makes us all squirm in our seats and yet, gotta have it. And remember, while you may not be talking to your kids about sex yet, you’ll need to talk about it at some point—and likely sooner than later, no matter what your family values are and what you personally think your children should or shouldn’t be doing. And for those of you who have already been in the thick of it—perhaps you’ve already had a discussion about privacy, your child’s body or sex itself – remember, it’s never one big talk, but a series of little ones, so this podcast can help provide you with one, two or three extra nuggets you might not have thought of yet when the topic comes up again. And you know it will! It always does.

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Meghan Leahy – Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the stress and perfectionism of our overparenting culture–and at the same time, yearned for solutions to ease the struggles of everyday family life? Perhaps you have been caught at the grocery store with a tantruming 2-year-old, made organic salmon for your 4-year-old only to have it […]

The post How to Forego Impossible Parenting Standards & Tap into Our Own Wisdom with Meghan Leahy appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore Friendship can be a beautiful part of life. We laugh, cry, play, talk and experience life with friends as we grow up. I mean, thinking back to your childhood, no doubt there are many moments that many of us can remember that involve friends. But that doesn’t mean that friendship […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Making & Keeping Friends with Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore – Relaunch appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Kate Rope – We often get a great deal of advice about how to raise our children but don’t always hear the best ways we can take care of ourselves and stay sane WHILE raising our children. Who can you turn to when things aren’t going smoothly? How can you talk about it when you […]

The post How to Take Care Of Your Mental Health While Parenting with Kate Rope appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Scott Sonenshein This podcast provides: Tips: How to help our kids do more with less and become more resourceful. How can we be more creative? Scott also talks about taking “field trips,” creative atypical birthday parties, reaffirming play, modeling, little seed creativity. Scripts: Saying no to our children, what to say when your […]

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Rosalind Wiseman – We all need to hone the ability to regulate ourselves and teach and model for our children and students how to do the same. That means sharpening our social and emotional skills so that we can function and thrive in today’s society—creating healthy relationships and health and wellbeing for ourselves as well. […]

The post How to Help Parents & Kids Cope with Big Issues During Tough Times with Rosalind Wiseman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about healthy, caring, romantic relationships. When you were a teen, who taught you about how to have a mutually beneficial, successful romantic relationship? Who is teaching your teen? Dr. Weissbourd and his team released a report on May 17th called The Talk: How Adults Can […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Healthy, Caring Romantic Relationships with Dr. Richard Weissbourd – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Nefertiti Austin – Each year, thousands of Americans choose to go through the adoption process to build their families. Those who know me, know that my 2 children were both adopted by my husband and myself and also happen to be full blood siblings. Just a little bit over 12 years ago, we began the […]

The post How to Talk About Racism, Adoption and Parenting a Black Boy in America with Nefertiti Austin appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Lori Lite More and more, kids are feeling stressed out in today’s world. This is a topic that comes up often- and of course it does, between academics, sports, homework, performance, lack of free play, reduced recess, political unrest, overworked parents and more, kids are being pulled in many directions and so are parents. […]

The post How to Talk to Kids about Stress Management with Lori Lite – ReLaunch appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Madeline Levine, PhD – The pandemic is still going strong and the date to open many states is being pushed out further and further. A few states are starting to open here and there but many parents still feel a lot of anxiety around going back to “normal” even as COVID-19 has claimed over a […]

The post How to Prepare Kids to Thrive in a Rapidly Changing World with Madeline Levine, PhD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on how white kids are being educated about race and racism in America. While we know from research that black families teach their children about social inequalities, race and racism from an early age, what are white families doing? Are families and communities a place where white kids learn to become […]

The post How to Talk to White Kids about Race & Racism with Dr. Margaret Hagerman – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Margie Warrell

This podcast provides:

Tips: Specific tips on what to do to help our children take healthy risks and lead a brave life.

Scripts: What to say (and how to show and model) to our kids about getting out of their comfort zone as well as what kinds of risks are worth taking.
How to add bravery into everyday experiences

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Kristin Russo - When a child or teen comes out to their parents as gay, parents are often left with many unanswered questions fueled by fear, lack of knowledge or concerns about the wellbeing of their child. The conversations that need to take place are not as much about you answering questions for your child but about your child answering questions for you. Your child has likely been navigating the coming-out process for quite some time, now, you will be faced with decisions about how you will react to the information. How will you share this information with others? How can you best support your child? What if you fear for their safety? What’s the deal with pronouns? You might also grapple with how your child’s sexuality fits in with your faith, your previous hopes and dreams for them and your relationship. Well, it doesn’t make sense to stick our heads in the sand. It’s time to learn the answers for everyday questions and concerns when you are a parent, aunt/uncle, teacher, grandparents of loved one of a kid who is gay. For guidance on this topic we have Kristin Russo on the show today.

Kristin Russo is a writer, speaker, educator and consultant with a focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) issues. She is also co-host & producer of Buffering the Vampire Slayer alongside musician Jenny Owen Youngs, which was named one of the top 30 podcasts of the decade by Paste Magazine. She has a great book with co-author Dan Owens called This is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids. You can find her at kristinnoeline.com

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Special Guest: Amy Morin, LCSW

Ever wonder: What is the secret of success? Is it intelligence? Talent? Luck? Perhaps a bit. But more and more the research is telling us that the X-factor—the reason why some people fail and other succeed comes down to grit or what is sometimes referred to as mental toughness or mental strength. What is mental strength? How can we develop it? And How can parents, teachers and coaches help kids to develop mental strength? These are just some of the questions we are going to get answers to on today’s podcast with Amy Morin.

The post How to Talk to Kids about being Mentally Strong with Amy Morin, LCSW – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Ron L. Deal, MMFT - Every person in a family wants to feel loved and wants to be able to show love to others who they care about and appreciate. And while that concept may be simple- the execution can be surprisingly complicated as not everyone gives and receives love in the same way. Some may desire reassuring physical touch while another person enjoys compliments, encouragement and other words of affirmation. Still others may feel most loved when they receive gifts or their family members do acts of service for them—cooking, cleaning, picking up the dry cleaning, or fixing something that might help the other person. Some prefer quality time. Perhaps you recognize your love language in all of these—and the love languages of others in your family. Things get convoluted-- and well-intentioned people miss the mark when they, for instance, value acts of service but their partner or children show love through quality time or words of affirmation. Not to mention, this can be hard enough in a family that hasn’t gone through the life altering changes like divorce, remarriage or death of a parent—but what about the blended family who has to navigate step parents, step siblings, step grandparents with all of their nuances, needs, rules, emotions, concerns and ways that all of these different people want to feel valued and important? Blended families must deal with the pain of the past, the complexities of new relationships and the unique challenges that come with creating one family. As parents and stepparents, how can we have these important conversations about fear, loss, inclusion, empathy and connection—tying the binds between the biological family members and the new family members? How do we find love, strengthen it and keep it in a step family? For these answers, I have the honor of having a wonderful conversation with our guest today, Ron L. Deal.

The post How to Talk to Kids about StepFamilies and Blended Families with Ron L. Deal, MMFT appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Katie Hurley

This podcast provides:

Tips: Katie talks about watching for stress-signs, encouraging play, dealing with differences between parents and children, using empathic listening, using stress words and problem-solving, stop and label, self care, body mapping, deep breathing.

Scripts: Instead of problem solving, use some empathic listening and reflect back what your child is saying. Examples are given. Also how to talk to kids about pitching in when parents are stressed out (and ask for help when they are!).

Barriers to success: Differences between how parents and children cope with stress (coming from different worlds).

The post How to Raise Joyful Kids In a Stressful World with Katie Hurley – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Dr. Cara Natterson - This podcast will focus on how to decode boys and talk to boys about puberty, sex, porn, nudes and body image. It’s vital that we talk to boys about these tough topics as it’s part of keeping them healthy and safe—and that’s a big part of our job as parents. Dr. Robyn Silverman interviews Dr. Cara Natterson about how to talk to boys about this sensitive subject matter. Boys deserve to have the right information that helps them learn about positive relationships and sex and, at the same time, helps to protect them from becoming vulnerable to societal messages about body image, pornography and violence.

The post How to Talk to Boys about Puberty, Sex, Porn and Body Image with Dr. Cara Natterson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Wendy Young

This podcast provides:

Tips:
How to co-regulate
How to get off the anger merry-go-round.
How to use “a bug and a wish.”
How to help kids realize the anger cues
How to construct a mad box and why
How to process the feelings and interactions after the incident is over.
Speaking out loud about our own anger and how we process it
N.O.W. Learn how to Normalize, Offer opportunities/strategies, Work with children on managing big feelings

Scripts:
What to say when your children have big feelings and are showing intensity.
How to help children describe how big their feelings are at that moment.
Helping kids know what to do when they want to engage in negative behaviors- what can we do instead?
How to give hope when helping kids managing big, intense feelings
How to process the feelings after the incident is over
Walking through the steps of calming down our anger out loud.
Exactly what to say when children are in the throws of messy feelings.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Anger & Big Feelings with Wendy Young – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Diana Kapp - Although hidden from many history books, where credit wasn’t provided, or downplayed in media where coverage skewed towards gains boys and men were making, women have been making strides, creating useful inventions and running companies for longer than we know. But credit needs to be revealed if we are going to ensure that girls and boys have strong female role models and understand that women bring greatness, innovation, indomitable spirit, focus, ingenuity and leadership to this world in many of the same ways—and in different ways than do men. Without women’s creativity and persistence, we wouldn’t have some of the greatest inventions that we completely take for granted! Just dip back into history for a moment and we can reveal, for example, that the first dishwasher was developed by a woman. The Brooklyn Bridge? Woman. Windshield wipers, the game of monopoly, the brown paper bag? All developed by women. And today, we also have incredible examples of motivated, innovative women that are positive examples of taking risks, trying again, working hard, knocking off the negative self talk and forgetting about perfectionism on the way to success. We can learn a lot from these women- and today, we are going to discuss how we can use their stories to help inspire children when we are having conversations about such topics as success, persistence, risk-taking and perfectionism. And for that, I have invited author, Diana Kapp, on the show today.

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Karen Young has worked as a psychologist in private practice and in educational settings. She founded the popular website, Hey Sigmund, which attracts millions of readers each year. Karen is a sought-after speaker, both at home in Australia and internationally. She is the author of ‘Hey Warrior’, a book for kids to help them understand anxiety and find their ‘brave’. The book has now been translated into a number of languages—and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome her to How to Talk to Kids about Anything

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This podcast will focus on the talking to kids (and teaching kids) about money. Raising children who understand money is vital to their future financial health, independence and future fiscal behavior. Children and teens need to learn the value of money as well as how to budget, plan, earn, save, invest and give to causes and charities that mean something to them. Money management is a life skill that all children must learn—so let’s get the information we need right here!

The post How to talk to Kids about Money with Neale Godfrey – ReRelease appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on self-injury and how to help young people who are self-harming to find healthier ways to cope with stress, pain and big emotions. Those who are self-injuring are not attempting to die by suicide but rather aiming to find a way to feel better. Those who self-injure need help and Dr. Janis Whitlock provides the information we need to best support and understand those who are self-injuring.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Self-Injury with Dr. Janis Whitlock appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

This podcast will focus on the importance of allowing children to fail. Discover why, during the school-age and teen years, it is vital for parents and educators to allow young people to experience the disappointment, frustration and struggle that occurs when they are challenged by life’s problems. Find out how failure and learning to bounce back and ultimately succeed, put children on the path to growing up and becoming successful, resilient and self-reliant adults.

The post How to talk to Kids About the Gift of Failure with Jessica Lahey – (Re-Release) appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Peggy Orenstein
The pervasiveness of hook-up culture, ubiquity of locker room banter, accessibility of internet porn, media steeped with distorted images and wide acceptance of the “man box” or “bro culture” participation is having complex and negative effects on our boys. And as pornography has become a new kind of sex education that most boys are privy to by the tender age of 11 and sexual assault showing itself as a more commonplace occurrence, it is time for a change. As squeamish as it may make us, we’ve got to get talking to boys are sex. About consent. About empathy, porn, intimacy, media, misogyny, arousal, LGBTQ, connection. This, as you all know by now, is not just one talk but a series of little and bog discussions along the way. It is not just for Moms or just for Dads- this is for all of us. When we unravel the hidden truths and put high beams on the realities of young male sexuality and culture in today’s world, we create a provocative paradigm-shift that can help us move forward to raising more-informed boys and better men.

Peggy Orenstein is the New York Times bestselling author of Girls and sex, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Waiting for Daisy, Flux and Schoolgirls. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, she has been published in USA Today, Parenting, Salon, the New Yorker and other publications, and has contributed commentary to NPR’s "All Things Considered." Her new book has come out to glowing reviews and is called Boys and Sex, Young Men on Hook Ups, Love, Porn, consent and navigating the new masculinity. She lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter.

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Special Guest: Dr. Natasha Burgert

Today we are discussing how to talk your child through the bedtime battle—and win. I know- we all need it! How many parents can say “me too” when they hear a sleepy parent talk about how their child wouldn’t go to sleep or woke up in the middle of the night—many of us have dealt with this, me included. My own daughter has had night terrors, nightmares, and I’m just not tired kind of nights. Perhaps that’s happened to you? It’s not an easy scenario- everyone is tired, sometimes over tired, we, as parents, get stressed as we still have to get the dishes done, we have to finish some work or we just simply want to find a time to relax and unwind after a long day. We clocked out at 8:30 but our kids are still working it. Aren’t we lucky to have someone who can help us deal with this challenge today?

Dr. Natasha Burgert is a mom, pediatrician, blogger, educator, and National Spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.  In her full-time suburban private practice, she strives to leverage the traditional values and teachings of medical science within today's digital health revolution. Her work with patients has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Parents magazine. She has also been highlighted on NBC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, and other local news programs If she is not in clinic, you can find her on KCKidsDoc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I had the pleasure of being teamed up with Dr. Natasha for an Education Nation’s Parent Toolkit Twitter Chat - she has incredibly helpful tips that we can use right away.

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Special Guest: Tina Payne Bryson, PhD
Parenting encapsulates so many different aspects of care when it comes to a child. We receive messages about paying attention to how children are doing in school, with friends, what they are eating, how much they are playing, how hard they are working, if they are reading enough, sleeping enough, getting outside enough and much, much more. And while all of this is important—what do you think is the most important thing that a parent can do to make the biggest difference in the long run? The research tells us, it’s all about showing up. In fact, studies show that the best predictors for how any child turns out in terms of happiness, academic success, leadership skills and strong relationships is whether at least one key adult in the life of a child has consistently and predictably shown up for them physical AND emotionally. So today, we are going to hone in on exactly how we can show up for the children in our lives so that they can thrive. For this conversation, we have invited best-selling author, Tina Payne Bryson, on the show today.

The post How to Show Up for Our Children with Tina Payne Bryson, PhD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest Expert: Rosalind Wiseman. Today we are discussing how to talk to kids about treating each other with dignity and respect. What are the cultural messages that our kids receive? Are their differences between how boys deal with their relationships and girls cope with their relationships? How do kids bond and what do betrayals look like? How do we talk to other parents when our child has been an instigator of aggressive or bullying behavior and their child is the target AND how do we talk to the other parents when our child has been on the receiving end of aggressive or bullying behavior from their child. These are complicated questions and relationships- so thank goodness we have the best expert there is to talk about these issues, my friend and colleague, Rosalind Wiseman.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Conflict, Dignity and Bullying with Rosalind Wiseman- ReRelease! appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Ken Ginsburg
This podcast helps parents and educators discover how to build resilience in teens. As young people are working to gain more independence, they make more mistakes and must learn how to recover. Sometime they need to learn how to get back up after a big fall while other times they must learn how to move forward after small, everyday blunders. How can we help kids learn how to believe in themselves, their own skills, their own sense of control and adaptability while also knowing we are here when they really need us? We talk about the 7 Cs of resilience with Dr. Ken Ginsberg and receive some beautiful tips and scripts that help us know the dos and don’ts while raising teens who thrive no matter what twists and turns they encounter.

The post How to Build Resilience in Teens with Dr. Ken Ginsburg appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Laura Markham

Dr. Laura Markham trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University. She is the mother of two, now ages 21 and 25. Dr. Laura is the author of the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How To Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life. You can find her online at http://www.ahaparenting.com

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Special Guest Expert: Mary DeMocker I remember, as a child, learning that you turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. You close the refrigerator quickly and turn off the lights when you leave the room—little things- and they needed to be taught because otherwise, I admit, I hadn’t thought much about leaving the tap on, standing in front of the open fridge for minutes figuring out what I wanted to eat or leaving on the lights in every conceivable room. I’ve needed to teach it to my kids too- but of course, they sometimes forget. Sometimes protecting the Earth isn’t the first thought that comes to mind when you’re standing in the shower, letting the hot water fall on your head and back. For some, climate change might feel distant- like something happening elsewhere but not right here at home. Although this seems to be changing a bit- many families, all over the world have found that climate change has begun to touch their lives. Deadlier wild fires, increasingly crazy weather, additional information of melting ice caps on the nightly news- information coming to us through news anchors as well as out of the mouths of younger and younger activists that are demanding awareness and action. My own children have quoted information from Weird But True books and nature documentaries about what’s going on with the polar bears and tropical forests. The truth is, we are all feeling the effects and we are all contributing to the effects of climate change-- AND we are also able to help solve the problem. Of course, this means we must have the discussions that can bring about the change. It starts with opening our mouths and our hearts so that we can lay it all on the table. How do we give our children the facts about climate change- from discussions of fossil fuels to fluctuating animal habitats to sustainable and destructive energy sources so that they are in the know? And how can we, as families, alter how we live our lives, in small consistent ways, that will help create a healthier future for our loved ones? We need a climate revolution—and it starts at home, with us.

Our special guest today is Mary Democker. Mary DeMocker’s book, The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night’s Sleep is a finalist for the 2019 Oregon Book Award and has been featured on Yale Climate Connections and recommended on NPR and in The New York Times. Mary writes and speaks widely about parenting in a changing climate, helping parents, educators, clinicians, and young people find a positive role in the global transition to a clean energy future. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her husband and sometimes her son, a freshman in college. His sister older graduated from college last year and is a teacher.

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Special Guest: Anne Moss Rogers

This podcast will focus on how to talk to kids about depression, substance abuse and suicide from the perspective of a mother whose child died by suicide in 2015. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 24, only behind unintentional injury, in the United States. Much of suicide has a correlation with depression and substance abuse—and while there is an epidemic of teen depression and suicide, only 45% of teen girls and 33% of teen boys who has experienced an episode of depression got treatment in 2019. It’s time to get talking. In fact, it’s talking and listening that can be the very thing that can prevent suicides from happening. We discuss the implications with Anne Moss Rogers, the author of Diary of a Broken Mind on this episode of How to Talk to Kids about Anything.

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Special Guest: Dr. Charles Fay

As parents, we have heard that the days are long and the years are short. The days can be filled with mistakes, sibling rivalry, tantrums, boundary testing, bedtime battles and tough discussions—and even as they are interspersed with fun, excitement, pride, connection and love, as parents, it’s normal to feel frustrated at times and want tools to help make the days go a bit more smoothly. The truth is, we DO only have a relatively short time to help raise our children to become responsible, capable and confident before they head out the door as adults. To put it in perspective, Dr. Laura Markham told us on one of the three episodes of How to Talk to Kids about Anything that she did with us that we only have 900 weeks with our kids before they turn 18 so be fully present when you are with them--- and Vicki Hoefle reminds us with a similar sentiment, “parent the child who will be 24 in a hot second. Parenting is not about what happens for you between the ages of 0 and 18, Parenting is what happens for our children between the ages of 18 and 80.” Let that sink in for a bit there. So, how do we parent our children, knowing that we don’t have a lot of time to, in fact, parent them, but the time we spend is so important. Our next guest will tell us that it’s about parenting with love and logic and getting children to behave from the inside out.

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Special Guest: Bento Leal

We all know that one of the most important parts of talking to kids—or really, talking to anyone you care about, is listening. Of course, with so many obligations, online notifications, overfilled schedules and to-dos, listening these days can sometimes be a challenge. Still, it’s listening, that builds trust, allows for mutual understanding, creates connection and helps us to avoid miscommunication. Most people will tell you that is no better conversation than one that makes you feel like someone really listened, saw your point, got you. And this is absolutely true for both adults and children. The right kind of listening can help our kids divulge what’s really on their minds and hearts now…and in the future. What is the secret to listening in a way that gets our kids talking? For that, we turn to Bento Leal.

Bento Leal is a Relationships Skills Trainer and Bestselling Author who has taught marriage and relationship skills classes and parenting skills classes to more than 2500 couples and singles at family resource centers, community organizations, churches, substance abuse recovery programs, county jails and federal prison throughout California. In 2017, he published his first book “4 Essential Keys to Effective Communication in Love, Life, Work—Anywhere!” It continues to be an Amazon Best Seller in several categories and has sold more than 50,000 copies to date.

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Special Guest: Dr. Michele Borba

What is needed to help kids succeed in today’s world? Goals? Commitment? Drive? Perhaps. But our next guest has an answer to that question that might surprise you: empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It allows our hearts to go out to others, helps us to care deeply, help, uplift, connect and love. In a world that often seems to shout, “go big or go home,” “take no prisoners,” and “let’s take a selfie!” empathy seems to be getting crowded out of the child-raising conversation- and yet, empathy is vital to health, wealth, happiness, relationship satisfaction and resilience. It promotes kindness, reduces incidents of bullying and boosts critical thinking skills. Empathy, according to our next guest, is the core to everything that makes a society civilized, but above all, it makes out children better people. And who doesn’t want that? I am so excited to have my friend and colleague, Dr. Michele Borba, on the show today.

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Special Guest Expert: Mary DeMocker I remember, as a child, learning that you turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. You close the refrigerator quickly and turn off the lights when you leave the room—little things- and they needed to be taught because otherwise, I admit, I hadn’t thought much about leaving the tap on, standing in front of the open fridge for minutes figuring out what I wanted to eat or leaving on the lights in every conceivable room. I’ve needed to teach it to my kids too- but of course, they sometimes forget. Sometimes protecting the Earth isn’t the first thought that comes to mind when you’re standing in the shower, letting the hot water fall on your head and back. For some, climate change might feel distant- like something happening elsewhere but not right here at home. Although this seems to be changing a bit- many families, all over the world have found that climate change has begun to touch their lives. Deadlier wild fires, increasingly crazy weather, additional information of melting ice caps on the nightly news- information coming to us through news anchors as well as out of the mouths of younger and younger activists that are demanding awareness and action. My own children have quoted information from Weird But True books and nature documentaries about what’s going on with the polar bears and tropical forests. The truth is, we are all feeling the effects and we are all contributing to the effects of climate change-- AND we are also able to help solve the problem. Of course, this means we must have the discussions that can bring about the change. It starts with opening our mouths and our hearts so that we can lay it all on the table. How do we give our children the facts about climate change- from discussions of fossil fuels to fluctuating animal habitats to sustainable and destructive energy sources so that they are in the know? And how can we, as families, alter how we live our lives, in small consistent ways, that will help create a healthier future for our loved ones? We need a climate revolution—and it starts at home, with us.

Our special guest today is Mary Democker. Mary DeMocker’s book, The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night’s Sleep is a finalist for the 2019 Oregon Book Award and has been featured on Yale Climate Connections and recommended on NPR and in The New York Times. Mary writes and speaks widely about parenting in a changing climate, helping parents, educators, clinicians, and young people find a positive role in the global transition to a clean energy future. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her husband and sometimes her son, a freshman in college. His sister older graduated from college last year and is a teacher.

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Special Guest Expert: Susan Newman, PhD Do you or does your child have trouble saying “no?” Do you find yourself saying “yes” to your children when you really want to say “not today,” “I can’t swing it,” or just plain “no?” Does your child over-stretch or over-commit because s/he can’t seem to say no? Perhaps you or your child is what my next guest calls “a master of yes and a novice of no.” But is all this people-pleasing a problem? As you might have already guessed, of course it is. And- As it turns out, even though it might be difficult to say no, it’s vital that we learn how to do it for our own health, wellbeing and stress-levels—and also so that we are teaching our children how to do it too. Is it uncomfortable to say no? Sure, it can be. But constantly saying yes can cause anxiety, anger, stress, regret and feelings of powerlessness. We definitely don’t want that. For the many ways to say no and mean it, we turn to Susan Newman.

Social psychologist, Susan Newman is the author of 15 books in the parenting field. Her research examines such areas as building strong family bonds and raising only children as well as the difficulties of being working parent. She is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and U.S News & World Report.  She is the author of Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day and The Book of NO: 365 Ways to Say It and Mean It—and Stop People-Pleasing Forever. You Follow her on Facebook at DrSusanNewman and sign up for her free Monthly Family Life Alert Newsletter on her website SusanNewmanPhD.com.

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As a parent or a teacher, you might have had moments where children experience overwhelming feelings such as anger, anxiety or agitation leading to fitful moments, tantrums and melt-downs. Who hasn’t? Statistics tell us that 20% of young children have tantrums daily—this is normal. And as children get older, some still have trouble dealing with over-the-top feelings. And let’s be honest- at times these feelings don’t only challenge children—but they challenge us, as adults, as well. Today we are talking with Dr. Lynne Kenney about how to help children get calm on the spot and develop better tools and strategies for coping with BIG feelings.

Lynne Kenney, Psy.D., is a Harvard-trained psychologist, mother of two, an international educator, author and pediatric psychologist in Scottsdale, AZ. Dr. Kenney’s works include the Social-Emotional Literacy program Bloom Your Room™; Musical Thinking; Bloom: 50 things to say, think and do with anxious, angry and over-the-top-kids and 70 Play Activities For Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning and Behavior all of which you can find through www.lynnekenney.com.

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Typically, our experts are best-selling authors and top experts who have studied a topic for many years as a researcher, writer, professional and adult. But sometimes, our best experts are the children themselves who are going through a unique situation that make it so only a small portion of people like them would understand.

Every once in a while, I will be putting in a special kid edition of How to Talk to Kids about Anything so that we get this “expert” “in-the-trenches” view of what it’s like to be on the other end of these conversations with insights on what kids really need, want and would ask for from us, as adults, if we would be open to it. And- we are open to it, aren’t we? So here we are with this first kids’ edition of the How to Talk to Kids about Anything podcast—and you’ll see why it’s so important that we ask a teen who is going through this journey to talk about her views, take-aways and tips—so the adults who find themselves in a helper role such as this, are prepared.

When people hear that one of my dearest friends suffered the loss of her 13-year-old son, Gavin, after his 16-month battle with Ewing’s Sarcoma, they often say something like; “no parent should experience the death of a child.” As a mother and a best friend, I agree. It is heart-wrenching and tragic and makes me cry in random moments as it just happened in August of this year. But there is a secondary loss that many don’t often consider to the same degree, and that is the loss of a sibling. My bestie’s amazing 15-year-old daughter, Jadyn, who I am fortunate enough to have in my life as who I refer to as my “adopted niece” and she refers to me as her Aunt, is also suffering. She is learning how to live, love and find joy in this new normal and moving forward without her brother by her side.

Studies tell us that when a sibling passes away during childhood or the teenage years, it can have a profound impact on surviving children. The development of independence, romantic relationships and even career paths can be stunted or affected, risk-taking can either be triggered or severely reined in. Acting out can take the place of excruciating sadness.

The death of a sibling has also been associated with increased diagnoses of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and disordered eating for living brothers and sisters. So how can we, as key adults in the lives of children- teachers, coaches, parents, mentors, aunts and uncles- help and support children and teens when they’ve lost a sibling or a very close friend?

We have the privilege of speaking directly with Jadyn today on a special kid edition of the podcast—understanding that one unfortunate way you become an expert in the topic of child or teen sibling grief is to lose your brother and sister during childhood or adolescence. This is a sensitive topic- but an important one to discuss as our guest is very focused on wanting to help others who are going through a similar situation.

Jadyn is a 9th grader in the prestigious BETA program in Florida. She has been writing for years to help other teens like her. Jadyn is a high-school athlete, playing volleyball and soccer. She is known by those around her as a loving sister, daughter, and friend. She is the author of the poem, Empty Space, about her experience with grief and losing her brother.

I am so more than a little touched to have my beautiful “niece” on the show today so Welcome Jadyn to how to talk to kids about anything!

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Special guest: Katie Hurley

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, approximately one out of five teens has a mental health disorder, diagnosable by clinical methods, and nearly one-third show symptoms of depression. Now you might be thinking- well, many teens seem depressed to me, their moods and their emotions are all over the place! Stress is overwhelming! Yes, that can be true- symptoms of depression in adolescents aren’t always easy to identify because they often appear as normal adolescent behavior. But if we keep an eye open for consistent depressed behavior and indicators like, fatigue, changes in sleep patterns, changes in eating patterns, social withdrawal, and/or anger- these can serve as early warning signs that can allow us to get help for our teens as depression is absolutely treatable but NOT fixable on its own. Teens who have depression need therapy, support at home and yes, some also need medication. There’s no quick fix and thankfully, we have Katie Hurley here to explain how we know if our child needs help, what we and our teens can do at home to assist and what exercises and tools we can use to improve mood, self-esteem and motivation.

Katie Hurley, LCSW, is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting expert, and writer. She is the founder of “Girls Can!” empowerment groups for girls between ages 5-11. Hurley is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook” “No More Mean Girls,” (both subjects we have interviewed Katie on previously on How to Talk to Kids about Anything) and her new workbook, The Depression Workbook for Teens, which is the #1 new release on Amazon for Teen and Young Adult Self Esteem and Self Reliance Issues. Her work can be found in The Washington Post, PBS Parents, and US News and World Report, among other places. She practices psychotherapy in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and earned her BA in psychology and women’s studies from Boston College and her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between California and Connecticut with her husband and two children.

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Special guest: Caroline Maguire

A child hangs back in gym class because he just knows he’ll be the last one picked. Another child monologues nonstop about dinosaurs on every playdate and still another talks nonstop throughout the movie even though everyone asks her to stop. They don’t get invited to birthday parties, are thought of too much or too little, & playdates often end poorly. Do you know any of these children? Every child struggles with something—and many have social challenges that, at their root, are issues with executive function and a need for social skills training. And while this may seem like just child’s play- those who know and love the children who struggle in the area of friendship know that it can be a very lonely place to be. The child often wants to have friends but isn’t picking up on social cues, the need to be flexible, and how to connect with same-age peers. They may ask, in one way or another, the heart-breaking question—Why Will No One Play With Me?

Caroline Maguire is a personal coach who works with children with ADHD and the families who support them. Caroline earned her ACCG (Advanced Level Certification) from the ADD Coach Academy and her PCC (Professional Certified Coach Certification) from the International Coach Federation (ICF). She also received a Master of Education from Lesley University. Her revolutionary coaching program and methodology helps teach executive function skills to children, teenagers, and young adults. She is a former coach for the Hallowell Center in Sudbury, MA. While with the Hallowell Center, Caroline was the main coach for children and teenagers. Caroline consults with schools and families internationally and has been co-leading social skills groups for over a decade. She is also the author of a NEW book called Why Will No One Play With Me? The Play Better Plan to Help Children of All Ages Make Friends & Thrive

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Special guest: Kelli Harding, MD

We all hear medical stories of triumph and frustration—there are so many mysteries when it comes to health- why some people, who are biologically healthy, but feel ill—and some patients who are biologically ill, but feel healthy. Doctors have racked their brains for years- looking for patterns, problems, links that somehow explain why certain people get better quickly and others get sick quickly and don’t recover. And perhaps it might surprise you, as you will hear in the next interview—that how we feel is not necessarily about the dosage of medication or the brilliance of the doctor but about something simpler- something much more common and humane but something that isn’t always provided—and it comes down to the science of kindness, connection and human compassion. When we look at our children- and notice that some thrive and some continue to falter, it will be interesting to look through the lens of kindness, compassion and connection to see if this is any area that needs to be bolstered in the lives of the kids we know and love. The lives that are often stressed with go, go, go hours being shuttled from sports practices to music practice to hours of homework, where they spend a great deal of time in school where many might not feel seen and heard, where social media can make us feel more disconnected, envious and perfectionistic than ever-- How could some shifts of the heart, in the time we spend, with who we spend it with--  make the difference in the wellness of our children and ourselves? For that, we turn to Dr. Kelli Harding.

Dr. Kelli Harding is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, as well as boarded in the specialty of psychosomatic (mind-body) medicine. Kelli has spent much of her career in the emergency room at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, Medscape, Oprah.com, and US News & World Report.  Kelli resides in NYC with her family. She also has a new book that just came out called The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier and Healthier with Groundbreaking Science of Kindness

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Special guest: Dawn Heubner, Ph.D

We all want our children to feel safe, secure and engaged in their lives. But when big, bad things happen in the world- from mass shootings to natural disasters to other tragedies detailed on the news and filtered through the adults at the restaurant, the neighbors on the street, the kids on the bus and friends at school- the world can feel a little less safe and secure for many of our children. How can we reserve our kids feelings of optimism, safety, security, strength and that inexplicable feeling that comes with a carefree childhood when scary things happen across the world, across the state or across the street? For this important topic, we turn a second time to past podcast guest, Dr. Dawn Huebner who you’ll remember from our discussion about worry and anxiety and how to help our kids when they worry too much—a great and helpful podcast episode that I urge you to listen to after this one.

Dr. Dawn Huebner is a Clinical Psychologist and Parent Coach specializing in the treatment of anxiety. She is the author of 9 books for children including the perennial best seller, What to Do When You Worry Too Much, and more recent, Outsmarting Worry. Dr. Huebner's newest book, coming out THIS WEEK called Something Bad Happened, provides support for children learning about big bad things happening the world. Dr. Huebner has been featured on news and information outlets including the TODAY Show, CNN, Parent's Magazine and more. She maintains a private practice in Exeter, NH.

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Special guest: Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D
Any mention of the word “popular” and many of us are transported to a time when popularity really seemed to matter. Who was on top, who was on bottom and who floated somewhere in the middle of the social hierarchy at school and among peer groups? Who was well-liked by many, who was revered by the masses and who was feared by most- you know, the kids who were popular by default because nobody really wanted to attempt to take on the views and power of that group of kids? Interestingly, popularity in our younger years, according to research, can predict how successful we are in our adulthood—but are we, as parents, supposed to help our children to become more popular, then? Actually, the definition of popularity needs to be fully understood to learn the answer to that- and the strategies and key conversations to help our children will follow. For that, we turn to our guest, Dr. Mitch Prinstein.

Mitch Prinstein, Ph.D. is a husband, a father, board certified in clinical child and adolescent psychology, and serves as the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Director of Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mitch’s Peer Relations Lab has been conducting research on popularity and peer relations for almost 20 years—and has produced over 100 scientific works, including a slew of scientific journal articles, book chapters, a set of encyclopedias on adolescent development, and even a textbook on the field of clinical psychology. Mitch is deeply committed to science and training in clinical psychology and his research have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, U.S. News & World Report, Time magazine, New York magazine, Newsweek, Reuters, Family Circle, Real Simple, and elsewhere. He is also the author of the book; Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World

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Special guest: Simone Davies,Let’s face it. When people hear the word; “toddler” it often conjures up thoughts of “the terrible twos,” torrential tantrums and tirades that feature the word “NO!” in big capital letters. There are frustrations about toddlers not listening, not eating fruits and vegetables, not sleeping, not listening, not allowing parents to go to go out on a date or go to the bathroom without their company. But what if I told you that by looking at life through a toddler’s eyes and using the methods developed by Dr. Montessori, you can learn the peaceful way of raising a toddler to become a curious, responsible, kind individual? That is exactly what we are going to do today with our next guest.
Simone Davies is the author of “The Montessori Toddler”, runs parent-child Montessori classes in Amsterdam at her school Jacaranda Tree Montessori, and is mother of two young adults. She also has a popular blog, “The Montessori Notebook”.

Finding Montessori helped her so much when raising her own children and it’s now her passion to help other parents introduce these ideas in their homes too. She was looking to find a way to be with her kids that wasn’t about bossing them about, threatening them and bribing them. Or giving them free reign either. And she wanted them to have a positive experience of school, not just to pass tests, but to love learning.

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Special guest: Phyllis Fagell, LCPC Middle school is a time of seismic shifts—everything is changing from friendships and relationships to hormones, expectations and not to mention the physical, intellectual, moral, social and emotional growth your child is experiencing in just a short amount of time. Fundamental questions are floating around the heads of adolescents such as “who am I?” “Am I normal?” and “do I fit in?” Middle schoolers are thrust into a changing environment where adult involvement is reduced and their own skills become vital as they figure out exactly what they are going to allow to be their social and personal currency. Skills such as making good friend choices, negotiating conflict, considering other people’s perspectives, cultivating their own passions and recognizing limitations and of course, making responsible, healthy, ethical choices. Yes, there is a lot to this middle school experience that bridges the gap between childhood and teenhood—and thankfully, we don’t need to go it alone.

Phyllis L. Fagell, LCPC, is the author of “Middle School Matters,” the counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, D.C., a psychotherapist at The Chrysalis Group and a frequent contributor to The Washington Post and other national publications. She is also a regular columnist for the Association for Middle Level Education and Kappan magazines, and she consults and speaks throughout the country. Phyllis graduated with honors from Dartmouth College, received a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University, and earned her master’s degree in counseling from Johns Hopkins University. She tweets @pfagell and blogs at www.phyllisfagell.com

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Special guest: Catherine Weiss As parents, it is normal to have some stressful thoughts. We might be in conflict with our child and think; “he’s not listening to me,” “she’s so spoiled” or “he’s sucking the life out of me.” But what if we turned these statements on their ear to evaluate their truth but also look inward to see what the actual truth might be? We have the greatest of intentions and love our children—but it is often that we live in the moment. The moment of running from here to there, picking up, dropping off, cooking, cleaning, helping, orchestrating, planning—and getting frustrated, angry or upset when life’s little irritating moments get in our way—our children fighting with us, fighting with each other, not going along with what we deem “the flow.” And I get it—as a mother I am there with you and get this frustration deeply. Today, let’s look into self inquiry so that we can learn to prepare for the long haul rather than the fleeting moment, connection rather than disagreement and love rather than fear. I’ll be going on this journey with you as I am hanging out in the same boat, needing to learn and practice the same lessons and gain the same insights from our next guest who is ready to help us.

Catherine Weiss is the author of a radically different parenting book for mothers, currently 5-stars on Amazon, called, The Present Mother: How to Deepen Your Connection With the Present Moment, Yourself, and Your Child. The New York Times bestselling author of The Conscious Parent, Dr. Shefali Tsabary wrote the foreword to The Present Mother and in it says, "Any parent who reads and practices the insights in this book will not only heal their own wounds from childhood, they will change things for their offspring for all generations to come." Catherine's readers call The Present Mother THE parenting book and that it takes Conscious Parenting to the next level.

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Special guest: Kari Kampakis It’s not easy to be a teenage girl. Dealing with cliques, bullying, rejection, and social media fiascos can be overwhelming and disheartening. So yes, being a parent or a key adult in the lives of teen girls can also be a challenge- how do we best advise the teen girls for whom we only want the best when we don’t always know which way is up! Our teen girls are going through so many important changes—physical, emotional, social, cognitive—they are learning what they like, who they like, who they are and who they want to be. This is big stuff. So if you had the opportunity, what would you truly want the teen girls in your life to know? What would you want them to take in about popularity, friendship, relationships, reputation and belief in themselves? As it turns out, we do have the opportunity to talk to our girls about all of these important areas of development and experience—and if we haven’t yet embarked on these discussions, we can start now. Kari Kampakis is a blogger, author, speaker, and columnist from Birmingham. Her two books for teen and tween girls, 10 Ultimate Truths Girls Should Know and Liked: Whose Approval Are You Living For, have been used widely across the country by small groups to empower girls through faith. She is also in the process of writing another book on mothers and daughters. Kari’s work has been featured on The Huffington Post, The TODAY Show along with other national outlets. She and her husband, Harry, have four daughters and a dog named Lola. Learn more by visiting kampakis.com or finding Kari on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

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Special guest: Jessica Alexander. Denmark has been voted as having the happiest people in the world by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) almost every year since 1973. That’s more than 40 years of happiness! It begs the question—is it the parenting? I mean, is there a Danish Way of parenting? It turns out, there is, and while the Danish Way of parenting is not the only reason Danes are the happiest, it does play a very important role—and the success of it all seems to be tied to the ways they educate children far beyond academics—focusing on play, empathy and social skills. It’s important to delve into it, I hope you would agree, since happy kids tend to grow up to be happy adults who raise happy kids—and the seasons go ‘round and round again. And while in the United States and in other areas of the world, we are seeing an increase of anti-depressants, suicides among young people and mental health diagnoses, as well as a great deal of competition between parents and we have a lot to learn from the Danes. Best-selling Author, Journalist, Danish Parenting Expert & Cultural Researcher, Jessica Alexander’s book "The Danish Way of Parenting: What the Happiest People in the World Know about Raising Confident Capable Kids" has been published in over 25 countries. Her work has been featured in TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, Huffington Post, NPR, NY Times, and many more. She regularly does talks and workshops for parents, schools and organizations like Google, The Women's Network of the United Nations, The World Parenting Forum and many more. She has also worked as a spokesperson for LEGO on the Power of play.

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Special guest: Mona Delahooke, PhD. A kindergartener whose father pinches her on the arm at night- once for every time her teacher wrote the girl’s name on the behavior chart at school that day.
A three year old in foster care who was found sitting in a car by the side of the road with his mother, who was passed out at the wheel. His daycare-center teacher sends him to a time out room for challenging behaviors.
A ten year old is diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. His teachers say he is chronically disruptive, always seeking attention, His problematic behaviors began after his family relocated to a new state.
My next guest says that we are too quick to look at behaviors as attempts to annoy and disrupt—rather than what they truly represent- observable responses to our internal and external experiences. And here’s the problem with that- When we fail to recognize that many behaviors represent the body’s response to stress, not intentional misbehavior, we expend effort on techniques designed to help children logically connect their thoughts, emotions and behaviors and change them—when they simply can’t yet. Instead, we need to see the behavior that is problematic and confusing and NOT ask ourselves how do we get rid of it? But rather, what is this telling us about the child? The answer will then guide us to coming up with the best approach to help that individual child thrive.

Mona Delahooke, Ph.D. is a clinical child psychologist with a passion for supporting families and children. She has worked widely with multidisciplinary teams in the areas of trauma, developmental and emotional differences for 25 years.  She is a senior faculty member of the Profectum Foundation and is a trainer and consultant to schools and agencies including the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health. Her blog, The Visible Parent, and book, Social & Emotional Development in Early Intervention (2017) explore the latest translational applications of neuroscience to social and emotional development. She is also the author of Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children’s Behavioral Challenges.

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Special guest: Alfie Kohn.

Many parenting books offer countless tips for dealing with kids when they misbehave in the eyes of their parents—refusing to go to bed, rejecting the vegetables they’ve been told to eat, talking back, yelling in the restaurant, badgering their sibling or resisting doing the tasks it takes to get to school on time. But the way parents cope with these challenging behaviors might be backfiring even if they work in the short term. My next guest asks many thought-provoking questions in his book, Unconditional Parenting- but two seem to be at the forefront. First; “What are your long-term objectives for your children?” and second, given those long term goals, which are likely for your child to be some version of a kind, independent, confident, competent, happy and fulfilled person—are the ways in which you are parenting lending themselves to creating that type of person IN the long run—or not? It’s time to take a hard look at some of the parenting practices that have become so common that they are accepted as the acceptable norm- time outs, positive re-enforcement, consequences, withdrawal of attention, punishment—and start taking a hard look at UNCONDITIONAL parenting- a parenting philosophy and practice in which parental love and attention is not in a push-pull relationship with how our children behave. On top of that, UNCONDITIONAL parenting puts to rest the notion that children are trying to make trouble—and instead, assumesthe best of the child and looks at the child as a whole person not a compilation of good and bad behaviors.Alfie Kohn is the author of 14 books on education, parenting, and human behavior, including PUNISHED BY REWARDS (1993), THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE (1999), UNCONDITIONAL PARENTING (2005), THE HOMEWORK MYTH (2006), and THE MYTH OF THE SPOILED CHILD (2014).  He has appeared twice on “Oprah,” as well as on “The Today Show” and many other TV and radio programs. His articles include: “Five Reasons to Stop Saying ‘Good Job!’”, “How Not to Teach Values,” and “Atrocious Advice from ‘Supernanny.’ ” Kohn works with educators and parents across the country and speaks regularly at national conferences. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org. 

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Special guest: Cindy Goldrich.

Cindy Goldrich is a mental health counselor, certified ADHD Clinical Service Provider, and teacher trainer. As an ADHD Specialist, She supports parents, educators and other professionals to address the impact of ADHD & Executive Functioning on learning, motivation, and behavior.
She is a recognized Keynote speaker and provides Professional Development for school districts and other professional organizations worldwide addressing how ADHD and executive function challenges affect children and how to help boost behavior and performance in school and at home. 
Cindy is the author of 8 Keys for Parenting Children with ADHD, a book recognized for providing parents, educators, and therapists with a practical, easy-to-read guide for addressing challenging kids and ADHD, Executive Function, and Behavior in the Classroom (expected printing Aug. 2019). Cindy is the creator of the workshop series “Calm and Connected: Parenting Children with ADHD©” designed to teach parents and caregivers how to manage and support their children's unique needs successfully.

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Special guest: Michael Reichert, PhD. We’ve talked quite a bit about girls on this show—and how many things are changing for girls due to the momentum of the women’s movement. But what about the boys? How do you raise boys to become great men? How do we raise boys to feel connected to himself and feel connected to others? For many of our sons, while the world of girls seems to be expanding, the world of boys seems often to be contracting—restricting who boys can be in society’s where masculinity and all its attributes, fits in one tightly guarded box—the man box. Our next guest feels that this is a loss- it’s a loss for us and it’s a loss for the boys. He asks; what can be done to ameliorate the loses of boyhood? How can we protect the boys in our care from threats built into boyhood? How can we ensure that our sons are well prepared for and well launched to manhood? The answer has to do with connection—something that our boys are losing—and at an early age. And our guest feels that we have an opportunity, right now, to change things around and help boys do boyhood right.

Michael Reichert writes, in his new book, “How to Raise a Boy” that boys are really in need of something that seems to counter the toughness and the independence touted by the man box—and that is “a relationship in which a boy can tell that he matters … A young man’s self confidence is not accidental or serendipitous but derives from experiences of being accurately understood, loved, and supported.”

Michael Reichert is an applied and research psychologist who has immersed himself in clinical, research, and consultation experiences that have afforded a deep understanding of the conditions that allow a child to flourish in natural contexts: families, schools and communities. He has created and run programs in both inner city communities and in some of the most affluent suburban communities in the world. He founded and continues to lead The Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives a research collaborative at the University of Pennsylvania and has conducted a series of global studies on effective practices in boys’ education. Since 1984, Dr. Reichert has maintained a clinical practice outside Philadelphia, PA.,  specializing in work with boys, men and their families and continues to serve as the supervising psychologist at a nearby boys’ school. He has published numerous articles and several books, including Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Lessons About What Works—and Why, I Can Learn From You: Boys as Relational Learners, and the just-released How to Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Men. 

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Special guest: Seth Perler. What is executive functioning and what does it have to do with our children’s success in school and life? My next guest explains that Executive Function is what it takes to get stuff done (such as homework, writing a paper or cleaning a room, etc.). In other words, it’s the ability to “execute​” complex tasks and see that those tasks go all the way through to completion. Some kids have a knack for organizational tasks, scheduling and pacing themselves—while others struggle. If your child struggles with school-related tasks like homework, staying focused on a project until it’s completed, organizational skills, time management—or perhaps become avoidant, resistant, forgetful or overwhelmed when it comes to getting school-related tasks completed-- they probably struggle with Executive Function. So, what can we do? How can we help our kids who struggle in this area? And what do we want to avoid doing, so we don’t make things worse? My next guest has these answers and more.

Seth Perler helps students who struggle with school, homework, grades, resistance, overwhelm, motivation, underachievement, organization, focus, study skills and time management.

He helps complicated, misunderstood, outside-the-box, neurodiverse learners turn it around in a baffling system so they can launch a successful future. His blog, sethperler.com, gives game-changing answers in a sea of misguided educational fluff.

Traditional academic interventions don't often get to the root of a child's problems and they're often based on misinformation or outdated paradigms. Consequently, your child's patterns get worse each year, leading to pervasive difficulties transitioning into adulthood.

Parents often feel helpless, watching their child drown in school, as they spin their wheels trying to help. Parents are desperate for tools that are 1) practical, and 2) that account for a child's unique needs. It's all about Executive Function, which is Seth’s specialty.

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Special guest: Dr. William Stixrud. Are we raising an anxious generation? Many would agree that we are. The causes of the uptick in anxiety among children has started to be discussed—even within our podcast- we have talked with Jessica Lahey and our obsession with grades and our focus on avoiding failure at all costs. We have talked with Julie Lythcott Haims about the bubble-wrapping of our children that leaves them unprepared for a life that we deliver them to at the age of 18—a life in which they don’t have the skills, yes, but also where they don’t have the resilience or the confidence to take it on. In The Self-Driven Child, authors William Stixrud and Ned Johnson continue this conversation—focusing specifically on the ways that children today are being denied a sense of controlling their own lives—doing what they find meaningful, and succeeding or failing on their own, and on their own terms. While screen time and technology certainly are part of the problem, the real issues lie with us—the parents and the teachers—who have their hearts in the right place but are nevertheless, taking the opportunities away from children that would allow them to grow stronger, more confident, more autonomous, more competent-- and more themselves. 

William R. Stixrud, Ph.D., is a clinical neuropsychologist, frequent lecturer, presenter, author and founder of The Stixrud Group. He is a member of the teaching faculty at Children’s National Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Stixrud is the author, with Ned Johnson, of the nationally bestselling book, The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives. You will also see him featured for his expertise in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, Time Magazine, Scientific American, Business Week, Barron’s, and, New York Magazine. And—fun fact- Dr. Stixrud also happens to be a musician who plays in a band!

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Special guest: Dr. Julie Kinn.Military families face many unique challenges- from long family separations and shifted responsibilities in the household to frequent moving, injuries and sadly, sometimes, grief and loss. That means that being a child in a military family means a great deal of adjustment to frequent change as well as a host of undulating emotions that come from deployment, reunions, the unknowns and the new normal. How do we talk to military kids about the unique challenges that they face? And how do we answer the questions from kids who are not military families about how to support and understand their military friends who may not always be on sure footing. Dr. Julie Kinn is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience researching and implementing health technology. At the Department of Defense and the Defense Health Agency, Kinn oversees the development and implementation of health technology for the military and veteran communities. She also initiated the Military Health Podcast program and produces/hosts three Department of defense OD podcasts: "A Better Night's Sleep", "The Military Meditation Coach", and "Next Generation Behavioral Health". Dr. Kinn, through the Department Of Defense, is responsible for two mobile apps with Sesame Street-- Sesame Street's Big Moving Adventure and Breathe, Think, Do.  Big Moving Adventure was made to help kids cope with moving in the general sense, but was made specifically to help the children of military families who have to move constantly. Dr. Kinn's overall mission is to promote behavioral health for veterans and their families which includes promoting behavioral health in their communities as well. 

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Special guests: Joanna Faber & Julie King. What do you do with a little kid who won’t brush his teeth? Screams in his car seat? Pinches the baby? Refuses to eat her vegetables? Throws books at the library and runs rampant in the restaurant? We’ve all been there. How many of us have seen the parent with the child at the supermarket who is throwing one big tantrum in the cereal aisle because s/he won’t buy the super sugar rainbowloops that he had to-- HAD TO-- have? How many of us have BEEN that parent with that child? No judgment- we are here to discuss it and get some strategies and scripts to all parents who have ever had some trouble with their young kids.

Many of you who are hungry for parenting and teaching knowledge probably know the blockbuster best-selling book, How to Listen So Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. It’s a staple on my shelf. Well, Adele Faber has a daughter, Joanna Faber who not only grew up being the recipient of all the strategies Faber and Mazlish described in their mega-bestseller, but also wrote a follow up book with her childhood best friend, Julie King that takes a similar structure, using common challenges of young children and provides tool after tool to help anyone with children ages 2-7.

Joanna Faber and Julie King are the authors of How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 (Scribner 2017). The book has been ranked #1 as a best-seller on Amazon, and is being translated into 17 languages world-wide. Joanna and Julie created the soon-to-be-released app Pocket Parent, a companion to their book, as well as the app Parenting Hero. Joanna and Julie lead workshops online and in person, consult privately and give lectures in the U.S. and internationally. Visit them at HowToTalkSoLittleKidsWillListen.com or on Facebook.

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Special guest: Diana Graber. Snapchat, Instagram, Fortnite, cyberbullying, sexting, and technology addiction are some of the digital concerns that keep today’s parents up at night. Some of the statistics being quoted are scary: Common Sense Media reported that 50 percent of teens feel “addicted” to their phones. The Pew Research Center reported just last year that 59 percent of U.S teens have been bullied or harassed online. Guard Child reported that 39 percent of teens have sent or posted sexually suggestive messages (sexting). Stanford University researchers tell us that a whopping 80 percent of students can’t differentiate between real and “fake” news. And the World Health Organization told us in 2017 that Technology is making children dangerously unhealthy. YIKES. These are not small-scale studies with questionable results. My next guest has been unpacking this research and working to understand how digital innovations have radically altered childhood and left us largely unprepared as parents for how to deal with the influx of technology and the fallout from these devices. She is also capturing the upside of these digital innovations that, yes, if used correctly, can enrich our children’s lives—and regardless, this IS the world we live in- we can not shut our eyes turn off all screens and say “that’s it!” without shutting out the digital world in which we must learn to survive and thrive. So what can we do?

Diana Graber, a digital literacy educator and advocate, was honored with the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s 2017 Media Literacy Teacher Award. She is the cofounder of Cyberwise, a leading online safety and digital literacy organization, and the founder and creator of Cyber Civics, the popular and innovative middle school digital citizenship and literacy program currently being taught in more than 40 US states, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Africa. Graber lives with her family in Southern California. Diana is also the author of Raising Humans in a Digital World, published in January of this year.

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Special guest: Vicki Hoefle.
Ask an audience of parents to shout out the most annoying behaviors their children exhibit that they desperately want to get rid of—there won’t be lack of answers. From fighting and hitting to getting up from the table, getting out of bed, making a mess, whining and talking back—parents have a bunch of challenges they are trying to solve to make their family homes more peaceful, their mornings or evening routines easier and their kids more cooperative or responsible. But what if I told you that the strategies we often employ to deal with these frustrating behaviors was, well, wrong? From nagging to judging, correcting, time-outs, reminding, lecturing and saving—our strategies might just be mere bandaids –or the very things that are making the behaviors worse? And what if there were actually strategies—governed by a key parenting philosophy-- that could make it better—and help our kids to become confident, competence, responsible members of society? What in the world could make this magical philosophy work so well? You might be surprised by the answer—it’s Duct tape.

Vicki Hoefle is a popular parent educator, speaker and author of Duct Tape Parenting: A Less Is More Approach to Raising Respectful, Responsible, and Resilient Kids and The Straight Talk on Parenting: A No Nonsense Approach on How to Grow a Grownup. She has Helped thousands of families for over two decades by sharing her parenting tips and techniques across the country. She combines expertise in Adlerian Psychology with a suite of actionable, time-tested tools. A master story teller who is part comedian, part sage, mostly parent, Vicki offers ways to strengthen and enhance the parent-child relationship and bring out the best in each parent, the best in each child, and the best in each encounter. Vicki Hoefle leads parent education programs nationwide. Vicki’s parenting philosophy and approach to raising “thinking” children, does not include “getting children” to comply or using so-called “discipline” strategies (which include nagging, reminding, lecturing, bribing, counting, and time-outing) for dealing with pesky behaviors. Her strategies work for every family—and we couldn’t be more excited to talk about them today.

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Special guest: Dr. Dan Reidenberg.
Nearly 800,000 people die by suicide in the world each year, which is roughly one death every 40 seconds. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in the world for those aged 15-24 years. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15 to 24-year-old Americans, according to the CDC. These are the statistics—but when it comes to suicide and talking to kids, the statistics don’t give us the words, the feelings, the loss, the answers. In fact, Everytime there is a suicide in our communities, in our schools, in our families, and in the lives of our children- it usually leaves us with more questions than answers. How do we talk to kids about this extremely difficult topic? 

Dr. Dan Reidenberg is the Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, SAVE, Managing Director of the National Council for Suicide Prevention and is on the Executive Board of the International Association for Suicide Prevention.  He is Co-Chair of the International Media and Suicide Task Force—and serves on the numerous national and international advisory boards. He has speaks about suicide and suicide prevention internationally and has written many articles and book chapters about it as well. Dr. Reidenberg has been interviewed by major media sources from around the world including CNN, Larry King, Good Morning America, the New York Times and Washington Post and has helped develop the US National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and the National Research Agenda (US). He has received numerous awards for his work including the Service to Humanity Award, Service to Suicidology Award, and as a Champion of Change by The Obama Administration.

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Special guest: Katherine Reynolds Lewis.
There is a new and surprising problem that has quietly but perhaps not unnotably come to fruition during more recent years—our children are out of control in comparison to previous generations. It’s not your imagination. A recent study of first-graders found that they could sit still for no more than three minutes—which is actually only a quarter of the time that their peers could in 1948. Government statistics show that half of all children will develop a mood or behavioral disorder or a substance addiction by age 18. What the heck is going on? I receive questions through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and email all asking about what parents, teachers and coaches can do to get children to behave better. The old methods of rewards and punishments—star charts and time outs are not working. Are your ears perking up? We’ve all seen it and you are not alone.

My next guest has some good news about bad behavior—and some great tips and scripts to help us better understand our children and how to help our children learn to self-regulate.

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning journalist and author of The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever – And What to Do About It. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Fortune, Money, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Parade, Slate, USA Today’s magazine group, the Washington Post Magazine and Working Mother. She’s an EWA Education Reporting Fellow and Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good. Residencies include the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale. Previously, Katherine was a national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News, covering everything from financial and media policy to the White House. She holds a BA in physics from Harvard University and is a certified parent educator with the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) in Kensington, Md. She and her husband Brian are the proud parents of three children, 25, 14 and 12 years old.

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Special guest: Jodi Bondi Norgaard.
How do we keep going, hammering away at our dreams, when we find ourselves faced with disappointment, frustration, failure and a big fat NO from those who can help make these dreams happen? It comes down to perseverance. Persistence. Determination and grit. We keep on going because there is a fire in us that tells us we must try yet another time. How does this play out in real life? Just recently, one of my very best friends posted a video of her daughter playing a song on the piano. A year ago, she had committed to learning “Piano Man” by Billy Joel—a very challenging goal for the then, 9-year-old. But she was adamant about doing it—and she persevered. She hit bumps in the road, valleys on tough days, fumbling fingers and wrong notes. But she kept going. Today, she debuted the song—and it was delightful. A full year of dedication to a goal from a child—that’s a huge part of her life. But she will always know that when she sticks to something—when she sets a goal and perseveres—she can make what seems monumentally challenging—an achieved reality.

Today we are going to talk to someone who also made her goal a reality despite facing frustration, failure and disapproval. She, too, persevered—and so we will devote today’s special podcast to how she reached down deep to keep going and what words of advice she has for our children who must learn to do this too, in their own way. How do we help kids find their passion? And how do we help them go after it when they find it—despite the fact that success doesn’t happen in a straight line?

Jodi Bondi Norgaard is the creator of the award-winning Go! Go! Sports Girls line of dolls and books for girls encouraging healthy and active play over fashion and body image. Jodi is a consultant, activist, and keynote speaker, inspiring and empowering women and girls throughout the world.
 
She has been featured on national media including The Today Show, Forbes, and Upworthy. In 2016, Jodi was invited by the Obama-era White House to participate in conferences on breaking down gender stereotypes in media and toys. The Go! Go! Sports Girls brand was recently acquired by Jazz-wears (Jazwares), an established cutting-edge toy company.

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Special guest: Dr. Jane Nelsen.
Children are always learning- and yes, they also make a lot of mistakes. Whether they are fighting with their siblings, tantruming about bedtime, missing the bus, forgetting their homework or talking back to you, it seems like there is a constant need for correction, apologies and do-overs. At the same time, there are all kinds of parents and teachers out there who witness such mistakes—from people who watch children act out or mess up and punish them or deliver punitive consequences immediately—to those who are incredibly permissive—who see children do something undesired and simply turn the other cheek and say; “kids will be kids.” Many parents and educators fall somewhere in between or vacillate between the two extremes of punitive and permissive.

Of course, most parents and teachers are just trying to figure out how to raise children who are kind, responsible, cooperative and self-disciplined. But what if I told you that there are many parenting and teaching skills that we can talk about right now that are non-punitive and not permissive—but would help children learn self-discipline, responsibility, and problem-solving skills—helping them to grow up into adults who can use these skills throughout their lives? Whether you are trying to get the kids to school on time, get everyone to agree on a movie for movie night or get from place to place without someone yelling or kicking or needling someone else in the car, we all deal with power struggles and frustration. Today, we’ve got positive discipline expert, Jane Nelsen on the show—and she’s going to help us learn how to be both kind and firm, connect with our children, give them a sense of belonging and significance—while helping them choose right from wrong.

Dr. Jane Nelsen is the mother of 7, grandmother of 22, and great grandmother of 13. She is also the author and co-author of many best-selling Positive Discipline books including Positive Discipline: The Classic Guide to Helping Children Develop Self-Discipline, Responsibility, Cooperation and Problem-Solving Skills and Positive Discipline Parenting Tools. An internationally known speaker and parenting expert, Jane is a California licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and received her doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of San Francisco.

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Special guest: Jenifer Joy Madden.
According to Forbes magazine, the most sought-after attributes in an employee are not technical. All are human-centered, including the ability to work in a team, make decisions, and prioritize. But authors and experts have found a sad shift regardless- During a lecture at Rochester Institute for Technology, Allen Chochinov urged design students not to eliminate human input. He admitted: “Today, if you want to know what’s wrong with a car engine, you can’t even open it. You need to plug in a computer. High schools are dropping shop class. Soon, no one will know how to do anything.” Is he onto something? What do we lose when we gain so much technology?
My next guest says; “In this age when Google, GPS, and artificial intelligence can perform so many of our basic functions, it’s gotten to the point where we need to be actively human so that we are more effective and less overwhelmed.” We have so many tools to simplify our lives- they think for us, navigate for us, create for us, entertain for us but it often seems that these tools that are meant to simplify, leave us busier, crazier, and more “all over the place” than ever. I don’t know about you but I often feel like I’m being shot out of a cannon—running from place to place without a slow-down in sight. Now we’ve talked about technology with Sue Scheff and Devorah Heitner and some other wonderful guests- and we’ve talked about mindfulness not too long ago with crowd-favorite Dr. Laura Markham- but we’ve got to really delve into what’s going to help us thrive and survive in a digital world without losing ourselves and losing our children to screens and technology- and I don’t mean just the time spent on these devices and plugged in- but what we might be losing in terms of creativity, curiosity, empathy, compassion, health and memory—how can we exist in this digital world, maintain what makes us beautifully human, and become, what my next guest calls “durable.”

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School shootings, traumatic weather events, local fires and acts of terror-- When the world is struck with a catastrophic event, it is natural to want to shield our children from the effects of it. We want to keep their innocence in tact- allowing them to grow up carefree and unfettered—feeling safe and calm wherever they go. We might wonder, if we just don’t talk about it- could our children remain in their happy little bubble for the time being?

The problem is—we live in a world where children receive messages about traumatic events from many different avenues- it’s not just the news that we can easily turn off—or even the 24/7 access to the internet that provides a play by play as negative stories develop. It’s also that different families have different rules about such access- with multiple kids of various ages in their homes who are permitted to have more access- so that might mean you send your blithely innocent child to school, ignorant of the scary events that might have occurred, only to have them bombarded with the news from a more informed (perhaps not accurately so) child on the bus—or from a group of kids in class.

Knowing that something has happened but not having anyone to explain it in age-appropriate terms and how it relates to our specific children can be frightening to anyone. We all need context, assurance and our own concerns addressed by someone we trust—our kids actually need information to feel safe and-- as a parent or educator who knows the child, you are the perfect person to have this conversation with them. I’ve talked about this on national TV shows and in written press but I thought it was important to talk about it on my podcast—especially through the lens of anxiety as many kids have trouble dealing with such large-scale events.

My next guest tells us that since you know your child best, “it’s important to manage the conversation (Or, shall we say, tailor it) based on who they are, what they already know, and what it means for them.”

Karen Young has been on our podcast before- talking about anxiety. In fact, her podcast episode is in the top 5 most downloaded episodes of How to Talk to Kids about Anything, of all time. She is back today to discuss with me how we can talk to kids about traumatic world events. Karen has worked as a psychologist in private practice and in educational settings. She founded the popular website, Hey Sigmund, which attracts millions of readers each year. Karen is a sought-after speaker, both at home in Australia and internationally. She is the author of ‘Hey Warrior’, a book for kids to help them understand anxiety and find their ‘brave’. The book has now been translated into a number of languages.

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Why do children play sports? According to a study by researchers at Notre Dame’s Center for Ethical Education, it’s to (#1) have fun, then—do something that are good at, improve skills, get exercise, be part of a team and enjoy the excitement of competition. But looking out at many sports fields or at many athletic events- sometimes, if we are being truthful, it looks like we are missing the mark. There are coaches screaming and parents gritting their teeth, fans yelling at referees and teammates shunning other teammates over missed goals or botched moves. What happened to the carefree freedom and fun that sports and athletic engagement once gave us? It’s no wonder so many kids drop out of sports by the age of 13. And if we are really to ask ourselves how we can develop strong athletes who thrive at peak performance- do we really think this is the way? My next guest has some other ideas that can really help us.

John O’Sullivan started the Changing the Game Project in 2012 after two decades as a soccer player- collegiate and professional- and a coach on the youth, high school, college and professional level.  He is the author of the #1 bestselling books Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids and Is it Wise to Specialize? John’s work has been featured in The Huffington Post, CNN.com, Outside Magazine, ESPN.com, Soccer America and numerous other publications. John is an internationally known speaker for coaches, parents and youth sports organizations, and has spoken for TEDx, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, US Lacrosse, IMG Academy, and at numerous other events throughout the US, Canada, Asia and Europe. He has a popular podcast for coaches called Way of the Champions and has even consulted with the US Olympic Committee.

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Many children grow up with no clue about how money works—what it means to save for something they want, how to spend wisely, how work can translate into money and why we must give to others in need as part of our life’s journey. Somehow, in our busy lives, discussions about money get pushed off until later. But of you think about it, when kids don’t know how money works when they are younger and under your roof, it can set them up for some big money mistakes when they are away at college or off on their own. So “money talks” are some important discussions we all need to have with our kids.

My next guest knows more than a thing or two about these money talks as she’s been having these conversations as long as she can remember with her own parents—that’s just part of growing up Ramsey.

As a #1 New York Times best-selling author, host of The Rachel Cruze Show, and The Rachel Cruze Show podcast, Rachel helps people learn the proper ways to handle money and stay out of debt. She’s authored three best-selling books, including Love Your Life, Not Theirs and Smart Money Smart Kids, which she co-wrote with her father, Dave Ramsey. You can follow Rachel on Twitter and Instagram with the handle @RachelCruze and online at rachelcruze.com, youtube.com/rachelcruze or facebook.com/rachelramseycruze.

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We have all seen the spikes in anxiety and stress in our young people these days. There is an unbelievable amount of pressure to succeed, to look perfect, to be liked and to do it all. There are pressures at home, in school, within relationships and it feels heavy and constant. Now, though anxiety has risen among young people overall, studies confirm that it has skyrocketed in girls. What in the world is going on here? And what can we do about it? For the answers to these questions, we are turning to best-selling author, Dr. Lisa Damour.

Lisa Damour writes the monthly adolescence column for the New York Times, serves as a regular contributor to CBS News, maintains a private psychotherapy practice, consults and speaks internationally, and is a Senior Advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Damour is the author of numerous academic papers, chapters, and books related to parenting and child development including her 2016 New York Times best seller, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and now, Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls, comes out TODAY- lucky us- so welcome Dr. Lisa Damour
to how to talk to kids about anything!

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Ahhh, middle school. The crazy, time of ultimate change between elementary school and high school. Just thinking about it brings up so many memories— not all great, of course, as middle school changes can be confusing and strange as we try to figure out the social scene while trying to understand ourselves. Our brains are growing, our bodies are developing and we are trying to answer questions like “who am I?” What do I like? Is it ok for me to like this while my friends like that? “Do I fit in?” and so much more. And while all of this is happening- we also have to turn our attention to the parents and educators who are not only watching this happen but uniquely involved riding the lines between guiding and letting go, dependence and independence. How, as parents and educators, do we help our middle schoolers navigate these school years that can be filled with angst and bewilderment with humor, grace, success and maybe even a little bit of fun thrown in there?

To answer these questions and more we have Michelle Icard on the show today.

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Are you a recovering awkward person? My next guest states she is—although you’d never know it given her amazing insights and understanding of what she has branded, The Science of People. As we know from being a child and certainly a preteen or teenager, we all feel awkward from time to time. Maybe some of us more than others. My own palms get sweaty just thinking about walking into school on the first day of school, after a fight with a friend- or worse, a break up. Blargh. And what about when walking into a party or school event when you aren’t sure who will be there—or when you do and the people who are there aren’t exactly the people you jive with. Do people even say “jive” anymore? Anyway, what if we could tap into the science of people so that we can give the kids and teens in our lives some hacks that allow them to be successful in social situations? And what if some of these hacks could help us connect better and have better conversations with our kids? That would be pretty great, wouldn’t it?

Vanessa Van Edwards is lead investigator at the Science of People—a human behavior research lab. She is the national bestselling author of Captivate: The Science of Succeeding With People which was chosen as one of Apple’s Most Anticipated Books of the year. Her work has been featured on CNN, NPR and Fast Company. She writes a monthly column on the science of success for Entrepreneur Magazine and the Huffington Post. She even has a successful Ted Talk which is awesome. She speaks worldwide and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her stop by our show today.

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Many conversations we discuss on this show hold incredible importance and relevance to our lives—but talk of drugs and alcohol abuse—certainly when we hear stories of addiction and overdose often, can grip many parents and educators. Some have seen the fallout from drugs and alcohol abuse first hand—others see how it’s played out in the movies from Sandra Bullock in 28 Days to Meg Ryan in When a Man Loves a Women, Leonardo Decaprio in Basketball Diaries to the newly released Ben is Back with Julia Roberts. So how do we start these vital conversations with our kids about drugs and alcohol so they can have the information they need to make safe and informed choices in real life situations? Do we really need to start these conversations early and how often do we need to talk about it? How can the drugs and alcohol conversation collide head on with the sex conversation? And finally, how can dads get uniquely involved in this conversation? I’m going to speak with Jeremy Schneider today and together, we’ll give you the information you need to start to talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol.

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Life gets crazy and parenting can be stressful. Many parents anticipate the stress and experience stress throughout the day—whether it’s morning time and getting the kids off to school, or after-school time when homework must be completed—shuttling multiple children to practices and activities, getting a healthy dinner on the table while dealing with sibling arguments—or dealing with bedtime shenanigans. And let’s not forget friendship issues, electronics battles, getting your kids to clean up after themselves—or life issues like divorce, illness, bullying, work stress and whatever else is your personal bugaboo. Yes- life can be stressful, parenting can stressful—and we focus so much on how we can help our kids, talk to our kids, be there for our kids—but what about us? What about the parents? How do we cope with our stress and what might help us to take a collective breath, allow some of the frustration to fall away and become more mindful so that we can better help ourselves as well as those we love?

Dr. Laura Markham trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University. She is the mother of two, now ages 21 and 25. Dr. Laura is the author of the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How to Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life. We interviewed her on both of these books as well as on her wonderful workbook called the Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Workbook—a great resource for parents. You can find her online at http://www.ahaparenting.com

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In the wake of the very public emergence of the #MeToo, #TimesUp and #girlstoo movements, the latter that we discussed with our Girls Inc Team, Lara Kaufmann and Dr. Christina Spears, a few weeks back-- women and girls have encouraged to find their voice, claim their power, come out of the shadows and not back down. But with a history of messages that tell women and girls that they need to be perfect, they shouldn’t break the rules, they should be quiet and look pretty, take a backseat and downplay their own success to avoid making others feel uncomfortable or be seen as “full of herself,” it’s a challenge for many to reinvent what it means to be a woman in 2019. It takes mental strength. We must build mental muscle and get out of our own way if we are going to change along with these important empowerment movements. How does mental strength in women make a difference? What areas, specifically, should we work on? And how does embracing and practicing mental strength as women translate to encouraging mental strength in the girls we love, teach and guide? For these questions and more, we will be interviewing the fabulous Amy Morin, for the 3rd time in the history of the show.

The post How to Talk about the 13 Things Mentally Strong Women and Girls Don’t Do with Amy Morin, LCSW appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

In her 2016 Ted Talk, Julie Lythcott-Haims started off by saying, “there’s a certain style of parenting these days that is kind of messing up kids, impeding their chances to develop into themselves. There’s a certain style of parenting these days that’s getting in the way. I guess what I’m saying is, we spend a lot of time being very concerned about parents who aren’t involved enough in the lives of their kids and their education or their upbringing, and rightly so. But at the other end of the spectrum, there’s a lot of harm going on there as well, where parenting feel a kid can’t be successful unless the parent is protecting and preventing at every turn and hovering over every happening and micromanaging every moment, and steering their kid towards some small subset of colleges and careers….our kids end up leading a kind of check-listed childhood, she goes on to say, such that, she warns that once they end up at the end of high school they are breathless—of course—they have spent so much time having been obsessed with grades and activities—becoming what they are supposed to be rather than exploring who they may want to become. What interests them. And knowing, with their own brains and experimenting with their own grit and their own skills—to develop into a self-sufficient, resilient adult. So it begs the question—what can we do to break free from the overparenting trap that says we must be on our children every minute prodding and directing, being our child’s concierge, as Julie Lythcott-Haims labels, and instead, preparing our children to become successful adults who can stand on their own two feet.

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As we discuss conversations on this podcast— key conversations we must have with our children about tough topics— sex, death, divorce, porn, failure, ADHD, bullying— discussions where emotions can run high, agendas can cloud openness and listening and true presence— fear can make us shy away from saying what truly needs to be said, or heard or understood. What if there was a step that we needed to take before we had these all important conversations— a step that acknowledged the importance of dignity for each person— to hold another person’s dignity as precious and valuable while also knowing that our own would be kept in tact as well. How might that affect these key conversations we have with our partners, with our children, with teachers, instructors, coaches— people who touch our lives and help to shape how they evolve. And what if we focused on dignity as a fundamental part of raising our children to become leaders— showing and discussing how we can lead with dignity and create a culture that brings out the best in people? For these questions and more, we turn to our distinguished guest, Dr. Donna Hicks.

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There is no question- there has been a marked increase in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, and other neurological disorders. We have also heard of increases in food sensitivities, social problems, screen usage and medication use and a decrease in getting out into nature, going out for recess and unstructured play. Are these things connected? And if so, what can we do about it all? To answer these questions and more, we are turning to Dr. Robert Melillo.

Dr. Robert Melillo is a world-renowned chiropractic neurologist, professor and researcher in child neurological disorders, and creator of the Brain Balance Program. Since 1994, his program has helped thousands of children with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, and other disorders. His Brain Balance Achievement Centers are located throughout the United States. He is the author of Disconnected Kids, Disconnected Kids, Reconnected Families, Reconnected Kids and more. You can learn more about Dr. Melillo and his work at DrRobertMelillo.com

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Perhaps you’ve made the mistake of cutting your child’s sandwich into triangles instead of squares. Or you’ve dealt with siblings that won’t stop fighting, a child who refuses to get out of bed or cries when you try to leave the house. And perhaps your child’s struggles, tantrums, refusals, frustrations have gotten a little bit under your skin and made you hot under the collar— and while you tell yourself to be patient and loving, you start yelling, threatening, bribing or caving under the pressure. We get it. SO many parents feel helpless, desperate and frustrated when their kids just won’t cooperate or seem so unreasonable and you are just trying to get out of the house, get them to bed or get dinner on the table. My guests today will give us what to do and say in these moments using their ALP system that they’ve taught thousands of parents in their clinical practice over the years.

Heather Turgeon MFT and Julie Wright MFT are the authors of the new book Now Say This: The right words to solve every parenting dilemma (Penguin RandomHouse), as well as the popular sleep book, The Happy Sleeper. Based in NYC and Los Angeles, they frequently speak and offer consultations to families on communication, setting limits with empathy, sleep, and more. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook @TheHappySleeper

The post How to Attune, Set Limits and Problem-Solve with Children in Difficult Moments with Heather Turgeon & Julie Wright appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Author Bonnie J Rough lived in Holland for 18 months and found that the Dutch clearly knew something different about how to raise happy, healthy children who were comfortable with their own bodies and with each other. Their carefree attitudes about nudity and how they explain sex to kids is something we should probably adopt given that, compared to the US, Holland boasts lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases as well as high gender equality, lower numbers of partners and more positive experiences with sex over all. Yes, we’ve got a lot to learn here.

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Parents have struggled with how to manage their time for generations. There is so much to do— so much to balance! In the age of extracurriculars— from travel baseball, soccer, gymnastics, piano, to tutoring classes, art and enrichment, the question of how to fit everything in, complete the car pool, get dinner on the table, help with homework, get to the store, get some work done, give your kids undivided attention—and still take care of yourself—seems nearly impossible. How do we do this? DO we do all of this? To hold our hands and help us all shift from having it all to getting it right in the moment— is best-selling author, Julie Morgenstern.

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In 2006, Tarana Burke coined the phrase "Me Too" as a way to help women who had survived sexual violence feel like they were not alone. A year ago this week, actress Alyssa Milano reignited “me too” with a tweet that stated "If you've been sexually harassed or assaulted write 'me too' as a reply to this tweet.” This was in the wake of accusations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood. Since then, “me too” has become a movement among women who have been sexually harassed. Since then, a great deal of reports have come out and “metoo” has gained great traction among adults. But what about our teens? How are they experiencing sexual harassment and violence? Believe or not, 7 out of 10 girls experience sexual harassment and alarmingly, 1 in 4 girls will experience sexual assault or abuse before she turns 18. A recently released survey of young girls reveals that 3 out of 4 girls between the ages of 14 and 19 feel unsafe at least once in a while. At the root of this problem are limiting and harmful messages about how girls and boys should behave and be treated—messages that shape these impressionable minds and stick with them as they enter adulthood. As a response, and in honor of the 1 year anniversary of the week, Girls Inc, a nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold through direct service and advocacy, along with its amazing network of girls and partners, are launching the #girlstoo campaign. This campaign will focus on sexual harassment and assault in the lives of youth, particularly girls, with actions aimed at addressing the norms and stereotypes that fuel these behaviors. To discuss how we talk about sexual harassment, assault and violence—and what we can all do ensure that our young people are educated, safe, respected and valued, we have Lara Kaufmann and Dr. Christia Spears Brown on the show today.

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This podcast will focus on how white kids are being educated about race and racism in America. While we know from research that black families teach their children about social inequalities, race and racism from an early age, what are white families doing? Are families and communities a place where white kids learn to become racist or a space where they learn to be antiracist or race-conscious? Do white kids learn, within the family paradigm, to challenge racial inequalities? Dr. Margaret Hagerman talks about her research and her new book: White kids: Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America. It’s an important topic that many people avoid out of discomfort or confusion with regard to how to discuss it. We get right into it on How to Talk to Kids about Anything.

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Dr. Tim Elmore is a best-selling author and CEO of Growing Leaders, a global non-profit organization created to empower students with real-life leadership skills. Tim’s expertise on the emerging generation has led to media coverage in The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, USA Today and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on CNN’s Headline News and Fox and Friends to discuss how to lead Millennials and Generation Z. Tim’s latest books include Marching Off the Map: Inspire Students to Navigate a Brand New World and 12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid.


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Kate Whitfield is a speaker, author, social entrepreneur, and the founder of FearlesslyGIRL - an internationally recognized anti bullying organization dedicated to creating a Kinder Girl World, reaching over 50,000 girls annually through clubs and school programs.. Kate has established herself as a “go-to” expert on girl world and anti-bullying, and was selected by Instagram and the Prime Minister’s Office as an #EducationCan Ambassador, advising the Prime Minister on youth and education related issues, and named an “Exemplary Canadian” by Facebook Canada for her work empowering young women.

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Well, it’s back to school time and it’s the perfect time to gather some of our best tips from our top experts who have provided some insight on what we must know to help our kids have a successful school year. The latest messages I’ve received from parents have been about homework, bullying and mindset so I thought it would be fun, given that this is a milestone podcast episode as we march forward from 100,000 downloads towards 200,000, 500,000 and more, that we take a look back on the best school-related advice we can get from the top experts who can put it all in perspective for us.

Dr. Robyn Silverman is a well-known professional speaker, child & teen development specialist and leadership coach who appears regularly as an expert on many national TV such as The Today Show, Nightline and Good Morning America. She is a monthly parenting columnist for US News and World Report and is often quoted in print articles for her hands-on parenting and child development expertise. Known for her positive and accessible solutions to challenging problems, she speaks worldwide to diverse audiences; from company leaders and corporate groups to educators, camp professionals, government offices, children and parents. An award-winning writer and success coach, she has contributed as a child development expert to over for 20 books and is currently writing her second book based on her popular parenting podcast, How to Talk to Kids about Anything. On her podcast, she interviews the top experts in their fields who give all the tips, scripts, stories and steps to make every conversation (even the really tough ones!) easier. From talking to kids about divorce, adoption, anger, stress management and allowance to how to talk about death, sex, porn, screen time or ADHD (and more!), she’s got you covered! Check it out on iTunes of her website. You can find out more about Dr. Robyn at DrRobynSilverman.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DrRobynSilverman, on twitter at @DrRobyn or on instagram @DrRobynSilverman.

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Dr. Ross Greene served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, and is now adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech and adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. He is the author of the influential, well-known best-selling books The Explosive Child and Lost at School as well as Raising Human Beings, Lost and Found and Lost in School and has helped to bring about an upcoming documentary called “The Kids We Lose.” He is a fierce and articulate advocate for the compassionate understanding and treatment of behaviorally challenging kids and their caregivers. Drawing upon vast clinical and consultation experience and research in the neurosciences, his innovative, research-based Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) approach – which posits that challenging behavior is the result of lagging skills (rather than lagging motivation) and emphasizes solving problems collaboratively (rather than use of motivational procedures) – has been implemented in countless families and hundreds of schools, inpatient units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities. The Collaborative & Proactive Solutions model helps parents, teachers, and kids work together to solve problems in a way that respects our kids while supporting them in improving their behavior. Dr. Greene is also the founder of Lives in the Balance, which aims to provide resources and programs to caregivers of behaviorally challenging kids, address the issues that cause many of these kids to slip through the cracks; and to promote practices that foster the better side of human nature in all children.

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With so many opportunities and demands made on children today, it can be hard to balance sports, homework, activities and yes, if we can muster it, downtime for our kids. How do we help our children and our families make decisions about what to commit to and what to forego during the already busy school year?

We are right at that moment in my own house, as my daughter signed up for violin this year within her school— but was learning piano last year after school, learned guitar in summer camp— so…does she do all three now? And let’s not forget that she also take gymnastics and “mom, can I take horseback riding too?”— oh! And Hebrew school, we’ve got that also. And did I mention I have a son? For him, soccer, mad science and yes, Hebrew school as well. Just looked at all the options can make a parent tired. We give ourselves a lot of pep talks about how our kids behave better when they ‘re busy, and we have to work so our kids might as well be doing something productive and isn’t it better for them to be around other kids expanding their minds, seeking their passion or moving their bodies? And if yes, which direction do we go and how can we remain grounded, sane and happy in the process?

For a discussion about sports, homework, after-school activities, downtime and how to get it all in to our schedules, we are turning to guest, KJ Dell’Antonia for a second time (she was on in March talking about how to be a happier parent).

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Parenting young children can be tough! They can get overloaded, stuck, frustrated and as we’ve talked about before, they need our help when their limbic brains are on meltdown. So what can you SAY, THINK and DO, to help your children manage their BIG feelings and learn to do as you ask? Today, we are talking a second time with pediatric Psychologist, Dr. Lynne Kenney, about how to handle the tantrums, the "I won'ts" and "I can'ts", to help you parent with more collaboration, peace, and calm in your family.

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Parenting these days can be very reactionary. We have lots of pressure and little time and often many feelings of not being enough, constantly striving, competing with others and overall disconnection. We have big reactions or, perhaps we might say, our big reactions have us. But what if we practiced more aware parenting? What if we become more in touch with our own senses, our mental state, our bodies and our relationship to ourselves and to others and how our awareness could affect our parenting and our lives? When we become aware and reflective of our reactions and what is indeed feeding these reactions, we can become more receptive, calm, balanced, compassionate and positive in the way we parent our kids and more balanced in our own wellbeing. And imagine what we can teach our kids—by showing awareness and practicing awareness, we can then teach them to the do the same in their own lives. Is there a way to cultivate this awareness? Is there a way to teach our kids to practice awareness as children and teenagers? For these questions and more, we turn to our guest today, Dr. Dan Siegel.

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Devorah Heitner, PhD is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and the founder of Raising Digital Natives. She passionately believes in the power of mentoring kids in creating a positive tech culture and she is delighted to be raising her own digital native. She’s also super cool and actually has an article out about some things to consider if your child wants to be a youtube star in the Washington Post—and we’re going to dig right and flesh out the information so we know how to have this discussion about fame, social media and what to look out for if your child brings the idea of putting videos up on social media to your attention—best to be prepared, right?

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Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson is welcomed back to the show-- who you will remember from our show on how to talk to kids about food allergies. Bridging the digital divide between doctors and patients, Dr. Swanson, Chief of Digital Innovation at Seattle Children’s Hospital has blazed a trail of patient education using her voice through a variety of different channels in traditional and social media. Through her blog, podcast , social media channels and her parenting book she translates science and parenting information to the public. Swanson also regularly partners with reporters in traditional print, online, and television media and makes weekly TV appearances in Seattle with NBC affiliate, KING5 News. She hopes to transform the paternalistic approach to messaging into an empowered, patient-centered one where peers learn from each other and from expert advice online. Check her out at http://seattlemamadoc.seattlechildrens.org/

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Imagine being stuck in a world that doesn’t really “get” who you are. You’re different and in many cases, people see these differences as bad and something that needs to be fixed. My next guest, Deborah Reber, has spoke to us before about neurodiversity- and is back to talk more specifically about what she refers to as “differently wired” kids. We are talking about the one in five children with ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger’s, giftedness, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, and other neurodifferences. One in five—20% of children are neurodiverse and they have many challenges they must face. And along with these kids, come the parents who love them but arean’t quite sure how to best help their kids but will try just about anything. They try to find the right school, teachers, therapists, medications, as well as the right parenting group and friends who will support them. It’s hard to know how to handle it all- but Debbie Reber is here to help.

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Dr. Gail Dines is a Professor Emerita of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston. She is the author of numerous books and articles, and her  latest book,  Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, has been translated into five languages. Dr Dines is the founding president of the Non-profit, Culture Reframed.  Dedicated to building  resilience and resistance in children and youth to the harms of a hypersexualized and pornified society, Culture Reframed develops cutting-edge educational programs that promote healthy development, relationships, and sexuality. Dr. Dines is an internationally known speaker and consultant to governmental bodies here and abroad.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Porn with Gail Dines appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Dannielle Miller is a best-selling Author, Teen Educator and Media Commentator In 2003 she founded Australia’s leading provider of in-school workshops for teen girls, Enlighten Education. More recently, she launched a program for boys, Goodfellas.  She has written for several online and print publications and has a bi-weekly column in Australia’s most read newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. She has written five books for parents and teen girls, including a best-selling title on raising happy, confident teen girls, The Butterfly Effect.  Dannielle is a popular speaker at youth and education conferences and forums internationally. 

The post How to Raise Confident Teen Girls with Dannielle Miller appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Karen Young has worked as a psychologist in private practice and in educational settings. She founded the popular website, Hey Sigmund, which attracts millions of readers each year. Karen is a sought-after speaker, both at home in Australia and internationally. She is the author of ‘Hey Warrior’, a book for kids to help them understand anxiety and find their ‘brave’. The book has now been translated into a number of languages—and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome her to How to Talk to Kids about Anything

The post How to Talk about Anxiety in Kids with Karen Young appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell is a developmental psychologist, speaker, and fellow at the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University where she studies how young people become caring family members, innovative workers, ethical leaders, and engaged citizens in an increasingly complex society. She is founder of Roots of Action, a website that shares research-based resources on positive youth development with parents, schools, and communities – with an audience of over half-million readers each year. She is the author of Tomorrow’s Change Makers: Reclaiming the Power of Citizenship for a New Generation and a contributing writer at Psychology Today and Edutopia.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Positive Internal Strengths with Marilyn Price Mitchell appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Dr. Robyn Silverman is a well-known professional speaker, child & teen development specialist and leadership coach who appears regularly as an expert on many national TV such as The Today Show, Nightline and Good Morning America. She is a monthly parenting columnist for US News and World Report and is often quoted in print articles for her hands-on parenting and child development expertise. Known for her positive and accessible solutions to challenging problems, she speaks worldwide to diverse audiences; from company leaders and corporate groups to educators, camp professionals, government offices, children and parents. An award-winning writer and success coach, she has contributed as a child development expert to over for 20 books and is currently writing her second book based on her popular parenting podcast, How to Talk to Kids about Anything. On her podcast, she interviews the top experts in their fields who give all the tips, scripts, stories and steps to make every conversation (even the really tough ones!) easier. From talking to kids about divorce, adoption, anger, stress management and allowance to how to talk about death, sex, porn, screen time or ADHD (and more!), she’s got you covered! Check it out on iTunes of her website. You can find out more about Dr. Robyn at DrRobynSilverman.com, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DrRobynSilverman, on twitter at @DrRobyn or on instagram @DrRobynSilverman.

The post First Year Round Up! Top Lessons Learned from our Top Experts appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Alex Corbitt Alex Corbitt (@Alex_Corbitt) is a middle school English teacher in The Bronx, New York. His work focuses on socio-emotional learning, gamification, education technology, and literacy. He loves learning from other teachers and he regularly presents at conferences around the United States. And I follow him on twitter because not only does he share some of my infographics on how to talk to kids about different topics and how to start conversations about respect and focus—but he shares some incredibly relevant and interesting infographics from other educators who are doing important work to get our kids to love learning. Oh- and he didn’t say this in his bio but he’s had a lot of recognition for being a distinguished educator—I get the sense that he’s well loved and innovative and we’ve got a lot to learn from him.

The post How to Inspire Children to Read with Alex Corbitt appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Wendy Sue Swanson Bridging the digital divide between doctors and patients, Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, Chief of Digital Innovation at Seattle Children’s Hospital has blazed a trail of patient education using her voice through a variety of different channels in traditional and social media. Through her blog, podcast , social media channels and her parenting book she translates science and parenting information to the public. Swanson also regularly partners with reporters in traditional print, online, and television media and makes weekly TV appearances in Seattle with NBC affiliate, KING5 News. She hopes to transform the paternalistic approach to messaging into an empowered, patient-centered one where peers learn from each other and from expert advice online. Check her out at http://seattlemamadoc.seattlechildrens.org/

The post How to Talk to Kids about Food Allergies with Wendy Sue Swanson appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dina Alexander We are surrounded by media messaging everyday. The TV we watch, the billboards we see, the radio we listen to and the social media we read and share just to name a few. A great deal of our media is good- fine- interesting and even helpful—but there is a lot of media mixed in there that is useless or even harmful. Our children really need to know the difference. This is one of my favorite topics- I present on this topic and personally, it lights my fire as media is so powerful and has the ability to shape and break people. So how do we talk to kids about media and how to deconstruct, understand and critique it? Our old friend, Dina Alexander, who was already on How to Talk to Kids about Anything to discuss the topic of talking about sex and making babies—she is back to help us talk to kids about media literacy.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Media Literacy and Deconstructing Advertising with Dina Alexander appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Susan Bartell Dr. Susan Bartell is a nationally recognized parenting psychologist and author, supporting parents in raising happy and healthy kids in a stressful world. She has written the book, The Top 50 Questions Kids Ask and you can find her on national TV and radio- and She writes for US News & World Report (along with me and several other fabulous experts I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing) on a wide range of topics such as the importance of raising grateful children and how to keep teens from turning smartphones into weapons. Dr. Bartell is here today to talk with us on monitoring your child’s screen time and digital footprint.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Screen-Time and Digital Footprint with Dr. Susan Bartell appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Ross Flowers Ross Flowers, Ph.D. is an experienced sport and performance psychologist, executive coach, author and speaker. He is the director of sports performance psychology for the LA Clippers. As a partner in Giles Consulting Group he has worked as a leadership development coach for the Center for Creative Leadership, international sport psychologist, psychologist in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and sport psychology instructor. Ross is the author of Introducing Your Child to Sports: An Expert’s Answers to Parents’ Questions about Raising a Healthy, Balanced, Happy Athlete.

Ross served as a senior sport psychologist for the United States Olympic Committee, and was a member of many USA World Cup, World Championship and Olympic teams for summer and winter sports. Ross founded and directed the Applied Sport Psychology Program at the University of California, Davis. You can look him up right here: http://gilesllc.com/

The post How to Talk to Kids about Sports with Dr. Ross Flowers appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: KJ Dell'Antonia Five years of editing the Motherlode column for the New York Times taught KJ Dell’Antonia this: family can be a source of joy, not stress. Her reporting and research on parental happiness led to her new forthcoming book, “How to Be a Happier Parent,” available in August, 2018. She writes regularly on the personal and policy aspects of parenthood for the New York Times and other publications, and sends out a weekly tiny letter on being a happier parent (even when she’s not)— http://tinyurl.com/followkj which is in the shownotes of this podcast. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, four children and assorted horses, chickens, dogs and cats.

The post How to Be a Happier Parent with KJ Dell’Antonia appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Katherine Ozment Katherine Ozment is the author of Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age. She is an award-winning journalist who has worked in publishing for more than twenty-five years, including as a senior editor at National Geographic, for which she once rode a donkey through the desert of Israel and Jordan for several weeks. Her essays and articles have been widely published in such venues as National Geographic, The New York Times, and Salon. Grace Without God was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly and Spirituality & Health. I’m not surprised because it is beautifully written and thought provoking. You can learn more about Katherine and her book in the show notes of this podcast as well as on her website  www.katherineozment.com

The post How to Talk to Kids about Meaning & Purpose in a Secular Age with Katherine Ozment appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Andrea Owen Life coach. Author and Self described Hellraiser. Andrea Owen is passionate about empowering women to value themselves and fiercely love who they are. She helps high-achieving women let go of perfectionism, control, and isolation—urging them to choose courage and confidence instead. Her new book is called How to Stop Feeling Like Sh*t: 14 Habits that Are Holding You Back from Happiness. You can learn more about Andrea and her new book in the show notes to this podcast or on www.yourkickasslife.com.

The post How to Deal with the Inner Critic & To Stop Feeling Like Sh*t with Andrea Owen appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Laura Markham Dr. Laura Markham trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University. She is the mother of two, now ages 21 and 25. Dr. Laura is the author of the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How To Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life. And she has a new workbook out called the Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Workbook that you are sure to love. You can find her online at http://www.ahaparenting.com

The post How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting with Your Kids with Dr. Laura Markham appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Rachel Simmons Rachel Simmons is a bestselling author, educator and consultant helping girls and women be more authentic, assertive and resilient. Her latest release, Enough As She Is: How to Help Girls Move Beyond Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy and Fulfilling Lives, due out today from HarperCollins. Her previous work includes the New York Times bestsellers Odd Girl Out and The Curse of the Good Girl. As an educator, Rachel teaches girls and women the skills they need to build their resilience, amplify their voices, and own their courage so that they—and their relationships—live with integrity and health.

The post How to Ensure that Every Girl Knows She Is Enough As She Is with Rachel Simmons appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Catherine Pearlman Catherine Pearlman is the founder of The Family Coach and the author of Ignore It!: How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction. Catherine writes the nationally syndicated Dear Family Coach column and her work has appeared in US News, Parent.com, CNN.com,  Good Housekeeping and more. She’s a licensed clinical social worker, an assistant professor at Brandman University and a mom of two kids and a dog. She’s a New Yorker living in southern California.

The post How to Cope with Siblings who Annoy, Bully or Fight with Catherine Pearlman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Michele Borba More than one out of every five students report being bullied, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2016). One third of students who reported being bullied at school indicate that they were bullied at least once or twice a month during the school year. The reason for this bullying? Physical appearance, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, and sexual orientation, just to name the top few. There is no doubt that we have a problem and our schools, parents and children need solutions. So what do we do? And is there a way to stop bullying before it starts? We’ve talked with a few experts on social aggression in the history of How to Talk to Kids about Anything- Rosalind Wiseman, Carrie Goldman and most recently, Katie Hurley who looked at social aggression specifically in girls. Today, we are going to focus on preventative solutions to this pervasive issue- namely, what my guest and good friend, Michele Borba, is calling the 6Rs of bully prevention.

The post How to Talk To Kids About Bully Prevention with Dr. Michele Borba appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dawn Huebner, PhD Do your children or young teens get nervous? Scared? Jittery? Uneasy? Agitated? Stressed out? Well, everyone gets worried sometimes. Some people are able to move through worry fairly easily while others find that worry can get in their way. Does that happen to your kids? In certain situations, it can happen to mine. Some kids worry about school, tests, or where they’re going to sit at lunch. Others worry about bugs or thunder storms, bad dreams or being away from their parents. As an adult, sometimes our kids’ worries seem strange or illogical and we can get frustrated or overwhelmed, annoyed or even worried about their worry. We need some tips and scripts to help our kids tame those jitters- especially when we aren’t there to help the, Well, we are in luck- my next guest is going to help us talk to kids and help kids understand and outsmart worry.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Outsmarting Worry with Dawn Huebner, PhD appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Sue Atkins Each one of us, as a parent, teacher, coach or mentor wants to help raise and inspire kids who are happy, well-adjusted, confident and resilient. But, in today’s world, it’s not always easy! The messages we receive as parents and educators can get confusing and don’t always know the right thing to do. We hear; “make sure to encourage your child—but don’t give too much praise or it will backfire!” “Let your child fail—but balance it with pointing out strengths and successes—and for goodness sake don’t tie in achievement with self esteem!” “Give your child responsibilities—but don’t forget to allow them to have free time and play too!” So much to balance. So much to remember. And still, of course, we all have our bad days when we throw up our hands and wonder if we are getting any of it right. Who hasn’t been there? So to discuss and tease through how we can raise happy, confident, resilient kids- we have Sue Atkins on the show today

The post How to Raise Happy, Confident, Resilient Kids with Sue Atkins appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Katie Hurley
Katie Hurley, LCSW, has been on our show before in a popular episode on stress and children- and she is back to talk about young girls and relational aggression in the elementary school years. Katie is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting expert, and writer. She is the founder of “Girls Can!” empowerment groups for girls between ages 5-11. Hurley is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook and the forthcoming No More Mean Girls, and her work can be found in The Washington Post, PBS Parents, and US News and World Report, among other places. She practices psychotherapy in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and earned her BA in psychology and women’s studies from Boston College and her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania. She splits her time between California and Connecticut with her husband and two children.

The post How to Talk to Kids about ‘Mean Girl’ Social Aggression with Katie Hurley, LCSW appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Carrie Goldman
Carrie Goldman has written for everything from The New York Times, CNN, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, and more. She has made appearances on NPR, BBC, MSNBC, CNN, along with countless other media outlets. Carrie writes one of the nation’s premier adoption blogs, Portrait of an Adoption, which has followers in more than 45 countries. Her acclaimed children’s chapter book, Jazzy’s Quest: Adopted and Amazing, came out in June of 2015, and the sequel, Jazzy’s Quest: What Matters Most, came out in November of 2016. In addition to her adoption expertise, she is also the award-winning author of Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear (Harper Collins) which we discussed in a previous podcast episode. Bullied has received a National Parenting Publication Award and a Mom’s Choice Award, both at the gold medal level, for excellence in educational skills and tools. You can find more out about our fabulous guest, Carrie Goldman at CarrieGoldmanAuthor.com

The post How to Talk to Kids about Adoption with Carrie Goldman appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Devorah Heitner
Devorah Heitner, PhD is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and the founder of Raising Digital Natives. She passionately believes in the power of mentoring kids in creating a positive tech culture and she is delighted to be raising her own digital native.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Tech Milestones & Digital Readiness with Devorah Heitner appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Debbie Reber
Debbie Reber is a New York Times bestselling author and the founder of TiLT Parenting, a website, top podcast, and social media company for parents who are raising differently wired children. Her next book, Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World, comes out in June 2018. She currently lives with her son and husband in the Netherlands. Check her out at http://www.tiltparenting.com

The post How to Talk to Kids about Differently-Wired Children with Debbie Reber appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Jill Castle
Jill Castle is a registered dietitian/nutritionist and a specialist in pediatric nutrition. She currently works as a private practitioner, online educator, consultant, and speaker. She is the author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She’s also the creator of The Nourished Child, a childhood nutrition blog and podcast, and The Kids Healthy Weight Project, an online course for parents. Jill is a national and international speaker, focused on topics including childhood nutrition, feeding, picky eating, youth sports nutrition, and childhood obesity. Jill is regularly quoted in popular print and online publications as a leading childhood nutrition expert and is a regular contributor to US News & World Report, USA Swimming and Bundoo.com. You can find out all about Jill Castle at JillCastle.com

The post How to Talk to Kids about Picky Eating & Good Nutrition with Jill Castle appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Sage B. Hobbs
Sage Hobbs is a women’s empowerment coach, speaker, and author of the book, Naked Communication.  She’s known for her bold, insightful, and dynamic approach to communication, relationships, and personal growth. Sage works in both individual and group settings to create experiences of courage, self-expression, and freedom.  Sage supports her clients to unleash their voice, take action, and transform their status quo when they feel stuck, dissatisfied, or stagnant. Prior to creating her current work, Sage received her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and spent a decade working with teens and families to navigate the wild path of growing up.  She’s also a mom of two, a cancer survivor, a proud teacher’s wife, a “retired” school counselor, a world traveler, a living room dance party aficionado, and a book lover.

The post How to Communicate Openly and Honestly with your Kids with Sage Hobbs appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Andrea Umbach
All people, young or old, experience fears or anxiety at one time or another in their lives. These feelings are often normal- even protective- because they tell us when we need to use caution, run, fight or get help. Kids may fear the dark, or spiders, or being separated from their parents- and much more. For children, coping with fear can even help them deal calmly with bigger fears as they get older and challenging situations get more, well, challenging. But what happens when fears are more relentless? When they are more than just normal, everyday anxieties and tend to stop us from doing what we want to do, need to do, live fully from day to day? What happens when it’s not just a fear- but a phobia? To figure all of this out- I am so glad we have Dr. Andrea Umbach on our show today.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Fears & Phobias with Dr. Andrea Umbach appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: George Couros
George Couros is a leading educator in the area of innovative leadership, teaching, and learning. He has worked with all levels of school, from K-12 as a teacher, technology facilitator, and school and district administrator, and is the author of the book, The Innovator’s Mindset; Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity. He is a sought after speaker on the topic of innovative student learning and engagement and has worked with schools and organizations around the globe. George is also the creator of Connected Principals.com, an initiative that brings educators and leaders together from around the world to create powerful learning opportunities for students.  Although George is a leader in the area of innovation, his focus is always on the development of leadership and people and what is best for learners. His belief is that meaningful change happens when you first connect to people’s hearts. You can connect with George on his blog, The Principal of Change (georgecouros.ca) or through Twitter @gcouros.  

The post How to Talk to Kids about Innovation & Creativity with George Couros appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Jessica Herthel
This podcast is aimed to help parents and educators understand how to knowledgably and compassionately talk about transgender youth and gender expression with children. Especially when many people have their own preconceived notions about gender, it can be hard to speak about the spectrum of gender expression in a non-biased and open-minded way. How do we answer questions about what transgender means? How do we better understand the challenges of transgender and other LGBTQ youth? How can we best support children in our community who are gender non-conforming? This podcast episode with Jessica Herthel, LGBTQ advocate, helps to answer these (and more) questions!

The post How to Talk to Kids about Transgender Youth with Jessica Herthel appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Marty Matika
This podcast will focus on how to help kids cope with the impact of divorce. Marty Matika goes over the warning signs that might tell you that your kids are suffering during divorce (but not telling you about it), the top mistakes parents make while going through a divorce, and what kids really wish their parents knew while their family was going through a divorce. As a child who went through divorce as well as a therapist/coach who helps kids and families who are going through divorce, Marty Matika has personal insights that can help parents who are experiencing divorce right now.

The post How to Talk to Kids about the Impact of Divorce with Marty Matika appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Caroline Knorr
Ever see an ad for a toy, movie, TV show or book and wonder, is that right for my child? Wish you had knew from a completely unbiased, well-researched, independent child-focused organization how to pick the best apps, best websites and best educational videos for your kids at the most optimal ages possible? And speaking of optimal ages- wish you knew how much screen time your child should get or when you should get your child his or her first phone? Then you have come to the right place today. Parenting in the 21st century is filled with figuring out media from dealing with online safety to navigating social media to knowing which apps are really good for learning. We are so thrilled to have Caroline Knorr from Common Sense Media on the show today.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Media & Technology with Caroline Knorr of Common Sense Media appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Annie Fox

Annie Fox is an Award winning writer, app developer and Educator Focusing on Social-Emotional learning and character development. Annie aims to teach kids to be good people because we need more good people. We are all villagers, so it's up to us. Some of her books include: Teaching Kids to Be Good People, Too Stressed to Think?, the Middle School Confidential book and app series, and the Raymond and Sheila picture books series. Annie’s latest book, The Girls’ Q&A Book on Friendship, offers 8-12 year old girls (and their parents/teachers) 50 ways to fix a friendship without the DRAMA. And that topic, talking to girls about friendship, is what lands her on the show today and we couldn’t be more excited.

Girls and friendship. For some, this topic makes them smile and think of the most endearing, close, meaningful relationships of their lives. For others, it makes them sweat and feel a little sick. Maybe it’s a little bit of both!

The post How to Talk to Girls about Drama-Free Friendships with Annie Fox appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Sue Cornbluth
This podcast provides tips, scripts, stories and steps to help parents and educators understand the unique challenges of children who feel different, cast aside or devalued because of experiences in their childhood. Sue Cornbluth talks about children who were in the foster care system or who were adopted and how many of these children can have challenged self esteem due to unanswered questions about their identity or internalized frustrations about their life circumstances. How can we help kids who are being fostered or who have been adopted (perhaps later in life), cultivate the high self esteem and self worth they deserve?

The post How to Build Self Esteem in Kids who were Adopted or Fostered with Dr. Sue Cornbluth appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Sue Scheff
In today’s digitally driven world, disaster is only a click away. This is the written on the front flap of my next guest’s new book, Shame Nation. On this podcast, we’ve talked about the good and bad of the digital world- it can be a place of immense resource and positive education- we had a great discussion about learning and leading in a digital world with Eric Sheninger- and it can also be a home of aggression, misuse and the ugliness of humanity- from talking about bullying with Carrie Goldman and dignity and social aggression with Rosalind Wiseman. We have a few coming up like Katie Hurley talking about No More Mean Girls and a few others so, as parents, we know about the need for parental controls and the need for safety discussions regarding predators and who is friending you on social media. But my next guest brings to light a whole other segment of discussion that happens every day on the internet and can be like a runaway train if you don’t catch it before it gets out of control- online shaming.

The post How to Talk to Kids about Preventing and Overcoming Online Shaming with Sue Scheff appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Beth Kobliner

Do you want to make your kid a money genius (even if you’re not)? Well then you are in luck today! We live in a time when stakes are high—many parents worry that their kids will NOT be more financially successful than they were- which is a big change from previous generations that always seemed to believe that the next generation would be better off than they were. Given that we hear about lots of kids who often wind up with high student loans, low paying jobs and not enough money to go out on their own after college, is there something we can do NOW to help our kids ore knowledgeable about how to best handle money? Turns out, yes there is. And there is work to be done-- many kids and young adults don’t know what they need to know about how to save, spend, invest and ultimately use money in responsible ways. We’ve talked about money with in a past episode with money expert, Neale Godfrey, and today we are going to get into some different money questions that help us, age by age, know what to do to help our kids become money geniuses, what mistakes to avoid and how we talk to kids about all if this- and we have the privilege to have money genius herself, Beth Kobliner on the show!

The post How to Talk to Kids about Becoming a Money Genius with Beth Kobliner appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Eric Sheninger

There’s no question that things have changed dramatically in the world of kids since we were young. After all, the phones we had were connected to the wall and had long coily cords that we stretched as far as they could go so we could get some privacy in a bathroom or a closet. The only webs we spoke of were spider webs, a tablet was something you took when you were sick and movies could only be seen in theaters or on HBO, as long as you were willing to get out of your seat and physically go change the channel.  I know, the horror.

The post How we can help kids lead and learn in a digital age with Eric Sheninger appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Laura Markham

Dr. Laura Markham trained as a Clinical Psychologist, earning her PhD from Columbia University. She is the mother of two, now ages 21 and 25. Dr. Laura is the author of the book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How To Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life. You can find her online at http://www.ahaparenting.com

The post How to Talk to Kids about Peaceful Sibling Relationships with Dr. Laura Markham appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Celeste Headlee

Celeste Headlee is the host of "On Second Thought" at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta and has been a host and correspondent for NPR and PRI since 2006. She is the author of the book, We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter (Harper Wave, September 19), a practical guide to the lost art of conversation. Celeste’s TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation was listed as one of the most watched TED Talks in 2016 (CNBC) and named the #1 must-watch TED Talk by Glassdoor (with over 11 million total views to date.) 

Being able to have productive conversations is a skill—and it’s a skill, built on a series of other skills from being assertive to listening to ensuring that we were heard correctly and yes, that we have heard and understood correctly what others are saying. These days, with so much communication relying on electronic screens and emojis, the art of conversation may be at risk. And that’s a scary thought. To put ourselves in the frame of mind of taking in the importance of good conversation skills, just think of what happens when poor communication happens—people get the wrong idea, mistakes are made, feelings are hurt and stuff does not get done in the right way. And when conversation is clear and strong and good- progress is made, we feel understood and connected- truly, it can make all the difference.

The post How to Talk to Kids about having meaningful conversations that matter with Celeste Headlee appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Amy Morin

Amy Morin a psychotherapist and the international bestselling author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. Her forthcoming book, 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do, goes on sale September 19. Amy also teaches at Northeastern University and she’s a regular contributor to Forbes, Inc., Verywell, and Psychology Today. Her advice has been featured by numerous media outlets including Oprah.com, Parents, Business Insider, Success Magazine, and Fox News and she stars in a RedBull TV show called Visions of Greatness. 

Mentally strong people have good habits, make informed choices and persevere even when the going gets tough. But what habits have mentally strong people dropped to make room for personal growth and meaningful gain? Many people have told Amy Morin, who authored the blockbuster “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do” (which you can hear about here LINK), that they wished they had learned these 13 things to avoid earlier in life—and how, as parents, could they be a better example to their kids? How could they actively instill positive habits (and avoid instilling negative habits) in their children that could compromise their mental strength? This podcast has the answers.

The post What to do (and what not to do) to become mentally strong parents with Amy Morin, LCSW appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Gretchen Rubin

We all have different kinds of kids that we parent, teach or coach. Think about it. Some seem easy as pie and others drive you absolutely bonkers. You give one kid a responsibility or perhaps you help one kid set a goal- and he’s on it. Committed and ready to whatever it takes to follow through. He’s off and running and you don’t need to do anything to help him make it happen. Wow! What a great parent or teacher you must be! Then- you give another kid a responsibility or help him set a goal and he might question you for an hour about why he has to do it this way or that and every who, what, where, when and how it will be done as well. Still other kids may need regular accountability to ensure progress or maybe you even know a few that may resist moving forward no matter what you try. Have I described the kids in your life yet? Why in the world can setting expectations, giving responsibilities or helping kids set goals work so easily for some kids and seem like a lesson in futility for others? Turns out, you aren’t crazy—there’s a reason for this. It comes down to a person’s tendency. And you know what? You have them too.

Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the blockbuster bestsellers Better Than Before and The Happiness Project. Perhaps you’ve seen her on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday or give her Ted Talk or give expert happiness advice on the Today Show or Good Morning America. She also has a very popular podcast that you may have heard—called Happier with Gretchen Rubin, where she discusses good habits and happiness with her sister Elizabeth Craft. Her new book, The Four Tendencies, reveals a personality framework she’s created that that explains that people fall into four types: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. And we are going to talk all about it today.

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Special Guest: Dr. Dehra Harris
Children who are differently wired, and in particular, children with ADHD, can often feel like something is “wrong” with their brain. “Why can’t I pay attention?” “Why am I getting yelled at right now?” While there are some clear challenges that children with ADHD face in school and in some everyday activities, there are also many strengths that come with having ADHD. During this podcast, Dr. Dehra Harris talks about how we can better understand the challenges and strengths of having ADHD and how we can talk to children about their brain. Dr. Dehra also talks to us about some tips to best parent children with ADHD so that they thrive and we all have more success.

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Special Guest: Lori Lite

More and more, kids are feeling stressed out in today’s world. This is a topic that comes up often- and of course it does, between academics, sports, homework, performance, lack of free play, reduced recess, political unrest, overworked parents and more, kids are being pulled in many directions and so are parents. Stress is part of the landscape in many families. It’s a great privilege to be able to call on the parenting experts who study stress and stress management as a living to help us know what to do, how to stay calm and how to help our kids with stress management.

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Special Guest: Carrie Goldman

Bullying is a hot topic these days- of course it is. Studies tell us that, more and more, bullying can have a lasting effect on a person's mental health. Not to mention, we hear tragic stories about children feeling hopeless and helpless when they are being bullied- even some who have turned to hurting themselves or suicide because they don’t see anyway out. As a person who was bullied during my 5th grade year—I can relate to feeling so frustrated and upset and misunderstood and stuck, overwhelmed and targeted while I was being bullied- and I vowed that I would do whatever it took to help young people feel confident in their own skin, speak up when they see something is not right, and help the adults who love kids to know some tips and scripts to be helpful when a child is being bullied. You have heard the podcast with Rosalind Wiseman when we spoke abut creating a culture of dignity among young people- now we have one of my friends and colleagues, Carrie Goldman, on the show, to talk more about bullying, in particular.

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Special Guest: Joe Primo

Having a conversation about death and dying is not typically a conversation people are excited to have with their kids. And yet, we all know it’s necessary. A friend of mine came over to me at a party the other day. She had just found out that her mother-in-law had stage 4 cancer. While dealing with her own whirlwind of emotions, knowing that I provide tips and scripts to have these tough conversations with kids, she asked me; “What do I tell the kids? What if they ask me if she’ll die? What do I say when she does?” The concept of dying can be scary, sad, confusing, angering and upsetting for many of us. Our own emotions, our concern about our children’s emotions- how they are going to take the news- how they are going to cope with life when someone they love dies- how might they grieve—what’s normal- these can make us worry about having the conversations in the first place. Not to mention, our confusion over what to say and how to say it can make this topic on how to talk to kids about death and dying- a real tough one.

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Special Guest: Dina Alexander

So who wants more information about how to have THE talk with their kids. You know the one. THE SEX TALK! This is one of those conversations that often makes us all squirm in our seats and yet, gotta have it. And remember, while you may not be talking to your kids about sex yet, you’ll need to talk about it at some point—and likely sooner than later, no matter what your family values are and what you personally think your children should or shouldn’t be doing. And for those of you who have already been in the thick of it—perhaps you’ve already had a discussion about privacy, your child’s body or sex itself – remember, it’s never one big talk, but a series of little ones, so this podcast can help provide you with one, two or three extra nuggets you might not have thought of yet when the topic comes up again. And you know it will! It always does.

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Special Guest: Dr. Gail Saltz

Every parent wants his or her child to be happy and successful. As parents, we learn from many books, experts, our own parents that there is a formula for this—they get enough sleep, we feed them right, we send them to school, give them love and boundaries, make sure they do their homework, we put them in the right sports, get them involved with enrichment activities—the brain and body develops and our child will be successful. Of course, in practice, this is often not such a clear-cut picture.

No child is the same as another. No brain is the same as another. And sometimes, when children don’t seem to be following the preconceived pattern that we expected, that we learned about, maybe that we hoped for, we might wonder how our child, who is different from the norm could become happy and successful. It turns out, as some have already discovered, that there is a power in being different and as parents, we can help cultivate, inspire and build upon that difference and that’s where the magic can happen. What magic you might wonder? What is the power of different? That’s why we are privileged to have our amazing guest, Dr. Gail Saltz, for today’s podcast episode.

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Special Guest: Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore

Friendship can be a beautiful part of life. We laugh, cry, play, talk and experience life with friends as we grow up. I mean, thinking back to your childhood, no doubt there are many moments that many of us can remember that involve friends. But that doesn’t mean that friendship is a simple construct. There are important skills that kids must develop in order to make and keep friends. How do they make friends? How do they learn to understand their friend’ feelings? How do they learn be part of the group and still maintain their own individuality and how do they let go to forgive or even more on from a friendship? For these questions, we are turning to Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD

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Special Guest: Amy Morin, LCSW

Ever wonder: What is the secret of success? Is it intelligence? Talent? Luck? Perhaps a bit. But more and more the research is telling us that the X-factor—the reason why some people fail and other succeed comes down to grit or what is sometimes referred to as mental toughness or mental strength. What is mental strength? How can we develop it? And How can parents, teachers and coaches help kids to develop mental strength? These are just some of the questions we are going to get answers to on today’s podcast with Amy Morin.

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Special Guest: Dr. Dae Sheridan

The topic of sexual assault, suicide and cyber-bullying are certainly topics that are well covered in the news but not topics that parents and educators often love to cover with kids. But today’s topic has, of late, been the recipient of a great deal of media coverage and concern among parents and educators. Why?

The post How to Talk to Kids about Suicide, Sexual Assault & 13 Reasons Why with Dr. Dae Sheridan appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Scott Sonenshein

This podcast provides:

Tips: How to help our kids do more with less and become more resourceful. How can we be more creative? Scott also talks about taking “field trips,” creative atypical birthday parties, reaffirming play, modeling, little seed creativity.

Scripts: Saying no to our children, what to say when your child wants a new toy

Steps: Taking a child through how to be resourceful when wanting a new toy. How can we look at what we have in unique ways?

Barriers to success: By saying yes to everything we create a dependence on “more stuff” and we rob our kids of the ability to get creative.

The post How to talk to kids about resourcefulness with Scott Sonenshein appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Katie Hurley

This podcast provides:

Tips: Katie talks about watching for stress-signs, encouraging play, dealing with differences between parents and children, using empathic listening, using stress words and problem-solving, stop and label, self care, body mapping, deep breathing.

Scripts: Instead of problem solving, use some empathic listening and reflect back what your child is saying. Examples are given. Also how to talk to kids about pitching in when parents are stressed out (and ask for help when they are!).

Barriers to success: Differences between how parents and children cope with stress (coming from different worlds).

The post How to Raise Joyful Kids In a Stressful World with Katie Hurley appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Christina McGhee

This podcast provides:

Tips: How to prepare to tell the kids about divorce and what to know, when best to say it and what to do if you are going to do so. The dos and don’ts of talking to kids about divorce.

Scripts: What to say, step by step, when you need to tell your kids about a divorce in the family.

Steps: The steps to take before you talk to your kids about getting a divorce.

Barriers to success: Putting the kids in the middle, our own feelings about the experience, our assumption that our kids are “fine” and already know and understand.

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Special Guest: Wendy Young

This podcast provides:

Tips:
How to co-regulate
How to get off the anger merry-go-round.
How to use “a bug and a wish.”
How to help kids realize the anger cues
How to construct a mad box and why
How to process the feelings and interactions after the incident is over.
Speaking out loud about our own anger and how we process it
N.O.W. Learn how to Normalize, Offer opportunities/strategies, Work with children on managing big feelings

Scripts:
What to say when your children have big feelings and are showing intensity.
How to help children describe how big their feelings are at that moment.
Helping kids know what to do when they want to engage in negative behaviors- what can we do instead?
How to give hope when helping kids managing big, intense feelings
How to process the feelings after the incident is over
Walking through the steps of calming down our anger out loud.
Exactly what to say when children are in the throws of messy feelings.

The post How to Talk to Kids About Anger & Big Feelings with Wendy Young appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Margie Warrell

This podcast provides:

Tips: Specific tips on what to do to help our children take healthy risks and lead a brave life.

Scripts: What to say (and how to show and model) to our kids about getting out of their comfort zone as well as what kinds of risks are worth taking.
How to add bravery into everyday experiences

The post How to Talk to Kids About Being Brave with Margie Warrell appeared first on Dr Robyn Silverman.

Special Guest: Dr. Michele Borba

This podcast provides:

Tips:
How to build empathy in your child
Cultivate 9 habits of empathy such as perspective-taking & self-regulation
Use a baby in the family, a puppy, movies, Facetime to help understand and learn emotion literacy.
How to build the “kind mindset”
The 4 tips navy SEALS are using.
How service can help build altruistic children- match your child’s passion.
Look for moments to talk about feelings and empathy.
Modeling empathy for children.
Family meeting: How do we want to be remembered?
Developing a family motto that supports empathy
Empathy can be nurtured- weave it into daily moments.

Scripts:
What to say when a child is unkind to someone.
What to say when you see empathy in action.
Using the two-kind rule at your dinner table.

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