Child Brain Development

Lina was a precocious toddler - charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums.

Showing our children how to recognize and regulate their emotions is a crucial piece of successful parenting and teaching. As young educators, we never imagined the time required to develop social-emotional skills in their students. These abilities are “recognized, valued, and supported by ever-expanding research as an important contributor to behavioral improvements, academic achievement, and overall factors of long-term success,” but how can educators and parents find the time in their overloaded schedules to teach self-awareness, empathy, and optimism?

Being a teenager has never been easy, but the digital age has brought with it unique challenges for young people and the adults in their lives. Nurturing Young Minds: Mental Wellbeing in the Digital Age collects expert advice on how to tackle the terrors of the 21st century and is a companion to Growing Happy, Healthy Young Minds. A comprehensive and easily accessible guide for parents, teachers, counsellors and health care professionals, this book contains important advice about managing online behaviour, computer game addiction and cyberbullying and more.