A lot of recent research supports the systematic teaching of phonemic awareness in beginning reading programs.  The problem is that phonics lessons can get awfully dull, with teachers pointing to the letter and having kids say the sound, or students poring over phonics worksheets that ask them to match the right letter to the word,...Read More

Jane Loevinger (1918-2008) was an American psychologist working in the 20th century who focused on the idea of ego development across the lifespan. According to Loevinger (who worked as an assistant to Erik Erikson in graduate school), the ego (originally formulated by Sigmund Freud) was not a ”thing” but rather a ”process.” Loevinger believed that...Read More

More kids are suffering from trauma-related sensitivities than you might realize  The gold standard research on this matter is the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  They looked at almost 10,000 adults at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego,, California, who were asked questions covering seven aspects of...Read More

When children are diagnosed with special needs (e.g. dyslexia, ADHD, autism etc.), the initial efforts to support them almost always revolve around helping them to fit in with the environment around them.  This of course is very important, but it leaves out a much-needed corollary to these efforts and that is:  changing the environment to...Read More

I’ve often claimed that every child is a genius.  This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that I think every child could be an Einstein or a Picasso.  I mean nothing of the kind.  I’m using the word ”genius” in its original meaning, which means ”to give birth” (it’s related etymologically to the word ”genesis”) and...Read More