If you close your eyes and visualize a typical high school classroom, chances are you’ll be imagining a class where students are sitting at desks listening to a teacher lecture or working on written assignments.  Now we’re learning that this scenario may increase the risk of depression in adolescents.  A new study in the journal...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

ADHD continues to occur at epidemic levels in our society.  Thirty-five years ago, only a handful of children and teens were considered to have what at the time was called ‘’hyperkinesis’’ or ‘’minimal brain dysfunction.’’ Now, the diagnosis takes in almost 10% of all children and teens.  Most of these kids (62%) are taking ADHD...Read More

I’ve just returned from Monterrey, Mexico where I keynoted the 19th Encuentro Internacional de Educacion Inicial y Preescolar (International Meeting of Initial & Preschool Education).  This conference is hosted by the Centro de Desarrollo Infantil or Center for Child Development (CENDI), a network of public educational centers that offers comprehensive services for children in high...Read More

More and more these days, teachers are engaging students in mindfulness practices, which research suggests helps develop executive functioning, self-regulation skills, and social and emotional learning in students.  But how to get started?  Here are a few tips: Begin your own personal mindfulness practice before you share it with students.  Setting aside even 5 or 10...Read More