Helping you to understand the mental health of children
How Children and Young People Develop a Concept of Grief or Loss Infants and toddlers have little concept of death and would struggle to relate it to a concept. In their worlds adults come and go all of the time in their lives and the passing of a relative (unless a primary caregiver) would have …
Why the Naughty Step doesn’t work. The Naughty Step has been a go-to punishment for years, but it is far from the most effective method. In fact, it can often have the opposite effect – rather than calming a child down, it can make them angrier, more upset, or more frustrated. In case you are …
Why are teenagers so moody? Pre-adolescent brain development In the two or three years leading up to puberty the brain develops millions of new neurons, particularly in the pre-frontal cortex (the area at the front of the brain) and the grey matter surrounding. Just as with the young child, it is important that these new …
Regions of the brain Reptilian Complex Medulla Oblongata – Regulates bodily functions like pulse and breathing rates. Cerebellum – Controls balance and voluntary muscle movement. Pons – Connects both halves of your body to integrate movement like walking, running or swimming. Limbic System (Mammalian Brain) Thalamus – This is the area of the brain that …
Anger is a strong emotion, it’s one of the first ones we experience as a baby when these adults around us don’t understand what we’re asking for. As we grow other people don’t do what we want them to do or give us what we want and that makes us angry too. This is all …
Guilt is a complex emotion to learn, it requires a set of rules to be known, knowledge of what it means to break them, knowledge of what they should have done and then the ability to put things right. When it’s explained like that there are a large number of composite steps involved and that’s …
Want a popular child? Get on the floor and play with your child We want to raise our children to be social experts, to know how to make friends and build strong and lasting relationships. We want our children to be liked and popular, have fun at school and not make lots of enemies, …
How do babies learn to smile? What makes us smile? A smile is a powerful thing, but we are not born with the ability to smile. During the first few months of our lives we experiment with moving the muscles in our face and pull thousands of different facial expressions, so why do we …