Educated Parenting

Early School Success and Child Well-Being

Cognitive skills, engagement in school, social skills, and physical well-being are all important for children's early success in school.  However, some groups of children begin kindergarten less ready for school than others and, by the end of first grade, still have not "caught up" with their more successful peers.

Using nationally representative data, researchers from the Child Trends organization found that, on the average, all groups of children make progress on most indicators of well-being and development over the first two years of formal schooling, regardless of their social class and cultural backgrounds.  However, kids from lower socioeconomic levels, those whose parents do not speak English at home, and those who are disabled tend to be less prepared for school upon entering kindergarten.  And these vulnerable little people fail to catch up to their peers by the end of the first grade.

Child Mental Health and Parent Training

According to a recent research report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 2.7 million children and teens ages 4 to 17 have serious mental health problems, such as difficulties in getting along with others and expressing their emotions, problems in concentration, and behaving in ways that challenge the patience and abilities of their families, friends and teachers.  The 2.7 million such children represent about 5 percent of all children and teens in the 4 to 17 age range.

These are the young people who are most in need of mental health services like counseling and psychotherapy, and whose parents are among the most in need of child management training.

Help Parents of Expelled Preschoolers

More children who attend preschools are being expelled than those attending elementary, middle and high schools, according to a recent study conducted by the Yale Child Study Center.

The main reasons are unruly and disruptive behaviors that are difficult to manage and which require too much staff attention, to the detriment of the other children.

Staff training and the use of behavioral consultants are good solutions.  So too is the training and education of parents to better manage and guide their young children’s behaviors.

There now exist excellent programs to help parents learn how to manage deviant and disruptive behaviors.  A good example is the work of Dr. Russell Barkley.

Do Teenagers Care About Their Parents?

Most people recognize that babies and young children need and love their parents.  But what about teens?  Even an adolescents own parents can despair and wonder how their loving child has apparently become so rejecting.

But "apparently" is the crucial word.  Results from a recent nationally representative survey of U.S. teens about the nature of their relationships with their parents, and the results of recent studies on parent-adolescent bonding indicates otherwise.