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Good parenting requires sacrifice. Childhood lasts for only a few brief years , but it should be given priority while it is passing before your eyes

Children today are under enormous pressures rarely experienced by their parents or grandparents. Many of today's children are being enticed to grow up too quickly and are encountering challenges for which they are totally unprepared.

Being a parent of a teenager can cure a person of narcissism.

The challenge of adolescence is to balance the right of the parents to feel they are in charge with the need of the adolescent to gain independence.

Whining and crying are employed by kids for the purpose of getting something. If it works, then it was worth the effort and will be repeated.

Children fare better when expectations on them are clear and firm.

Early intervention is always better than crisis management - but it is never too late to do the right thing.

Wouldn't it be nice if children would simply listen and learn.

Some hope their children will be like sponges soaking up the truth and wisdom imparted by their parents. However appealing this philosophy might be, it seldom seems to catch on with their children.

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

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The Value of “Reading Rescue”

I would like to give you an update on the progress of a young boy who has been taking the Reading Rescue program. He is a grade 4 student in a regular classroom, who because of significant learning problems has been  falling  behind his classmates in all of his subjects. The reason for his reading problems is NOT because he can’t learn, it’s because of a  real learning disability. Most children learn to read in […]

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11 Problems Associated with Providing Foster Care to “Disturbed” Children

1. removal from the “maltreating” home is delayed 2. “maltreating” parents continue to sabotage current placement 3. increase in severity of disturbance in today’s foster / adopted children 4. inadequate preparation and follow-up support to foster /  adoption parents 5. failure to equip foster / adoption parents with practical   therapeutic strategies 6. foster / adoption parents receive a “disturbed” child, and are then later misperceived that they might  be the source of the child’s […]

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Did You Know ? # 1

A newborn will suck harder when he/she hears a recording of her/his mother speaking, but less so when she hears another woman’s voice. This is how we know that from birth, infants recognize mom’s voice.   Just after birth, as many as 40,000 new synapses are added to the baby’s brain every second.

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Agencies, Groups and Organizations

Below are some of the agencies, groups and organizations that I have had the privilege of providing training and consulting services to staff and clients:
 – Fanshawe College – W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind and Deaf – Good Beginnings Daycare – London District Catholic School Board – Elgin Assoc. for Community Living – Thames Valley Children’s Centre – Rehoboth Christian School – Province of Nova Scotia – Merrymount Family Support and Crisis Centre […]

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Common Reactions of Parents Managing children with FASD

The following reactions by parents are common: anger hopelessness guilt frustration withdrawal “why me?” overwhelmed None of these reactions however resolve the problem but they are understandable.

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

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+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

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+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

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Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

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Parents' Comments

“Implementing Rick’s techniques and adhering to them is exhausting, but it is a healthy exhaustion rather than the detrimental exhaustion I used to experience.”

(B.F. – Woodstock)