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It is what we say and do when we're angry that creates the very model our children will follow when dealing with their own frustrations.

Relationships matter:  change comes through forming trusting relationships. People, not programs change people.

Many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than suggest parenting changes. Jennifer Harris (psychiatrist)

"The thing that impresses me most about North America is the way parents obey their children"    (King Edward VII , 1841-1910)

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. (Peggy O'Mara)

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.

It's more effective to reward your child for being "good" (appropriate) than to punish him for being "bad" (inappropriate).

The teenage years require a delicate balance between the young person's need to gain independence, and the parent's need to retain authority.

We should not medicate the boys so they fit the school; we should change the school to fit the boy. (Leonard Sax, M.D. Ph.D)

The best inheritance  parents can give their children is a few minutes of their time each day.

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Brain Fact # 10

Brain Plasticity Dr. Pascual-Leone was asked “How does plasticity work in the brain? How fast do changes occur? “There are different steps in neuroplasticity. One is a very rapid expansion of brain matter, which can be seen in about 1 week (for instance when someone is learning how to play a difficult finger sequence on a piano). This expansion results from the fact that the “wires” that connect the neurons responsible for that specific fingering […]

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Did You Know ? # 9

Babies first attempt to “talk” at around 2 months when they begin cooing sounds, the least complicated speech sounds to produce. Some consonant sounds follow around 5 months, when babbling begins. Early babbling sounds the same in all babies regardless of their native language. Around the end of the first year, babbling starts to include language specific sounds

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Brain Fact # 9

A Healthy Brain Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School was asked – “Is there one main characteristic of a healthy brain?” His answer – “There are 100 billion neurons in the brain. Each neuron has about 10,000 connections (synapses) to other cells. We have 1 quintillion (10 to the 18th) synapses and there are 1 quintillion transactions per second between neurons. A healthy brain is thus a very complex, dynamic […]

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Did You Know ? # 8

To superficial appearances, the adolescent brain appears to be nearly complete. In fact it is still undergoing considerable reorganization. Depression, bipolar disorder, drug addiction and schizophrenia become increasingly prevalent during adolescence.

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Brain Fact # 8

What is learning and how does it occur? Dr. James Zull (a noted neurologist and teacher at Case Western University) answered. What is learning? “Learning is physical. Learning means the modification, growth and pruning of our neural networks, through experience.”   How does learning happen? “There are 4 stages in the “learning cycle”:                                             […]

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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

“We were so naive. We thought our son’s poor behaviour was just a phase he was passing through. Thankfully you led us ‘out of the wilderness'”

(N.S. – London)