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Adolescence can be the cruelest place on earth. It can really be heartless.  ( Tori Amos)

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

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.

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

The more 2 parents differ in their approaches to discipline, the more likely it leads to trouble for the child.

"Moody" and "unpredictable" are adjectives parents will often use when referring to their teenagers.

"Rules without relationship leads to rebellion" (Josh McDowell)

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

"Parents aren't the cause of ADHD, but they are part of the solution." (Kenny Handleman, M.D.)

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

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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

“Our psychiatrist recommended Rick to help us sort out behaviour management issues for our autistic son. He was an invaluable help.”

(C.C. – Sarnia)