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A tantruming toddler is a little ball of writhing muscle and incredible strength. It's like trying to carry a greased pig past a slop bucket.

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.

Parenting style matters - a lot!

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

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

If it  was going to be easy to raise kids, it never would have started with something called "labour".

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.

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.

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)

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

Learn more.

Tactics for Temper Tantrums (part 4)

 

 

The Goofy

Parents with a latent theatrical talent find this method quite successful. In it, the parent clowns, makes faces, dances around, sings ridiculous songs, falls down, or performs whatever slapstick antics come to mind. Not only is the child distracted, but she may even laugh at seeing the ordinarily reserved adult acting human (or at least human in the sense that Bozo is human).

This technique is especially effective for the parent who reacts emotionally to tantrums, because it allows the parent to rechanne
l the urge to scream into more acceptable (however odd) behaviour.

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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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See more of our workshops


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)