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Criticism is not a motivator.

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.

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

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.

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

Children do not develop on their own - they only develop within relationships.

Parents are the external regulator for kids who cannot regulate themselves.

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

The quickest way to change your child’s behaviour is to first change your own.

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

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Book launch – “The Promise” – a must read for foster/adoptive parents

I had the privilege of attending the launch of a new book that should be read by all adoptive and foster parents (actually all parents). Written by an adoptive mother (Christen Shepherd) and a support worker (Lisa Highfield), this book deals with the arrival of 4 needy children into the Shepherd home and chronicles their story from chaos to hope.

A paragraph written by Christen near the end of the book is worth sharing here and will hopefully encourage you to get a copy and read it: “There are no certainties in all of this (adoption) – but one. I can truly now say after crawling through the trenches of parenting four traumatized children, after being utterly broken open and broken down by the emotional and physical demands, after using every last bit of strength to keep moving forward, in holding fast to our relationships with our two biological sons, and in fighting not only to hold onto myself but also to get to know myself so much more deeply, I am glad we did this. I am glad we made the promise of a family to our children. It was the right thing to do. It was what we were meant to do.”

Adoption is not an easy road to pass down. Lucy Maud Montgomery’s literary classic about the bright, eager to please, imaginative Anne is not what adoption always looks like. Christen and Lisa share from their heart what it looked like to them – the good , the bad and the ugly. Truly an inspiring read.

 

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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

“I wish we had found Rick 2 years ago. We could have saved ourselves and our son a lot of trouble.”

(T.T. – Byron)