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Setting limits teaches your children valuable skills they will use the rest of their lives. One day, they will report to a job where their ability to follow rules will dictate their success.

"To be a man, a boy must see a man."  (J.R. Moehringer)

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 fare better when expectations on them are clear and firm.

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.

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

Parenting style matters - a lot!

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

Criticism is not a motivator.

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Neural Plasticity of the Prepubescent Brain

A normal 5 year old child has little difficulty learning and fluently speaking a foreign language. Learning new physical skills such as riding a bike or skiing can be achieved with relative ease during early childhood. After puberty , acquiring new skills will probably not be as easy because the areas of the brain associated with these types of skills becomes more rigid, not as plastic.

The “post pubescent” brain, undergoes a rewiring of its circuitry that makes it possible to perform more abstract thinking skills and an ability to consider alternative viewpoints. This rewiring of the brain is not complete until the mid to late 20’s. A young child’s brain is better able to learn some types of skills than an older brain while the older brain is better able to perform more complex adult type thinking. There is no better time to begin music lessons than before puberty. It only gets harder once the brain has developed past those early years.

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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

“We are foster parents who took in a 13 year old girl (going on 18!) and she ran us through the wringer. Rick helped us learn how to set limits that made the difference.”

(G.E. – Strathroy)