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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)

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.

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

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.

If you are headed in the wrong direction as a parent - you are allowed to make a U-turn.

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

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

Parenting style matters - a lot!

Being a parent of a teenager can cure a person of narcissism.

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

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Quotes from the Medical Minority re: ADD/ADHD

As mentioned in a previous blog, there is no consensus among the medical community regarding the cause and treatments for ADD/ADHD. In fact there are even doctors who question whether ADD/ADHD even exists. This medical minority believe that the individuals diagnosed with this disorder are nothing more than people who occupy one extreme end of the range of some behavioural characteristics.

Note the following quotes from some of the medical minority:

“Research does not confirm the existence of ADD/ADHD” . (David Johnson M.D.

“There is no consistent evidence for an underlying physical or chemical cause.” (Gerald S. Golden M.D.)

We have invented a disease , given it medical sanction, and now must disown it. The major question is how do we go about destroying the monster we have created. It is not easy to do this and still save face, another reason why physicians and many researchers with years of funding and an academic reputation to protect, are reluctant to believe the data.”

(Diane McGuinness M.D.)

My own (non medical) viewpoint is that clearly some people genuinely do have problems with attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity and benefit greatly from medical treatment.

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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 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.”

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