Babies Can Detect Fake Emotions
A new study looking at babies’ interpretation of emotional expression finds that babies from as young as 18 months can detect when facial reactions do not match an emotional event that just occurred. In other words, by 18 months, babies can tell if you’re faking it. Read full article
Reporting on Gun Crimes? Leave Autism Out of It
I have an 11-year-old son with autism. His lack of social understanding means he can occasionally be insensitive; he embarrassed me the other day by loudly pointing out the “fat lady” at the supermarket. He’s also the sweetest kid in the world. For no particular reason he will hug me and say, I love you.” Our son is socially naive, a babe in the wood; much more likely to experience hurt than to hurt others. When the dreadful news of the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, came through I crossed my fingers and hoped the words ‘autistic’ or ‘Asperger’s’ would not enter the equation, as they had after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. Read full article
Dummies or Pacifiers May Affect Emotional Development
Recently published research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides another reason for parents to hesitate to use dummies too often with their babies…"Since a baby is not yet verbal – and so much is regulated by facial expression – at least you want parents to be aware that using something like a pacifier limits their baby’s ability to understand and explore emotions." says psychology Professor, Paula Niedenthal. Read full article
Warm Parenting Helps ‘Callous or Unemotional’ Children
In this video from Mornings at Channel 9, Yvette Vignando on the parenting panel with Dannielle Miller and Tracey Spicer talking about research lead by Dr David Hawes from the University of Sydney about the kind of warm and positive parenting that can help children with what is known as "callous and unemotional" (CU) traits. Also discussed: parents who are in a dispute over their child and a father has been ordered to stop weighing his daughter as it affects her self esteem. Read full article
Building Empathy in Medicine Using My Big Mouth
I talk for a living. I often get asked to MC events. Over the last few years, I’ve been increasingly asked to speak at conferences pertaining to neonatal surgery issues and research. Not because I know anything about neonatal surgery, but because I’m a parent of a child who has undergone major heart surgery and spent time in a neonatal intensive care unit. What I tell them, is how to do their jobs better. This story is about why I love my big mouth. Read full article
Starting Primary School can be an Emotional Rollercoaster
It’s several weeks into the primary school year and my five-year-old son is experiencing his share of ups and downs adjusting to life at ‘big school’. The highs (for both of us) include waving me happily off each morning, and the beautiful hug he gives his sister every afternoon on their reunion at the school gates … But then there are the difficult moments. Such a big life change has also come with its fair share of big emotions for my sensitive boy. After trying so hard to concentrate and control his impulses all day, those emotions often came home looking for an outlet. Any small thing has the potential to set him off … Read full article
My Daughter Wants Acceptance – Please Teach Your Children Well
On the day we went to Sea World our girl Ivy was tired. We all were. As we walked into the park two girls pushed past us hurriedly and into the bathroom, which is where we were headed to. We took our place right behind them. It would have been fine except that those two little girls then turned around and made loud comments about Ivy’s "fat" face and her "fat" cheeks and her "squishy eyes" (whatever those are anyway). Then they proceeded to whisper and look back at Ivy in that hateful little girl way that makes me want to stab something … Read full article
Letter Reassures me I’m Doing Okay as a Mother
This parenting business can make you feel all manner of insecure. I worry about my kids being safe, about them being healthy, having friends at school and trying to do their best in class. I get worried when the boys fight and squabble, and I used to often wonder, “Is this normal?” … But this week, an unexpected and wonderful thing happened. So wonderful I even had a little cry. Read full article
Two Sides to Every Bully – I was Both
When I was in high school I was bullied. For about six months, a group of older girls and some guys would follow a few of my friends and I around the school grounds threatening us. They never physically hurt us, but they scared us. It got so bad that my Mum would come and meet me at the school bus stop and walk me home. On the days she couldn’t meet me I would run as fast as I could, in the hope I would outrun my bullies. I wasn’t always fast enough and they would ride their bikes beside me, taunting me as I walked home. Read full article
Empathy and Yawning – Lessons from Chimpanzees
Like you, there are certain topics I often wonder about – one of them is why yawning is contagious. I remember reading a theory somewhere suggesting that yawning allows more oxygen into our lungs and the contagious response is because our brain automatically assumes that if someone else is yawing, there’s a shortage of oxygen and we need to respond accordingly! Could that be true? It was the best explanation I’d read … until today. Read full article
Popular Books
When Rosalind Wiseman published her bestseller Queen Bees and Wannabes in 2001, it…
Paperback Book$32.99 AUD
Talk Less Listen More provides parents with strategies and ideas on how to teach…
Paperback Book$29.99 AUD
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out; Malala Yousafzai…
Paperback Book$32.99 AUD