Children and Screens During COVID-19

by Anya Dashevsky

Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, children’s screen use was a point of concern for many caregivers and professionals alike. Children have watched T.V for decades now, and with the introduction of computers and laptops, followed by smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, children are being introduced to screens at younger and younger ages and relying on screens in their daily lives more and more. Parents and professionals have been asking questions for years about how much time children should spend on screens. In addition, they have been concerned about the content and its influence on children, amongst other concerns.

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The COVID-19 Pandemic: What Has Been Difficult for Children and How They Are Adapting to Change

by Anya Dashevsky
A silhouette of a person on a rock with a sunset in the background Description automatically generated with low confidence

It has been over a year now since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the world continues to adapt to the changes brought on by COVID-19, it is important to acknowledge the ways in which children have been affected specifically.

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Children’s 3 Basic Psychological Needs and the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Anya Dashevsky
Child Playing Wooden Blocks

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ways in which children around the world are learning, playing, and interacting.

Understandably, parents have felt worried and uncertain about their children’s physical safety, social isolation, and academic progress in school. 

Aside from physical and academic needs, children have basic psychological needs that are essential to their well-being.

When these needs are met, children can continue to grow and thrive, even during times of change and disruption.

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Twice-Exceptional Children: Meeting Their Educational Needs

by Anya Dashevsky

In recent weeks, the only constant has seemed to be that there is no normal. Every day we are inundated with reports and numbers and projections that do little to quell the collective anxiety we are feeling. Parents, in particular, are struggling to balance suddenly having to homeschool their children in addition to keeping up with whatever demands their work requires. It can be hard to see past the immediate uncertainty and fear, but once we do, we find that much can be learned from this situation about our children, how they learn, and how to educate them most effectively. Remote learning opens up new possibilities for individualizing education.  Individualizing education, in turn, allows us to encourage curiosity, internal motivation and learning beyond studying for tests. One population in particular that can benefit from this kind of individualized approach to learning are twice-exceptional children.

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Twice-Exceptional Children: Why Making Friends Is Hard and How to Support Them

by Anya Dashevsky

“I want to know: how do I compare in the world of 12-year-olds? How many people in the world are there with a personality like me? Where do I fit in?”

All children need connections in order to thrive. Learning to establish and maintain friendships is a crucial part of every child’s development. Sharing, turn-taking, trusting, communicating, and compromising are some of the vital skills children practice while interacting with peers. Although for some children acquiring these skills comes naturally and making friends is easy, others struggle to find and keep friends. Twice-exceptional children—because of both components of their exceptionality—often have difficulty finding a peer group and maintaining friendships.

Twice-exceptional children are children who are identified as being gifted while also having a disability. While “disability” is not the ideal word, it is the word used by schools and other agencies and, for sake of consistency, will be used here. The disability could be a learning, emotional, physical, sensory, and/or developmental disability (The Twice-Exceptional Dilemma, 2006). Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder are just some examples of disabilities that impact a child’s functioning.

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Twice-Exceptional Children: Who They Are and Why We Need to Talk About Them

by Anya Dashevsky

“Is my child gifted? Is my child delayed? What is my child?”

“Gifted and ADHD, how can it be both?“

These, and similar questions were asked by parents of children who were eventually identified as twice-exceptional.

Twice-exceptional children are a misunderstood and under-identified group of children. Many educators, professionals, and parents are not familiar with this term and do not understand the challenges and experiences of these children. It “can feel so overwhelming that you do not know where to start,” stated a parent of several twice-exceptional children. The first step in helping this group of children is to understand what it means to be twice-exceptional.

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Anger in Children: A Different Approach

by Sarah Parenteau

It’s the middle of the school year.

Winter break has come and gone, and you and your child are back to the all too familiar arguments about completing their homework before any screen time.

The teacher has sent e-mails letting you know that the work isn’t being done and meetings have been held to try to resolve the issue. At home, behavior charts have been made, decisions on grounding have been enforced, and privileges have been taken away.

Despite all the effort that has been put into the situation, it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. When you tell your child that it is time to go do their homework, they explode. Your child starts throwing books on the ground, crumpling papers, and snapping pencils in half. Yelling matches ensue. You feel drained, and your child’s frustration seems to have reached a new threshold.

Before bed after a particularly intense quarrel, you decide to search the internet for something – anything – to help that you haven’t tried before. To your surprise (and relief), you find that many other parents have posted about situations that are similar to yours. Their children display explosive challenging behavior under certain circumstances, but are well-behaved at other times. One parent wrote about how they stumbled across the idea of lagging skills and Collaborative Problem Solving, and how it helped restore peace to their family. You are taken aback by how lagging skills describe areas where your child struggles, and decide that Collaborative Problem Solving just might be worth a shot… Continue reading Anger in Children: A Different Approach →