Communication

How you communicate with your children will make all the difference in how they will develop socially, academically and emotionally. Learning to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative will increase your effectiveness as a communicator and make your children more willing to cooperate. Learning how to speak respectfully will improve your relationship. Learning how to listen to more than their words will help you become a respected confidante. Speaking respectfully will reduce family flare-ups.

 

Structure

Children need structure. The more predictable and consistent the environment, the more readily they can anticipate what is going to happen and settle down. Anticipating events, setting rules and routines to communicate your expectations, making time to talk and listen and teach, and holding them accountable are all skills that can be put into place to make parenting less exhausting.

 

Awareness

Busy parents are often unaware of specifics, such as what makes your child melt-down, or how your child handles change and new situations. One of the essential tasks of effective parenting is to become an expert on your child. Observing your children closely will reveal many clues to what makes them tick. Awareness also applies to parents self-knowledge. How well can you anticipate your reaction to a given event? Are you able to explain to yourself why you react the way you do? Becoming more aware of yourself and your child will make you a more effective parent.

 

Knowledge

Gaining information about how the brain works, how learning occurs, your child’s innate temperament and child development will make you a more effective parent. I have spent years learning about these topics so that I can communicate the core ideas, clearly and succinctly.