So I have some exciting news to announce! I will be on the emPower Hour on Thursday, October 2nd on 89.3fm! The show is on at 2pm and we will be discussing child discipline. I will be on from 2-3pm so if you are in DC please tune in. If you are busy at that time, the shows are archived so you can listen to them later. I hope that you all really enjoy the show. It is my first radio show so I am really excited about it. Here is a link to the show: www.empowermagazine.com/empowerhour. And here is a link to the station: http://www.wpfwfm.org/radio/

I will also do a follow-up blogpost after the show. So anyone who missed it can check out my post and get a synopsis about the show. You can also visit the show's website for information about the show as well. I would also love for you guys to comment below, tweet me @fpschDrSweeney, or contact me directly to tell me more about what you'd like to hear on the show. 

So set a reminder for this Thursday, October 2nd at 2pm and tune into 89.3fm. It should be an interesting and informative show!

I have been meaning to post about these two articles on ADHD. As many of you know, ADHD stands for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. There are three types-predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, predominantly inattentive, and combined. Just an FYI-there is no disorder known as ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder. It is a pet peeve of mine when people say that. ADD is no longer in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and hasn't been for quite some time. Usually when people say ADD, what they really mean is ADHD-inattentive type. Semantics, I know, but it still irks me when it's used incorrectly.

But I digress. These two articles take two very different approaches to the etiology of ADHD-or how it develops. Because diagnosis and recognition of ADHD are on the rise, this is a hot and heavily studied area. One article discusses the environmental aspects that may be contributing to the increased diagnosis of ADHD. The other talks about the neurology, or what the disorder looks like in someone's brain. I won't comment very much on these two articles-I would rather that they speak for themselves. Read both and tell me what you think in the comments. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/08/why-so-many-kids-cant-sit-still-in-school-today/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/09/15/348652297/key-brain-connection-slow-to-develop-in-kids-with-adhd?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140915

Be sure to check back in the next few days as I will have a special announcement to make! Until then, enjoy the articles and share with others!

At first glance, it may seem like this post is going to be about children. This is a fair guess considering that most of my posts have been geared towards the under 18 set (or their parents). But I do also provide services for adults and a big part of many adults' lives is relationships. This article is about the science of relationships. More specifically, the neuroscience of the love language that couples use in their relationships. I'm talking about when couples call each other pet names. It may seem inexplicable as to why couples use pet names to refer to each other, but there are actually neurotransmitters in the brain that release "feel good" hormones when you both use and hear these words of affection. Furthermore, these sweet names are linked to one's childhood (ah-this is where we get back to the under 18 set). Using pet names actually brings us back to a time when love was (or should have been) constant and automatic. In other words, pet names bring us emotionally back to a time when we felt safe, secure, and unconditionally loved.

If you are in a relationship, take some time to think about pet names. Do you use them? Are they personal to you and your partner? How do you feel when you are saying them or hearing them? If you don't have a pet name for your partner, consider using one. It gives you a chance to share something with your partner that no one else does. A connection, a game, a bond that is unique to you two. Try it out for a few weeks and see how you feel. Believe it or not, you may actually be changing your brain chemistry and falling for your partner even more.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201312/the-real-reason-why-couples-use-baby-talk

Enjoy the article! Comment below, tweet me @fpsch.com or send me a private message.

Even the most creative parents can sometimes be at a loss for how to ask their child this question. I know after a long day, I struggle with how best to ask this of my 4-year-old. And I need to be creative-he is not all that forthcoming with details. So this is a really helpful article that gives parents a good opportunity to gather more information about school without grilling their child. Start with a really fun question, one you know your child will answer honestly and move on from there. Anticipate that getting more details about the school day will take time. Be consistent, ask a new question every day, and once your child is more comfortable talking, ask more questions. 

Enjoy the article, good luck and have fun!

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2014/08/25-ways-ask-kids-school-today-without-asking-school-today.html

One population that I have not yet mentioned on my blog is college students/young adults. Those transitioning to college are faced with a number of challenges that are unique. For many college students, they are living on their own for the first time. Many are faced with having to make an entirely new friend group. Several are not completely financially independent. This is also the case for many people transitioning from high school or college to the job market. There are a lot of new things to deal with. For some, the transition will be easy. They are able to practice a lot of self-discipline, find great friends early, and take stimulating classes that interest and excite them. For others, the transition is much more difficult. Many people struggle with making friends, the classes feel much harder than high school, and/or they have a difficult time balancing the academic demands with the social ones. All of this is normal, but it is also hard. There are ways for college students to ease the transition and stay safe-not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. This article lists a few ways to do that.

I think that #4 is really important-take classes that interest and excite you. Almost all colleges have prerequisites and you are bound to take some classes that you find dull. Just do not take them all in one semester! There is no better way to fall into the temptation of not going to class. If you find all of your classes boring, you won't want to go to any of them. If you are dreading your 9am (or even your 11am) class, you will be much more likely to stay up late and then justify sleeping in to skip it. Yes, get those prerequisites out of the way just sign up for at least one or two classes each semester that you can't wait to take. College classes are creative and numerous. You can definitely find at least one that you love.

Number 5 is also important-do not get too wrapped up in a relationship. College is about change and really figuring yourself out. A person's frontal lobe is not fully formed until they are 25 or 26. This means that until that time your interests, worldviews, and opinions are changing constantly. Do not stifle yourself by only spending time with one person. I am not saying that you should not date in college. This is a great time to find someone you really click with that you perhaps couldn't find in your small high school where you knew everyone since 1st grade. However, don't spend so much time with your significant other that you neglect your friends. 

Numbers 8 and 9 go hand in hand. As I previously mentioned, college is a difficult and tumultuous time for a lot of people. During your time in college, you or someone you know will struggle emotionally. Know the signs of depression and have a plan for when you are so worried about someone that you need to seek help. As the article mentions, the college counseling center is a great place to start. Your college counselor, older students, a trusted professor-these are all people you can turn to when you are faced with a crisis. Every college campus is different so be aware of what is available on your campus.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201208/back-school/lesson-college-freshman-top-ten-mental-health

That's it for today! I hope that you enjoy the article and enjoy college! It is a really fantastic, exciting time in one's life. Stay safe and happy learning!

I am a little late on posting this as we are halfway through, but September 8th-September 14th is National Suicide Prevention Week. I know that this can be an overwhelming topic for some people-especially those who have struggled with thoughts of suicide or lost loved ones to it. But it is an important topic that should be talked about because there really is so much that can be done to reduce the incidence of these terrible tragedies. 

I did a quick search of some of the resources available and was astonished to find so many out there! Here are just a few of some of the sites that I came across. Bonus to those of you in the DC area-a lot of them are located here in Washington!

http://www.suicidology.org/about-aas/national-suicide-prevention-week

http://www.iasp.info/wspd/

http://www.afsp.org/news-events/in-the-news/national-suicide-prevention-week

http://www.sprc.org/spweek2014

There is a lot of great advice on these pages so I'm not going to give you much of my opinion. The one thing that I would like to stress is that if someone mentions having thoughts of suicide-take them seriously! Even if they say that they were just kidding or that they aren't going to do anything or beg you not to tell anyone, this is one secret that you cannot promise to keep. More often than not, words that seem fleeting are a real cry for help and the person who is struggling has finally mustered up the courage to say out loud what they have been thinking. Take them at their word-regardless of their age. Child, teenager, adult, elderly-take them seriously. Do not leave that person alone. Stay with them until you are able to leave them with someone you trust. And if the person of concern is your loved one, seek a doctor immediately. This could mean scheduling an emergency session with a pediatrician, a psychologist or going to your nearest emergency room. Follow-up care and monitoring will likely be needed.

I know that this all may seem a little bit dramatic. What if there really isn't anything wrong? What if that person had no intention of inflicting self-harm? Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure and this is a situation where you want a second opinion. You do not want to be the one making that call. Even a trained professional should seek another opinion when it is their loved one who is suffering. Love, emotion, and concern can cloud anyone's judgement.

I know that this is not the most uplifting topic, but it is an important one. Check out the websites above and get to know the signs and symptoms of suicide and depression. You just might save a life!

It is the last day of my Back to School blog series! It has been a lot of fun exploring these topics with you all. I hope that you have found them interesting and informative with a little bit of humor thrown in. I will likely be doing this periodically throughout the year-picking a pertinent topic and doing some continuous blogging for a week or so. Be sure to check back!

This last blog post is going to be about a topic that is oh-so-familiar: social media. This is not my post about cyberbullying-that is a different topic that I will definitely blog about at a later time. This post is about social media in general. I wish I could say that this post is just for parents of teens, but it's not. I have seen children as young as 9 and 10 with Facebook accounts. So if your child is in mid-elementary school, check this article out. Even if you are absolutely positive that your child does not have a social media account at home, you never know what he or she is accessing at school and other places. Many sites are blocked at schools, but with social media moving at a such a fast clip, it is hard to keep up and some slip through. The following article lists a few less well-known sites that you may want to be aware of. Even though I have worked in high schools, I have not heard of all of these, but I do know of some and will make some comments.

http://aapnews.aappublications.org/content/35/1/34.6.full

First up is Snapchat. Snapchat sounds like a great and harmless concept. Take a picture and then it 'disappears' after only a short time. Except it doesn't disappear. For those of you with teenagers, you know that the adolescent brain is not really good at anticipating consequences. The hallmark of adolescence is taking risks and Snapchat can definitely be risky. Unfortunately, I have heard of several incidences of kids taking inappropriate pictures and sending them to friends, believing that they are gone forever. But they are not. Never trust that pictures taken on a digital camera (pretty much all cell phones) are gone forever! Those pictures could potentially resurface at a much later time. Additionally, I am not a fan of most types of social media with an age minimum of 12 (I'm looking at you Pheed).

Next is Vine. Vine is a site with videos that are no longer than 6 seconds. Kind of like an abbreviated YouTube. You may think that nothing damaging could possibly happen in 6 seconds, right? Well, I am not so sure about that. It has the potential to cause damage-just like Snapchat. However, I have to say that I have not directly heard about any major issues happening with Vine. In my experience, kids frequently use this app appropriately: to laugh at something that only they understand and their parents do not think is funny at all.

The last one is called Ask.fm. This one is not in the article, but I feel the need to mention it anyway. I heard about this website when working in a high school and frankly it seems downright dangerous to me. Much of what is put on there is done anonymously. I have heard numerous incidents of kids getting bullied on it while the bullies hide behind anonymity. I understand that there is some way to disable the anonymous feature, but I am not sure what the purpose of the site would then be. If your child is on Ask.fm, I would highly recommend monitoring their page. It can spiral into vicious bullying very quickly.   

I am not necessarily banning the use of social media. Most teenagers that I have come across use social media very appropriately, even productively. It can be a great tool for multiple things.  Family Psychological Services has a Twitter (@fpschDrSweeney) and a Facebook site (just type in my business name and like!), so it would be hypocritical of me to say that preteens and adolescents should never use social media. Unfortunately, I think that would also be really hard to enforce. Apps can be accessed from most cell phones and computers. Some can even be accessed through video games. The purpose of this post is to give you a little more information about what these forms of social media are and decide what you think is appropriate for your child and family. Take a little time to think about what the limits of social media should be for your kids. How do you want to monitor their online behavior? The article mentions parental controls, which is really a GREAT idea. You cannot always be around to see what your child is doing on their phone or computer. The ability to monitor remotely is a very practical solution. In addition to that, I would advocate talking to your child or adolescent about your social media expectations and then checking in weekly about what they are witnessing and participating in online. Allow them to share the funny stuff, the silly stuff, the moving stuff, and the sad stuff. If you show interest they will be more likely to come to you when something scary or illegal is going on. This is true for most things with adolescents. Maybe that is another blog post for another day.

That's it for the series! Thanks for checking them out. I will continue to post sporadically, but will spread the word if and when I plan to do another series. Keep checking back every so often to see if there are some new posts. And feel free to share with others! Even though I am DC-based I try to keep the posts applicable to all families throughout the country. Also, please let me know your feedback. Did you like the posts? Were they helpful? Which ones did you like best? Least? Any and all comments are welcome. I want to continue to make this better so that it is helpful. Of course, if you find that you are in need of psychological support for you or your family, please contact me.

Keep checking back for more and have a great school year!!!!

So I have to apologize. I admit that I have been delinquent. The holiday weekend got the best of me and I skipped two days of posting.  Sorry about that! I'm back on track with a follow-up topic to my last post about the new children's books coming out. What I like about this post is that it includes a video for you visual and auditory learners out there. But it also has a transcript so if you're at work or the kids are sleeping and you can't have the volume on, you can still check it out. Additionally, I also included an additional article and a helpful link. I hope you enjoy enough to make up for the lack of posts!

In honor of the National Book Festival, which took place on Saturday, August 30th at the Washington Convention Center I thought I would talk more about reading. In between the ranting and raving about my love for books in my last post, I briefly mentioned that books are good for kids. Well, that is good to know, but why? What makes reading and books so important to children's development?

This video and the additional article below help to explain why. The statistics from the video are staggering. One third of children enter kindergarten without the necessary pre-reading skills. As children grow older, the numbers only get worse-two thirds are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. This is important as third grade is the year that the 'reading shift' happens (this is not a technical term-I made it up). In third grade, children shift from learning to read to reading to learn. In other words, children are expected to be proficient enough readers at this point that they can comprehend what they read and begin to analyze it. This is hard work for children no matter what their skill level and it is incredibly difficult, nearly impossible, if they are struggling to read the words in front of them. Many teachers I know would like the ability to take the time to work more intensely with these children, but with pressures from their principals, districts, and the state, finding that time is also nearly impossible. Because of this, some of these children will fall significantly behind in school or be identified as having a learning disability.

Reading helps the brain develop. When you read a book or are read to, it stimulates brain connectivity. Studies have shown that changes occur in the left temporal lobe, which is a part of the brain associated with receptive language. Receptive language is the understanding of language-not just the words themselves, but also the meaning behind those words. Reading helps stimulate this part of the brain so that children are better able to utilize this skill of understanding language. Reading also helps one develop Theory of Mind (ToM), which is the ability to understand that others have differing points of views, beliefs, and intentions. Theory of Mind helps a child develop perspective-taking, which is helpful in the development of empathy. So believe it or not, reading can help your child with their moral development, which is just as important as cognitive and social development. Check out this article for even more information on this topic: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function

So the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that parents start reading daily to their children from infancy and as far as I'm concerned that means from birth. That's right-I said birth. As soon as you get home from the hospital (or better yet bring a few board books in your hospital bag), start reading at least one book every day. This can be done during other activities such as feeding or as your baby (and you!) is about to fall asleep. Just make sure that your child is hearing those wonderful sing-song words of children's literature. It can be a wonderful bonding time with your baby as well. You will probably learn new things about your child's development and interests while reading as well. They will start to point to things and repeat the words that you are saying (or trying to) and making connections that will surprise and delight you both. Keep reading every day until, well, forever. If your child doesn't want to be read to anymore, let them catch you reading. This is wonderful modeling for children and adolescents. Make books a part of your family's every day life.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/infant-reading-aloud-young-children-benefits-brain-development/

By the way-you might have noticed that this is a PBS article. That was purposeful. The National Book Festival is sponsored in part by PBS so I thought it was fitting to use a PBS article for this post. I'm not getting any kickbacks from the station; I just thought it was an interesting video and a good fit.

Hopefully you got a chance to check out the book festival. It was only one day this year and it was also inside (instead of being out on the National Mall dealing with weather issues like intense heat or rain), which means it was CROWDED. But as always it was a lot of fun and I am already look forward to next year. They have stuff for kids of all ages and adults too! I found lots of books for both me and my kids to enjoy.  For more information about the festival check out the website:  http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Now get reading!