Digital Parenting: Balancing Bytes and Bonds In an age of prevalent technology and growing connectivity demands, modern parenting involves navigating digital consumption and nurturing parent-child connections within the realm of the online world. For Generation X or Millennial parents, navigating parenthood in this digital landscape can occasionally feel like maneuvering through a maze. The concerns are aplenty and real — What is my child watching online? What is so fascinating about their digital world? How do I balance their digital consumption with their well-being? These are questions that ..read more

Managing Stress in Children: Common Challenges in Parenting Navigating the Stresses of Growing Up: A Two Way Street “When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, it’s our job to share our calm, not join their chaos.” – L.R Knost. For many children of today, the journey of growing up is often one that hosts a fair share of complexities and challenges. With the ever-evolving landscape of the modern world today, children share a vastly different experience in their formative years compared to that of their parents in the past. Given the novel and changing circumstances they face in naviga ..read more

Breaking the Cyberbullying Cycle: Empathy, Self-Love and A Kinder World “It is crucial to approach cyberbullying cases among children with empathy and a focus on breaking the cycle of harm.” In discussing the highly relevant topic of cyberbullying, Professor Yang Hwajin, Associate Professor of Psychology in Singapore Management University (SMU), highlighted the detrimental effects of cyberbullying on our children’s development. Principally, Professor Yang noted the negative effects it can have not only on the victims of bullying, but also on the bullies themselves. While much attention has be ..read more

Suicide: A Wounded Perspective    “Time is a scarce commodity”. In discussing this heavy topic on suicide ideation with Yen-Lu, co-founder of Over The Rainbow (OTR), he highlighted the importance of parents spending time and listening to their children. In 2009, Yen-Lu and his wife, Yi Ling Chow, bore the tragedy of losing their only child to suicide. Upon recognising the rampant occurrence of suicide ideation and mental health distress amongst youths, Yen-Lu and Yi Ling have dedicated the past 13 years to building an empathetic and safe community to support parents and youth in the ..read more

Drawing The Line for Social Media In today’s world, technology is rampant and social media has taken the world by storm. As Elon Musk once said: “ I think there should be regulations on social media to the degree that it negatively affects the public good.” Many can agree that social media has its boons and banes, but what if social media usage becomes excessive? How can you help your child if he/she might be addicted to social media? This article will address these concerns. Further addressing the concerns and struggles faced by the majority of parents and how they can overcome this experien ..read more

What Should I Do When My Child Undergoes Puberty? Kani Garcia once wrote in Beautiful Creatures: “Teenagers. Everything is so apocalyptic.” The struggles that adolescents face during puberty are perceived to be tremendous, and this struggle extends to parents as well, as mentioned by some:“Welcome to being the parent of a teenager. Prepare for large amounts of eye-rolling, emotional outbursts, and thoughts of running away. And that’s just the parents!” To further address the struggles that parents can face and how they can navigate through this experience, we have invited Professor Lee Li Neng ..read more

“Children are mirrors, reflecting back to us everything we say and do.” This quote by Pam Leo aptly sums up the idea of behaviour modelling. Behaviour modelling comes from the social learning theory, or, to put it simply, “observational learning,” which is learning that occurs simply by watching others.   Introduction to modelling  The concept is exemplified by the “Bobo doll experiment” by Albert Bandura, which shows that modelling behaviour in children goes both ways, for aggression as well as prosocial behaviours.     Modelling can occur through 3 different modes: l ..read more

If you’ve ever wondered how your child began lying, here’s how:  Children from as young as two years old begin lying and when they reach preschool, they already show sophisticated understandings of the concepts of lying and truth-telling. The most common and earliest lies children tell are generally told with the intention to conceal mistakes they have committed. Based on extensive research in this area, children develop this ability to lie because of…   The growing ability to understand the thoughts of others  Theory of Mind (ToM) is a cognitive process that involves the abilit ..read more

Why does my child hate going to school? Does your child like to skip school? Or does your child struggle in completing his or her school work?  This can be attributed to school adjustment issues, whereby children face problems in adapting to the school environment or to the role of being a student. Issues in school adjustment can be observed in four dimensions:  School refusal: Truancy, unwillingness to attend school, or dropping out of school Academic difficulties: Problems completing assignments; poor study habits; poor performance on tests; grades dropping Unusual Emotional React ..read more

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation   Introduction Gender identity refers to one’s own personal sense of their gender (Planned Parenthood, n.d). This means that the identity of the individual is determined based on how they feel and perceive themselves. The concepts of Gender identity and Sex are commonly misconstrued as the same concept and thus are often misused interchangeably. However, one’s biological determinants may not necessarily be in congruent with the gender that they identify themselves with (Planned Parenthood, n.d). They could identify themselves as a male, female, trans ..read more