Is it going to get old if I keep asking you, “how you’re holding up?”

I’m so concerned about everyone. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. I’m thinking about you every day.

I want to share a few things today in an effort to be helpful - you can just skim to see what’s relevant for you.

A lot has happened in a week.

How are you holding up?

Also, *what's driving you nuts right now*?

For me I was in high gear and taking action until Sunday night and then *all the people* and *all the things* really started to BUG ME and *all the emotions* started bubbling up.

What if you felt complete confidence in your ability to connect with and support even the children who challenge you most?

Sure, sometimes it still seemed impossible to connect with certain children...but that didn’t discourage you in the least because you knew: this is normal too. So you didn’t let it make you feel bad and you kept persevering and eventually? CONNECTION!

What if instead of feeling like nothing you tried worked when it came to that child who throws chairs, kicks, spits, swears at you, or runs and hides you had tools that prevented the behavior at about 95% of the time…

...and the other 5% of the time...

3rd Annual Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference

MAY 6-12, 2020

REGISTRATION OPENS: Wednesday April 8th.

You put it in your calendar, right!?

Last year we had over 24,000 early childhood professionals from around the world sign up.

Here’s a little more info...

I want to tell you about Deb. Deb is an action-taker...

Do you have kids who don’t follow directions, yell “no” even when you ask them to do something you know they like to do?

I’m talking about the limit testers, the ones you get into daily power struggle with.The tantrums.

If you work with kids like that and it often even escalates to them running away from you or to extreme aggression then this video is for you...

I see and hear about this a lot - behavior struggles that are the result of children refusing to come to teacher-planned writing activities.

Last week I got several amazing comments about this.

…BUT one was special because it came from my childhood best friend, Mel!

I recently received an email...

Hi Barb - I currently have a 4 1/2 year old who hates to do school related activities of any kind...

He only wants to play....

He refuses to work even when I know he is fully capable of doing the work... 

How do you reach such a child? I will not give up! -Elizabeth

Elizabeth, thank you. Thank you for asking such a fantastic question, “how do you reach such a child?” 

My short answer?

Most of us beat ourselves up about a whole host of things.

From a brain perspective our negative self-talk stems from the reptilian or primitive brain’s obsession with looking for threats (lions, and tigers and bears - oh my!) 

I’m sure you’ve heard others say it but this brain wiring was super functional for our ancestors when there were literally dangerous wild animals potentially lurking behind every tree. It was necessary for our survival.

And, to be sure, this “negativity bias” which causes us to constantly scan for threats can serve a purpose in our current world but in many ways this negativity bias is getting in our way. Herein lies the problem...

“The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones.” – Rich Hanson, PhD. 

This week I want to get a little bit personal and ask you a question…

How do you talk to yourself?

Do you talk to yourself like you are your own best friend?

Are you compassionate, loving and kind?

Or…