About Me – Pop of Parenting

Welcome to Pop of Parenting! I am here to help you understand the children in your life and why they behave the way they do. With a background in behavior analysis, I have the ability to take an objective approach to difficult situations. This is the kind of advice that is sometimes hard to hear but at the end of the day “makes sense”.

Throughout my career, I have worked primarily with children with special needs. These experiences have allowed me to exercise patience and learn to communicate with children that might not be able to comprehend or process language like most people around them. Regardless of your child’s behaviors or needs, the guiding principles of behavior analysis can be applied to just about any situation.

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The "Most Generous Interpretation" is in a sense giving your child the "benefit of the doubt". Rather than immediately reprimanding them after they don't follow through an instruction, break a rule, or argue with you, take a moment to step into their shoes and see the situation from their perspective. Some questions you could ask yourself might be...

Talking to your child on eye level has so many benefits. Especially when discussing difficult topics like discipline, confronting your child about a mistake they made and how they need to rectify it, or a moment when your child is confinding in you about something that upset them, making eye contact. One study showed that making eye contact activates parts of our brain essential in understanding and sharing emotions, and ultimately developing empathy.

While your kids are at school, they're given plenty of chances to catch what the teacher is saying and given cues that tell their brain "this part coming is important, listen to what she's saying". This step is crucial in cutting down the number of times an instruction is repeated before a child can take the next steps to follow through on that demand.

Do you feel like your kids continuously break the same rules that they for sure know over, and over, and over...and over again? When we tell kids to stop doing something, it's often the "end of the conversation". We often leave out the "what they can do" part, or the alternative or replacement behavior.

The hours after school and before bedtime are filled with endless lists of activities. Some activities done outside the house like sports practice, tutoring, or music lessons give little to no wiggle room when it comes to engaging and interacting with your children. What about the few precious hours you might have with them otherwise?

This quote resonated with me when I saw it in Parent Magazine. Parenting goes beyond the confines of your home or the time you spend with your children. The interactions you have with your children are the foundation for the learning and behavior they will carry with them OUT of your home, into the world as they form relationships, approach challenges, and conduct themselves around others.

Also referred to as Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA using this methodology lends itself to viewing problem behavior as a result of what’s going on in the environment rather than just looking at what’s going on in your child’s mind, or trying to figure out what they’re thinking in the moment.