Art is not just a creative outlet for children; it’s a powerful tool for expression that can unlock numerous developmental benefits. Through drawing, painting, sculpting, experimenting with materials and other forms of art, kids explore their feelings, ideas, and perceptions of the world in ways that words sometimes cannot capture. This creative expression plays a significant role in shaping their emotional, social, cognitive, and even physical growth.

In recent years, the concept of the mind-body connection has gained quite a bit of attention. This relationship has been recognised for centuries across various cultures and medical traditions, but western medicine has focused more on the physical aspect of health and treated the brain and body quite separately.

We continue to learn more about this mind-body connection and understand that the mental wellbeing of ourselves and our children is just as important as physical health, and the two are inextricably interlinked.

We all aim for a smiling face and a wave as our kids walk into school, but that’s just not always the case. It’s normal to experience a struggle day sometimes, but when it becomes frequent, and intense emotional school refusal becomes your normal, our goal posts need to shift.

The festive season is often perceived as a joyous time filled with warmth, family, and special traditions. However, for some children, particularly those with high anxiety, sensory processing issues, developmental challenges, or neurodiverse conditions like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the holiday season can bring about overwhelming stress and lead to more emotional meltdowns.

Understanding the reasons behind these reactions is very important in order to support our children and create a more peaceful environment during this busy time of celebration.

Grabbing toys off other kids, finding it hard to wait their turn, interrupting others during conversations, rushing into tasks without listening to directions and frequently learning through the mishap that has already happened. Sounding familiar? Our children, along with their beautiful curiosity, boundless energy and fun are also very impulsive. As frustrating as it may be for us parents and caregivers, it’s actually very normal at certain ages, so understanding where this impulsivity comes from and gaining a broader knowledge on what to expect throughout our child’s development, will give us the awareness we need to allow us to support our child in gaining impulse control, or acknowledge when we need professional support.

When our children were babies, we may have felt some impatience for them to say their first word or start crawling or walking, but we knew we had to continuously support them until they were ready. The same can be said for social and emotional development; sometimes we may find that we’re expecting them to show more empathy, share with a friend, or be ok with simple changes. We might also become frustrated when they seem to say ‘no’ to everything, don’t respond to us straight away, have to win every game, or insist that they know best.

Having some understanding of the developmental goals that our children are working towards can give us the insight we need in order to respond and support in a way that is more appropriate, as we don’t take these behaviours personally.

As parents, we often find ourselves putting our children's needs above our own. We do this on a daily basis often leaving no time to do anything nourishing for ourselves.

While this selflessness is necessary at times when our children are struggling, chronically neglecting self-care can have unintended consequences.

Divorce is a big life-changing transition that can bring emotional upheaval and significant changes for everyone involved. There are such big practical, financial and emotional struggles for the adults, but the emotional struggles for the children are just as big.

As parents and caregivers, our natural instinct is to protect children from negative emotions like disappointment. It can be so hard to see our children get upset, withdraw or lash out and sometimes we may do whatever we can to avoid a negative behaviour that we know will occur when that disappointment is felt.

It’s the most beautiful thing to witness when our children demonstrate support and care for one another, but this certainly doesn’t happen all the time. Some days our children can’t seem to be together without someone screaming, getting hurt or protesting that the other has done something wrong.

Sibling relationships are among the most complex and enduring bonds we experience in our lives and the path can often be bumpy.

Children, like adults, experience a range of emotions, including anger. Anger is a normal and natural emotion, but it can become much more challenging when it becomes aggressive. While anger is an internal feeling, aggression refers to behaviours that are intended to cause harm or damage and can manifest in physical, verbal, or relational forms.

Self-worth, self-esteem, self-confidence; they are terms that are frequently used interchangeably. While they do overlap, there are significant differences that, I believe, makes self-worth the foundation for how we view ourselves.

It can be disconcerting for a parent or caregiver when we hear our children tell lies, particularly when this is happening frequently and occurring even when it is very obvious that what is being said is untrue, and opportunities are given to tell the truth. It is going against one of our core values; honesty.

Much research has gone into the benefits of connecting children to nature. The research shows that a child’s emotional, physical, academic and social health is positively impacted when they are regularly engaged in activity and play in nature.

Watching our child navigate the world of friendships can be a bit of a roller coaster. They may be happy and having fun with a group of friends one day, then come home from school the next day saying they felt left out, or that “Bobby” is not their friend anymore. Some of our children find that making friends doesn’t come easily, while others make lots of friends, but experience endless dramas and switch-ups with who the new BFF is.

As parents and caregivers, we want nothing more than to wave goodbye to our smiling child at the school gates and watch them skip off with their friends, but when going back to school or starting school invokes big emotions, tummy aches, tears, aggression, yelling and refusal, it is clear that anxiety is in the driver’s seat.

When we hear our children ask us desperately for the expensive running shoes or the newest phone, or they query what they are going to get if they do as we ask, it can feel disheartening and unsettling.

Most Australian children spend more time in front of a screen than is recommended. The impact on health and wellbeing, and the challenging behaviours that come with managing screen usage is a major problem for many parents and caregivers.

When our child’s behaviour causes us to suddenly feel very angry, hurt or helpless, it is because, in that moment, we have been triggered.

Understanding our parenting triggers and dealing with the underlying emotions can help us support our children through their difficult experience, rather than getting lost in our own emotions.

Our children and teenagers can show us a wide range of undesirable behaviours, such as lying, manipulating, shouting and being aggressive. No matter what the behaviour is, responding with punishment simply will not work.