"As soon as I could talk, I was ordered to listen" - Cat Stevens

 Sometimes turning things on their heads - turning things upside down - allows us to see issues differently and make important changes.  Such is the case with two areas in child development.  The question at stake involves the importance of learning about the inner world of the child. 

The first area is captured by the quote above from Cat Stevens.  We as parents are so eager to help our children, to socialize them, to give them information, to teach them how not to make the mistakes we did.  So, often we impose our viewpoint on our children rather than listening to what is going on inside of them.  Of course, there has to be give and take - we convey things to them, and they convey things to us.  But perhaps too often we forget the second part of this give and take process - we forget to listen to our children!  This is especially crucial with respect to what they are interested in.  There is almost nothing more important than learning what your child is interested in.