Great Kids, Great Parents

Infant/Child Development and the Importance of Children's Feelings

Paul C Holinger M.D.

Anger: The Misunderstood Affect

Language can complicate the expression of anger between individuals, making it misunderstood or too harsh.

Why Does the U.S. Still Permit the Physical Punishment of Children?

Physical punishment is a serious public health problem in the U.S., but alternatives exist that are more effective in enhancing the development of children.

The Reckoning

COVID-19 has changed death for the dying, and grief for the survivors, and made trauma the price paid by many health care workers.

How Playfulness Helps Ease Upsets

Behavioral change occurs much more readily when one uses positive affects rather than negative affects.

When Distress in Children Is Caused by Boredom and Separation

As an infant grows and begins to crawl, walk, and talk, two of the most common causes of distress are boredom and separation.

Handling Your Child’s Distress

If it is hard for you to hear your child express distress, here are some insights that might make it easier for you to feel comfortable.

Infants and Young Children Are Smarter Than We Think

Recent findings demonstrating infants’ early cognitive capacities highlight the importance of enhancing the affect of interest in the service of cognition.

Cognition and Relatedness

Exploring cognition and its relationships with affect and language as it involves human relatedness and the early onset of cognitive functions.

Being Recognized and Remembered

Affect theory enhances understanding of the needs of human beings to be recognized and remembered.

The Magic of an Apology

You most likely have apologized to friends, family, and co-workers and quickly realized the impact, but have you thought about the lasting impact of apologizing to your child?

Seeing the World from Your Baby’s Point of View

Spending a little quality time on the floor with your child can not only increase your child's self-esteem but help to form a warm bond.

Play and Creativity

Considering play and creativity within the content of affect theory may enhance understanding of their origins and mechanisms of action.

Update on Physical Punishment

Where does the U.S. stand on physical punishment? Are we making any headway?

How Do We Become Who We Are?

How do human beings develop? Why do we behave and act as we do—what motivates us? Nature and nurture?

Religion as It Relates to Human Development

Is religion one way for us to us to organize and and make sense of events and situations in our lives?

Religion Through the Perspective of Human Development

Religion as seen from the perspective of human development and its three pillars—emotions, cognition, and language.

Why Is It So Hard to Plan for the Future?

We all experience a hesitation to looking to or planning for the future at one point in our lives. Could the cause lie in our feelings about death or separation?

Religion—The Underlying Dynamics

The complex isssue of how we try to understand what is external and what is internal…how much of our perceptions of the so-called external world is based on our internal dynamics.

A Look at Religion: Internal Psychodynamics

An exploration of religion and internal dynamics with a specific focus on trauma and disorganization.

An Inside Look at Religion

How it relates to the information-processing function of the brain.

A Look at Religion

An exploration of religion from the perspective of human development—specifically looking at internal motives.

Smartphones and the Relationships Between Young Adults

There is no doubt that smartphones are important in personal, professional, and academic life, but are we seeing a shift?

Understanding Bias and Prejudice—And Violence

To understand bias and prejudice, it might help to understand infant development—feelings and how they work—and evolution.

Education: Elicit It or Impose It?

Do we listen to children, adolescents, and adults and try to enhance their passions and authentic interests and talents?

Physical Punishment—and Violence

Physical punishment is a serious public health problem throughout the world, and it profoundly affects the mental health of children and the societies in which we live.

Putting Words to Feelings

One might argue that children cannot do much with words before age 1-1/2 to 3, when they begin speaking. Yet they understand words long before then.

Feeling, Thinking, Talking

All three of these possess major assets. But interestingly, they each have their own major liabilities.

Information Processing Systems

A helpful way of exploring human development is to conceptualize emotions, cognition, and language as information-processing systems, knowledge to better help us survive and adapt.

Emotions, Cognition, and Language

Emotions, cognition, and language can all be conceptualized as information-processing systems, as they are intimately connected and overlapping.

Cognition, Part II

We examine how smart infants and young children are, and how important it is to maintain that trajectory by supporting the effect of interest or curiosity.

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