Growing Friendships

All about children's social and emotional development.

Eileen Kennedy-Moore Ph.D.

How to Love the Ones You’re with During Coronavirus

We love our families, but constant confinement puts a strain on everyone’s nerves. Here are some ways to get along during coronavirus.

How to Help Kids Talk About Feelings

Children often struggle to be able to talk about how they’re feeling. Here’s a simple technique to help them find the words they need.

Coping With Worries About the Coronavirus

The headlines are scary. The uncertainty is worse. How can you manage your anxiety about the coronavirus?

When Your Child Hates Compliments

Reasons why receiving a compliment feels so uncomfortable for some kids and possible solutions.

What Is Psychologists’ Favorite Word?

One small word encompasses a big shift in thinking that can help people become unstuck. Learn about the power of this simple word.

Is Your Child “Addicted” to Screens?

How can you tell if your child's screen use is a problem? What can you do to help your child be smart about online activity?

When Your Child’s Best Friend Is “Stolen”

For children, the feelings of jealousy and betrayal when a close friend starts spending time with someone else can be as intense as those of teens or adults coping with infidelity.

3 Levels of Stress Management

Stress is like a river with three waterfalls, representing three levels at which we can intervene. In general, the higher up-stream we address stress, the easier it is to handle.

Not All Homework Help Is Helpful

Battles over correcting homework may cause more harm than good. Here are better ways to help your child with homework.

When You Don’t Like Your Child’s Friend

You may be tempted to forbid your child from hanging out with a friend you don’t like, but there are other options that can help your child learn about navigating relationships.

Overstepping Boundaries: When Your Kid Comes On Too Strong

Some children struggle socially because they frequently overstep personal boundaries, angering peers. Being aware of common boundary violations can help children avoid them.

When Your Child Can’t Decide

Some children agonize over even small decisions. Teaching indecisive kids about myths and truths of decision-making can help them make up their minds.

How to Resist Competitive Parenting

At its worst, competitive parenting says to kids, “You need to achieve in order to prove that I’m a good parent.” Here's how to resist getting pulled into that game.

What’s Wrong With Sticker Charts and Reward Systems?

At first glance, using a sticker chart or other reward system seems like a harmless way to gain children's cooperation. But there are some potential downsides to this strategy.

What's My Child Thinking?

Children are not just short adults. They think about things in qualitatively different ways than adults do. These differences can be delightful, baffling, or exasperating.

Children’s Friendship Groups

Friendship groups add an extra dimension of fun—and complication—to children’s social worlds.

What We Get Wrong About Children’s Self-Esteem

Real self-esteem isn't about loving ourselves; it's about being able to let go of the question, "Am I good enough?" by connecting with something bigger than ourselves.

Helping Perfectionist Kids Learn to Tolerate Mistakes

Kids often hear that mistakes are part of learning. But if they have perfectionist tendencies, they don’t believe it. Here’s a way to help kids be more accepting of their mistakes.

Can Parental Touch Help Socially Anxious Children?

Touch is our most basic way of connecting and comforting. A recent study suggests that parental touch can also serve as a safety signal for children.

Teach Your Child to Ask for Help—the Right Way

Asking for help is a surprisingly complicated skill—especially for kids. Here's how children who have a hard time asking for help can do so effectively.

Want Your Child to Listen and Learn? Don’t Lecture

When children do things they know they shouldn't, it’s tempting to lecture them. But lectures make kids feel defensive or resentful. Here's what to do instead.

Children’s Anger Management Strategies That Work

“Punch pillows!” is a common piece of advice children hear regarding how to manage anger, but there’s no evidence that it's helpful. Here's what is.

Why Kids Tattle and What to Do About It

Tattling is one of the most annoying things children do. It’s also extremely common and even an important step in child development.

What to Say to Empathize Better With Your Child

Reflection is a way of expressing empathy that involves describing the feelings you see. Here, some straightforward phrases to try with your child.

What Are Reasonable Expectations for Children?

When parents have expectations that don’t fit a particular child at a particular time, it sets that child up for feeling like a failure.

Childhood Enemies

Just as children experience a continuum of linking from “casual friends” to “best friends,” they also experience a continuum of disliking from “nonfriends” to "worst enemies."

Why Are Kids So Mean?

Kids who know better and are usually kind to their friends can sometimes act in casually cruel ways when they decide that certain people’s feelings don’t "count."

When and How to Say No to Kids

Here are seven situations when you may need to say no to your kids and some suggestions for how to do it.

3 Common Friendship Mistakes for Kids

Every child faces friendship challenges at some time, in some way, but broadly speaking, there are three main ways that children struggle socially.

3 Ways Kids Can Solve Friendship Conflicts

Conflicts are common in children’s friendships, but they don’t have to mean the end of a relationship. Here are three ways kids can move past disagreements.

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