Author: Chien Liu

Attachment parenting is one of the most discussed —and most debated — parenting philosophies of thepast three decades. Its advocates describe it asthe most natural, responsive, and developmentallysound approach to raising children. Its criticsdescribe it as exhausting, guilt-inducing, andbased on a misreading of attachment science. The research tells a more nuanced story thaneither camp fully…

Emotional intelligence — the capacity to recognize,understand, manage, and effectively use emotionsin oneself and in relationships with others —is one of the qualities most strongly associatedwith life success, relationship quality, andpsychological wellbeing across the lifespan. Research by psychologist Daniel Goleman,who popularized the concept in his 1995 book,and by the researchers whose work precededand followed his…

Sleep is one of the most important contributorsto children’s health, development, and wellbeing —and one of the most common sources of parentalexhaustion and frustration. Research on children’ssleep is among the most robust in all ofdevelopmental science, with clear, consistentfindings about what children need, what helps,and what gets in the way. This article covers what the…

Secure attachment is one of the most importantconcepts in all of developmental psychology —and one of the most frequently misunderstoodby parents who encounter it. It is sometimesassociated with specific parenting philosophies,sometimes reduced to a checklist of parentingpractices, and sometimes used to generateanxiety in parents who worry they are notdoing it right. The research on secure…

Disappointment is one of the most inevitableexperiences of childhood — and one of the mostimportant to navigate well. Every child willnot get the part in the play, will not beinvited to the birthday party, will not makethe team, will not receive the gift theyhoped for, will not get the outcome theyworked toward. How children learn…

A child who hits is one of the most distressingparenting experiences — particularly when thehitting is directed at a parent, a sibling,or a peer. The instinct to respond withimmediate, firm consequences is understandable.The research on hitting in children suggeststhat the most effective responses are morenuanced than simple punishment — and thatunderstanding what is driving the…

Co-regulation is one of the most important conceptsin child development — and one of the least knownoutside of professional circles. It describessomething that parents do naturally and instinctivelyin their best parenting moments, and something thatthe research identifies as the primary mechanismthrough which children develop the capacity toregulate their own emotions and behavior. This article explains…

Content: Gratitude is one of those qualities that parentsuniversally want for their children — and one ofthe most commonly approached in ways that producethe opposite of what is intended. Requiring childrento say thank you, lecturing them about how luckythey are, or pointing out how much worse thingscould be — these approaches are understandableand largely ineffective.…

Positive reinforcement is one of the mostfrequently used terms in parenting — and oneof the most frequently misunderstood. It issometimes used to mean simply being positivewith children, sometimes to mean rewardinggood behavior with treats or stickers, andsometimes dismissed as bribery. None of thesecaptures what the research actually showsabout positive reinforcement, how it works,and how to…

When a child is struggling in school — fallingbehind academically, dreading going, coming homedefeated — it is one of the most difficultexperiences in parenting. The impulse to fixit immediately, to find the right tutor orprogram or approach, is understandable. Theresearch suggests that the most effectiveresponses are often less about fixing andmore about understanding — understandingwhat…