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There’s more to behavior than what we see.
Some moments ask more than they look like they do. Learn what your kid’s brain and body might be working through, so you can figure out what helps.
If you’ve Googled any of these at midnight, hi.
Pick one to see how we’d start looking.
Standing to eat. Then kneeling on the chair. Then under the table.
Fine all through the playdate. Then the wrong cup at dinner, and it’s over.
Dad does bath instead of Mom, and bedtime stalls before it starts.
Want to look closer?
Your kid knows what to do. So why isn’t it happening?
75 minutes with Barbara on why a kid can manage something one day and not the next.
The Brain and Body Library
Short articles to come back to when a moment with your kid doesn’t make sense.
Hi, I’m Barbara.
I’ve looked at kids’ hard moments as a teacher, as a researcher and now as a parent. In every one of those roles, the most useful thing I’ve learned is to slow down and ask what a moment is asking of a kid’s brain and body before deciding what it means.
PhD, Urban Education, CUNY · Teacher and administrator, NYC public schools · Graduate faculty, Hunter, Brooklyn College and NYU
What parents tell me
I genuinely think about this material all the time. When [my kiddo] loses it unless he can hold a stick on our walk to hit every fence we pass, my first reaction is ‘wtf stop.’ My second reaction is ‘Barbara would say he’s a sensory seeker.’ That second reaction has changed a lot.
“The understanding and tools gained have moved us from reactive to proactive and responsive.”
“I’d set up homework in a separate room at a dedicated table, and the activation energy was too high. [LBB] helped me think through possibilities and a few different things to try. Over two days, he finished the whole sheet.”
“Honestly, LBB gave me the language for my own reactions to stimuli as an adult. Now I can name what I need, and I can spot the same needs in my nieces and nephew and support them.”
What’s usually in reach at 4? What still takes a lot of effort?
A free guide with one page for each age from 2 to 8. It’s the one I use in my workshops.