Boys + screen time: the real 411

boy and screen image

The question that parents ask me the most often is: “Are video games/computers/television dangerous for my son?” One problem with responding to that question is that these forms of technology haven’t been around for very long and the research that is done on the effects of technology have most often used university students as subjects. It seems as … Read more

Teachers: You’ve got to mix it up to sink it in

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As I travel on school visits, almost everyone I run into knows some boy who is having trouble in school. Taxi drivers, customs officers, and front desk staff in small hotels around the world tell me about the educational difficulties of their son/brother/nephew. During a one hour flight, the young man who sat next to … Read more

Boys, Girls, and Nature/Nurture Identity Behavior

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Do you think your child knows he is a boy? Or has he just learned to call himself that because he learned it from those who are around him? Generally, children recognize the differences between men and women by ages one to two and can identify themselves as being male or female by the time … Read more

Got Games?

teenage boys playing video game

In a few weeks, boys around the world will receive holiday gifts of gaming devices, along with new games to play on those devices. What is likely to happen as a result of receiving these presents is that these boys will shout thanks and then plug themselves into the games for the rest of the … Read more

Rites of Passage

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I just got back from the Boys’ Schools conference and that always gives me lots of new topics to share with you all. The theme for the conference this year was Building Boys into Good Men and there were lots of speakers talking about how to do just that. One of the sessions I attended … Read more

What is normal?

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There is a new book that parents of boys might be interested in: Back to Normal: Why Ordinary Childhood Behavior is Mistaken for ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder by Enrico Gnaulati. I learned about this book from a NPR interview in which Dr. Gnaulati said that many of the problems that he saw … Read more