Children — and their parents and teachers face a “crisis of self-regulation,” argues Katherine Reynolds Lewis in The Good News About Bad Behavior. Kids are “less disciplined than ever,” she writes. The good news is that parents can do something about it. The sharp rise in anxiety, depression, attention-deficit diagnoses and addiction is related to children’s inability to “manage their thoughts, behavior and emotions” in a healthy, Lewis tells NPR’s Cory Turner. Many children

Leonard Mlodinow, a physicist and father, writes In Praise of ADHD in the New York Times. Ten years ago, when my son Nicolai was 11, his doctor wanted to put him on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. “It would make him less wild,” I explained to my mother, who was then 85. “It would slow him down a bit.” My mother grumbled. “Look around you,” she said in Yiddish. “Look how fast the world is changing. He doesn’t need to slow down. You need to speed up.” I

Fidget spinners — handheld, multi-pronged tops — are supposed to help hyperactive and anxious kids stay focused.  Some teachers say they’re distracting, reports Kristine Kim on Education Week Teacher.  Some schools have banned the toy, required a doctor’s note or limited students to using school-provided spinners. Advocates of “fidget therapy” say under-stimulated students “may become restless” and “act out as they feel to need to increase stimulation, reports Kim. “The same

Four 15-minute recess breaks each day is helping kindergarten and first-grade students stay focused in class at four Fort Worth elementary schools, reports New American News. #ADHD #attention #play #recess

Kids are spending too much time sitting indoors writes Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, in the Washington Post‘s Answer Sheet. When they do go outside to play, a misplaced concern for safety keeps them from getting the benefits of active play. “We have monkey bars, but we aren’t allowed to go upside down on them,” a boy told her. They think we are going to hurt ourselves.” Other children said they “weren’t permitted to swing on their bellies or spin in circ