Do you sign up your kid for a team sport because you want him to win the championship trophy?  Is it your goal for him to be on the winning team or the MVP? Does it matter if he wins or loses? Or are you relieved and happy for him to receive a trophy for participating? In an article entitled “Not Everyone Deserves a Trophy,” Sara Debbie Gutfreund advises parents

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Autism Spectrum Disorders, Data and Analysis, 2013), an average of 1 in 88 children have some type of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Individuals with an ASD typically have difficulties with social skills, communication and behavior. As a spectrum disorder, those with autism can present with a wide

In Parshat Toldot we read the story of Yaakov and Esav. Yaakov—Ish tam yoshev ohalim, the one who is destined to be one of the Avot, father of the Shvatim for which the Jewish people will be named. And then we have Esav—his twin brother, a highly deceptive individual, who prefers to spend his days out and about hunting animals.

What is mindfulness? It is specific attention to the present. It is actively observing one’s own thoughts and feelings, without passing judgment on them as either good or bad. It is purposefully noticing some aspect of one’s environment, internal or external. While mindfulness is based on Eastern mediation practices, it is not a religious practice or

My daughter’s sixth birthday is next week. She recently asked me why I forgot to make her a birthday party last year. My heart sank, as I didn’t think she actually remembered! Last year we had a birthday party for her friends in school, she had a special birthday dinner at home with cake and candles and she was showered with gifts from her grandparents, aunts and

I will not be writing about my fabulous vacation to Bermuda. That is probably because I have never been to Bermuda—though I am hoping to go to Bermuda, hint, hint. The issue at hand is one that is much more serious. The issue at hand is the vortex in each of our homes that sucks in items that become missing. It starts when our children are little and they lose their

Seventeen years ago, in addition to weighing enough to qualify for heavy weight boxing status, I became a mom. Two weeks late, 22 hours and 30 minutes of labor, facing the wrong way, skinny as a noodle (which he remains to this day) out comes son #1…I was so exhausted that instead of looking at his bright eyes and thinking “I love this child,” all I could think

I have always attempted to instill in my children a sense of pride in their Jewish heritage. As a Jew living in America, I want my children to be comfortable and confident with their Jewish identity. It goes beyond sending them to yeshiva day schools and Jewish overnight camps. The ultimate goal is for my kids to feel fulfilled in their spiritual and cultural

It was Erev Sukkot when I realized I had spent too much time menu planning, food shopping, decorating the sukkah and baking, and had neglected to buy my kids new clothing for the holidays. Since Rosh Hashanah was still in the summer, the kids happily wore their sandals and summer clothing, but somewhere during that one-day-of-school they had, it became fall, and I

When my husband and I moved into our home in Bergenfield 14 years ago with two small children, our home seemed huge. Now with a larger family, thank G-d, it does not seem quite as big. And who would have thought that an unexpected visitor would eventually turn into a resident in our home and require his own room too...!!

I am referring to someone who used to

People are complicated.  What we do is even more complex. What you see isn’t always what you get, even though society tries to tell us that. I recently read about the death of Corey Monteith from the hit show Glee. His demise was a shock to many people, especially those who had grown so comfortable with his character on the show. I spoke to a lot of people about it,

Temporal processing is the rate at which one processes auditory information. Most of the actions the brain performs on a daily basis, such as perceiving, speaking, motor movement and driving a car, require timing on the scale of tens to hundreds of milliseconds. Understanding the timing of events, such as a motor act followed by a sensory consequence, is critical for