It’s hard to wait! It can be hard for adults, and it’s even harder for young children. Psychologist Walter Mischel and colleagues have spent decades researching children’s capacity to delay gratification. Often referred to as the “Marshmallow experiments,” Mischel’s studies vividly illustrate how hard it can be for young children

All relationships experience moments of miscommunication or conflicting intentions and expectations; these are known as ruptures. No matter how good a parent you are – no matter how sensitive, attuned, and attentive– ruptures between you and your child will occur now and then. In fact, Dr. Ed Tronick’s research suggests that as

Young children must find their own space and place – physically and emotionally – in their homes and in the world. To do this, they need clear limits. Limits are guidelines for what is okay and not okay to do in a given environment. Limits are like the guard rails

Almost 50 years ago, researchers Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess studied 100 babies from early infancy to adulthood and identified 9 temperament traits, including persistence, intensity of reaction, activity level, and adaptability. Since that time, scientists have been able to refine our understanding and focus on five qualities of temperament,

How can we improve the fit between ourselves and our child, and between our child and their environments? Goodness of fit is how well an environment—and the people in it!—match a child’s temperament. Just like that beloved toddler toy, the shape sorter, we can imagine that every child’s temperament has