Helping Your Child Stay Present Now While Getting Ready for School There's a strange stretch every August where summer hasn't ended, but it isn't really summer anymore either. The pool days are still happening, but somewhere in the background, school supply lists are circulating, and bus schedules are landing in your inbox. For a lot of kids, this in-between window (technically still vacation, but with school unmistakably on the horizon) is when back-to-school anxiety actuall

A Parent’s Guide to Online Safety, Plagiarism, Privacy, and Responsible AI Use Artificial intelligence has arrived in your child’s life — whether or not you have introduced it, whether or not their school has a policy, and whether or not you fully understand how it works. It is in their homework tools, their tutoring platforms, the recommendation algorithms shaping what they watch and read, and the chatbots some of them are quietly turning to for emotional support. A 2024 Bar

Independent Play, Boredom, and Why “Underparenting” Might Be Exactly What Your Child Needs By Dr. McKinzie Duesenberg-Marshall, PhD, LP, NCSP | Minds in Progress, LLC If you have ever felt guilty for not playing with your child, for letting them sit in their boredom a little too long, or for wishing they could just (for once) entertain themselves for twenty minutes while you finish something: this article is for you. There is a growing movement in child development research a

What the Research Says...and What to Actually Do About It By Dr. McKinzie Duesenberg-Marshall, PhD, LP, NCSP | Minds in Progress, LLC It’s become a familiar summer scene: kids sprawled on the couch, phone in hand, the afternoon disappearing into a scroll. Parents know something is off...but between working, managing the house, and the sheer exhaustion of summer logistics, it’s easy to let screens absorb the hours that feel hardest to fill. You’re not imagining it, and you’re

Understanding the function of behavior using the SEAT Framework by Dr. Mckinzie Duesenberg-Marshall You’ve been through the homework meltdown. The tantrum in the grocery store. The child who suddenly “can’t” do anything the moment it’s time to leave the playground. You’ve tried calm, you’ve tried firm, you’ve tried ignoring it, you’ve tried everything — and still, the behavior keeps coming back. Here’s what most behavior advice misses: behavior doesn’t happen randomly. Every

If you have more than one child (or have ever watched kids interact on a playground), you’ve heard it. That word, stretched out with total conviction: “THAT’S NOT FAAAIR.” The older one stays up later. One child gets extra help with homework. Someone gets a bigger snack. In your child's mind, anything that looks uneven is automatically unjust. And honestly? It makes sense that they think that way! They just haven't learned one of the most important distinctions of childhood y

If your child has ever cried over a writing assignment, avoided it entirely, or handed in something far below what you know they’re capable of. .. you ’re not alone, and neither are they. Writing is one of the most demanding academic tasks we ask of young learners, and for children with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, or language differences, it can be a genuine daily struggle. As a researcher who studies early writing intervention, I wanted to share findings from a stud

Emotions don't come with an instruction manual...but the good news is that emotional regulation is a skill , and like any skill, it can be practiced, strengthened, and taught. Whether you're parenting a toddler mid-meltdown or navigating the emotional complexity of your own adult life, there are research-informed strategies that work. At Minds in Progress , we believe that supporting emotional wellness is a whole-family endeavor. This guide breaks down practical activities by

At Minds in Progress, we see firsthand how much happens between sessions and evaluations. Parents come to us with thorough notes, teachers share observations, and children bring everything they’ve been carrying all week — but the window for connection at home can feel narrow. Life is busy. Evenings are rushed. And when we ask families what gets in the way of consistency, the answer is almost always the same: “we just don’t know where to start.” That’s exactly why we created t