Tag Archives: childhood development

The Myth of the Self-Soothing Infant

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

I can sum up today’s post in one sentence. That wasn’t it though… 😉 It’s simply this (and it may sound familiar if you’ve read many of my posts at all): The human brain is born without the ability to manage … Continue reading →

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Growing Self-Fulfilling Humans

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

I won’t lie to you, friends — sometimes, and really just sometimes, I still question what we’re doing here. I sometimes still wonder — if we stay off the well-beaten paths of modern parenting, if we tenderly nurture our kids, without punishing … Continue reading →

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Digging a Little Deeper than “Misbehavior”

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

So — there’s this dirty little parenting myth that started decades ago and that lingers still in the rarely mentioned corners of the current social parenting contract corrupting the ears of those who listen, and driving opposition into the hearts of families everywhere. … Continue reading →

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The Long and Winding Road…

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

One of the themes this week in the various social media parenting groups to which I belong has been “process”. Several times, I’ve found myself encouraging parents to remember that growing up, learning how to negotiate life, figuring out all the … Continue reading →

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Making Friends… with Oxytocin!

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

 I bet you’ve heard rumors about it already. I bet word has already gotten upwind of you and drifted down to your eyes and ears about the effects of “that ‘love’ brain chemical”. Maybe in your prenatal class, in a prenatal … Continue reading →

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Friday Family Updates — It’s Fall Y’all!

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

Greetings Fam-fans! I’m just stopping by with the first installment in the new series I’m calling Friday Family Updates. There’s a fair number of readers here, I know — our parents, family, friends, and followers — who use this blog … Continue reading →

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Intro to Educating a Human Brain

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

How do babies learn things? How can we help them learn in the most conducive way possible? What does it take to create the best environment, conditions, and potential for the highest possible development of our children’s full mental (cognitive, … Continue reading →

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New Tools and Time Well-Spent

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

Boy, oh boy, have we been workin’ it lately! I tell you, Natalie and I are on fire… We’ve been wheeling and dealing with coalition builders and program directors and business advisors and concerned teachers and parents from all over, … Continue reading →

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The EP Soccer Family in “A New Season”

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

As some of you will no doubt remember, last Spring we signed our family up for YMCA Soccer. Echo played on a co-ed team of 5 year-olds, and though she’d never met any of them previous to being on the … Continue reading →

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The END of all Tantrums

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

A tantrum is generally defined as “a violent demonstration of rage or frustration; a sudden display of bad temper”. When you dig deeper, you’ll discover that a so called “bad temper” refers to a “persisting angry mood”. And if we … Continue reading →

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Your Kid as Johnny 5 *

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

Originally posted on "A Beautiful Place of the World":
“Need input. Need input. Neeeed iinnnpuut!” Your child is an information and experience Hoover. She was born to devour data. He was created in just such a way as to be…

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Empathy Schmimpathy… Why Bother?!

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

There’s a change occurring in the world of parenting today. A gradual shift is taking shape and gliding toward new ways of envisioning and inhabiting the parent-child relationship. The old adages we grew up with — of children being seen … Continue reading →

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Parentisms: Reading You Loud and Clear

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

“Come in — come in — this is the infant brain — all systems are go and we are reading you loud and clear — copy?” The human brain is a wonder of the cosmos. It regularly performs feats which … Continue reading →

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Cockeyed Behaviorist Dogma Continues to Lose to Neuro-Science and Cro-Mags *

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

Originally posted on "A Beautiful Place of the World":
Last week on Facebook (yeah, that’s right, *FB*), there was an article circulated through my network of friends and colleagues, entitled “Science shows up Supernanny: A mental health expert…

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Losing “No.” and Finding “Yes!”

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Nathan M McTague, CPCC, CPDPE, CMNEC

I have written directly about a portion of the discourse I want to take up in this post in some detail before, and referred to this notion multiple times. Thus far, however, I have only closely considered the “no” side … Continue reading →

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