Talking to 7th Graders About Deflated Balls

This past week, there were news stories in the media about the State of the Union Address, chaos in Yemen, and the death of a king in Saudi Arabia. Here in New England, all those stories played second fiddle to news of our beloved New England Patriots and the deflated football scandal. As the Patriots head to the Super Bowl to face the […]

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Buddha Granofsky and MVI Talk About Ferguson

In 1988, I was a first year graduate student in the Counseling Psychology program at Tufts. I did my internship that year at The Academy of Physical and Social Development in Newton. The choice to do my internship there had more to do with the fact that it was accessible by public transportation than anything else. Call it karma or […]

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The Welcome Back Kotter School of Limit Setting

In memory of Marcia Strassman, Gabe Kotter’s long suffering wife Julie on the 1970’s sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, I’m reposting an entry I wrote two years ago. Strassman passed away last Friday. R.I.P.

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The Side Effects of Doing Nothing

“Well, I’m not giving my baby any more dangerous drugs. From now on, it’s nothing but fresh air, lots of hugs, and good old-fashioned Ritalin.”      –    Marge Simpson          To medicate or not to medicate, that is the question. It is, at any rate, for scores of parents of kids and adolescents with ADHD. Paraphrasing the […]

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Back Off Jack…I’m a Heavyweight

Sometime during the late 1990’s, Academy MetroWest came into possession of a copy of the movie Heavyweights. No one really remembers how it came to us or who brought it in but it’s exerted a powerful presence at our summer camp ever since. It’s one of those rare gems that’s ostensibly for kids but is just as funny for adults. All of our […]

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What Parenting Has Taught Me About My Job

On June 4th, my daughter Lucy turns 8 years old. The day after she was born, we were still staying at the hospital. At night, the staff gave us the option of having her spend the night in the nursery or in our room. We opted for the nursery, figuring that we’d have plenty of sleepless nights ahead of us […]

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Fudging the Autism Diagnosis

On April 2, The U.S. Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) issued a statement regarding changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders stemming from the publication last May of the DSM5. I found one section of the statement particularly curious. Here’s what it says: “…the Committee cautioned clinicians to pay special attention to individuals with obvious ASD symptoms who narrowly […]

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The Best Cure for Depression

The other day, the new issue of Psychology Today arrived at the office. Among the stories on the cover was one entitled “Can Yogurt Cure Depression?” I caught a quick glance at the title and it almost didn’t register. Then I thought, “Wait a minute! Did I really just read what I think I just read? That’s the most ridiculous […]

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Less Fun Than Vacuuming? Really?

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to NPR on the way home from work and heard a piece that has been lodged firmly in my brain since then. In the segment, Melissa Block interviewed Jennifer Senior, a contributing editor for New York magazine, about her new book about parenting entitled All Joy and No Fun. According to Ms. Senior, the book set […]

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Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog

Academy MetroWest uses cooperative, non-competitive physical activity as a vehicle to help kids see themselves in a more positive light and to interact better with their peers. While there’s more to any improvements in social skills and self-image than playing a bunch of games with other kids, using games that bring the focus away from kids vs. kids competition is our […]

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