Drumming Shows Great Benefits: Why Not Add Song and Voice?

December 1, 2010

I was intrigued to see the latest research citing the effectiveness of drumming on a variety of social and emotional changes in children. HERE It showed that drumming in groups can have a positive benefit with depression, PTSD, anxiety, ADHD, and even oppositional defiance disorder. Beating The Odds: New Research Shows How Group Drumming Can Help to Build [...]

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Children’s TV Should Boost Social and Emotional Skills

November 5, 2010

An article in the Wall Street Journal today pits Disney against Nickelodeon in their struggle to dominate the children’s TV market for the hearts and minds of pre-schoolers: Disney, which of course was built on telling stories to kids and is playing to its strengths, needs to do something. To support its decision to focus on feel-good stories rather than core curricula, the [...]

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School Library Journal Reviews “Ready to Rock Kids Vol. 3″

July 14, 2010

“Dr. Mac, child psychologist, teacher, and award-winning songwriter, presents 12 original songs in several musical styles such as rock, disco, doo wop, jazz, and calypso. He deals with topics such as responsibility, diversity, self-esteem, kindness, and overcoming fears. Several adults and a children’s chorus enthusiastically sing, while musicians expertly back them up on keyboards, guitars, [...]

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Dealing with Shyness – Reaching Out

June 29, 2010

Parents often ask me about how to deal with a child who struggles with reaching out and making friends with other children.  This song is an excellent parenting resource for helping your child deal with social fears and firendship. Play the song Reach Out a number of times for your child, and then pose the [...]

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Family Meetings

June 8, 2010

As family therapists, we have often wondered how many families could have avoided the need for professional help if they had family meetings on a regular basis. Meetings can help families to: improve harmony and communications by helping members feel “heard” and respected practice positive thinking and being appreciative of others resolve conflicts with the [...]

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Top 10 Tools for Surviving Family Vacations

June 5, 2010

Now that school’s out, everyone wants to play and go on vacation. Having a flashlight and flares for a car trip is a great idea. So is a travel bag of games and CDs. But what about a repair kit for family feelings? Or a road map to harmony? Even a dream vacation in an [...]

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Ready to Rock Project

May 28, 2010

A research and intervention project has taken place in the Santa Barbara and Goleta schools to help children boost their social and emotional skills. Using the award-winning songs and activities of Ready to Rock Kids, 320 first and second grade children from sixteen classrooms in the Santa Barbara schools were involved. The children each received [...]

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Q. You’ve talked in the past about the gap between Raffi and rap. What do you mean by that?

May 26, 2010

When I talk to kindergarten through third graders and ask them what music they like, they invariably name the music their older brothers and sisters listen to – music by artists like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and a variety of rap artists. Even kids without older siblings are musically sophisticated these days and really [...]

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Q: Your songs focus strongly on social and emotional themes. Do parents have to worry that the songs will be too depressing or too grown-up for their kids?

May 26, 2010

Absolutely not! To start with, my songs are upbeat and represent a variety of musical genres.  But beyond that – and this is the point we simply cannot afford to overlook – today’s kids are way too smart for songs without substance. Today’s kids are struggling to face the demands of stressful and fast-paced times, [...]

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Q: Why do you think it’s so important to teach children about social and emotional skills instead of just dealing with academic challenges?

May 26, 2010

To put it quite simply, happy kids learn better! The latest trend is for schools to focus on academics through testing and drill. But hundreds of studies show that even when time is taken away from the traditional “Three Rs” for programs to help children with their social and emotional concerns, academic scores improve. I [...]

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