Playing. It’s just something children do. To pass the time; to entertain themselves; to relieve boredom. Nothing more, nothing less – or at least, so it often seems. You might not have given this all that much thought, but to consider this in a little more depth is to realise that there’s rather more to...Read More

Tourette’s Syndrome – it’s not what you think It’s not what you think. Tourette’s Syndrome, that is.  You might think it’s all about swearing, inappropriate comments, and uncontrollable verbal outbursts. This is the general perception – a common misconception and one prevalent in media portrayals. But there’s rather more to Tourette’s Syndrome than this alone....Read More

Some time ago – in March 2015, to be precise – we published a post on our blog about pornography… Young people and children were the focus, in particular the increasing numbers believed to be accessing explicit content online, and the damage being done as a direct consequence. The world is a different place these...Read More

In 2014, Oxford University Press, which publishes, among other titles, the Oxford English Dictionary, announced for the very first time its children’s word of the year. The word most children chose was ‘minions’, a reference to the quirky characters from the popular animated Despicable Me film series. Twelve months later, in 2015, ‘hashtag’ took its...Read More

Storms upon us, winter raging and the Christmas countdown on, the temptation can be strong, indeed:  to batten down the hatches; to hibernate and hide away; to spend the festive season inside. The weather outside is frightful? Let it snow… Close the curtains, turn up the fire and turn on the TV. Social media forever...Read More

We have written – more than once in the past – about social media, and its impact upon our children’s mental health. It is a topic that troubles us a great deal here, hence our repeated posts. For all our musings on the matter, the surface has been but scratched. That much has been made...Read More

“If adults are to learn one thing from this report, it should be as follows. This is not a snowflake generation. It is a heroic generation.” – Dame Rachel de Souza DBE. Children’s Commissioner for England, 2021. Back in March, the Children’s Commissioner’s office embarked on an ambitious undertaking.  The purpose?  To ‘hear the voices...Read More

Smacking children; it’s a divisive topic and, to many, an outdated notion. Both in Wales and Scotland, it’s an illegal act, yet here in England it’s a greyer area altogether. Smacking might be considered questionable from a moral perspective, but from a legal standpoint it can still be justified as ‘reasonable chastisement’. Boundaries, let’s not...Read More

‘It’s good to talk…’ This was, in the mid-to-late 1990s, a ubiquitous slogan used in a popular BT advertising campaign. In making this point, we’re showing our age, although that concerns us not. For be it back in the nineties, when an award-winning advert first aired on television screens across the United Kingdom, or now,...Read More

First the good news: Teenagers and adolescents have begun to turn their backs on smoking, drinking and drugs. Young people classed as belonging to Generation Z – those born during the post-Millennial period, that is – are demonstrating clear behavioural changes that are to be applauded. Smoking in adolescence?  Down from 9% to 5% (compared...Read More