Make It a Great One with Dr. Dan: #1 Podcast for Inspiring Conversations to Live and Lead On Purpose

Dr. Dan welcomes the amazing educator, author, and co-founder of Challenge Success. Dr. Denise Pope on this episode. Today’s show focuses on helping our children and our schools (and ultimately our families) help our children find balance and deal with stress. This is a provocative topic and will challenge parents everywhere. Dr. Pope explains success is not linear. Her work aims to turn our thinking about learning, education, and success upside down (just like her logo!). Dr. Pope believes success is measured over the course of a lifetime (*not one semester!) and believes that our society has become too focused on grades, test scores, and performance, leaving little time for kids to develop the necessary skills to become resilient, ethical, and motivated learners. Dr. Dan and Dr. Pope dive deep into the topic of wellbeing and why she wants us all to move away from the narrow notion of success and expand our definition of it. Our children are suffering (as a result of sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety and more – all triggered by stress) and it has to stop. Dr. Pope share with Dr. Dan solutions and how Challenge Success provides families and schools with practical, research-based tools they need to create a more balanced and academically fulfilling life for their kids. Finally Dr. Pope’s discussion about the topic of an engaged child and student is revolutionary. This concept applies to parents and students alike. The whole child matters! Dr. Pope’s Parent Footprint moment is very insightful and also personal. The story about picking up her own daughter in first grade and always asking how she did on her spelling test was a light-bulb moment because it gave her insight into the stress her own child was experiencing as a result of this conversation. It became an important a-ha moment in her own parenting journey and of course in her work. More about Dr. Pope: Denise Pope, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods, and service learning. Challenge Success is an expanded version of the SOS: Stressed-Out Students project that Dr. Pope founded and directed from 2003-2008. She is the author of, “Doing School”: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001), which was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal, 2001, and co-author of Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids (Jossey-Bass, 2015). Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode Dr. Dan discusses emotional regulation, co-regulation and neurodiversity with Dr. Mona Delahooke and hear her first person account of how her powerful viral blog post about Oppositional Defiance Disorder really struck a nerve with parents. Dr. Mona Delahooke is a child psychologist, author, speaker, and expert who specializes in early childhood development and early intervention for children with special needs. Her practice, speaking engagements, blog, and new book SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY INTERVENTION as well as her forthcoming book THE VISIBLE PARENT all guide, orient, inform and help parents through the journey of raising a child with special needs. Her passion and focus includes neurodiversity and relationship building between parents and children of all ages, as well as educators and caregivers.    In the of spirit helping all children Dr. Dan and Dr. Delahooke discuss empathy and compassion and how individual differences lead the way in her work because one size does not fit all. Dr. Delahooke uses a strength based, family centered, multidisciplinary approach in her work with young children and families. [Her philosophy is informed by the groundbreaking model of child development pioneered by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder, known as the DIR® approach (Developmental, Individual-difference, Relationship-based).] After discussing how deeply crucial it is for children to feel safe when her or she is in stress mode and they end the episode with Dr. Delahooke’s Parent Footprint moment about parenting her two young children and how finally recognizing a stress response in one of her children (rather than intentional volitional behavior) opened her eyes turned her parenting around in a profound way – altering how she practiced and parented forever. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan joyfully welcomes Annie Fox, M.Ed. to discuss friendship, feelings, and the social world with compassion and empathy.  Annie is an educator with over thirty years of experience -- specializing in working with tweens and teens. Since 1997, she’s received email questions from tweens, teens and parents and Annie’s books The Teen Survival Guide to Dating and Relating, Too Stressed to Think? And the Middle School Confidential Series™ and Teaching Kids to Be Good People have helped countless kids and parents navigate modern parenting challenges.  Her work in the area of relationships, friendships, and feelings will teach parents how to help their own children figure out the complexity of social situations and define what is a good friendship and friend. Today’s show will teach everyone how to navigate friendship challenges and emphasizes how parents model their own challenges will help their children. Annie Fox hosts her own popular podcast, “Family Confidential: Secrets of Successful Parenting” that focuses on 21st century parenting challenges and solutions.  Her show and work is a gift to parents of tweens and teens. Find more information about Annie and her podcast and books http://www.AnnieFox.com  and  http://familyconfidential.com/. The show ends with Annie’s sweet and moving story about her Parent Footprint Moment with her own daughter and how she managed to learn a life lesson one morning getting ready for school.  It leaves parents with a very important message about how we see ourselves, our children, and about acceptance. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan welcomes life coach, business consultant, attorney, bestselling author and parent, Allison Carmen as his guest today.  Allison is inspiring and wise and she has developed the simple life philosophy of “Maybe” to help people deal with uncertainty. Her book The Gift of Maybe has changed countless lives -- parents, adults, families, and of course her own. Allison has successfully applied the philosophy to help her clients, who range from entrepreneurs and owners of multi-million dollar companies to artists, actors, writers, fashion designers, attorneys, health care workers, parents, nannies and the homeless. Allison has witnessed hundreds of people, regardless of present circumstances, who had the courage to step into the realm of Maybe improve their lives. Her conversation today with Dr. Dan will open your mind and change your life. Why is Allison’s philosophy of Maybe so effective for parents?  Allison tells Dr. Dan the answer is that it gives us HOPE and offers us possibility.  Dr. Dan and Allison talk about how our need for certainty can cause us stress, create fear-based parenting and keeps us up at night. With Allison’s contagious concept of MAYBE we can all realize that there may be a way out of a situation, or a way forward, or just another way for us to exist right now in this moment.  The unknown does not have to create fear but rather create possibility.  Maybe is just one word and a small shift and change of perspective, but it’s one that changes everything. The show wraps up with one of most profound Parent Footprint moments when Allison talks about her own family and “not knowing” as a parent and then she finds strength, hope and possibility in MAYBE.  Dr. Dan wraps up the interview by telling us all that Allison’s daily practice of MAYBE has the ability to transform a household and an entire family and closes the show by challenging us to all find our MAYBE. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“There is no such thing as a bad kid.” Dr. Dan welcomes international parenting expert and guest Dr. Stuart Shanker (https://self-reg.ca/). This is an encouraging discussion about the concept of self-regulation, stress, and Dr. Shanker’s paradigm-shifting new book, SELF-REG: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life https://www.amazon.com/Self-Reg-Child-Stress-Successfully-Engage/dp/1594206090. Dr. Shanker knows all children are good and reveals to Dr. Dan his revolutionary new understanding of stress and how it affects children’s emotions and behavior, hidden stressors, as well as practical advice for parents to help their kids engage calmly and successfully in learning and life with 5 steps. Dr. Dan and Dr. Shanker discuss how Self-regulation is the nervous system’s way of managing stress and the fact that before parents can teach their children self-regulation they must master it themselves. The moving discussion highlights the fact that there are no bad kids and that when you see a child differently you see a different child. Dr. Stuart Shanker is a distinguished research professor of psychology and philosophy at York University and the creator of The MEHRIT Centre. He attended the University of Toronto, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. At the University of Oxford, he obtained his D. Phil. with distinction in philosophy and his work is used globally. At the end of the episode Dr. Dan asks Dr. Shanker about his own Parent Footprint moment. Dr. Shanker tells a moving and personal tale about his own stress as a Dad during a difficult time and reveals how in that moment he realized all parents must learn to forgive themselves and accept their own humanity. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan is joined by Dr. Tina Payne Bryson to discuss her pioneering and revolutionary work in area of brain-based parenting. Dr. Tina Bryson is the co-author with Dr. Daniel Siegel of two New York Times bestsellers (The Whole Brain Child; No Drama Discipline) and is Executive Director of the Center for Connection in Pasadena. In 2000 Dr. Bryson was a new mother, immersed in studying the brain and simultaneously working on her Ph.D. with Dr. Daniel Siegel. Her work and real life learning reached new heights when she applied practical findings with her own child (and other parents) and out of this work she eventually wrote The Whole Brain Child and changed how millions of parents approach their child’s behavior. Dr. Bryson challenges today’s current trends in parenting – especially discipline -- by exploring the mind behind the behaviors in children instead of just focusing on the behavior. Listeners to this episode will be enlightened by Dr. Bryson’s basic discussion of the brain and nervous system and discover that a child’s behavior can change over time. And her explanation of the differences between discipline and punishment gives leads every listener to a profound on-air “aha” moment -- and a teachable lesson and take-away every parent will want to immediately put into action. In addition to lecturing internationally and working with private patients, Dr. Bryson also helps parents, schools, educators and the research community to learn best practices of brain based parenting and ways to transform parenting, discipline, and learning. Dr. Dan wraps up this episode by asking Tina the one thing all parents need to do today to revolutionize their own parenting right now and ends with Tina’s intimate Parent Footprint Moment about how she had to let go of her own fear and her own need to fix things in order to become a present parent. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan tackles a personal topic on today’s episode: Dyslexia. Dyslexia has personally touched Dr. Dan and his family and today he explores the diagnosis with the premiere expert on dyslexia and learning differences. In this interview with Dr. Fernette Eide (co-author of The Dyslexic Advantage and The Mislabeled Child) and founder (with her husband Dr. Brock Eide) of the nonprofit Dyslexic Advantage, Dr. Dan gives listeners access to the most important information about dyslexia and learning differences. Dr. Fernette’s incredible work, along with her husband Dr. Brock, through Dyslexic Advantage along with her passion for helping children and families is changing the paradigm of how people see dyslexia every day. By focusing on the tremendous strengths, Dyslexic Advantage has shaped a positive identity for children with dyslexia and created a compassionate, thriving, dynamic and informed community. Listeners will learn about early signs of dyslexia, new approaches including diverse learning techniques, why it’s a great time to have dyslexia right now (according to Dr. Fernette!) along with some fun trivia about successful dyslexics and the seven wonders of the world! In this episode Dr. Fernette explores definitions of dyslexia, the history of the diagnosis, how to empower parents and ways to show kids how they can maximize their potential. She offers advice about testing your child for dyslexia, finding out how to navigate school subjects based on strengths, and why it’s important to trust your instincts as a parent. The episode wraps up with Dr. Fernette’s own eye opening Parent Footprint Moment years ago in a Mommy & Me class and how it opened her mind to how best to raise her first child. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan interviews Elizabeth Sautter co-director/owner of Communication Works and a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist. Elizabeth is the author of Make Social Learning Stick who works with children and families to help them manage emotions and communicate effectively. These skills are critical for children and parents to live a satisfying life – skills needed for building meaningful relationships, working in groups, succeeding in school, living independently, and holding a job. In this debut episode of the podcast parents learn about Social Regulation (the combination of self-regulation and social communication), when to seek help from a professional, and what parents can do tonight at the dinner table. Our first episode wraps up with Elizabeth talking about her family’s struggle with ADHD, and her own very personal Parent Footprint moment about self-care. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode of The Parent Footprint Podcast with Dr. Dan Peters we hear from Dr. Gary Etting about vision and hearing challenges and how his own personal experience with vision problems as a child inspired his life’s work. http://visualprocessing.com/  Dr. Gary L. Etting is a developmental optometrist specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of vision problems that interfere with reading and learning. Board certified in vision development, he just recently celebrated his 41st year providing these specialty services to the public. By removing “visual roadblocks” with his specialized services Dr. Etting’s team gives children the opportunity to avoid forming bad habits and deal early in life with visual weakness that are treatable. He truly helps his patients reach their potential. This interview delves into sight vs. vision and learning disablities, diagnosis, vision therapy, resources (http://www.visionhelp.com/) and so much more. Finally, Dr. Dan wraps up the discussion of visual abilities with Dr. Etting’s profound Parent Footprint moment about his own parenting moment he shared with his wife about his own son’s journey to finding his passion and pursuing his dreams. Dr. Etting’s gratitude for this moment will inspire listeners everywhere. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Dan and Dr. Swain talk about hearing and listening on this episode. It’s all about “what we do with what we hear” and “how the ear speaks to the brain” and that some children simply don’t have the innate ability to be a good listener and behavior is the only clue that a child is struggling. Dr. Deborah Ross-Swain is the former Chief of Speech Pathology at the University of California Davis Medical Center and the owner and Clinical Director of The Swain Center for Listening, Communicating and Learning. She has over 35 years of experience in the areas of auditory processing, ASD, learning and Early Intervention and is a nationally recognized speaker, writer and researcher and author. Her book Auditory Processing Disorders: Assessment, Management and Treatment is the foundation for today’s insightful discussion which includes a discussion about assessments, social challenges, diagnosis, and learning challenges. Dr. Dan leads this detailed discussion about how parents can become more aware and in doing so support their child. Dr. Dan is moved at the end of the episode when Dr. Swain shares that her Parent Footprint moment has always been about respecting each of her four children and how that respect has come back full circle for her. Watch this free video to learn more about Dr. Dan and Parent Footprint Awareness Training®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices