Mirror neurons and autism
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Have you ever wondered how you can tell at a glance what someone is feeling?
Concussion
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD In the hierarchy of injuries, concussion is often considered to be near the bottom, almost a noninjury. If a CT scan of the head is normal—meaning there is no bleeding or swelling in or around the brain, and no skull fracture—generally the person goes home to rest and recover. I myself …
Play + Therapy = Theraplay
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Consider this. A father told me that when his thirteen-year-old asked if he could go to a friend’s house, he replied, “If you can beat me at pool!” The boy enthusiastically agreed. After dad beat him 15 times, he told his son to go ahead and go to his friend’s. I …
Sick of poverty
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Everyone knows that poor people are, on average, sicker than well-off people. This is true even where there is universal health care, as in Great Britain and Scandinavia. It’s not just a difference between the top and the bottom of the wealth ladder, but a stepwise gradient from level to level …
TV, video games, and kids
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Children under the age of two should not watch TV at all, nor be exposed to movies, computers, or computer games. That’s the sobering message from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Punished by rewards
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD What do you do about a child or teenager who won’t do anything—who’s checked out of the family, won’t help around the house, and is failing in school? Or the child who wants to be paid for everything he does? And why, when there is no motivation for these everyday survival …
The genius of inner motivation
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Last time I described behaviorism, which is the molding of animal or human behavior by rewards and punishments. The practice of behaviorism is so pervasive in our culture that it may seem startling to question it, but question it we must if we are to get to the root of some …
Plan B: Collaborative problem solving
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD What about children and teens who are non-compliant—who won’t do as you say? Defiance, or non-compliance, has many origins and causes. I find the work of a Harvard psychologist, Dr. Ross Greene, to be very helpful on chronic non-compliance. His book is called The Explosive Child. (He’s written a more technical …
Try collaborative problem solving
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Last time I gave an introduction to Collaborative Problem Solving, psychologist Ross Greene’s method for teaching non-compliant kids to solve problems better, as described in his book The Explosive Child. I described the skills deficits of kids, and adults, that keep them from solving problems well. Plan A, as I described …
Adopting a child from a Russian orphanage
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD In my practice I have had experience with four families who have adopted children from Russian orphanages—a total of seven children. Three families adopted two children each, and one family adopted one. Of course my view is biased because I see children for behavior problems. But I notice that I keep …
Warbler wave
—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Last night I slept by a pond. The night was warm. No clouds, numberless stars in the sky and the grass—really, it looked like stars had fallen into the grass. Little points of greenish light which appeared and disappeared. With a flashlight I found something looking partway between a sowbug and …