Feed Play Love

Childhood friendships can be light and easy, but as kids head into their tween years they can start to get a bit tricky. Dana Kerford is the Director of URStrong, an organisation that helps children understand the many nuances of friendship. Dana gives us her top tips on how we can support our children when friendships get tough. 

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New research from the University of South Australia has revealed that assistance dogs are helping to expand children on the autism spectrum and their families. Dr Shelley Wright is a qualified occupational therapist and who supervised the research. Shelley explains exactly how dogs can help children on the spectrum.

Information relevant to this interview:

Research from the University of SA on assistance dogs and autistic kids
Assistance Dogs Australia
Guidedogs Australia
Information about assistance dogs

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Maggie Dent is best known for her work helping parents to raise their boys. Now Maggie has sunk her teeth into girlhood with her book of the same title. Girlhood, raising our little girls to be healthy, happy and heard was inspired by her four grand daughters. In this interview Maggie leads us through how to raise our little girls with understanding and compassion. Touching on key issues raised by a survey of 5,000 parents Maggie uses her humour, wisdom and common sense to help parents and carers of little girls everywhere.

Maggie Dent is also the host of the podcast Parental as Anything. 

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Helping children navigate their big emotions can be challenging. Particularly when those emotions result in behaviour that is aggressive or difficult to change. Lyn Jenkins is a clinical psychologist and the creator of Boss Brain, an online program designed to help children from 5-11 navigate their big emotions. Lyn explains what's happening for kids when things get out of hand and how we can help guide them through those tricky moments.

This episode of Feed Play Love was made in partnership with Boss Brain. Visit lifematters.com.au/bossbrain for more information.

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When it comes to pregnancy and birth support is focussed on the mum-to-be. But what about dads? Rob Sturrock is the author of Man Raises Boy. He believes that we need to be more inclusive of dads from the very beginning in order to make parenthood a more equally shared experience. Rob talks about his own experience of pregnancy and birth, and the very small thing we can all do to make a big difference. 

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We all know the pain of telling our children over and over again to put on their shoes. Or brush their teeth. Or get ready for bed. But what if it's all about how we ask our children something that makes the difference? Gen Muir is a parenting educator at Connected Parenting. She talks us through some very straightforward steps to getting our kids to listen to us.

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Everyone knows someone who has strongly held beliefs about the COVID- 19 vaccinations. Many parents still haven't had their children vaccinated. But where did such deeply held doubts about vaccines come from? Dyani Lewis is a science journalist and author of a new book Unvaxxed, Trust, truth and the rise of vaccine outrage. Dyani's own relationship with her mother broke down due to the passions around vaccination. She explains what she discovered about where all the distrust has come from.

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Nine-year-old kids can be vastly different when it comes to where they are on the childhood scale. Some are still playing with toys while others are passionately learning all the Tik Tok dances. Vanessa Hamilton is the founder of Talking the Talk Healthy Sexuality Education. Her latest book is a novel that explores the issues around consent for tweens. Vanessa explains how you can have casual conversations about consent and why it's not always about sex.

Vanessa's book is called Kit and Arlo Find a Way

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About 50% of parents are not intending to get their children vaccinated against the flu this coming winter, even though children under five are amongst the most vulnerable when it comes to the flu. That's according to the most recent Royal Children's Hospital National Child Health Poll. Dr Anthea Rhodes is a paediatrician and Director of the Poll. Anthea explains why parents are hesitant to get their kids vaccinated and why we should overcome that hesitancy.

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Allison Davies was working as a music therapist when she started to go through the process of getting her daughter assessed for autism. It was then she noticed that the boxes she was ticking for her daughter also applied to her. This led Allison on her own path to an autism diagnosis. Allison explains what the world looks like through her eyes, giving some insight to how some people experience on the spectrum.

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