#parenting

Jan 4
3 min

New Year-New Parenting Goals: Resisting Reality Checks

When I was in the 6th grade my English teacher, Ms. Cole, told me I was going to be an author. I don't remember what prompted this but our class was focused on reading classic novels and writing reflective papers. What I do remember is that my young, ultra cool, feminist teacher thought I had the potential to write things other people would read! I couldn't wait to tell my mother when I got home from school. This could be it- this could be the profession for me! As soon as

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Dawn Spragg

Sep 22, 2021
2 min

Teen Anxiety

The words were hard for the 13 year old client sitting across from me in the counseling room. “I want to go but I can’t” she said in practically a whisper. This academically gifted, brand new teenager found herself in the grip of anxiety unable to express herself to her family and friends. She couldn’t describe the feelings or any possible causes. She had no idea how to “make” herself say hello to a person passing by in the hall or respond to a teacher. The idea of a sleepov

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Dawn Spragg

Nov 10, 2019
4 min

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Whether teens are dating or not, it's a good idea to talk to them about what a healthy relationship looks like.

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Dawn Spragg

Jul 22, 2019
2 min

Teen Anxiety

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Dawn Spragg

May 28, 2019
3 min

Adolescents and Risk Taking

Recently I've been exploring wide-spread and enduring beliefs about teenagers. This month I was thinking about how we as a society often explain the risky behaviour of adolescents, by saying, Oh, they think they're going to live forever, and I wondered, do they really? Teens are infamous for their poor decision making, renowned as reckless drivers and as users of alcohol and drugs. Research reports that forty percent of adolescents didn't use a condom the last time they had s

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Dawn Spragg

Apr 10, 2019
3 min

The Mythical Lazy Teen

Recently I've been exploring the myths we tell ourselves about teenagers. Last month, I discussed why we perceive teens as selfish; this month I wanted to put another common complaint under the microscope: teens are lazy. Certainly, they can seem this way. They sleep in late; they put off doing homework, they forget to take out the trash (again); they are more content to play video games than to think about the future. So, what's going on here? Well, to be honest: a lot of th

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Dawn Spragg

Nov 18, 2018
2 min

So You Want Your Teen to Be Happy

With Thanksgiving this week, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude. Gratitude can act as a bond between people. If someone has been kind to you, or done you a service, you are naturally inclined to go out of your way for them. Not surprisingly, there is a growing body of research that shows that there is an association between feeling thankful and feeling contented. I find this interesting because as parents, youth workers and teachers we tend to work towards our children'

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Adolescence & Brain Development: The Struggle To Fit In

Dawn Spragg

Aug 5, 2018
2 min

Adolescence & Brain Development: The Struggle To Fit In

For the past two months, I have been exploring some of the effects that normal brain development has on adolescent behavior. In today’s post, I want to examine the repercussion of the increase in oxytocin receptors that occurs during adolescence, and how parents can respond to this. Oxytocin is sometimes called the love or the cuddle hormone, because when we hug or kiss someone, when we have sex, give birth, or just bond socially, our oxytocin levels rise. The abundance of th

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Adolescence & Brain Development: Why Your Teenager Is Still Sleeping

Dawn Spragg

Jul 25, 2018
2 min

Adolescence & Brain Development: Why Your Teenager Is Still Sleeping

This summer I am exploring some of the effects that the adolescent brain has on adolescent behaviour, and today I wanted to look at what happens when melatonin release is delayed. Melatonin is also known as “the darkness hormone” and it help all people fall asleep. In adults, it is released at about 10 pm, but in teenagers it is released three hours later! (1) This three hour delay means that your teenager is liable to have a hard time falling asleep, and an even harder time

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Adolescence and Brain Development: You're Stressing Me Out

Dawn Spragg

Jul 1, 2018
2 min

Adolescence and Brain Development: You're Stressing Me Out

Over the next few weeks, I will continue exploring different aspects of adolescent development, and the ways in which these effect adolescent behaviour. This week, I want to look at the effect of myelination, the process during which nerve cells are coated by fatty lipids. Myelination actually begins at birth in the brain stem, but at the beginning of adolescence, myelination starts to occur in the frontal cortex, which is responsible for, “motor function, problem solving, sp

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Adolescence and Brain Development: Responding to Reward

Dawn Spragg

Jun 17, 2018
2 min

Adolescence and Brain Development: Responding to Reward

So much has been written -and read!- about the development of very young children, as if once we've got our kids sleeping and eating their vegetables, the battle is over, and yet adolescence presents brand new challenges for parents that are no less rooted in their biological development. Exaggerated activity in the nucleus accumbens relative to pre-frontal cortex activity is one of the important ways adolescents differ from children and adults. The nucleus accumbens is assoc

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Dawn Spragg

Mar 19, 2018
2 min

Self Harm and Teens

March is Self Harm Awareness Month. What do parents need to know about self harm? First, it's not uncommon. An estimated 13-23% percent of teens (1) engage in self-harm, across all genders and races. Although it is more prevalent in girls, it also affects boys. It is considered a coping mechanism for difficult experiences, and can encompass practices like cutting, burning, hair pulling, scratching, bone breaking, bruising, or swallowing dangerous substances. A teen who self

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Dawn Spragg

Feb 25, 2018
2 min

4 Tips to Help Adults Connect to Teens

Last week, I posted advice for teens on how to better connect to the adults in their lives, excerpted from an interview I did with my good friend (and award winning author!) Lela Davidson. This week, I wanted to share more advice from the same interview. So here's four tips on how adults can connect with teens. 1. Partnership over parenting. While teens still need guidance to avoid risky and impulsive behavior, parents have already often done the instruction. They've told the

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Dawn Spragg

Feb 4, 2018
2 min

Born to Be Wild Review

As promised, I want to share my reaction to Jess Shatkin’s book, Born to Be Wild. I can honestly say that this is a wonderful read, but a word of caution: it is not for the faint of heart. The research is dense and at times difficult to wade through, but it is the basis for Shatkin’s challenge to society’s current ideas about why kids take risks and he offers great advice for parents and people who work closely with teenagers! It was once thought that teenagers engaged in ri

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Dawn Spragg

Jan 22, 2018
2 min

Using Our Kindest Voice

Recently, one of my clients shared a piece of writing with me that describes herself and she has allowed me to share it with you now. On weekdays, she was a reliable and generally good person with values, morals, and messages, for those who attended school and extracurricular activities. For those who saw her sun of a face, they knew this to be true, and were pleased with the warmth it provided their skin, yet some found themselves burned by glancing too long to find she was

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Dawn Spragg

Jan 7, 2018
2 min

Five Questions

I frequently use videos in my practice to encourage teens to talk about themselves, to explore their feelings, and to help them identify paths forward. One of my favorite videos to use is this YouTube clip of Dean James Ryan's prepared remarks to graduates of Harvard's Graduate School of Education in May of 2016, in which he encourages his students to ask five questions of themselves regularly as a way of living a more fulfilling life. Dean Ryan’s 5 Essential Questions 1. Wai

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Dawn Spragg

Dec 18, 2017
2 min

My Favorite Books: Untangled

While I am reading Born to Be Wild, I wanted to share with you one of my all time favorite books about teens: Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood , by Dr. Lisa Damour, director of the internationally renowned Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls. Published in February 2016, this book has it all! It's easy to read, has wonderful and pragmatic advice for parents, and it's based on real science!!! It's a must read for anyone wit

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Dawn Spragg

Dec 11, 2017
1 min

Born to Be Wild

I am so excited to read Jess P. Shatkin's new book, Born to Be Wild: Why Teens Take Risks and How We Can Help Keep Them Safe. Check back here for a review of this much-anticipated book in January, and in the meantime, you can read Psychology Today's review of the book here! #parenting #communication #teens #books #JessPShatkin #BorntoBeWild #bookreview

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4 Ways to Help Teens Manage Their I-Lives

Dawn Spragg

Nov 14, 2017
2 min

4 Ways to Help Teens Manage Their I-Lives

In my last post, I wrote about the epidemic of suicide among teenagers. There are probably a lot of causes for this, including increased academic pressure and reduced authentic social networks. It's also true that social media use has been linked to anxiety and depression. Jean M Twenge explored this link last month in an article for the Atlantic titled, Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? It's a great read, and I encourage you all to check it out. In the meantime, here

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Dawn Spragg

Oct 16, 2017
2 min

Music for the Ages

I am often told by the teens I see for counseling that music-“my music” is their number one coping tool. My guess would be that many of you can remember a song that summed up or pushed you through your teen years. A song that expressed how you were feeling or helped you at least know you were not alone in what you were feeling. This April, a rapper named Logic released 1-800-273-8255. The lyrics provide a chilling narrative of how difficult life is for our teenagers right no

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Dawn Spragg, MS, LPC
Counselor
Certified Family Mediator
Speaker

Counselor & Speaker
spraggcounseling@icloud.com
479-619-5558
2525 W New Hope RoadRogers, AR 72758

Privacy

Dawn Spragg, MS, LPC Counselor Certified Family Mediator Speaker

Counselor & Speaker spraggcounseling@icloud.com 479-619-5558 2525 W New Hope RoadRogers, AR 72758

Privacy

Dawn Spragg, MS, LPC
Counselor
Certified Family Mediator
Speaker

Counselor & Speaker
spraggcounseling@icloud.com
479-619-5558
2525 W New Hope RoadRogers, AR 72758