Posts by Mica Gonzalez, PhD

As a therapist I regularly visit and observe children at preschools. By and large, I am encouraged by teachers’ efforts to educate and care for their young students. Of course, I sometimes also see environments where young children are not thriving in the way that parents would hope.

What makes the difference?

I’m not too big on reading blogs (Oh, the irony!). I get most of my learning from books or face-to-face experiences. But I recently happened upon a cool blog post that spoke to an idea I use with families all the time. It’s called Hanlon’s Razor, and while it may sound like an unpublished poem about an ambivalent, bearded man, it’s actually much less random and much more useful than that.

Without a doubt there are some people who are born geniuses. Mozart, for example, was reported to have published his first musical composition when he was only 5. Similar examples in math, science, and language abound. One thing that child prodigies have in common is that their abilities are easy to prove.

It’s amazing how early in life kids want their parents to mind their own business. Many parents of older children and teens lament how difficult it is to get their kids to talk about their lives and answer basic questions like, “How was your day?” But I have seen children as young as 3 in the habit of answering “Fine” and implicitly shutting down further discussion.