PARENT EDUCATION EVENING The triumvirate of good health
Plenty of sleep, good food and lots of exercise.
disruptive behaviour disorders and sleep, made his first visit to New Zealand in February, sharing his research findings with the College community – at a meeting for staff, assembly for the boys, and a presentation for parents. The author of Born to be Wild: Why teens take risks and how we can help keep them safe , Dr Shatkin has spent a lifetime studying teenage mental health and now leads the educational efforts
of the New York University Child Study Center, where he is Vice Chair for Education and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the NYU School of Medicine. Students aren’t getting enough rest, their diets need attention, and their exercise is inadequate, he says, referring to child and adolescent mental health studies conducted by his researchers at NYU. More sleep enhances and improves emotional functioning, and more exercise – ideally 60 minutes a day – enhances cognitive and academic development and social communication, while alleviating mild anxiety and depression. Dr Shatkin urges enhanced supervision of teens by parents. “The more parents know about their kids’ lives, the fewer risks they take. The more parents communicate with their kids, the more the parents are seen as trustworthy, the more the kids will seek their parents out for advice, instead of their friends or online sources.” “ Themore parents knowabout their kids’ lives, the fewer risks they take. ” Dr Jess Shatkin
While not the whole recipe, give a boy “the triumvirate of good health”, and you’ll be well along the path to ensuring his mental health is in good shape. American adolescent mental health expert Dr Jess Shatkin, whose major clinical interests are mood and anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
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