YPsych

25/09/2025

15/09/2025

This is a question we get asked all the time!
Procrastination in teens is often tied to executive functioning skills like task initiation, planning, and emotional regulation. It’s not laziness! It is very developmental (teens are still developing EF skills and struggling to get started is REALLY common. Here are some ways to help (because deadlines do build up!):

Break It Down. Large assignments feel overwhelming. Work with your teen to divide big tasks into small, clear steps (e.g., “open the document,” “write the title,” “outline 3 ideas”).

Use a “5-Minute Rule”. Encourage them to start by working for just 5 minutes. Once the brain gets going, momentum usually follows.

Timers, sticky notes, or a set start time (“begin math at 7:00”) reduce the mental load of deciding when.

Instead of nagging, sit down with them: “What feels hard about starting? What’s one step we can try right now?”

Celebrate Starts. Praise effort when they begin, not only when the whole task is complete. This reinforces initiation as a success.

👉 These tips are part of scaffolding. They are strategies to move from stuck → started → successful.

Here are some supports and strategies to help with task initiation: https://www.theottoolbox.com/task-initiation-executive-functioning-strategies/

09/09/2025

DBT : Dialectical thinking. the power of AND.

04/09/2025

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🎨 Thank you to .art for this wonderful visual

22/08/2025

Every child has the right to be protected, nurtured, and heard. Let’s make it happen—together.
📞 Need help? Call Childline Gauteng on 116 – free and confidential, 24/7
📱 Or WhatsApp us at 083 371 2104, and we’ll call you back.
🧡 Your voice could be the one that saves a child’s life.

22/08/2025

Study skills workshops!

22/08/2025

06/08/2025

08/07/2025

When we let go of perfection and choose to see our child’s effort — something shifts.

We stop chasing performance.
They stop fearing failure.

Because when a child hears “I see how hard you’re trying,” what they actually feel is: I am safe. I am enough. I don’t have to earn love through achievement.

And that changes everything — their confidence, their motivation, their relationship with themselves.

So much pressure melts away when we remind them that doing their best IS the win.

Because it’s not the grade, the goal, or the gold star that matters most…

It’s the human being they’re becoming along the way. ❤️

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