Child Development Columnist
Dr. Eliana Park
Writing about what kids actually feel during the small rituals adults plan around them
What I cover
- Children’s emotional experience of school rituals
- Picture-day stress, sensory considerations, performative smile fatigue
- Comfort strategies that work without bribing or pressuring
- Reading resistance as communication
About
Dr. Park writes about the emotional experience of childhood events — the quiet pressure of picture day, the social weight of classroom milestones, the moments where a child’s response tells parents more than the event itself does. Her column at SmilePlease centers the child’s perspective without blaming parents or children.
Her framing is behaviorally grounded. When she talks about anxiety, confidence, or resistance, she does so in terms of what’s being communicated — what a kid’s tone, posture, or silence is actually asking for. Her goal is not to produce calmer children so much as to help parents interpret signals accurately.
She is pointedly uninterested in advice that shames. If a morning went badly, her work starts with "what happened, and what did that mean?" rather than "here’s where you went wrong."