Workshops and Presentations
The heart of Dr. Thompson’s work is lecturing to parents, teachers and students about the development of boys, the social lives of both boys and girls, the parent-teacher dynamic, school culture, how to raise responsible children, and the psychological journey of children through school.
He travels about thirty days per year to make keynote presentations at conferences, to run professional development days for teachers, to consult to schools or to speak to parents. He has visited more than five hundred schools in the U.S., Europe, Central and South America, Asia and Australia and has been a keynote speaker for the National Association of Independent Schools, the International Confederation of Principals, the European Council of International Schools, The National Association of Elementary School Principals and the Near East/South Asia Council of International Schools
For additional information, see a sample day with Dr. Thompson or refer to a description of workshop topics. To schedule a workshop, contact Elizabeth Diggins — Administrative Assistant to Michael Thompson, Ph.D.
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SAIS Institute for Experienced Heads
Every summer, Drs. Michael Thompson and Rob Evans, two of the most experienced psychologist consultants in the independent school world, offer a three-and-a-half day workshop for experienced heads of school under the sponsorship of the Southern Association of Independent Schools…
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Homesick and Happy: How Time Away from Parents Can Help a Child Grow
Research shows that today’s parents spend more time with their children, are more emotionally engaged and are committed to the success of their offspring. There is only one problem: there are actually many times when parental absence is the magic ingredient for a child’s development.
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Best Friends/Worst Enemies: Friendship Development, Popularity and Social Cruelty in Childhood
Children don’t want adults to be involved in their social lives. They hate it when teachers "interfere." Yet teachers are witnesses to the exclusion of low-status children in elementary schools and the popularity wars of middle school…
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It’s a Boy: Your Son’s Development from Birth to Eighteen
Parents of boys often find themselves bewildered or frustrated by certain aspects of boy development: their little-boy anger, their inattentiveness in elementary school, their lack of motivation in middle school or their reluctance to talk to their parent…
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The Pressured Child: Helping Your Child Find Success in School and Life
"The Pressured Child" is, in fact, a presentation for "pressured parents" who have forgotten what school is actually like. It is a talk for parents who are gripped by worries and misapprehensions about their children’s life in school.
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Hopes and Fears: Working With Today’s Independent School Parents
Ninety-five percent of parents are loving and concerned people who only want their child to be known, understood and well taught. Although they may become anxious or angry at times, teachers should ready to handle parental concerns…
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How to Raise Responsible Children
Dr. Thompson mixes anecdote and clinical experience with research on the outcomes of different parenting styles and comes up with a warm-hearted recipe for providing children with an internal foundation for moral behavior. Early in life every child needs a “secure base;” later a child needs…
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Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys
"What’s the matter with my son?" "Why is he an underachiever in school?" "Why are boys so violent?" "Why won’t boys talk to adults?" Educators and parents in the United States are engaged in an important debate …
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Coming to Grips with Girl Overachievement and (Relative) Boy Underachievement
Girls academically outperform boys in elementary school, middle school, high school, college and graduate school. Fifty-eight percent of college degrees and 56 percent of graduate degrees go to young women…
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College Admission: A Failed Rite of Passage
This talk is an emotional survival guide to the college admissions process for high school juniors and seniors, as well as their parents. The end of high school and the transition to college…
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Adolescence is Hard Work
There are five developmental challenges which every adolescent must meet. There are no shortcuts and no exemptions, and these challenges are, from a psychological point of view, very strenuous…