469: Human Development and Parenting

Understanding human development—its tremendous scope, typical progressions, and reasons for its slowdowns or ways various forms of harm can hinder our growth—­­has many benefits. Because we focus so much on faithdevelopment here on Mormon Matters, one area that we don’t often discuss is how insights from developmental research and hands-on work with families can assist us in parenting our children. And, as one of the guests in this episode notes, it can even help us be able to “re-parent” ourselves and heal wounds from our own growing years.

In this episode, we are very blessed to have two prominent developmental theorists and teachers—Terri O’Fallon and Kim Barta— give generously of their time and insights in a discussion of development in general, as well as the ways it can serve us well in parenting. How can it unlock puzzles in better understanding our children and their needs, as well as our own places of brokenness? Do we understand that we all have our own preferred style of parenting? Is it always the best style for a given moment, child, or issue? How might two parents with different approaches come to agree upon in raising a child? And much more!