Ask a Child Neuropsychologist Anything About Your Kid with Dr. Katie Davis

Today’s parents are surrounded by messages about everything that might be wrong with their kids and everything they should be doing to fix it. But when does a child actually need help, and when are they simply struggling with the normal, messy business of growing up? Join clinical neuropsychologist and author Dr. Katie Davis for a conversation about her new book, Actually, You’re Fine: How to Stop Overdiagnosing Your Child and Get Back to What Really Matters. Dr. Davis will discuss why parents have become so quick to view ordinary childhood challenges through a diagnostic lens, how to tell the difference between a problem that requires intervention and one that may resolve with time and support, and how parents can resist the pressure to optimize every aspect of their children’s lives. Following a brief introduction to the book and its ideas, Dr. Davis will take questions from the audience about parenting, child development, diagnoses, school, behavior, and more. Dr. Katie Davis, a Demarest native, is a clinical neuropsychologist, author, and professor of child psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University. In her private practice on the Upper East Side, she works with children, adolescents, adults, and families navigating questions about learning, attention, behavior, and development. Previously, she was a faculty researcher in Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins University and an NIH-funded Career Development Investigator at Columbia University. Her new book, Actually, You’re Fine (Hachette/Balance, October 13), offers parents a practical alternative to the culture of overdiagnosis and over-intervention. Demarest - Community Room