Collett Smart

Collett Smart is a psychologist, qualified teacher, lecturer, author and mum of 3. She has spent the last 20 years of her career working in private and public schools, as well as working in private practice. Collett holds a degree in teaching and a post graduate degree in psychology, with a focus on working with children with additional educational needs. Collett's knowledge has led to her working with children, teens and their parents around Australia, inner city London in the UK, and in Africa. Collett's working week involves varied but complimentary roles. These include - delivering seminars, consultancy, teaching at a university in Sydney, media appearances and being mum to 3 children aged 9, 14 and 16 years … continue reading

Parents are having much farther reaching effects than they know

When you tell your child that they’ve reached their limit of screen time for the day or that they aren’t allowed to play a particular game because of its content, you aren’t going to see their grades improve immediately or better behavior tomorrow (in fact, you might see a lot of complaining today).
Teenagers, Sleep and Blue light

Sleep is vitally important for learning, memory, brain development and health. Hence, when we systematically allow our children to go to bed late we are sleep- depriving them during a time when their brains are still developing, and you couldn’t design a worse system for learning.
Changing negative thinking patterns

There are 3 reasons we lose motivation.
1. Lack of confidence
2. Focusing on fears
3. Loss of perspective
Supporting Teens with Depression

Depression is the most common mental health problem for young people. However, as we look at the current statistics of teen depression, regardless of how disturbing, they help us to recognise that it is a problem shared by many and has resulted in a growing resource of help and support.
How do I make rape ‘not funny’ to my teenage son?

I recently received an email from a parent with the exact subject heading as the title of this post. What got me thinking was that this was not the first time I had been asked/emailed/tweeted this question in recent months.
How much time should our kids spend with media?

Despite all of the new technology, many parents still seem to have few rules about use of media by their children and adolescents. In a recent study, two-thirds of children and teenagers reported that their parents have “no rules” about time spent with media. (Wow!)
Video Games can be good for you…wait, what?

“You know what’s really exciting about video games is you don’t just interact with the game physically—you’re not just moving your hand on a joystick, but you’re asked to interact with the game psychologically and emotionally as well. You’re not just watching the characters on screen; you’re becoming those characters.”

Think health, not weight

If you focus on weight instead of health, then you leave yourself open to doing clearly unhealthy things to lose weight. Rather than setting a ‘weightloss’ goal, set achievable, healthy, food and exercise goals. Aim for activities you enjoy doing and healthy foods you like to eat.