Category: Psychology

Play Like a Girl (or not) with Brenda Laurel

In this conversation with Brenda Laurel, we explore how girls play and what that means for women and game designers. We talk about the relationship between theater and gaming, and how the gaming world grew to change the way children live and develop. We talk about the importance of teaching. But most of all, we talk about what it means to be a creator in this world, someone who asks others to entrust their minds to our work.

Minibabble: Pointing the finger at moms

When there’s something wrong with a young child but there’s no easy diagnosis, where do you turn for an answer? Often, we blame the mom. From professionals to teachers to other parents, when a child’s behavior is baffling, the mom is suspect. Historically, disorders from autism to depression were blamed on mothers. Cold mothers, smothering mothers, inattentive mothers. In this short episode, two moms of young adult children talk about the struggles they went through in the early years getting appropriate diagnosis and treatment of their children’s disabilities. What they learned sends a message to everyone about where to look when an easy answer isn’t available.

Take the scaffolding down: Mothering neuroatypical adults

“What to Expect”-style books are very popular amongst moms, and for good reason. Most children follow relatively closely to what we expect from them. But some children deviate from the norm in ways that create great struggle: for caregivers, educators, medical professionals, and most of all, the parents raising them. In this episode, Wendy and Rebecca detail the struggle to get support for their children, the toll it took on their own sense of self, and finally, the growth and understanding that they achieved in the process of helping them to adulthood.

Minibabble: Extraordinary creatures

What do women see when we look at our culture looking at women? This sounds circular, but it is the way that many mature women see ourselves. When we look in a mirror, we don’t see light bouncing off our faces and bodies and reflecting back from a smooth surface. We see the cultural experience of seeing ourselves as women. In this Minibabble, women talk about the experience of being looked at as they look at themselves.