Actually, You're Fine
Description
Clinical neuropsychologist and child development expert Dr. Katie Davis offers a new approach to child development that calls for a paradigm shift in how we conceptualize and support neurodevelopment. Offering actionable insights, Actually You're Fine guides parents through conversations at home with their teens and preteens, and shows how to advocate for them at school and foster their potential everywhere else.
Starting from the point of 'what's normal, anyway?' there is practical support in this book at every level for any parent worried about their child's development. It explains the assessment process and helps you understand symptoms more effectively so you can make a decision about diagnosis. It gives insight into all the cognitive processes in your child's brain, helping you to understand what might and what might not be problematic. When is 'fine' actually 'not fine at all', and what can you do to help?
Most importantly, Actually You're Fine will help you to find balance in an all-or-nothing world, and to reclaim the narrative that your child is perfectly okay as they are - without the need to drive toxic levels of over-achievement.
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Dr. Katie Davis is a clinical neuropsychologist in New York City. She provides psychotherapy and cognitive remediation to teenagers with learning disorders and related developmental disorders. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Davis is a professor of child psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, where she studies cognitive development and learning. Previously, she was a faculty researcher in Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a NIH-funded Career Development Investigator at Columbia University's New York Psychiatric Institute and Mailman School of Public Health. She presents her research regularly at national conferences and publishes frequently in peer-reviewed academic journals, including Cognitive Neurology, Developmental Science, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Annals of Family Medicine. She is also featured frequently as an expert in the news media, including on Inside Edition, and in New York Magazine, Psychology Today, and Reader's Digest.
Dr. Davis is an avid writer, publishing a weekly Substack newsletter called Teensights, which focuses on issues relating to cognitive development, mental health, and education, and boasts a broad and dedicated readership of parents, educators, and mental health professionals. Dr. Davis is also a contributing author at Emily Oster's acclaimed platform, ParentData.
Dr. Davis received both her Master of Science and Doctor of Psychology from Yeshiva University's Ferkauf School of Psychology, where she was the recipient of the prestigious Golding Distinguished Scholars Fellowship. She completed her predoctoral clinical training appointments at the Churchill School and Center, New York Presbyterian-Columbia School-Based Mental Health Program, New York Presbyterian-Columbia Department of Pediatric Oncology, and Weill Cornell Medical College Department of Neurosurgery. Her postdoctoral research fellowship in the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Lab in the Columbia University Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry focused on the neural correlates and biological bases of learning disorders. Prior to graduate school, she received her Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Education Studies and Music from Brown University.
