Talks & Presentations

Dr. Steiner-Adair speaks on a wide range of topics, including child development and parenting, health and well being, psychological risk and resilience, social and emotional intelligence and leadership education, gender equity, media literacy, healthy relationships on and offline and best practices for technology at school and home.  

Her Expertise Includes:

Technology

  • The impact of technology on children’s psychological well being, social relationships, creativity and cognitive development.
  • The impact of technology on child development, parent- child relationships, family life and work-life integration.
  • Best practices for how, when and why to use technology at school, home, on the campus, and throughout the extended school community:
  • The neurological and cognitive tech effect- from distraction to obsession to addiction
  • How to Use Tech as an Ally for Strengthening School Culture and Building Community
  • What it is like to be a child growing up in the Digital Age
  • The disconnect between how students connect in class and on line
  • The psychological fallout of tech for children of all ages, couples and families
  • How to strengthen family relationships in the Digital Age

Social and Emotional  Learning, Health and Wellness

  • Social and emotional learning (SEL) (pre K -12).
  • Health and Wellness Curricula (K-12)
  • Strengthening Advisory and developing an integrated approach to Social and Emotional Learning, Health, Sexuality and Wellness Education, Digital Citizenship, Leadership and Character Education, (k-12)
  • Psychological resilience and risk prevention, (Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and other psychological issues)
  • Parent education, parenting challenges, and strengthening school-parent relationships (preschool through college age children.)

Girls

  • Girls’ psychological development – risk and resilience
  • Educating Sustainable Girls-Teaching Smart Girls to Outsmart Unhealthy Messages
  • Educating Girls to Lead and Closing the Leadership Gap for Women
  • Eating Disorders Education, Prevention and Treatment

Psychological Concerns

  • Leadership support and consultation for school leaders
  • Innovative approaches to School Counseling and Psycho-Education
  • Crisis consultation for issues arising in a school community

Workshops, presentations and talks for students include:

Technology

  • Your Brain on Tech! Understanding the Neurological, Psychological and Social impact of the choices your make – and the Ethics of the Attention Economy ( 5-12)
  • Let’s Connect! The Impact of Tech on How We Think, Act, Relate and Create (grades 4-12. college)
  • When Did Cruel Get Cool: Understanding Relational Aggression On and Off line (grades 4-12)
  • What’s Love Got to Do With It? Courtship in the Digital Age (grades 9-12, college)
  • Facebook or Fakebook?: Reclaiming Friendship, Courtship, and Healthy Relationships in the Digital Age
  • Taming the Tech Effect: Using Tech as an Ally to Strengthen School Spirit/ Culture

Social and Emotional  Learning

  • Your Brain on Tech: The Impact of Tech on Learning, Creativity and Compassion (grades 5-12)
  • The Big Disconnect: Students in Class and Students on Line (grades 6-12)

Girls

  • Girl Power: Teaching Smart Girls to Outsmart the Culture (grades 6-12)
  • Body Politics: Girls, Culture, and Preventing Eating Disorders
  • Educating Girls to Lead and Closing the Leadership Gap for Women
  • OMG!: The Impact of Tech and Media on Girls’ Relationships (grades 4-12)

Psychological Concerns

  • Don’t You Get It? I Can’t Calm Down! How Anxiety Highjacks our Brains and Self Regulation Can Help
  • Calming the College Frenzy (Grades 1011,12)

Workshops, presentations and talks for educators and parents include:

Technology

  • Let’s Connect! Parenting Strategies for Tech Health and Wellbeing During the Pandemic
  • The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age
  • How to be a Go –To Parent: Strategies for Creating Strong Family Connections in the Digital Age
  • Lost in Connection: How the Wonders of Tech Puts Children’s Development at Risk
  • Digital Citizenship and Cultural Literacy: Teaching Smart Kids to Outsmart Unhealthy Cultural Values
  • The Brilliant Baby Brain: No Apps or Upgrades Needed (Infancy and Preschool)
  • Mary Had a Little iPad: The Wisdom of Tradition and the Wonders of Technology in Early Childhood Development (Pre-School, Elementary)
  • Fast Forward Childhood: When to Push Pause, Delete, and Play- (Elementary)
  • Going, Going, Gone: Tweens, Screens and the Perils of Independence-(Middle Sch)
  • Caught in the Middle: The Impact of Media on Middle School Kids’ Development
  • Teens, Tech, Temptation and Trouble:  Acting Out on the Big (and Little) Screen-(Upper School)
  • The Big Disconnect; Your Student on Line vs. Your Student in Class (Middle and Upper Sch)
  • The Sustainable Family: Seven Principals for Strengthening Family Connections in the Digital Age
  • What is Acceptable, Responsible, or Honorable? Using Tech as an Ally to Create Caring Creative School Culture
  • Digital Citizenship and Cultural Literacy: Teaching Smart Kids to Outsmart Unhealthy Cultural Values
  • Is Tech Addictive? From Distraction to Obsession to Addiction

Social and Emotional  Learning

  • When Did Cruel Get Cool: Understanding Relational Aggression and
  • Got GRIT? Strengthening Social and Emotional Intelligence, Character Education and Leadership Training at Home and at School
  • Raising Kids of Character
  • What’s Love Got To Do With It? Social Relationships in the Digital Age

Girls

  • Girl Talk for Dads: Raising Powerful Daughters
  • Closing the Leadership Gap: Educating Girls to Lead
  • When the Body Speaks: Effective Strategies for Strengthening Girls’ Body Image and Preventing Eating Disorders
  • Body Politics: Girls, Culture and Preventing Eating Disorders
  • Mothers and Daughters: Rewriting the Script
  • Dads and Daughters: Strategies for Raising Resilient Empowered Daughters
  • The Impact of Technology and Media on Girl’s Psychological Development
  • Helping Girls Lead Balanced, Healthy Lives
  • Educating Girls to Lead and Closing the Leadership Gap for Women
  • Dads and Daughters: Strategies for Raising Resilient Empowered Daughters
  • Rebooting Recovery: eating Disorders Education, Prevention and Recovery

Psychological Concerns

  • Calming the College Frenzy: A Playbook for High School Juniors, Seniors, and Parents
  • “Don’t you Get it!! I Can’t Calm Down!” A Parents Guide to Anxiety and Self Regulation
  • The Pressure to be Perfect: Smart Girls (or Kids) at Risk
  • Leaving Well and Landing Safely: A Graduation Guide for Seniors and Their Parents
  • Stomach Aches, Sleepless Nights, and Stressed for Success: The Spectrum of Stress and Anxiety in Children
  • Is Tech the Latest Addiction? – From Gaming to Texting and Sexting and What it Means for Families, Educators and Clinicians

Testimonials

“Catherine Steiner-Adair gave a terrific presentation at an All School Meeting of Phillips Academy Andover. The students and faculty, more than 1,200 strong, gave her a standing ovation at the end of her talk. This reaction to her talk was especially impressive because she had challenged the students about the importance of treating one another with respect and caring. The presentation captured the attention of the students in part by reflecting back to them their own words, language that the students themselves had posted online. The language, harsh and jarring, was read out loud on stage by respected members of the student community. Dr. Steiner-Adair set these words in context, held the audience, and delivered a thoughtful message about community, character, and the challenges of life online. What she did is not at all easy to do.” John Palfrey

Head of School, Phillips Academy Andover

“Catherine Steiner-Adair is a unique combination of brilliance and compassion. There is no one better at decoding the challenges that contemporary culture presents to the formation of a healthy childhood and a fulfilling family life – and in helping parents and kids develop the tools needed to shape a strong foundation for growing up in these times. She has become a tremendous resource for the Hathaway Brown community, and someone whose counsel we trust and treasure.” William Christ

Head of School, Hathaway Brown School

“I have never had so many faculty members register their positive responses to a consultant’s presence as have come to me to speak of your visit yesterday. It seems that you’ve touched a place in each of us that resonates with our questions about who these children are today and how we can work with them to provide guidance in their development as self-aware and compassionate human beings. Several have commented on their appreciation that you referenced trends and pressures on not only our young children but also the older adolescent population that they encounter now and will become eventually.” Janet Shaw

The Dalton School