Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving...or Missing Sleep?

Length-22 minutes, 28 seconds

Dr. Lara Honos-Webb, host of The Sweet Spot Podcasts, interviews Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, MA author of Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving...or Missing Sleep? published by Harper Paperbacks.

Mary Sheedy Kurinka, MA

Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, MA, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized lecturer and parent educator. Her books Raising Your Spirited Child, Raising Your Spirited Child Workbook; Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles; and Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep have been translated into ten languages.

As director of parentchildhelp.com, Mary provides training nationally and internationally for families and professionals, including medical personnel, educators, and social service providers who serve families. Licensed as a parent educator and early childhood teacher, she has pioneered efforts to bring topics such as temperament, neurobiology, the importance of sleep, and emotion coaching into homes, schools, medical practices, and businesses. She is as comfortable as a keynote speaker for major professional conferences as she is working one on one with families in their homes or teachers in their classrooms.

Known for her real-life examples, Mary links research-based information with typical challenging behaviors and provides practical solutions that really work. Her presentations have helped hundreds of thousands of parents and professionals to understand children better, and themselves as well.

Mary’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Parenting magazine, Good Housekeeping, Parent Magazine, Working Mother, First for Women, and Speaker Magazine and on Good Morning America, National Public Radio, Good Morning Canada, Fox Nine News Good Day, and many other national and local television, radio, magazine, and newspaper venues.

She has also presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, National Conference.

A former director of one of Minnesota's largest Early Childhood Family Education programs, Mary is the founder of the Spirited Child and Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles workshops. She also provides individual parent consultations for families and professionals.

Mary graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota with a master's degree in Family Social Science and from Iowa State University with a Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education.

Born on a third-generation dairy farm, Mary lives with her husband in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the proud mother of one son and one daughter — now adults with whom she loves to spend time.