About Lerner Child Development

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Trained as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, I began my career as a child and family therapist. When I was asked to lead the parenting education work at the highly esteemed organization ZERO TO THREE I couldn’t pass up the chance to make a more “macro” impact. In my 20+ years in this role I led the organization’s effort to translate the science of early childhood for parents and professionals—to empower them to nurture their children’s healthiest development through the development of hundreds of resources and trainings on a wide range of topics including: early brain development, positive parenting, and understanding and coping with challenging behaviors.

As part of my professional development work at ZERO TO THREE, I trained pediatricians and pediatric residents on how to integrate more attention to behavior and development into their visits with families and to provide more support to parents, overall, within that setting. This ultimately led me back to my greatest passion—working in the trenches with families—when one of the practices where I was providing training, Children’s Pediatricians and Associates (CP&A), asked me to provide child development and parenting guidance to the families they serve. 

Today, I spend the majority of my time providing consultation to families with children primarily ten years and under. I bring to this work my background in mental health, my clinical experience with thousands of children and families, my depth of knowledge about early development gained from my years at ZERO TO THREE, and my personal experience raising two amazing, wonderfully complex, and spirited children who provided my most important “training”. Truth be told, I am still learning and growing even though my kids are on the cusp of 30.

In addition to working with families, I continue to train pediatric residents and provide consultation to local preschools on understanding and responding to the needs of the children in their programs, especially when it comes to understanding and effectively addressing challenging behaviors.

I am also excited to be embarking on a new endeavor as an advisor to Little Otter Health, a start-up that is providing personalized, state-of-the-art online mental health care for children 0-12. Little Otter Health was founded by Dr. Helen Egger, previously of Child Psychiatry at NYU Langone and Duke University, in collaboration with a team of experts in child mental health.

My Approach

I am the clinician parents go to when popular parenting strategies have failed. My approach is informed by science, 35+ years of practice helping thousands of families solve the full range of vexing childrearing challenges, and lessons learned from my own parenting journey. In short, my work with families empowers them to thread the sometimes seemingly elusive needle of being the loving, connected, calm parent they so desperately want to be while setting the limits and boundaries kids need to thrive, which includes learning to:

  • Express feelings in acceptable ways

  • Cooperate with rules and limits

  • Be adaptable and flexible

  • Feel confident to muscle through challenges

  • Form positive relationships with peers

  • Function well in group settings (i.e., childcare or school)

Common problems we solve together include:

  • Ending power struggles, period.

  • Tantrums

  • Rigidity and inflexibility

  • Physical aggression

  • How to handle meltdowns outside the home

  • Sleep

  • Mealtime madness (i.e. picky eating, power struggles)

  • Potty learning challenges

  • Sibling conflict

  • Resistance to trying new things

  • Perfectionism and sore losing

  • Social/peer challenges

  • School behavior challenges


I also write extensively about my work with children and families. Learn more about my how to access my content through my new subscription service.