How to raise kids who can handle hard things | Kathryn Hecht
TED Health
TED
4.0 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Could exposing kids to their fears help them thrive later on in life? Exploring the science of exposure therapy, pediatric psychologist Kathryn Hecht shows how encouraging children to handle discomfort builds confidence and resilience. Through personal stories and practical strategies, she shares the secret for raising kids ready to meet life’s challenges.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is TED Health, a podcast from TED, and I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter. |
| 0:08.2 | Let me start with something that many of us have experienced in some way. |
| 0:12.7 | You're talking to someone you love, and they pause. |
| 0:16.6 | They lose their train of thought. |
| 0:18.5 | Repeat a story they already told you yesterday. |
| 0:21.2 | And you think to yourself, was that just a moment? |
| 0:24.3 | Or is it something more? |
| 0:26.2 | The truth is that for people facing Alzheimer's, |
| 0:29.5 | changes in memory didn't happen all at once. |
| 0:32.6 | It happened quietly, gradually. |
| 0:35.7 | A missed detail here, a repeated question there. |
| 0:38.3 | Suddenly, something that used to feel automatic wasn't. |
| 0:42.3 | And one of the hardest parts is this. |
| 0:45.3 | By the time we notice those changes, they've been unfolding for years. |
| 0:50.3 | So what if we could see some of this earlier? |
| 0:55.1 | Early enough to actually do something with that information. |
| 1:00.1 | And that's what caught my attention this week. |
| 1:02.9 | A study published in JAMA Network Open from the Journal of the American Medical Association |
| 1:08.1 | looked at a blood biomarker, something called plasma phosphorylated tau-217, or |
| 1:13.5 | p-tow-217. And yeah, I know that sounds like something you just hear about in a lab, |
| 1:19.1 | not in everyday life. But the idea behind it is surprisingly straightforward. Researchers are asking |
| 1:25.6 | whether a simple blood test could help identify who may be at |
... |
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