Published on: 27 June 2014


Australia’s leading child and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg returned to the Senior School to give boys important life advice and talk about technology to aid wellbeing. In the evening, parents were invited to Methodist Ladies’ College to hear Dr Carr-Gregg talk on ‘The use of technology in building happy and resilient children’.

Dr Carr-Gregg introduced Years 11 and 12 boys to a range of digital devices and apps, which could be helpful during their final years of school. He talked about Muse, a brain sensing headband, which aims to help improve wellbeing by reducing stress; and the UP24, which enables sleep patterns to be monitored and daily activity cycles to be tracked.

He recommended Smiling Mind, a meditation app for young people, which focuses the mind and helps improve the ability to learn; and talked about Google Glass, a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display, which may transform our learning and activities in the future.

However, above all Dr Carr-Gregg emphasised to all year groups, that sleep was still an essential ingredient to learning and wellbeing and he recommended the technique of toning down the light as one prepared for sleep.

The Years 7 to 10 boys were given ‘the most important pieces of life advice you’ll ever get’ including an insight into the benefits of positive psychology. Some of these included: forgive your enemies but never forget their names, do not waste energy on negativity, when we are together everything is better, bad things happen to good people and give yourself time to think before you act.