Posts Tagged ‘infant’

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Play and your child

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

At The Goddard School, first time parents sometimes ask about the best way to bond and interact with their child.  Here are some insights from Dr. Pruett, MD.

Find ways to involve your children in the richness of your ‘grown-up’ life.  Be creative and patient because the results are worth your effort!
best preschool
For young children, play is a lot more than entertainment. It is central to their development.  A wonderful way to play with and teach children is to bring them into your world, where ‘real-life’ happens.  Children love to do ‘grown-up’ things and to imitate you.  And when they contribute, they see themselves as players and get a well-earned self-esteem boost!

Children also learn about important values and concepts from watching you.  They see the result of practice and perseverance, and they come to know that learning is a lifelong process. They see that everyone, even a grown-up, can make mistakes and can learn from them.

There are two easy and enjoyable ways for your children to play in the grown-up world: you can let them help with your chores and you can include them in your favorite pastimes.

Work as play:  Include your children in your household routine.  There are countless safe ways for children to help with meals, laundry, shopping or cleaning.  They can help mix recipe ingredients, pick fruit at the grocery store, water the garden or pack their lunch.  These activities are fun learning experiences, especially if you are teaching informally along the way.  The chores may take a little longer as they learn the ropes, make mistakes, and work at a snail’s pace, but the value for their learning and their self-regard are more than worth the extra time.

Hobbies and pastimes:  Share your interests with your children.  This is one of the most intriguing, emotionally rich forms of learning that children can receive.  Teach your children about your avocations, and keep up with your piano, chess, painting, hiking or gardening.   Your enthusiasm for your hobbies will be infectious and offer many ways for your children to learn and develop skills.

Kyle D. Pruett, M.D., is an advisor for The Goddard School®.  Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years.  He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx.  You  can find out what we’re doing that’s educational and fun each month with the Goddard School monthly events SUBSCRIBE HERE

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TV and Literacy

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

The topic of TV time comes up with parents and many are not aware of its negative effect upon children, including literacy.  The following article provides some interesting insights:

Are you surprised that the American Academy of Pediatrics says no television before age two?  This standard alerts parents of infants, toddlers and preschoolers that their children are strongly affected by the talking tube and that they need to consider the way their children are exposed to its powerful influences.

  • If you chose to allow your children to view television, consider limiting the amount of “watching time” in their first three years to 30-90 minutes per day. This is more than enough for their young brains and eyes.  Children prefer, and benefit from, interacting with people far more.
  • The programming you chose should be specifically directed at the age of your child. Most good parenting magazines regularly publish guidelines that tend to be more objective and reliable than an advertiser’s suggestions.
  • Commercial-free is far better for eyes, ears, and minds.  Fewer interruptions and a generally higher level of intellectual and emotional content are the benefits.
  • A child’s room does not need a television. Television may inhibit a child’s desire to read and play imaginatively for years.
  • When your children watch television, watch with them.  They may need your help to decipher the barrage of messages, and only you know when they have had enough.  Occasional babysitting by means of television so you can get something done is understandable, but may be a waste of your child’s time and mind.

These guidelines should be discussed regularly by all adults in your household. The evening news may matter to the grown-ups, but it is frequently incomprehensible and somewhat frightening to your little ones. Media-literate parents are great blessings to their children.

Suggested resource: Coalition for Quality Children’s Media www.cqcm.org

Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. is an advisor for The Goddard School®.  Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years.  He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.  Subscribe to The Goddard School monthly newsletter by CLICKING HERE

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Literacy and How to Build a Prison

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Ever wonder how to build a prison?  I don’t know the details behind the brick and mortar process but it’s pretty easy to predict where one will be needed.  Like many states do, look at the literacy rate per capita geographically.  The population reading at or below a third grade level is a very reliable predictor of where crime will flourish.  This is tied to the dismal illiteracy rate in the prison population – a whopping 70%!
Illiteracy also creates a “prison of the mind.”  Lets imagine that you find yourself enrolled in an advanced graduate course on quantum mechanics.  Problem is, you’ve never had a single course in this subject matter prior!  You’d find yourself on the first day dealing with terms and ideas such as “black body radiation” that have no meaning to you.  Unfortunately this is what some of our young elementary students experience their first day in class.  They have had no exposure to the most basic concepts of reading.  Without aggressive intervention, they will never catch up.

A child reading in Brookline Booksmith, an ind...
Image via Wikipedia

How does this happen?  One reason is the lack of books in the child’s home during preschool years.  The average middle income family will have 13 child appropriate books per child.  A lower income family has none – there will be 1 book per 300 children in these communities!

Besides the cost of crime, illiteracy has other social implications.  How about this sad statistic?  Illiteracy will cost the country $225 billion per year when you consider job training, health and other problems it creates.  This equates to a third the cost of the current financial bailout!

For the next several weeks, I’ll be exploring in more depth the impact illiteracy has to our community.  I’ll also have some suggestions and ideas on what we can do to address it.  As Joseph Addison once said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”  I hope that together we’ll get more of our children “fit” for reading!

Butch Aggen is owner of The Goddard School of Cedar Park and volunteers for Leander Educational Excellence Foundation’s efforts to promote early childhood literacy.   Questions or comments are welcome.

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Siblings

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

So your expecting your second child?  Congratulations!  At The Goddard School of Cedar Park, parents often wrestle with how to make it a smooth transition for the oldest child.  Here are some great suggestions by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D in a guest article:

Nothing unsettles the lives of children quite like the birth of a sibling: special event for parents = profound disruption of familial bliss for children.  Some children take it in stride, but the majority may not. Having a sibling forces children to share the wealth in an important and healthy adaptation to living in the real world.  Here are a few ideas about how to ease the pain, and promote the joy:

  • ‘Me, myself and I’ – The mantra of toddler-hood reminds us that 18 to 24 months finds most kids falling short of being able to participate in the care of a younger sibling. They have just begun to take care of their own business, so looking after someone else’s (with whom you have to share mom and dad) is annoying to say the least.
  • By 48 months:  Children are able to feel some ownership of a new baby – rocking, diapering, comforting, and playing with a baby are possible, if not always high on their list of fun things to do.  They own enough familial territory by now that they can afford to share.
  • A younger sibling often adores an older sibling.  Teach your older one (don’t ignore the boys) to be tender and gentle when holding or feeding the baby.  This is great training for future intimacy and competent parenting.
  • Preserve time alone with your older children several times a week. They may no longer be the ‘only,’ but they are the still the ‘first,’ and certain privileges pertain, along with new responsibilities!
Dr. Kyle D. Pruett, M.
Image via Wikipedia

Don’t underestimate how your own experience as a sibling -in a particular birth order – affects your perception of your children’s experience. You may be off by a mile in your evaluation of your child’s jealousy of a new baby if you are the baby in your own family, or the first-born.

Keep the dialogue open with your children about the shape of their sibling relationships and you will learn a lot.

Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. is an advisor for The Goddard School®.  Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years.  He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.

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Mom and Dad are Different

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

At The Goddard School, the subject of parenting differences comes up on numerous occasions.  Read the following for some great insight on this topic!

by Kyle D. Pruett, M.D.
Mothers and fathers care for their children in very unique ways.  Children can recognize the differences between mother and father care, which actually enhances their development.  This article focuses on the critical role fathers play in a child’s development.

Newborns can differentiate between mom’s voice and touch and dad’s voice and touch.  Although mom may have gotten a head start on the bonding process with the baby, dads have their chance, too.  By six weeks old an infant can distinguish a father’s voice from a mother’s, and while a quiet baby may pay more attention to mom’s voice, an upset baby will calm more readily to his father’s handling.  Mothers usually are very consistent in the way that they handle their children, often picking them up in the same manner, saying the same thing before they handle them, for example, at bath or bedtime.  Dads rarely approach the baby with such consistency.  Each time they pick up the baby, they usually do so in a different manner than before, but this helps the baby recognize that it is dad who is holding him.

Parents with child Statue, Hrobákova street, P...

Time with dad is typically less structured and more play-oriented than with mom.  Most of mother’s time with her children is dedicated to care-giving tasks or educational play, while dad’s time is less structured and full of impromptu play.  Where mom uses toys, dad tends to use his body.  Dads are typically more physical with the kids and they love it.  Physical play helps to stimulate both physical and brain development.  Dads also have a tendency to make any situation educational, even if they don’t realize it themselves, so that a father’s tasks around the house might be an adventure for the child.

Fathers challenge their children to learn.  Obviously, both mom and dad want to help their child learn in any way they can, but they do this differently also.  For example, when teaching a frustrated child, a mother tends to assist her in finding the answer; whereas, a father is more likely to guide the child through the frustration and challenge her longer to find the answer on her own.  Fathers also encourage more exploration and boundary pushing than moms do.  A father’s way of teaching his child persistence in the face of adversity results in positive academic and social performance in the long run.  Certainly, one style is not better than the other, and children absolutely benefit from both.

THE ROLE OF FATHERS
Recent research about the role of fathers and their approach to parenting include the following:

  • Fathers tend stylistically to encourage problem-solving skills by letting their kids struggle with frustration a little longer before stepping in to help.  (Of course, there is a huge personal variation here, as there is in mothers.)
  • Fathers permit a little more emotional autonomy during learning sequences with their young children, supporting and encouraging but without the same emphasis on intimacy that is more typical among mothers.
  • Fathers tend to mix play with learning a little more successfully, from the child’s point of view, allowing longer work periods.
  • Fathers’ more functional (‘do it because it needs to be done,’ rather than ‘do it because it will go better between us if you do’) approach to academic work builds in the child a larger range of problem-solving skills over time that probably contributes to more lasting self-esteem.

Kyle D. Pruett, M.D., is an advisor for The Goddard School®.  Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years.  He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx &  follow us on Twitter @  http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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Child Sleep Issues

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

At the Goddard School, parents will express concerns about their child’s sleeping habits and patterns.  The following article by Kyle Pruett, M.D., provides excellent insight on this topic.
Children’s sleep issues are among the more challenging developmental stages for parents to master.  But biology is on the parents’ side in this one, because sleep patterns mature over time just like other developmental skills.

  • Polls tell us that one-third of American children and their parents sleep together some or most of the time before children start school. Co-sleeping varies hugely by culture and ethnicity. So think about what you want to do, and discuss the pros and cons with your pediatrician.
  • Make sure your crib is safe (locking rails), that your older child’s ‘big bed’ has side rails, and if you are co-sleeping, that there is plenty of room.
  • The human brain is active during sleep, but the deepest sleep is typically at the beginning of the night.  Babies spend more time than older children in stimulating REM sleep, with eye movements and irregular breathing. Don’t worry about all that action in your child’s body – it too is growth.
  • Start them young – do not ignore the importance of naps, watch for the yawn, and start bedtime early in the evening.
  • The transition from crib to bed is also a time of sleep pattern changes, but most kids want it to work.
  • To instill good sleep habits remember that consistency matters so much:

o Bath Time
o Goodnights
o Tuck and Talk Bedtime Story
o Lullabye (yours are best)
o Goodnights
Goddard School
This all sounds well and good, but it is a rare family that hasn’t had to handle some sleep trouble along the way.  If your family is trying to re-establish a lapsed routine, stay calm and reassuring.  We almost all need more sleep than we get, and it is a tremendous gift to our children to teach them how to sleep well.

Suggested Resource: American Academy of Pediatrics http://www.aap.org
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Kyle D. Pruett, M.D. is an advisor for The Goddard School®.  Dr. Pruett is an authority on child development who has been practicing child and family psychiatry for over twenty-five years.  He is a clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale University’s Child Study Center.

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Creating Quality Family Time

Friday, January 8th, 2010

The Goddard School of Cedar Park knows creating quality family time can be quite a challenge, especially when you are a modern day family in which both parents work. However, just because you and your significant other work full time jobs does not mean that your family has to suffer. It is possible for you and your spouse to hold down full time jobs to support your family and still be able to take a time out for your family.

Raineri Children family portrait Watford 2001 ...

Creating quality family time is a crucial part of your family. It may seem like a challenge to fit the time in there, but it is possible and it is necessary. Taking a time out to spend time with your family is beneficial to your entire family, especially children. Family time should be exactly what it says, a time for you and your family to spend time together. Make the most of this time and make it solely about your family.

One of the most important things about this time besides that the time should be about your family is that it should be a time that everyone enjoys. For instance, if your family loves to watch movies, then spending time having a family movie night would be a great idea for creating family quality time.

The key to creating quality family time is to make time. We all have busy schedules, but family is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing that we have. We need to step back from our busy schedules and take time to enjoy our families more often. Sit down with your family and evaluate your schedules. Do you really need to go to the gym seven days a week? Find a way to make a “family night” once a week or a time frame each night. You will find that this time becomes one of the mandatory events in your planner.

This time for your family is great. The more often that you can do it is wonderful. However, it does not matter whether you have a family day or a certain time every evening that you spend quality time together, the important thing is that you do it.

Once your family has created a specific day or time frame that is good for creating quality family time, you should find a way to spend your time. Doing the same thing every time can become boring and may cause someone in the family to become bored with the activity, so it may be best to mix up family time. For instance, you could rotate turns on who gets to pick the activity for family night.

Some great ideas for family time include:
-Crafts
-Family game night
-Family movie night
-Outdoor activities

These are just a few of the many things that you and your family can enjoy during your family’s quality time together. The key to having an enjoyable family time is spending time with your family, doing something that you all are enjoying and having fun doing together.

Your kids will enjoy getting to be in charge of creating quality family time when it is their day to pick an activity. This is also a great way to spend time with your child. Your child can express themselves and you will learn more about your child. Your child will have a good time because they got to pick an activity for family time that they enjoy and you will enjoy it because your child chose the activity. Quality family time is a time that everyone will love.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx &  follow us on Twitter @  http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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Sign Language and Literacy

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

At the Goddard School of Cedar Park, we begin sign language with babies in our infant suite.  We do this because it accelerates speech development and promotes early childhood literacy.  Today’s article is by guest contributor, Tara Kendrick, mom-entrepreneur and owner of My Smart Hands Austin, which teaches sign language to hearing babies, toddlers and their families.

baby_sign language_infant_goddard

I think one of my favorite things to do with my boys is to read and sign books. As babies my boys started out enjoying turning pages, pointing out pictures and lifting flaps. Then it was reading a story and them memorizing the words as a read the book for the hundredth time. Now that my oldest is 3 year old, he wants me to use his finger to follow the words as I read to him. It is so amazing to see their love of language at such a young age.
I have also seen huge jumps in language development with my 3-year-old and my 17-month-old because I taught them sign language as babies. Communicating with ASL has allowed us to understand each other more quickly, and has given them confidence in their surroundings. The boys love to learn and are excited when you are able to understand what their needs are.

Now, put reading books and signing together, and you have a double dose of language development! Not only can we empower our children by giving them the opportunities to share what’s on their minds, but also we can help develop their imagination, verbal and language skills.

In a study conducted by Marilyn Daniels, she showed that signing with books increases reading readiness, develops literacy skills, and enhances comprehension. When we sign while reading, we teach children to read and scan the most important words in a sentence.

When I teach parents how to sign a book to their child, I tell them to pick the important words on the page. The words that the child will best understand, such as the noun or action word. For example if you read “ The truck stopped at the house where the big dog sat.” You would sign truck, house and dog because these are the words the brain is focusing on.

The more the child can understand, the more he will be excited about reading with you and learn to love reading on his own!

SIGNING WITH BOOKS
Start with simple board books or touch-and-feel books that have simple, bright, and “touchable” pictures. I always like ones that have one picture and word per page.
When reading a story, remember you do not have to sign every word. Just pick out key objects or pictures that are important to you and your baby. You will be amazed at how meaningful and enriching reading combined with signing can be.  This is a great way to practice signing using repetition because babies love to hear the same book over and over.

The other benefits of signing with books include:

  • Increased imagination of the child.
  • Adds rich meaning to reading, making it a fun and inviting experience.
  • Associates reading with positive experiences and opportunities for a shared experience for mom, dad and siblings.
  • Encourages the child to be an ACTIVE participant: the child is involved in the PROCESS of reading while you point out words and they SIGN along with the book.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx & follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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Bonding With Your Infant

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

At The Goddard School of Cedar Park, infants as young as six weeks are cared for in our infant suite. Bonding with your baby is a natural and ongoing process and will become a precious part of parenthood to be cherished. Let’s explain by giving some examples and insights.

The bonding between parent and infant will always unique is one of the most intimate type of interactions that can take place. There is first the sense of discovering each other and then becoming familiar with one another. Your baby will depend on you because he knows that his needs are being met by you in the most simplest of ways.

Mother and baby
Image by ECohen via Flickr

They will feel your face and get to know your individual scent as you do theirs. They’ll start recognizing your shape, your voice, your sounds and many other things that are new to their world. They trust you from the start because they have no choice but soon they look forward to your voice and know they want your love. They know they depend on you not just for their needs but for interaction and affection.

Some time after you start bonding with your infant, you may experience an epiphany. It’s the realization that this baby is a part of you and in fact is an extension of yourself yet will grow to be their own person. You are everything to this infant’s world as they are to yours. Other than the baby’s everyday needs, they need interaction and the more they get the more chance they have of being a self-assured and well-adjusted individual.

In addition to physical contact, eye contact is important for many reasons to the emotional bonding with your child. They learn from your eyes – when they see them twinkle when you laugh, for example. It helps to teach trust and to gain trust, it helps to identify each other and it helps to establish an unspoken familiarity seen in the eyes of each other. It will start with you but will extend on into their lives and continue to benefit them as they grow and mature.

Bonding with your infant at first is usually strong and can be overwhelming but most wonderful at the same time. Talking to your baby and looking into their eyes often while being gentle, being funny and being affectionate gives them that positive emotional connection with a parent that will be with them for the rest of their life. Trust, needs, wants, appreciation, emotion, comfort, familiarity, confidence, security, self-worth and self-esteem and many of life’s lessons all start with the bonding that occurs in your infant’s first months.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx & follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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Toddlers and Infants Reap Benefits with Learning Second Languages

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

At The Goddard School of Cedar Park, it’s not unusual to hear languages other than English spoken by our children. Like most parents when we first have our children and they are small infants and toddlers we often get caught up in all the emotions of seeing their adorable faces and marveling over the little things they do like clapping their hands together for the first time or taking those first steps. However we often forget that their little minds are like sponges and how beneficial it is for them to learn more advanced things such as second languages. Some homes are naturally bilingual but for other homes they often leave learning second languages up to the school or something for the instructors or teachers to do. Let’s take a look at all the advantages that come with teaching infants and toddlers second languages at home while they are still little.

A picture of a young child
Image via Wikipedia

Studies have been going on for many years that show how beneficial teaching a new language to babies and young children can be. From the second they are born up until they are five years old children are able to absorb new materials very easily. This short window of opportunity is often overlooked. Instead of focusing on the simple things your child is likely to learn on their own one should consider trying to teach them a second language. It is not very difficult to do and there are many small steps you can take to get a head start.

You can begin teaching second languages when they are just small infants. Babies can understand a great deal even before they are able to communicate. Just as a baby first learns to speak and say the basic words like “Ma-Ma” and “Da-Da” they are also able to learn words of other languages just as easily. As their brain develops they are able to track certain sounds, contours and rhythms of words and languages.

I’ll continue with some more ideas on second languages in my next blog. Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx & follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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