Category Archives: neurodevelopment

next week we go screen free

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profilepicKia Ora geeks.  Getting ready to turn off, here.  Husband is unenthusiastic as can be.  Big Girl is a little better.  Baby Girl will be deceived into thinking TV is broken.  She’s two.

A family’s prep for screen free week is described here, and this is from Psychology Today – some brain benefits of unplugging are included.

Whether you’re into Screen-Free Week or not, I reckon you will DIG these fab resources from the excellent organisation known as TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment).

While we’re at it, check out this great news from Brazil, where it is now illegal to market directly to children, and look at this primo follow up on the 1981 LEGO ad.

Finally, the legendary Lillian Katz is still raising consciousness about childrens’ early learning, this time cautioning against attempting to teach children to read too young.

the happy juggle

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Hellooooo geeky whanau.

Straight into it then … here is a fab article about babies from Psychology today about babies.  Eat it up!  Share with your friends!  Another bit of baby deliciousness is to be found in this resource from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  It’s a PDF of ideas for supporting babies to entertain themselves screen-free.

What else?  Brain scans show us that there are different ways of relating to numbers, and also that fear makes our sense of smell more powerful.

Here is research from the Journal of Neuroscience to suggest that the brain benefits of learning music last for a lifetime, and I humbly invite you to check out the podcasts that Nathan and I created for Family Times.  Check back often, k?

In other more personal news, since last I blogged I have submitted an article (and made an editor tear up!  Hurrah!), we’ve celebrated a birthday in my house (complete with triumphant cake icing session!) and enjoyed a magical noho marae in a glorious bit of the country.

Next I await publication of my letter of the month (could I be more excited?) in Good magazine … I blogged about it here … and I gotta get cracking in fulfilling my role as peer reviewer for the Southern Early Childhood Association.  Jeepers!  Before I can do this, though, there is ANOTHER birthday in my house tomorrow, and a cake needs creating!

 

mothers, children, families

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A couple of weeks ago I recorded some podcasts with my friend & colleague, Nathan Mikaere-Wallis.  They will be hosted by our friends at Family Times magazine and will be live in about ten days.  I completely, publicly forgot the referencing info for all this deluxe temperament research, so here is my atonement. 

Meanwhile, there is chaos and unrest in the Ukraine.  I wonder if any of you geeky friends were moved to tears by video of the “Send In the Mamas” protest?  Kind of reminds me of that story about Jimmy Carter getting stalled peace talks going again by having participants share family photos.  But I can’t find a reference for this story so there is a chance that I have made it up.

I have also been inspired by the extra-curricular work of the AWESOME children’s entertainer, the musician known as Raffi.   He has founded the Centre for Child Honouring, and you can learn about it by following that link back there.

A couple of links for the brainiacs: one is brand-spanking from the journal Pediatrics … here is the abstract describing interventions to improve cortisol regulation in children (Dr. Jack Shonkoff is listed as an author, so it’s gotta be good), AND this is an interview with neuroscientist James Fallon, whose brain scan suggests that he shares brain patterning with psychopaths.  Good times!

As always, I’d love to share more.  As always, the real-life demands of my real-life family must trump all else.  Arohanui xx

new article from this geek

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Hello friends,

An article I wrote was just published in Tots to Teens.  You can read it here.

And now for a smattering of the groovy stuff I’ve been reading and learning and thinking about … I have found a fab website by a smart gal named Rebecca Haines.  Here blog is fantastic – here is just one example … tools for teaching media literacy to preschoolers.

She also has me coveting this range of dolls …  bodies that are to scale with actual children instead of all the big boob, permanent high-heel feet we all know so well.

In this season of covetousness, I am grateful for this post from the folks at Hand in Hand Parenting.  It is all about the gift inherent in a loving parental “No”.   This is a free online psychology textbook called “the Noba Project”, here is a link to a write up about new research into a likely cause of SIDS, and this link is a description of research into the differences between the male and female brains.

Here is an excellent website sponsored by the government of South Australia – it’s called Great Start and it is overbrimming with lovely play-based learning ideas to explore with children.

One last thing: this project was launched in opposition to the post-Thanksgiving “Black Friday” shopping frenzy.  I am completely in love with the idea of mending stuff we have instead of buying more stuff!  At this point, gentle geeks, the leggings that my Big Girl wears to school are more darn than fabric.  When to give it up?

listening. and linking.

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Friends,

As my dear late mama used to say “we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we talk”.

I’ve been working hard to be a better listener of late: toddler, big girl, hubby & friends.  Sometimes I’m good at it and other times I’m appalling.  But it’s humbling how hard I have to work.

Let’s start with a lovely reminder of the camaraderie of motherhood.  Tired mothers: you’re not alone.

This is a link to a li’l cautionary piece about kids and screens, here is another version of the same thing (with handy advice for parents, this time!) and check this out: children are way more distracting to drivers than cellphones!

This is a luscious list to give us some alternative ideas to use in discipline with our kids and this is some pretty fascinating research about aggressive behaviour and a possible link to epigenetic changes during pregnancy & early childhood.

OH! And while we’re thinking about early brain stuff (aren’t we always!) you gotta listen to my dear friend & esteemed colleague Nathan Mikaere Wallis talking early brain development on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show.  HERE is the link. 

When you finish, p’raps you’ll join me on a quest to be a more attentive & honest listener.  Do you find it as tricky as I do?