Parents Daily News Roundup

Friday, April 19th, 2013

Erika Brannock, Maryland Teacher, Loses Leg In Boston Marathon Explosions
After two days of heavy sedation, Erika Brannock awoke Wednesday morning in her hospital bed to dramatic and gruesome news: Her left leg had been amputated below the knee, the only medical option for a team of surgeons handling traumatic injuries from the Boston Marathon bombings. (via Huffington Post)

Supporting Schools to Improve the Educational Outcomes of Emergent Bilinguals
The CUNY-NYSIEB project is one force that supports this shift from seeing bilingualism as a barrier to academic achievement to using students’ bilingualism as the essential element in their academic success. (via Huffington Post)

Child’s Counting Comprehension May Depend On Objects Counted, Study Shows
Concrete objects — such as toys, tiles and blocks — that students can touch and move around, called manipulatives, have been used to teach basic math skills since the 1980s. Use of manipulatives is based on the long-held belief that young children’s thinking is strictly concrete in nature, so concrete objects are assumed to help them learn math concepts. (via Science Daily)

Learning Disabilities Affect Up to 10 Percent of Children
Up to 10 per cent of the population are affected by specific learning disabilities (SLDs), such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, translating to 2 or 3 pupils in every classroom, according to a new article. (via Science Daily)

Negative views tied to child maltreatment
Mothers-to-be who believe infants dirty their diapers to bother their parents or purposefully ignore their mothers may be more likely to abuse or neglect their young children, a new study suggests. (via Reuters)

Parents Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

US Preterm Birth Rate Lowest in a Decade
The percentage of babies born early in the United States in 2011 was the lowest in a decade, according to a new report from the non-profit March of Dimes. (via NBC News)

Fantasy-Reality Confusion a Primary Cause of Childhood Nighttime Fears
In a new study, published in Child Psychiatry and Human Development, researchers found that preschoolers with persistent nighttime fears were far less able to distinguish reality from fantasy compared to their peers. (via ScienceDaily)

When Babies Eat Fish Could Be Link to Asthma
Babies who first ate fish between the ages of six months and one year had a lower risk of developing asthma-like symptoms later on than babies who ate fish before six months or after their first birthdays, according to a Dutch study. (via Reuters)

Road to Language Learning Is Iconic
Languages are highly complex systems and yet most children seem to acquire language easily, even in the absence of formal instruction. New research on young children’s use of British Sign Language (BSL) sheds light on one mechanism — iconicity — that may play an important role in children’s ability to learn language. (via ScienceDaily)

Preschool Education Deserves Expansion, Investment: National Education Policy Center Brief
In a brief released Tuesday, National Education Policy Center managing director Dr. William Mathis urges policymakers to invest in high-quality preschool education, citing its universally acknowledged economic and social benefits. (via Huffington Post)

Columbus Officials Will Likely Face Criminal Referrals For Falsifying Ohio Student Data
As state officials said there’s a “strong likelihood” they’ll refer Columbus school employees for criminal prosecution at the end of their student-data probe, the district confirmed yesterday that federal authorities also are investigating. (via Huffington Post)

Parents Daily News Roundup

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

Some Schools Add Days to Academic Year to Increase Learning Time
According to the National Center on Time and Learning, a nonprofit research group in Boston, about 170 schools — more than 140 of them charter schools — across the country have extended their calendars in recent years to 190 days or longer. (via NY Times)

Teens Who Don’t Have Sex Still at Risk for HPV
A new study conducted in Cincinnati, which involved teen girls and young women, found that 11.6 percent of those who had never had sexual intercourse were infected with at least one strain of HPV. (via NBC News)

Honey May Ease Nighttime Coughing in Kids
A spoonful of honey before bed may help little kids with a cough – and their parents – sleep through the night, a new study suggests. Parents also reported that after giving honey to kids, their coughing was less frequent and less severe. (via Reuters)

Hospital Brings 3,000 Cats to Cancer Patient
When 16-year-old cancer patient, Maga Barzallo said the thing she missed most was her cat Merry, Seattle Children’s asked Facebook fans to send in pictures of their favorite pets – and received 3,000 photos in response. The hospital staff then combined the cat photos with purring sounds to create a slideshow for the teenager. (via CNN)

Urine Test May Predict Women’s Bone Risk
Researchers report that levels of a substance called cross-linked N-telopeptide of Type 1 collagen, or NTX, which is released into the urine when bones weaken, can predict the risk for future fracture in premenopausal, asymptomatic women. (via NY Times)

Can Telling the Truth Make You Healthier?
Telling a few white lies may seem harmless, but a new study suggests that you might improve your mental and physical health if you cut down on the fibs you tell. (via TIME)

Wonderopolis: Learning through Discovery

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Just because your kids are out of school for the summer doesn’t mean they can’t keep learning! If you’re starting to feel like lazy summer days are frying their brains, check out Wonderopolis.org.

It’s an awesome new website that makes learning fun for kids—and sparks creativity for the whole family. Wonderopolis, started by the National Center for Family Literacy last October, helps parents and teachers make kids’ worlds a little brighter through the power of discovery, creativity, learning and imagination. Every day Wonderopolis posts a new “wonder”, or a curious question meant to make learning fun and practical.  Each Wonder of the Day covers a clever topic that parents and kids can put to use together with activities, vocabulary words and videos.

Through the Wonders of the Day, kids learn why flamingos are pink, what makes Jell-O jiggle and how fish can breathe underwater, and along the way they learn to think critically and use their imaginations. Your child can even use the site to learn about world news and events, too, with wonders such as “Where is Tornado Alley?” and “What are the ‘Ides of March?’”

This summer Wonderopolis is launching Camp What a Wonder, a free virtual camp that engages families in imaginative learning while school’s out of session. Check out the site every Thursday from June 23 to August 11 and you and your child can explore and discover tons of “wonders” about nature.

Next time you have a free hour with your kids, be sure to check it out! You can connect with Wonderopolis on Facebook or Twitter, too.

Can Toddlers Learn to Read with an iPad?

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Stop feeling guilty the next time you hand over an iPad or iPhone to entertain your toddler — you may actually be helping him learn how to read.

ABCNews.com recently wrote about a new trend in ”toddler” apps, educational apps targeted to kids between 4 months to 3 year old, to help them learn earlier and faster.  One mom’s son started playing with an iPad at 9 months old, and now 5 months later, he recognizes letters and uses 75 apps.  Plus, since more toddlers are learning how to handle an iPhone and iPad, even Toys “R” Us is selling iPads and a kindergarten class in Maine will be getting their own iPads when school starts again.

However, another mom allowed her 3-year-old twins play with apps on an iPad, and while they recognized letters and numbers visually, they weren’t able to say or verbalize them.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 years old avoid watching TV or handling any electronics unless parents are making an effort to interact with their kids for teaching purposes.

The key, then, is interaction–kids still learn best through the human touch of good old-fashioned one-on-one teaching.  But are parents becoming too obsessed with forcing toddlers to be achievers at a young age, from getting them to read chapter books to enrolling them in sports classes to perfecting potty training techniques?

Would you give your child an iPad or iPhone if it would help him learn and read faster? And do you think parents are too obsessed with helping their kids become achievers?

‘Um’ and ‘Uh’ Can Help Toddlers Learn New Words

Friday, April 29th, 2011

A new study published in the journal Developmental Science reveals that speech fillers such as “um” and “uh,” also known as language disfluencies, may actually help toddlers’ language development.

The research was conducted at the University of Rochester and studied three groups of children, ages 18 to 30 months, who each sat in front of a monitor that tracked the children’s gazes.  Two images were shown on screen, one image of  a familiar object  and one image of a made-up object.  While a recorded voice said short, fluid sentences about the familiar item first, most infants looked at both images equally.  

When the recorded voice then said, “Look at the, uh…,”  most 2 1/2-year-old toddlers recognized the word stumble and looked at the made-up object, expecting to learn something new.  Kids 2 and under rarely picked up on the word stumble.

Researchers aren’t certain how kids understand these disfluencies–whether they realize “um” and “uh” signify a pause in speech to recall the next word or a pause in speech to introduce new words.

Celeste Kidd, the lead researcher quoted on ScienceDaily.com, noted “We’re not advocating that parents add disfluencies to their speech, but I think it’s nice for them to know that using these verbal pauses is OK — the “uh’s” and “um’s” are informative.”

Read more about the research

• LiveScience.com: Speech Stumbles Help Toddlers
• ScienceDaily.com: ‘Um’ and ‘Uh’ Help Toddlers