Archive for December, 2008

Dec 15 2008

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About David Laurino

An Ounce of Prevention
Of course the best way to handle bad behavior is to avoid it, which may seem impossible when parenting a toddler. But with a few tricks under your hat, you may be able to head it off at least some of the time. “Prevention is always the best strategy with toddlers,” says Douglas.

David Laurino

Quality of Mood
Is your child generally happy and even-tempered or does her mood seem to shift frequently?

>From these nine traits, Thomas and Chess devised three categories, which they say describe approximately 65% of all children.
Easy or Flexible (40%): These kids are considered “easy going”. They demonstrate a steady, optimistic view of the world and are not deeply bothered by meeting new people or changes in their daily routine. Their bodily rhythms are largely predictable and they tend to not “overreact” to negative events or disruptive stimuli.

Active, Difficult, or Feisty (10%): Children in this category are frequently labeled “fussy” or “a handful.” They tend to have irregular feeding and sleeping patterns, are resistant to change and fearful of new people. They are quite sensitive to noise, light, and commotion and react intensely to things that disturb them.

Slow to Warm or Cautious:(15%): Dominant traits include relative inactivity, fussiness and fear of new people and situations. With gradual exposure, these children tend to warm up and become increasingly comfortable with the people and situations that caused them initial distress.

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David Laurino: Stepping Stones to Speech

Is your child where he ought to be on the road to communication? Early Words, a Hamilton preschool speech and language service, offers a map of language milestones:

Age 1
-says first word
-follows simple commands
-gestures and/or vocalizes to indicate wants and needs
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Not-so-innocent Bystanders
So how do you deal with strangers interfering when your child is acting up? For 45-year-old Mary Schnack of Sedona, Ariz., it was something she had to deal with regularly. Her daughter, now 19, is learning disabled and suffers from ADHD. She also has problems with impulse control and understanding cause and effect.

While Schnack says she never physically disciplined her child, she did have to be firm in public such as not letting go of her hand to keep her from wandering off. “I did get reactions from people that I was abusing my child,” she says. “A store clerk asked me to either stop hurting my child or leave the store.”

“At some level, parents have to be aware that concern by others might in fact be an issue,” says Billingham. He suggests smiling at people and making a joke about the behavior by making comments like, “Only another 15 years of this!”

And keep in mind what matters most: your relationship with your child. “How the other people view you is so less important than how you interact with your child,” says Polland.

“Most of us at some point in life have been either the toddler or the frustrated mom,” says Douglas. “We just have to hope that we don’t end up turning into the annoyed little old lady down the road, forgetting just how challenging it can be to be that young mother.”

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AD Kids Inc: Reading to your child and discussing books is a great way to encourage talking. “I like Arthur. Who do you like?” or “Where did the puppy go?” Reading to your child daily will enrich his vocabulary, understanding and his talking while spending precious snuggle-time together.

It’s important to provide opportunities in your daily routine to enrich your toddler’s speech and language skills. A child may be reluctant to talk because they’re never encouraged to do so. Why would a child talk if pointing, grunting or having others talk for him can meet his needs?

On the other hand, a child who seems to be a “late talker” may be demonstrating a communication disorder and should be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist to determine if a disability exists. So discuss your concerns with your pediatrician and/or consult with a speech and language pathologist to see if a speech and language evaluation is indicated.

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Rob Sayer, director of The Music Class, says he started the company to get kids listening to music at an early age so that future musical instruction (the more formal kind) would come more easily. My kids are still too young for me to see whether this will pan out, but there is no question that those early classes — which my 9-month-old son now enthusiastically attends — have ignited a love for music in both of them that I never had at that age.

That Mozart CD we got in the hospital doesn’t get much play in our house — it’s usually skipped in favor of our Music Class CDs — but we’ve added dozens of other CDs to our collection. The best part of music class for us has been the great times it’s fostered. And for that, I’ve realized, we didn’t really need classes or even CDs; our own voices and pots and pans would have worked just fine, too.

Trehub agrees that having fun with your baby is one of music’s greatest perks. But equally important, she suggests, is its role as a cultural guidepost for children. Songs, both heard and sung, are a classic way for kids to learn about language, customs, and the larger world as a whole. Indeed, Weinberger has observed that many babies begin singing around the same time they start using language, and first words are often part of familiar songs.

“Even before literacy was widespread, crucial cultural information — how to plant crops, the location of tribal boundaries — was embedded in songs so it could be transmitted from one generation to the next,” says Trehub. “Babies today learn animal names and sounds, counting, colors, stories, and, of course, the alphabet from the songs they hear and sing.” My own children have picked up Spanish (their father’s native language) from songs, and our friend Michael Schill of Philadelphia claims that his 2-year-old understands the contributions that snakes and spiders make to pest control, thanks to the endless playing of Mary Miche’s Earthy Tunes album.

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“When my daughter was about 2 years old, we took her to a daycare for a couple days, and she started stuttering at exactly that point,” says JoBeth Cox from Indiana, mother of Peytan, now 4. “My mom swears it’s because we tried to make her go to daycare, but even when we took her out and put her back with my mom, she continued to stutter.”

It was really obvious during about a two-month period, and everyone would notice, she says. “Some family expressed concern about whether or not she was upset about something or stressed, and it was causing her to do it. But after the doctor said it was normal, everyone just tried not to make a big deal when she did it,” says Cox.

Cox went to her pediatrician with concerns but was told most children go through some stage when they are learning to talk when they have difficulties. As predicted, Peytan stopped stuttering by age 3.

Susan Henrichs

To Reward or Not to Reward?
Another tried and true strategy is to reward good behavior, but many parents feel like they’re bribing their child. Some experts, however, believe there is no harm in a little reward as long as you don’t overdo it.

Billingham feels that rewarding children is a great strategy because it teaches cause and effect. Douglas agrees. “We get rewards in adult life for good behavior,” she says.

You may be thinking that rewards could get a bit expensive, but they don’t have to be. Barbara Polland, professor of child and adolescent development at California State University, Northridge and author of No Directions on the Package: Questions and Answers for Parents With Children From Birth to Age 12 (Celestial Arts, 2000), suggests buying a bag of cheap party favors and then wrapping them individually in tissue paper. When you’re on your way out, tell your child that after he behaves he’ll get to open the gift. But be sure never to give the reward if he does not have good behavior.

Other inexpensive rewards can be activities that your child enjoys, such as stopping by the park on the way home or playing a favorite game.

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Dec 12 2008

AD Kids

Published by adkidsinfo under Uncategorized Edit This

AD Kids

For parents of toddlers learning to speak, it can be difficult to tell the difference between normal difficulties with speech and stuttering. If your child has trouble talking and hesitates on or repeats certain syllables, words or phrases, he may have a stuttering problem.

However, he may simply be going through periods of normal “disfluency” that most children experience as they learn to speak, according to Dr. Barry Guitar from the University of Vermont and Dr. Edward Conture from Vanderbilt University.

Stuttering is a complex disorder that affects three million Americans, and according to The Stuttering Foundation, a non-profit organization working toward the prevention and improved treatment of stuttering, there is a general lack of knowledge when it comes to stuttering.

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New Safety Concerns
A newly mobile baby is a wonder to behold, and at the same time, observing your previously stationary child head directly for one hazard after another is enough to turn any parent’s hair gray overnight. You’ve got some new safety issues to deal with, and the sooner you focus on childproofing (preferably before your baby starts crawling), the better.

Protect your baby by checking the floors he’ll be so intimately acquainted with: look for splinters, small objects like buttons, loose carpet, and so on. If something is there, you can be sure he’ll find it, so get down on his level to check.

Install covers for any electrical outlets, and check for floor or table lamps that have cords a curious baby could pull on (or chew!).

Watch for dangling tablecloths that she might use to try and pull herself up with, items on low shelves that can be grabbed, and cabinets that can be opened (install locks).

If you have pets, always supervise your baby when they’re around. Now that she can suddenly sneak up on Fluffy and go for a vigorous tail-yank, you need to keep an eye on things. Even the most patient, loving family pet can be startled by a small child and act to defend themselves.

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AD Kids Inc.: Foreign-Speaking Sitters
In order to start instilling the use of Spanish, Flores sought a very talented nanny who agreed to only speak Spanish to her young charge. “A lot of the books we read to my daughter are in English, and television is also in English,” she says. “We knew she would pick the language up regardless, so we wanted to do something where she would feel almost forced to speak Spanish and keep that going. She knows who she needs to speak to in what language, and with her babysitter she knows she has no choice [but to speak Spanish].”

Now, Flores is amazed at how well her daughter speaks both English and Spanish at the ripe old age of almost 3. “She pronounces things better in English than in Spanish,” says Flores. “She picked up the English faster than the Spanish, but she is definitely a conversational speaker â€“ as much as a child can get who’s not quite 3.”

The key is in the daily immersion of the Spanish language. Flores’ nanny talks her daughter through whatever they’re doing. “The sitter was a teacher and ultimately a principal for many years back in her country, so I think she has the professional experience in dealing with small children,” Flores says. “She teaches letters, colors and numbers.”
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About Susan Henrichs
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Gains Through Games
And when you’re having fun, you’ll see great results from your efforts, say the experts. Morey says that moms who consistently come to her class â€“ where games are an integral part of the curriculum â€“ find their children hitting major milestones much earlier. In the last year, she’s had two babies start walking at only 10 months.

Playing educational games with your baby helps him develop a wide range of skills that he’ll need to function in the world. “Play affects all aspects of development from motor skills to cognitive and social abilities,” says Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon, a developmental psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland. “These skills include hand-eye coordination, fine muscle movements and learning to take turns with another person. Through play, babies practice their skills, continually developing them as they do.”

David Laurino
Susan Henrichs: Primed for Learning
“Between birth and age 8, your child’s brain is uniquely hard-wired to absorb languages and to learn to pronounce words with a native accent,” says Stacy DeBroff, mother of two and author of The Mom Book: 4,278 Tips for Moms by Moms (Free Press 2002). “Children learn languages very differently from adults, with studies finding that children even store a second language in a different area of the brain.” DeBroff, a former Harvard lawyer who also runs Mom Central, Inc. and the www.momcentral.com Web site, understands the benefits of children learning foreign languages on a neurological level as well as a social one.

DeBroff says it is never too early to start teaching children a foreign language. When most parents are concerned only with comprehension of English, they fail to understand just how incredibly children’s brains function. “The earlier children start learning a second language, the better, even as early as 1 year old,” she says. “Many teachers and linguists recommend starting the language learning process as soon as possible, even before children become verbal in their first language. Even though children are not speaking at that point, they are actively absorbing and processing language.”

In much the same way, Ana Flores learned English. Flores, who now lives in New York, was born in Cuba and came to the United States at the age of 2. Although she quickly learned English at school, Spanish was the only language spoken at home. “I am fully bilingual and feel that has only been an asset for me during my academic experience and thereafter professionally,” she says. “My husband was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and he speaks Spanish fluently. We feel that it’s important to keep that going for our children. With the way the world is now with everything global, it can only be beneficial for her. We also want to maintain our culture and language.”

It is also important for Flores’ daughter to be able to communicate with her extended family, some of whom still live in the Dominican Republic, while others closer to home may speak only broken English. “We do not want the language to be a barrier,” she says. “It is important to us she be fully bilingual. Based on everything we learned and read it makes sense to do it now rather than waiting. We felt it would be more difficult or confusing if we waited.”

Susan Henrichs
Fortunately, you can break this patternâ€”in a way that encourages your child’s development rather than punishes her. “When you stop getting frustrated by the whining, your child will stop too,” insists Dr. Nelsen. At first, this laissez-faire approach seemed completely unrealistic to me, but because my daughter was a whine connoisseur, I decided to try it.

It wasn’t easyâ€”often I was tempted to yell or just give her what she wanted, but I was determined to be firm and consistent. “You have to exercise a lot of self-control,” acknowledges Dr. Crowder. To my amazement, within a few weeks, Elizabeth had gotten into the habit of asking nicely instead of nagging. Here’s what you do.

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A Rule of Thumb
Walk into any shoe store and you will see parents on their knees beside their children, pushing on toes and squeezing the sides of shoes, trying to determine a good fit.

Brunick feels this is a good effort, but not quite right. “This is one of those passed down methods of fitting shoes,” says Brunick. “Try this instead: When fitting your child’s foot, determine how much toe room they should have in the shoe by leaving space that is equal to the width of the child’s thumb — not the parent’s thumb — between the child’s longest toe and the end of the shoe while they are standing. Keep in mind that the longest toe isn’t always the big toe.”

“I do the pressing on the toes thing when fitting my son with shoes,” says Victoria Walker, a mom from Fort Myers, Fla. “This lets me see how much room he has to grow. I also have him walk in them to see if his foot lifts out of the shoe. I’ve always done it like this, but as he gets older, he can tell me much better how they feel, too.”

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31 to 36 months

By the time he turns 3, your child will be a more sophisticated talker. He’ll be able to carry on a sustained conversation and adjust his tone, speech patterns, and vocabulary to fit the person he’s talking to in a particular situation. For instance, he’ll use simpler words with a peer (”I need go potty”), but will likely rattle off more complex constructions with you (”I need to go to the bathroom”). By now, other adults, including strangers, should be able to understand almost everything he says, which means you’ll have to do less translating. He’ll even be a pro at saying his first and last name and his age, and will readily oblige when asked. When to be concerned
You are the best gauge of your child’s speech development. While some kids start forming words at 9 months, many wait until they’re 13 or 14 months. If your child isn’t saying any words by 15 months(including “mama” or “dada”), didn’t babble before his first birthday, is unable to point to any body parts, or you still can’t understand a word he’s saying, discuss the matter with your doctor at his next checkup.