+ Light at Night May Link to Depression

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Researchers at Ohio State University have produced a study that may link depression to light at night, according to an article in Science Daily.

Researchers found that when mice were housed in a lighted room 24 hours a day, they exhibited more depressive symptoms than did similar mice who had normal light-dark cycles.

However, some mice were housed in constant light but had an escape option: a dark opaque tube they could go into.  They showed less evidence of depressive symptoms than the constant-light mice.

Says Laura Folken, lead author of the study and a graduate student in psychology at OSU, “The ability to escape light seemed to quell the depressive effects.  But constant light, with no chance of escape, increased depressive symptoms.”

Results suggest that more attention needs to be focused on how artificial lighting affects emotional health in humans. 

Co-author Randy Nelson, professor of neuroscience and psychology at Ohio State says

The increasing rate of depressive disorders in humans corresponds with the increasing use of light at night in modern society.  Many people are now exposed to unnatural light cycles, and that may have real consequences for our health.

The researchers presented the work October 21 in Chicago at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience; it will appear in the December 28, 2009 issue of the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

“This is important for people who work night shifts, and for children and others who watch TV late into the night, disrupting their usual light-dark cycle,” says Fonken.

And there are many other practical implications, says Nelson.  Intensive care units are brightly lit all night long, which might add to the patients’ problems.

source: www.sciencedaily.com article on 10/21/09; journal reference is Laura K Fonken, M Sima Finy, James C Walton, Zachary M Weil, Joanna L Workman, Jessica Ross, Randy J Nelson, “Influence of light at night on murine anxiety- and depressive-like  responses.”  Behavioral Brain Research, 2009; 205 (2): 349 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.07.001

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ A Green Halloween?

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From www.tonic.com we got an article by Annie Scott on changing the face of Halloween.

The goal is to make the holiday more about community and creativity, and less about candy and consumption.  With a national obesity epidemic and a planet that is clearly in pain, kids and parents are joining forces this year to celebrate in a healthier, “greener” way. 

The ”Green Halloween” and “Healthy Halloween” concepts were launched in 2007 across the country from each other.  They were initiatives to make the holiday a little less scary for health and the environment.

The two organizations are teaming up this year, in New York City and across the country.  On October 31 in New York, a festival in the Nolita neighborhood will be followed by a special healthy trick or treat trail.

But if you don’t happen to be in New York, there are many ways you can participate.  Draper conducted email interviews with Jim Glaser, Corey Colwell-Lipson and several families who have participated in the past about their vision for the project. 

Colwell-Lipson says “It’s the same fun holiday it’s always been — with a healthy and sustainable makeover.”  In New York, groups including the Action Arts League and Dr Mehmet Oz’s HealthCorps back the Green halloween party and help provide good times.

“With headlines screaming about lead in candy, phthalates in costumes, the childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics, the incredible environmental and human costs of spending billions of dollars on decor that gets tossed, and so much more, the timing was just right,” says Colwell-Lipson. 

“But someone needed to make the greening of Halloween practical, affordable and fun.  That’s where we stepped in to start the ball rolling.”

Jim Glaser makes a good case for Halloween with no candy.

Really, what’s fun about candy?… In the ultimate vision, Green Halloween locations will actually offer more fun — more art, more interactive experiences and a wider selection of gifts that will actually be more fun to go through than pounds and pounds of the same discounted high fructose corn syrup products.

Think about halloween pouches seeming more like Christmas stockings and ask which might be more fun?  And by the way, Green Halloween does not advocate ‘NO candy.’  It advocates moderation and more wholesome, natural sugar treats.

Coldwell-Lipson feels that it’s hard to get enthused when the problem is simply presented.  For example, one reporter found a child on the street and asked how he’s feel if people stopped handing out candy.  The kid almost started crying — how could people take away his fun like that?

But the reporter failed to tell the child — or better, show him — the fabulous alternatives.

The two organizations are helping families participate by encouraging people to get involved on the website [www.GreenHalloweenNYC.org  ], where they can find other local advocates and with the eventual goal of greating green trick-or-treating networks.

Colwell-Lipson also suggests making a Green Halloween door sign to spread awareness and help kids find places to get better treats.

People are getting involved for different reasons, but everyone seems to have the same goal: smarter choices.  Susannah Pryal of Sammamish Washington says “I think the older kids who come to our house are surprised and disappointed.  But really, it’s the same.”

She has been participating from the beginning.  “I felt like such a hypocrite giving out candy when I didn’t like giving it to my kids.  Plus, I am such a candy addict and I didn’t want candy in my house.”

Barbara Keskiner of Tampa Florida is helping organize a Green Halloween in her community.  She became involved because of her 2-year-old daughter.  “As she has not yet been started on a candy diet on halloween, we don’t think that she will miss it!”

A mother in Los Angeles is part of “Green Teen” and founder of the Green Youth Movement, Ally Maize, has this to say: “This has really become a mother-daughter project for the both of us, and her involvement has made it more meaningful for me.”

Their family will be participating in Green Halloween in a number of ways, including a YouTube video for green halloween tips, informative email blasts to local schools, and by handing out special treats.

“For halloween,” says Maize, “we will be giving out eco-friendly and socially responsible treats like fair trade chocolate and Trick-or-Treat for Trees coupons, which are inexpensive coupons that can be purchased in bulk (a tree is planted for each coupon purchased).  Also, 90 percent of all of our home decorations are either homemade or recycled.”

Visit www.GreenHalloweenNYC.org for more information.

source: Annie Scott’s article at Tonic.com’s on October 16, 2009. 

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Back to School Anxiety? Teach Kids to Relax

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Experts at Duke University recommend “mindfulness,” a technique borrowed from meditation, to help nervous children relax, HealthDay News reports.

It is especially useful for children who are nervous about transitioning into the new school year.  It can also help them deal with academic and social pressures.

The following exercises can help young practitioners achieve a level of mindfulness:

• Mindful breathing — Ask the child to take time in the morning and evening to pay attention to his or her breathing for 20 inhales and exhales.  Steady breathing has a calming effect on the body.
• Mindful walking — After dinner, take a walk and pay attention to all the sights, sounds and colors.  Encourage the child to use this technique on the playground and at school.
• Mindful listening — At the dinner table, ring a bell or play a note on a musical instrument to capture the family’s attention, then give each person a turn to speak about their day while the rest of the family gives their full attention, to encourage active listening.

Mindfulness helps kids recognize their thoughts, reconnect with their emotions and understand how that impacts their behavior.  Ultimately, if we can heighten awareness of our thoughts, we can modify our emotions and that changes behavior.

Says Michelle Bailey, a pediatrician at Duke Integrative Medicine

Making a transition, whether it’s to a new school, a new teacher or a new grade, signals change.  When adults are stressed, they often turn to smoking or alcohol or food to pacify emotions.  We need to teach kids how to handle stress in a healthy way.

Mindfulness helps kids recognize their thoughts, reconnect with their emotions and understand how that impacts their behavior.  Ultimately, if we can heighten awareness of our thoughts, we can modify our emotions and that changes behavior.

Mindfulness encourages children to live in the moment and not fret as much about future events.  In addition, practicing meditative techniques can help children sleep better, reduce anxiety and stay more focused.

[Note: many clinics and hospitals offer accredited, mindfulness-based, stress-reduction programs.]

source: HealthDay News report on Yahoo.com http://news.yahoo.com

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Symptom List to Help Gauge Head Injuries

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Jane Brody in the N Y Times provides us with The National Athletic Trainers Association Graded Symptom Checklist to help guide doctors, coaches, trainers and every parent whose child plays a contact or collision sport.

The checklist can help determine immediately whether a concussion has occurred, its severity and whether a player is fit to return to the game.

But the checklist is also important to use later, on the recommended schedule below: symptoms of a concussion are sometimes delayed.

A player who sustained a direct or indirect blow to the brain may feel all right initially, then develop symptoms hours or days later.

Athletic trainers, doctors or other medical personnel who suspect that an athlete has suffered a concussion can use the checklist to evaluate a player both at rest and during physical exertion. 

Coaches and parents can be trained to use it as well.

Professional evaluators, parents and players must understand that a return of symptoms, when a brain-injured athlete is physically or cognitively stressed is a clear sign that the brain has not healed.

THE   GRADED   SYMPTOM   CHECKLIST

Score each symptom on a scale of 0 to 6: 0 is not present, 3 is moderate, and 6 is most severe.  Grade each of these symptoms at

• 0 hours after injury
• 2-3 hours after injury
• 24 hours after injury
• 48 hours after injury
• 72 hours after injury

Blurred vison ___  Dizziness___ Drowsiness___ Excess sleep___ Easily distracted___ Fatigue___ Feeling “in a fog”___ Feeling “slowed down”___ Headache___ Inappropriate emotions___ Irritability___ Loss of consciousness___ Loss of orientation___ Memory problems___ Nausea___  Nervousness___ Personality change___ Poor distance or coordination___ Poor concentration___ Ringing in ears___ Sadness___ Seeing stars___ Sensitivity to light___ Sensitivity to noise___ Sleep disturbance___ Vacant stare or glassy eyes___ Vomiting___

Repeat the evaluation until all symptoms have cleared both at rest and when physically stressed.

Says Dr Robert Cantu, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University,

Any one of these symptoms occurring in the aftermath of a head trauma would disqualify an athlete from participating in the sport.  No athlete should be engaged in physical exertion if any symptom is present.

sole source: Jane Brody’s article in the NY Times on 8/25/09.  www.nytimes.com  Dr Robert C Cantu answers reader’s questions on concussions at www.nytimes.com/consults  

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Guilt and Atonement in Children’s Development

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John Tierney writes in the NY Times about recent research into the mechanisms that help children become considerate, conscientious adults.

A long-term study at the University of Iowa aimed at isolating the effects of two distinct mechanisms.  One is called “effortful self-control:” how well you can think ahead and deliberately suppress impulsive behavior that hurts yourself and others.

The other mechanism is less rational; it is especially valuable for children and adults with poor self-control.  It’s the feeling measured in a “broken toy” experiment with toddlers: guilt, or what children frequently diagnose as a “sinking feeling in my tummy.”

Guilt comes in many varieties and is joked about: Puritan, Catholic, Jewish etc.  But psychologists keep finding evidence of its usefulness. 

There is clearly a downside to too little guilt; there are sociopaths who feel no remorse, but also kindergartners who smack and snatch.

Says Grazyna Kochanska, who has been tracking children’s development for two decades at the University of Iowa, children typically start to feel guilt in their second year of life.

Some children have temperaments that make them prone to guilt, and some become more guilt-prone thanks to parents and other early influences.  Says Dr Kochanska:

Some children respond with acute and intense tension and negative emotions when they are tempted to misbehave, or even anticipate violating norms and rules.  They remember, often subconsciously, how awful they have felt in the past.

 Dr Kochanska’s latest studies are published in the August issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  She and colleagues found that 2-year-olds who showed more chagrin during the “broken-toy” experiment went on to have fewer behavioral problems over the next five years.

That was true even for the ones who scored low on tests measuring their ability to focus on tasks and supress strong desires to act impulsively.

According to Dr Kochanska

If you have high guilt, it’s such a rapid response system, and the sensation is so incredibly unpleasant, that effortful control doesn’t much matter.

 But self-control was critical to children in the studies who were low in guilt.  They still behaved well if they had high self-control.

Even if you don’t have that sinking feeling in the tummy, you can still suppress impulses.  You can stop and remember what your parents told you.  You can stop and reflect on the consequences for others and yourself.

What Can a Parent Do?

If your child lacks both self-control and guilt, what can you do?  Should you feel guilty?  Should you feel you’ve done a bad job of parenting?

Researchers have not been able to link any particular pattern of parenting to children’s levels of guilt, says June Tangney, a psychologist at George Mason University who has studied guilt intensively in both children and adults, including prison inmates.

She does have some advice for parents. 

The key element is the difference between shame and guilt.  Shame is the feeling that you’re a bad person because of bad behavior; it has repeatedly been found to to be unhealthy.

Guilty feelings focused on the behavior itself, however, can be productive. 

It’s not enough, says Dr Tangney, for parents just to follow the old admonition to criticize the sin but not the sinner.

Most young children really don’t hear the distinction between “Johnny, you did a bad thing,” versus “Johnny, you’re a bad boy.”  They hear “bad kid.”  I think a more active directive approach is needed.

She recommends focusing not just on the bad deed, but more important, on how to make amends.

Both children and adults can be surprisingly clueless about whether and how to make things right.  Little kids are overwhelmed by the spilled mess of milk on the floor.  Parents can teach and support them to say “I’m sorry,” and to clean it up, maybe leaving the kitchen a little cleaner than it was before.

That was the atonement strategy followed by the experimenters in Iowa who tricked the children with the broken toy.

After 60 seconds of angst, during which the child’s reactions could be observed by researchers, the children were asked what had happened.  They were then told that the toy could be easily repaired. 

The researcher would then leave the room with the broken toy and return in half a minute with an intact replica of it.  The experimenter took the blame for having caused the damage, reassuring the children that it wasn’t their fault.  The toy was now as good as new.

And the researchers had modeled how to say “I’m sorry.”

sole source: John Tierney’s article in the NY Times Science section on 8/25/09.   www.nytimes.com    Join the discussion at Tierney Lab          http://tinyurl.com/mmb9ro  – how can parents best instill these good mechanisms in their kids?

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Chronic Stress-Loops in Brain Change Behavior

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In an article in the NY Times, Natalie Angier writes that chronic stress changes the brain, but relaxation can change it back.

In the journal Science this summer, Nuno Sousa of the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute in Portugal says he and his colleagues found that rats, if chronically stressed, lost their elastic rat cunning – they instead fell back on familiar routines and rote responses.  They would, for example, compulsively press a bar for food pellets they had no intention of eating.

Brain Changes

In addition, the rats’ behavioral oddnesses were reflected by a pair of complementary changes in their underlying neural circuitry.

On the one hand, regions of the brain associated with executive decision making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled.  Conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed.

In other words, rats were now cognitively disposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to “run laps in the same dead-end rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers,” writes Angier.  And Dr Sousa says,

“Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach.”

A neurobiologist who studies stress at Stanford, Robert Sapolsky, says

“This is a great model for understanding why we end up in a rut, and then dig ourselves deeper and deeper into that rut.”

In fact, continues Sapolsky, humans are lousy at recognizing when their normal coping mechanisms aren’t working.  We usually try it five more times, when it would have been better to try something new.

While perseverance is an admirable trait — is indeed essential for success in life — if it’s taken too far it becomes “perseveration.”  Perseveration is  uncontrollable repetition.  Taken to extremes, it simply seems perverse.

Dr Sapolsky is the author of “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” 

“If  I were to try to break into the world of modern dance, after the first few rejections the logical response might be, practice even more.  But after the 12,000th rejection, maybe I should realize this isn’t a viable career option.”

But It Can Be Reversed

Luckily, it appears that stress-induced changes in behavior and brain can be reversed.  

After four weeks’ vacation in a supportive setting free of bullies, Tasers and dunking in water, the formerly stressed rats looked just like the controls.  They were able to innovate, discriminate and refrain from obsessive behavior.

Atrophied synaptic connections in the decisive regions of the prefrontal cortex resprouted, while the overgrown dendritic vines of the habit-prone sensorimotor striatum retreated.

Says Bruce McEwen, head of the neuroendocrinology lab at Rockefeller University, the new findings offer a particularly elegant demonstration of a principle that researchers have just begun to grasp.

“The brain is a very resilient and plastic organ.  Dendrites and synapses retract and reform, and reversible remondeling can occur throughout life.”

We associate stress with the split-second pace of our wired society.  But the body’s stress response is one of our oldest attributes.  Its basic architecture, with its linked network of neural and endocrine organs that spit out stimulatory and inhibitory hormones and other factors as needed, looks pretty much the same in a human as it does in a goldfish or a red-spotted newt.

Our stress response is itself dynamic.  It was essential for maneuvering through a dynamic world.  We had to dodge predators and chase down prey; we swung through trees; we fought off disease. 

As we go about our days, says McEwen, the biochemical mediators of the stress response rise and fall, flutter and flare.  “Cortisol and adrenaline go up and down.  Our inflammatory cytokines go up and down.”

The target organs of stress hormones likewise “dance to the beat ,” writes Angier.  The heart races and slows, the intestines constrict and relax.  This system of so-called allostasis, of maintaining control through constant change, stands in contrast to the mechanisms of homeostasis that keep the pH level and oxygen concentration in the blood within a narrow and invariant range.

But the dynamism of a person’s stress response makes it vulnerable to disruption, especially when the system is treated too roughly and not according to instructions.

In most animals, a serious threat provokes activation of the stimulatory, sympathetic, “fight or flight” side of the stress response.  But when the danger has passed, the calming parasympathetic circuitry tamps everything back down to baseline flickering.

Humans, however, have a brain that can think too much, that can extract phantom threats on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.  Over time such constant hyperactivation of the stress response can unbalance the entire feedback loop.

Reactions which would be desirable in limited, targeted quantities become hazardous in “promiscuous excess,”  writes Angier.  You need a spike in blood pressure if you’re going to run, to speedily deliver oxygen to your muscles.  But chronically elevated blood pressure is a source of mutiple medical miseries.

We might ask, why should the stressed brain be prone to habit formation? 

Perhaps — to help shunt as many behaviors as possible over to automatic pilot, so we can focus on the crisis at hand.

sole source: NY Times article by Natalie Angier on 8/18/09.  www.nytimes.com   

tutoring in columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwards tutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Central Ohio Parents: Special Needs Reminder

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“SPECIAL NEEDS CONNECTIONS”

is a support group for parents of special needs children in Central Ohio. 

The next meeting is

• Thursday, August 20, 2009
• 7:00 to 8:30 pm
• 130 Big Run Road (Molly King’s home)
• in Delaware OH 43015
• SPEAKER is Janet Simpson, Occupational Therapist, Nationwide Children’s Hospital

And childcare is available if needed.  If you need it, please RSVP to Molly. 

Contact Molly at: 740-369-4047 (h) or 614-581-6675 (cell) or mking@nextgenaccess.com.

————————————————

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Teaching “Emotional Intelligence”

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 ”What has Mr. Snail taught us?” asks a teacher, holding up a puppet with a bright red-felt shell. 

“How to come out of my shell when I’m feeling shy,” says a boy seated in front.

“And what about Mr Grasshopper?” she asks.  A little boy shouts “How to pay attention when your body wants to…”  And he demonstrates  a case of the fidgets. 

Around the walls of this school in the Bronx are colorful construction paper displays that highlight essays like “The Things I Love” and “What Makes Me Scream.”

An article on Scholastic.com, whose source was Instructor Magazine, describes how a program called  “Turnaround for Children” works.

PS 32  in the Bronx decided five years ago that its 800 students needed  more than skills and drills.  Nearly all the children come from very poor, stressed and sometimes chaotic families.

Principal Esther Schwartz says, “Before they can begin to learn, our children often need help with basic social skills — sharing or taking a turn.  Many need help regulating their attention, their emotions, or controlling their impulses.”

In the five years since this Bronx school first implemented Turnaround for Children, the percentage of kids deemed proficient in reading has risen from 30 to 70 percent.

Turnaround for Children helps administrators identify troubled kids, and then works with teachers to build academically rigorous and emotionally healthy learning communities.  It does this by making social and emotional skill-building part of the comprehensive curriculum.

“We’ve discovered that social and emotional skill-building goes hand in hand with learning,” says Schwartz.

FIVE SKILLS TO TEACH 

Researchers have begun to identify the soft skills that kids need to succeed at school and in life.  Below are the five most important, with some tips on what you can do in the classroom to help foster the growth of these skills.

1.     Naming Your Feelings 

Most parents, caregivers and teachers provide this instruction almost reflexively.  If a toddler is crying, Mom may ask, “Are you upset because you want that toy?”  This soothes, but it also  provides a lexicon for the highly charged moment. 

With kids from somewhat deprived backgrounds or with older kids, the job of helping a child sort and articulate shades of emotion becomes part of a teacher’s job.

Child psychologist Pam Cantor is chief of Turnaround for Children.  She says the simple, puppet-based program featuring Mr Snail and Mr Grasshopper, developed by her staff and taught once  a week, can help kids name what they’re feeling.  Then they can begin to fend off tantrums and meltdowns. 

If Turnaround for Children isn’t being implemented at your school, you can opt for a less formal approach involving classroom discussion.

For example, if a child refuses to speak during circle time out of shyness, you might say, “That’s okay Andre.  Sometimes I don’t feel like talking either.  But if you want to share later, we’d love to hear from you.”

Then talk to the child individually about ways to calm his anxiety, such as taking deep breaths.    Finally, try hosting a whole-class discussion about how to overcome shyness.

2.     Building Trusting Relationships

Anthony Bryk of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching wrote in his now-classic study that trust is the emollient that keeps schools running smoothly.  Nowhere is that more important than in the classroom, in the teacher-student relationship.

When teachers take the time to establish trusting relationships with students, they can see a world of difference.  “It makes learning more powerful,” says Mary Utne O’Brien, psychology professor at the University of Illinois.

“Many teachers bemoan the fact that they don’t feel like they have time to develop those relationships.  I would argue that building trust is the first lesson before any others.” 

O’Brien says small gestures mean a lot.

She suggests that you be predictable, be consistent, and do what you say you will do.  Articulate that you want the children to learn.  Then show them that you’re willing to go the extra mile to ensure that they do.  These acts will help children learn to trust you  — as well as the larger community.

“Children have to trust that their teacher cares about their education.”  Having the capacity to trust allows a child to focus on what’s important — learning.

3.     Staying in Control

Several studies show that the ability to inhibit impulsive mental, verbal and physical responses — and to remain engaged in goal-directed thinking without calling out, fidgeting or responding to provocation  — is key for school success.

In one study, researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that children who had the strongest regulatory abilities tended to do as well –  sometimes better than — less regulated children who had higher IQs.  The same is true of older children.

The study found that the least impulsive and most self-disciplined of the group had better grades and study habits.  They got into more selective high schools than their peers with higher IQs but less controlled behavior.

“By the time children start school, they are expected to sufficiently regulate impusivity in order to engage in learning experiences with teachers and classmates,’  says Clancy Blair, lead researcher.

Depending on the age of your students, introduce simple lessons in controlling impusivity.  This will go a long way toward helping kids learn to focus. 

Learning to self-talk is an excellent way to build self-control.  One common approach is to encourage kids to “think aloud” as they complete a project or problem.  Teach them to say or whisper each step as they perform it.  This process can help boost the kind of silent self-talk that comes naturally to more disciplined kids.

4.     Having Curiosity

Curiosity may be the key to success on a lot of levels, academic and otherwise.  It may be even more important overall than happiness.

Curiosity leads to mindfulness, says Todd Kashdan, professor at George Mason University.  

Mindfulness is the engaged, satisfied state of being one feels when absorbed in a meaningful task, whether it’s achieving an A in a class or organizing a blood drive.  Kashdan is the author of “Curiosity: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life.“

According to Kashdan, teachers are in a unique position to foster curiosity in the classroom and put their kids on the road to mindfulness and mental health.

How to do it? 

Rote memorization of facts is the enemy of the curious mind, he says.  Whenever possible, banish rote learning.  Help students understand events in the Civil War from different perspectives.  Discuss whether the Civil War might have been a bad or a good thing for a Southern mill owner, a Northern shipping tycoon, a slave, or the President.  Such discussions promote the kind of thinking that will pay off later.

“Children who are taught there is a difference in perspectives maintain the mental and emotional receptiveness they need to remain curious,” says Kashdan.  “High levels of curiosity translates into a child’s ability to think critically, problem-solve more creatively, and even to recognize different strengths in different kinds of kids.”

If you’re still not wanting to change your Civil War curriculum, think about this, says Kashdan.   As curious kids grow up, they are better able than their less curious classmates to find things to be passionate about.   

5.     Expressing Gratitude

Even for star pupils, school can sometimes be difficult.  Help children balance some of the challenges of learning by giving them the opportunity to express gratitude. 

Expressing gratitude  leads to warmer feelings toward the teacher, as well as higher levels of school engagement.  Even with children who struggle, this translates to better GPAs. 

And a fringe benefit is that grateful kids also experience less envy and are less materialistic.

How does this work? 

Jeffrey Froh, professor of psychology at Hofstra University, says when teachers encourage kids over age 7 to regularly name and describe what they are grateful for in their lives, they begin to see how interconnected they are to other people.  “They see who is helping them.”

Not everyone benefits equally.  “Some kids have more baseline gratitude than  others,” says Froh.  Certain children take to gratitude easily, but  for some it continues to be an effort.  “But when you make the discussion of gratitude in the classroom more fluid and regular, everyone benefits a little,” says Froh.

Start by sharing your own thank yous:  “Thanks for walking to lunch so quietly.”  “Thank you for picking up your candy wrapper!” 

By modeling gratitude — articulating how people are helping you and your feelings of warmth toward them for their help — you can support children in becoming more grateful themselves.

source:  from Scholastic.com, article whose source was Instructor Magazine.  No author noted.   http://www.2.scholastic.com

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com  

+ Childhood Apraxia of Speech

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 Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder.

Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables and words. 

This is not because of muscle weakness or paralysis.  The brain has problems planning to move the body parts (e.g. lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech.

The child knows what she wants to say, but her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those sounds.

Not all children with CAS are the same.  All of the signs listed below may not be present in every child.  Have your child evaluated by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) to rule out other causes of speech problems.

Symptoms in a Very Young Child

• does not coo or babble as an infant
• first words are late, and they may be missing sounds
• only a few different consonant and vowel sounds
• problems combining sounds; may show long pauses between sounds
• simplifies words by replacing difficult sounds with easier ones or by deleting difficult sounds (although all children do this, the child with apraxia does so more often)
• may have problems eating

Symptoms in an Older Child

• makes inconsistent sound errors that are not the result of immaturity
• can understand language much better than he can talk
• has difficulty imitating speech, but imitated speech is more clear than spontaneous speech
• may appear to be groping when attempting to produce sounds or to coordinate the lips, tongue and jaw for purposeful movement
• has more idfficulty saying longer words or phrases clearly than shorter ones
• appears to have more difficulty when she is anxious
• is hard to understand, especially for an unfamiliar listener
• sounds choppy, monotonous or stresses the wrong syllable or word

Potential Other Problems

• weakness of the lips, jaw and/or tongue
• delayed language development
• other expressive language problems like word order confusions and word recall
• difficulties with fine motor movement/coordination
• over sensitive (hypersensitive) or under sensitive (hyposensitive) in their mouths (e.g. may not like toothbrushing or crunchy foods; may not be able to identify an object in their mouth through touch)
• children with CAS or other speech problems may have problems when learning to read, spell and write.

For more information on the diagnosis and treatments, visit my source:   http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/ChildhoodApraxia.htm

Other Organizations Are

• Apraxia-Kids information site:     http://www.apraxia-kids.org/ ,    
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:  http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/
• Speechville Express (for caregivers of children with speech and language disorders:   http://www.speechville.com/

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ AileyCamp: Dance and Life Lessons Each Summer

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Alvin Ailey’s Dance Theater has run dance camps for kids since 1989.  The summer camps target kids with academic, social and domestic challenges — criteria that often determin a child’s risk of dropping out of school. 

An important aspect of AileyCamp’s program is in providing positive adult and peer role models.  Another is to  give campers an invaluable opportunity to explore their creativity, to learn to master their bodies, and to strengthen their respect for themselves and others within a supportive framework that gives them a foundation for the future.

The camp curriculum includes daily technique classes in ballet, Horton-based modern dance, jazz, and tap. 

Campers also participate in personal development and creative communications classes.

Topics of discussion during the personal development classes include goal setting, self-government, nutrition, conflict resolution, career development and self-image building.

Techniques of performance and creative communication deepen the students’ awareness of their potential for self-expression.

AileyCamp Tool is a special follow-up program for campers, with the goal of reinforcing and expanding upon the meaningful experiences of the summer program. 

Noted educator Howard Gardner said,

“The most important moment in a child’s education is the ‘crystallizing experience’ — the experience that helps a young person focus, engage and deeply connect to something he or she cares about.”

In 2009, AileyCamps were held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Kansas City (where it all began in 1989), Berkely, New York City, Staten Island, Boston, Bridgeport, Chicago and Miami.

Visit the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater site at http://www.alvinailey.org/page.php?p=arti&v=16&sec=programs

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com