Dr. B Calls Out "Your Baby Can Read" as an Inappropriate Party Trick

Attempting to teach an infant to read prior to being cognitively ready is essentially the same as teaching your child a trick as opposed to a complex skill. That is, you may be able to get your child to say “cat” on command in response to the visual word cat but this would not be considered reading. I believe teaching your baby to read is not only unnecessary but it could potentially have a negative impact on long-term learning and development.

When you spend time training a child in a structured and repetitive way to read words before the process is meaningful to them, you are essentially taking time away from teaching more developmentally appropriate skills necessary for pre-literacy such as language acquisition.

http://www.mommyshorts.com/2010/10/dr-b-calls-out-your-baby-can-read-as-an-inappropriate-party-trick.html#tp

Nobel Laureate: Invest in comprehensive early childhood development and education, from birth to age 5

Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman wrote a letter to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Reform. His question: What's the best way to develop human capital to increase workforce capability, enhance productivity and social cohesion, and assure America's economic competitiveness in the global economy? His answer: Invest in comprehensive early childhood development and education, from birth to age 5, especially for our most vulnerable children and families.

Researchers have long documented the positive outcomes of high-quality early childhood education, including readiness for school, greater academic achievement, higher rates of high school and college completion, lower rates of incarceration, and higher incomes. And labor economists point to the substantial economic benefits for investing in early childhood education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ochshorn/where-the-achievement-gap_b_798701.html

Crucial early years lays the foundation for the future

More than half of five-year-old boys are struggling in the basics after a year at primary school, official figures show.

Some 53.1% of boys this age are struggling with skills such as reading and writing, and emotional and social development.

In comparison, 34.9% of girls are failing to reach this target - a gender gap of 18.2 percentage points.

The findings are based on teachers' observations of pupils.

"Too many children starting school without the solid foundation they need to succeed. In particular, we're concerned that boys continue to lag behind girls even before they start school, especially in writing."

"Every child, regardless of gender, background or social status, should get the right help and support in the crucial early years of their lives so they can thrive at school." A spokesman for the Department for Education in UK said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12009209

Language comprehension in autism

It has long been recognised that many people with autism have difficulty in processing semantic information. Indeed, impairments of semantic processing lie at the heart of Uta Frith’s influential ‘weak central coherence’ account of autism (Frith, 1989), which states that autism is characterised by “the inability to draw together information so as to derive coherent and meaningful ideas”. Weak central coherence remains, however, a somewhat nebulous concept and the precise nature of any semantic impairment is still unspecified. Moreover, recent studies have indicated that semantic processing difficulties may be related to an individual’s level of general language ability rather than being a generic feature of autism.

http://crackingtheenigma.blogspot.com/2010/12/language-comprehension-in-autism.html

Finding ways to improve play could help child with language acquisition

From Maria Montessori to other educators, play is considered to be a child's work. It is how they learn about their environment and everything in it. A new study out of the University of Iowa and published in the December issue of Psychological Science has found a potential link in that the more diverse the toys with differences in shape available in a child's play, the more language acquisition is increased.

PACER Center, a local center for families of children and young adults with disabilities, talked in one of their Early Childhood E-newsletters about the Tots 'n Tech Research Institute (TnT) which began as a collaboration between Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and Arizona State University in Tempe. TnT was created to provide information and resources about assistive technology and adaptations that can be used with young children. Their website gives many resources and ideas to help make modifications such a s grip changes to all kinds of things, including toys, to help the child use and play with the item and therefore learn from it.

Sometimes the job of a parent is to help pave the way for the child to experiment with new and hopefully diverse toys, and maybe a modification or adaptation can help your child improve their language acquisition as well because even if they can't yet say all the things they know, they are still learning all the time.

http://www.examiner.com/special-needs-kids-in-minneapolis/finding-ways-to-improve-play-could-help-child-with-language-acquisition

Newborns recognize their mothers' voices

Newborn babies respond differently when their mother is talking, activating a part of the brain that controls language learning, according to a study by researchers at Université de Montréal and Ste. Justine Hospital.

Maryse Lassonde and her team at U de M and Ste. Justine attached electrodes to the heads of 16 sleeping babies within the first 24 hours after they were born.

What they discovered, in findings published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, was that even tiny infants reacted differently depending on whether the woman speaking was their mother or someone else.

Researchers found that when other women spoke, the section of the brain that controls voice recognition fired up. But it took the sound of the mother’s voice to trigger neurons in the area of the brain responsible for learning language.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Newborns+recognize+their+mothers+voices/3990547/story.html#ixzz18TIC6Ivu

Memory Is Enhanced By An Active Role In Learning

New research confirms that having some authority over how one takes in new information significantly enhances one’s ability to remember it. The study, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, also offers a first look at the network of brain structures that contribute to this phenomenon.

http://www.bmedreport.com/archives/20769?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheBehavioralMedicineReport+(The+Behavioral+Medicine+Report)

High quality early childhood

When at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Rolnick found that expanding access to high quality early childhood education can return as much as $16 for every $1 invested.

“Our research found that the early learning environments must be high quality to achieve those kinds of returns,” said Rolnick. “Once we improve the quality as it relates to school readiness, this will be one of the very best investments Minnesota taxpayers can make.

MELF will be working with the new Governor and Legislature to enact early learning reforms this year.

http://www.melf.us/vertical/Sites/%7B3D4B6DDA-94F7-44A4-899D-3267CBEB798B%7D/uploads/%7BF2575526-1B4C-442D-A562-D14CBB5945E7%7D.PDF

Playgroup: Stimulating Early Brain Development

Playgroup: Stimulating Early Brain DevelopmentDownload PDF9/Dec/2010

There is no question that the early years of any child's life are the most crucial for brain development. As children grow, their brain will make connections between neurons (called synapses) which build up to make the brain much more complex.

In a recent article published by the Weekend Post in Cairns, Dr Reesa Sorin, an expert in early childhood development from James Cook University, says that things such as genetics and nutrition influence brain development. But more than this, the experiences and activities children undertake in their earliest years (and most importantly, those which stimulate the 5 senses), as well as the love, care, and attention from parents, all have an impact on brain development.

http://www.playgroupaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?objectid=C8C28350-FCA9-6556-0C14CDA408914C17 Australian Government

Talking to babies helps to boost their brain power.

No matter where the baby is or with whom, infants and babies evoke facial expressions and baby talk.

Many of us might think that the babies do not listen or pay attention to our words. But a new research by Dr Susan Hespos of Northwestern University in Illinois, has revealed that babies do listen to what we say. The study also found that by speaking to their babies the parents are boosting their brain development.

Even as early as three months of age, words help to enhance the baby’s brain. Words are more effective than music or sounds.

This finding is remarkable because according to Dr Susan parents can have a great influence on their baby’s brain at a very early stage of brain development.

http://www.medindia.net/healthnetwork/medblogs/general/what-helps-to-boost-the-babye28099s-brain-power-1534.htm

So talk to your baby and help enhance their brain power!



Read more: What helps to boost the Baby’s Brain Power? | Dr.Trupti's MedBlogs | Medindia Health Network http://www.medindia.net/healthnetwork/medblogs/general/what-helps-to-boost-the-babye28099s-brain-power-1534.htm#ixzz17UVx2n1Q

HK performs well in PISA survey

PISA 2009 results
07-Dec-2010

PISA 2009 results - Korea and Finland top OECD’s latest PISA survey of education performance. The next strongest performances were from Hong Kong-China, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. The province of Shanghai also tops the rankings.

For access to the whole report, please click
http://www.oecd.org/document/61/0,3343,en_2649_35845621_46567613_1_1_1_1,00.html