Parents should limit their young children's screen time to no more than two hours per day, according to pediatricians. This recommendation has been in place for many years, but parents and child caregivers don't seem to be catching on. A new study finds that the average preschool-age child is exposed to double the recommended amount.
Screen time consists of television, DVDs, computers and video games. The researchers examined data from nearly 9,000 preschool-aged children who were part of a longitudinal study that began in 2001 and included interviews with parents and child care providers to collect data on each child's daily screen time.
On average, children were exposed to four hours of screen time per day - with 3.6 hours of that time coming from exposures while at home. Children in home-based day care averaged 5.6 hours of screen time at day care. Children in center-based day care watched about 3.2 hours a day while at home and at day care. Even children who did not attend any day care or preschool exceeded recommendations - 4.4. hours a day of screen-time on average. Children enrolled in Head Start, a day care program for economically disadvantaged children, watched an average of 4.2 hours a day, but most of their screen time was at home, not at the Head Start center.
Excessive television, video and computer time is linked to delayed speech and language, aggressive behavior and obesity in children, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics issued the recommendation to limit exposure to one to two hours per day of quality programming. Most states, however, do not issue regulations regarding screen time as part of licensing of child care centers, the authors noted.
The study was published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Posted on Fri, Oct. 29, 2010 07:08 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/10/29/2368087/tv-time-limits-for-toddlers-are.html
31.10.10
In life, it's all about the first five years
The biological 'code' of success is built by the experience of a child's early years, and damage done during this time is very difficult to reverse
By Sam Cooper, The Province October 18, 2010
Dr. Clyde Hertzman, internationally respected early learning scientist, talks about what happens when in early brain development, what parents should understand, watch for, in interaction with children. in Vancouver, B. C., October 8, 2010.
The debate has raged for centuries: Is it nature or nurture that most influences the course of a human life? That age-old question has now been answered right here in B.C. — and actually shown to be irrelevant — according to Dr. Clyde Hertzman, director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of B.C.
“Early life experiences can actually change the way in which our genes express themselves,” Hertzman says. “So it’s no longer a question of nature or nurture — it’s a question of how nurture changes nature.”
HELP is one of the most diverse interdisciplinary research teams in the world — working on everything from decoding brain-cell growth in worms to encoding a worldwide charter of rights for young children. The team consistently breaks new ground by cross-pollinating pools of knowledge and creating new areas of study. The guiding mission is ultimately to improve society by striking at the negative root causes that hamper children’s development.
Hertzman’s team of 200 interdisciplinary researchers has taken a world leadership role in determining how early childhood experiences “get under the skin” and shape basic brain structures, sensory pathways and functions.
What they’ve found, Hertzman says, is that the biological “code” of success in life is built by all the sounds, sights, touches, thoughts and emotional interactions that children experience in their first few years.
The team’s stunning bottom-line conclusion is this: If children don’t get what they need during the crucial developmental “windows” before the age of five, they likely will never bounce back.
In an interview in his office at UBC, Hertzman is asked: Can it really be true that a life story is basically written before the age of five?
“There is always plasticity [of the brain]; humans aren’t ants,” Hertzman says. “But when things work out to begin with, it’s way easier for kids to grow and develop. It’s like leaky condos — if it isn’t built right from the beginning, it will be way harder and expensive to fix later on.”
From birth to the age of three in particular — the “densest time of development” — the primitive areas of the brain that allow us to interact well with others are growing and coming together, much like the architectural foundation of a building, Hertzman says.
During this time, children are reading the facial expressions of adults and forming visual connections with the deep emotional centres of the brain. That means parents basically have an 18-month window to gaze at, hold and cuddle children to help them build the right structures, Hertzman says.
Those who are deprived of loving adult faces up close will often be very independent by the age of two or three. “It becomes the neurological base of not being able to connect to others,” Hertzman says.
At the same time, stress-response pathways are forming. By the age of three, children who’ve seen too many angry or depressed looks on adult faces, will have actually experienced a lifelong perception shift in the way they perceive emotions in other human faces, Hertzman says.
The change takes place in the prefrontal cortex, influencing how the child sees the world. They develop a different set of biological connections and emotional ways of coping, and even think differently.
“Kids who grow up in calmer environments will have much more ability to focus on tasks later on,” Hertzman says. “But kids who see chaos plus violence, will be much more vigilant, looking around to see where the next blow will come from. They adapt to their environment, but they don’t adapt for success in school.”
And the importance of reading a bedtime story to a child can’t be exaggerated, because a child’s grasp of language, and success in school, is directly related to the amount and quality of words heard in early life, Hertzman says.
“The more rich and varied language kids hear, the more language they will understand,” Hertzman says.
It’s not just the words learned during the bedtime story, but the emotional bonding and love the adult conveys that make the experience such a powerful brain-booster, he adds.
Besides entertaining a child, parents can switch things up by asking what happens next in an oft-repeated story, Hertzman says. Another enrichment tip is to make funny changes and mistakes in reading a story, which some children will love to correct,demonstrating their knowledge.
The deadline for building early language foundations stretches into the primary years, but developmental differences between those getting good words from their parents compared with those deprived of the experience start showing up as early as 20 to 24 months, Hertzman says.
The children who show up for school with a language deficit will struggle to keep up and fit in, Hertzman says. The concern is to close the gap or face a generation of educational and life-skill failures. Another important early intervention involves teaching good social skills such as sharing and empathy. The window there is from age three to five, Hertzman says.
“All of the quality environments in early life are play based,” Hertzman says. “Whether it’s peer-group play or individual play, there are opportunities to develop sensory pathways, vision, hearing.”
Hertzman has a warning for parents: Guard against trying to create the perfect environment for child development in a way that causes you stress, because that can breed stress in children, which is precisely the opposite thing needed in a young, forming brain.
Each child expresses a unique temperament and learning sensibility very early, so trying to cram them into the same “developmental experience” is a mistake, Hertzman says.
“You should not be upset if a child is slow in hitting developmental milestones, or putting extra pressure for development on the kid,” he says. “It’s just as good if one child wants to sit in the corner and look at picture books, and another child wants to put a cardboard box on their head, yell into it and play with the sounds. Those are both aptitudes.”
http://www.theprovince.com/life/life+about+first+five+years/3688534/story.html
By Sam Cooper, The Province October 18, 2010
Dr. Clyde Hertzman, internationally respected early learning scientist, talks about what happens when in early brain development, what parents should understand, watch for, in interaction with children. in Vancouver, B. C., October 8, 2010.
The debate has raged for centuries: Is it nature or nurture that most influences the course of a human life? That age-old question has now been answered right here in B.C. — and actually shown to be irrelevant — according to Dr. Clyde Hertzman, director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of B.C.
“Early life experiences can actually change the way in which our genes express themselves,” Hertzman says. “So it’s no longer a question of nature or nurture — it’s a question of how nurture changes nature.”
HELP is one of the most diverse interdisciplinary research teams in the world — working on everything from decoding brain-cell growth in worms to encoding a worldwide charter of rights for young children. The team consistently breaks new ground by cross-pollinating pools of knowledge and creating new areas of study. The guiding mission is ultimately to improve society by striking at the negative root causes that hamper children’s development.
Hertzman’s team of 200 interdisciplinary researchers has taken a world leadership role in determining how early childhood experiences “get under the skin” and shape basic brain structures, sensory pathways and functions.
What they’ve found, Hertzman says, is that the biological “code” of success in life is built by all the sounds, sights, touches, thoughts and emotional interactions that children experience in their first few years.
The team’s stunning bottom-line conclusion is this: If children don’t get what they need during the crucial developmental “windows” before the age of five, they likely will never bounce back.
In an interview in his office at UBC, Hertzman is asked: Can it really be true that a life story is basically written before the age of five?
“There is always plasticity [of the brain]; humans aren’t ants,” Hertzman says. “But when things work out to begin with, it’s way easier for kids to grow and develop. It’s like leaky condos — if it isn’t built right from the beginning, it will be way harder and expensive to fix later on.”
From birth to the age of three in particular — the “densest time of development” — the primitive areas of the brain that allow us to interact well with others are growing and coming together, much like the architectural foundation of a building, Hertzman says.
During this time, children are reading the facial expressions of adults and forming visual connections with the deep emotional centres of the brain. That means parents basically have an 18-month window to gaze at, hold and cuddle children to help them build the right structures, Hertzman says.
Those who are deprived of loving adult faces up close will often be very independent by the age of two or three. “It becomes the neurological base of not being able to connect to others,” Hertzman says.
At the same time, stress-response pathways are forming. By the age of three, children who’ve seen too many angry or depressed looks on adult faces, will have actually experienced a lifelong perception shift in the way they perceive emotions in other human faces, Hertzman says.
The change takes place in the prefrontal cortex, influencing how the child sees the world. They develop a different set of biological connections and emotional ways of coping, and even think differently.
“Kids who grow up in calmer environments will have much more ability to focus on tasks later on,” Hertzman says. “But kids who see chaos plus violence, will be much more vigilant, looking around to see where the next blow will come from. They adapt to their environment, but they don’t adapt for success in school.”
And the importance of reading a bedtime story to a child can’t be exaggerated, because a child’s grasp of language, and success in school, is directly related to the amount and quality of words heard in early life, Hertzman says.
“The more rich and varied language kids hear, the more language they will understand,” Hertzman says.
It’s not just the words learned during the bedtime story, but the emotional bonding and love the adult conveys that make the experience such a powerful brain-booster, he adds.
Besides entertaining a child, parents can switch things up by asking what happens next in an oft-repeated story, Hertzman says. Another enrichment tip is to make funny changes and mistakes in reading a story, which some children will love to correct,demonstrating their knowledge.
The deadline for building early language foundations stretches into the primary years, but developmental differences between those getting good words from their parents compared with those deprived of the experience start showing up as early as 20 to 24 months, Hertzman says.
The children who show up for school with a language deficit will struggle to keep up and fit in, Hertzman says. The concern is to close the gap or face a generation of educational and life-skill failures. Another important early intervention involves teaching good social skills such as sharing and empathy. The window there is from age three to five, Hertzman says.
“All of the quality environments in early life are play based,” Hertzman says. “Whether it’s peer-group play or individual play, there are opportunities to develop sensory pathways, vision, hearing.”
Hertzman has a warning for parents: Guard against trying to create the perfect environment for child development in a way that causes you stress, because that can breed stress in children, which is precisely the opposite thing needed in a young, forming brain.
Each child expresses a unique temperament and learning sensibility very early, so trying to cram them into the same “developmental experience” is a mistake, Hertzman says.
“You should not be upset if a child is slow in hitting developmental milestones, or putting extra pressure for development on the kid,” he says. “It’s just as good if one child wants to sit in the corner and look at picture books, and another child wants to put a cardboard box on their head, yell into it and play with the sounds. Those are both aptitudes.”
http://www.theprovince.com/life/life+about+first+five+years/3688534/story.html
18.10.10
Success begins the moment nurturing and brain development begins
I've spent more than 40 years in higher education, including 14 as the president of Northern Arizona University. I've been fortunate to see directly how much the chance to succeed and achieve means to young people and to their families. While it's common to believe that the path to achievement begins when schooling begins, brain science and parenthood tell a different story. Early in my career, I had a chance to work directly with Head Start, a federally funded program available to only a few children from low-income families but with many of the components as envisioned by the leaders of First Things First.
I have learned that success begins the moment nurturing and brain development begins. By helping to ensure quality childhood experiences from birth through age 5, First Things First has put hundreds of thousands of children from all over Arizona on the path to success. I believed in this program when it was proposed in 2006 -- when it was created by voters who agreed to invest approximately $150 million a year in increased tobacco tax revenue to make the program possible -- and I believe in it today.
DR. EUGENE M. HUGHES
President Emeritus
Northern Arizona University
http://www.azdailysun.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_cbb82d4e-efd1-5c8d-a551-e7abcfffcd6c.html
I have learned that success begins the moment nurturing and brain development begins. By helping to ensure quality childhood experiences from birth through age 5, First Things First has put hundreds of thousands of children from all over Arizona on the path to success. I believed in this program when it was proposed in 2006 -- when it was created by voters who agreed to invest approximately $150 million a year in increased tobacco tax revenue to make the program possible -- and I believe in it today.
DR. EUGENE M. HUGHES
President Emeritus
Northern Arizona University
http://www.azdailysun.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_cbb82d4e-efd1-5c8d-a551-e7abcfffcd6c.html
Overhearing a language during childhood
Abstract
Despite its significance for understanding of language acquisition, the role of childhood language experience has been examined only in linguistic deprivation studies focusing on what cannot be learned readily beyond childhood. This study focused instead on longterm effects of what can be learned best during childhood. Our findings revealed that adults learning a language speak with a more nativelike accent if they overheard the language regularly during childhood than if they did not. These findings have important implications for understanding of language learning mechanisms and heritage-language acquisition.
http://learnalanguageortwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/overhearing-language-during-childhood.html
Despite its significance for understanding of language acquisition, the role of childhood language experience has been examined only in linguistic deprivation studies focusing on what cannot be learned readily beyond childhood. This study focused instead on longterm effects of what can be learned best during childhood. Our findings revealed that adults learning a language speak with a more nativelike accent if they overheard the language regularly during childhood than if they did not. These findings have important implications for understanding of language learning mechanisms and heritage-language acquisition.
http://learnalanguageortwo.blogspot.com/2010/10/overhearing-language-during-childhood.html
10.10.10
Early education key to success
By ROBERT LEE LONG
Community Editor
Published: Saturday, October 9, 2010 1:01 AM CDT
HERNANDO — Higher education begins in a kindergarten classroom.
Dr. Hank Bounds, Commissioner of Higher Education, said the only way the scores of college students will improve is if they learn their ABC's in kindergarten.
Bounds told the lunchtime crowd at the Hernando Main Street Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Membership Luncheon the key to a successful academic career begins early.
http://www.desototimes.com/articles/2010/10/09/news/doc4cafc588a365b083824617.txt
Sams remarks: Le Beaumont research pinpoints on a critical period in language acquisition in the first 8 months after birth. Beaumont Gifted Babies program engages babies as early as after the 1st month in games and activities. Brain thrives upon stimulation.
Community Editor
Published: Saturday, October 9, 2010 1:01 AM CDT
HERNANDO — Higher education begins in a kindergarten classroom.
Dr. Hank Bounds, Commissioner of Higher Education, said the only way the scores of college students will improve is if they learn their ABC's in kindergarten.
Bounds told the lunchtime crowd at the Hernando Main Street Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Membership Luncheon the key to a successful academic career begins early.
http://www.desototimes.com/articles/2010/10/09/news/doc4cafc588a365b083824617.txt
Sams remarks: Le Beaumont research pinpoints on a critical period in language acquisition in the first 8 months after birth. Beaumont Gifted Babies program engages babies as early as after the 1st month in games and activities. Brain thrives upon stimulation.
Species learn from species
Le Beaumont's research shows that "species learn from species", songbirds from songbirds, humans from humans, not from machines like radio or DVDs.
New findings in US suggest that at birth, young children are prepared to learn from so-called social agents--other members in a group or society. Findings also suggest the "social brain" enhances and constrains social learning over a person's lifetime. But, beyond learning social skills, can social interaction be used to acquire specific types of learning?
In this National Science Foundation (NSF) Distinguished Lecture, Patricia Kuhl, director of NSF's LIFE Science of Learning Center, says yes. Kuhl discusses how studies of language acquisition through live social interaction led to the theoretical formulation that social interaction acts as a "gate" that triggers other types of learning. October 8, 2010
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117853
New findings in US suggest that at birth, young children are prepared to learn from so-called social agents--other members in a group or society. Findings also suggest the "social brain" enhances and constrains social learning over a person's lifetime. But, beyond learning social skills, can social interaction be used to acquire specific types of learning?
In this National Science Foundation (NSF) Distinguished Lecture, Patricia Kuhl, director of NSF's LIFE Science of Learning Center, says yes. Kuhl discusses how studies of language acquisition through live social interaction led to the theoretical formulation that social interaction acts as a "gate" that triggers other types of learning. October 8, 2010
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117853
8.10.10
Cutting-edge brain and language development program
If you tell your friends that babies can pick up languages hundred times easier and faster than you or me, and that your 2-year old baby can speak 5 languages after coming to Le Beaumont since the 3rd month after birth, you friend will say, “You are crazy! How can that be possible?”
Proven success
Without the 10,000 hours of R & D, and over a thousand successful cases over the past 6 years, we wouldn’t be so sure. It is now a proven fact that babies can pick up as many languages as they are exposed to. Le Beaumont's findings concur with the findings of the Brain and Language Development Centre at the Oregon University. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMOHtSkSPfA
Brain and languages thrive upon stimulation
The Gifted Babies is a cutting-edge brain and language development program. It is based on massive research and 1st hand experience. The program is implemented by a team of highly committed and professionally trained playgroup teachers. Neglect and deprivation of stimulation lead to retarded brain development and language impairment. Treatment is painfully slow and costly.
Gifted Babies Program
Enroll your baby in the Gifted Babies Program on the days you and your spouse are away at work. The Standard Program costs only $2200 for babies below 1 year (40 mins sessions) and $3300 for children over 1 year (60 mins sessions). Babies in Standard Program come 3 times a week for 3 languages. Many parents prefer the Elite Program of 5 visits per week for 5 languages for $3600 and $5500 for babies below and over 1 year. Investment in the initial years will yield lifelong investment return. Your baby will be able to speak English, Putonghua, and all other languages like a native speaker.
Admiralty 2866 2028; Causeway Bay 2881 7810; TST 2376 1808
Parents are the best mentors
There is no need to come to the centre when you are at home with your baby during weekends. You are your child's best mentor. Bring him along wherever you go.
Proven success
Without the 10,000 hours of R & D, and over a thousand successful cases over the past 6 years, we wouldn’t be so sure. It is now a proven fact that babies can pick up as many languages as they are exposed to. Le Beaumont's findings concur with the findings of the Brain and Language Development Centre at the Oregon University. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMOHtSkSPfA
Brain and languages thrive upon stimulation
The Gifted Babies is a cutting-edge brain and language development program. It is based on massive research and 1st hand experience. The program is implemented by a team of highly committed and professionally trained playgroup teachers. Neglect and deprivation of stimulation lead to retarded brain development and language impairment. Treatment is painfully slow and costly.
Gifted Babies Program
Enroll your baby in the Gifted Babies Program on the days you and your spouse are away at work. The Standard Program costs only $2200 for babies below 1 year (40 mins sessions) and $3300 for children over 1 year (60 mins sessions). Babies in Standard Program come 3 times a week for 3 languages. Many parents prefer the Elite Program of 5 visits per week for 5 languages for $3600 and $5500 for babies below and over 1 year. Investment in the initial years will yield lifelong investment return. Your baby will be able to speak English, Putonghua, and all other languages like a native speaker.
Admiralty 2866 2028; Causeway Bay 2881 7810; TST 2376 1808
Parents are the best mentors
There is no need to come to the centre when you are at home with your baby during weekends. You are your child's best mentor. Bring him along wherever you go.
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