It is a question which worries every parent – what is the best way to prepare your child for their first day at school?
Now a psychologist has devised a checklist of 22 skills she believes children need to learn before beginning their formal education.

According to her findings, nearly half of parents would like more advice and information to prepare children for their first day at school.

Fewer than one in six parents have a clear idea about this, while one in five said they had no idea what skills children should have by the age of four or five. Only 18 per cent said they knew where to go for official advice.

Dr Spencer said: “Ensuring a child is adequately prepared for school is one of the most important things parents have to do.

“But it can be very challenging and daunting if the guidance and information needed is not there.

“A lot of the available material on pre-school development is focused on teaching child carers the skills, but can be difficult for parents with young children to access and understand.”

The list of suggested skills, called the Curricu-mum, was commissioned by the children’s television show Hi-5 which is designed to reflect pre-school learning guidelines.

Cecilia Persson, programme director for the Cartoonito network, which broadcasts Hi-5, said: “We believe the Hi-5 Curricu-mum is exactly what parents of pre-school children have been looking for.”

The list suggests that by the time they start school, children should be able to recite the alphabet, to count and use number and to write their own names. It also suggests children should know how to share, how to play with others and be able to dress and feed themselves.

It also claims children should be able to join in conversations, learn to sing songs, know which foods are healthy and be able to differentiate between past and future events and actions which are right and wrong.

However, Judith Gillespie, development officer for the Scottish Parent Teacher Council said she was concerned the list could create more anxiety and pressure for parents of young children.

“To a parent that is an incredibly daunting list. I think the trouble is it will make some parents feel like failures,” she said.

“Saying these are things children should be able to do is incredibly unhelpful. It would be more helpful to say that these are the kinds of things that many children learn to do before they start school. Children learn differently and develop differently and making it a requirement that they should be able do all these things is very bad news.”

Ms Gillespie said teachers did not expect children to learn the alphabet or to be able to count and use numbers before they started school and the list did not take into account the fact that boys tend to be more boisterous and learn at a different pace.

“In many respects, the most important things on the list are social skills like sharing – it is far more important that children go to school with social skills.”

Alphabet and dressing among 22 target tasks

These are the 22 tasks the report says children should be taught by the time they reach school.

1 Write their own name – a useful skill that helps confidence.

2 Know the alphabet. Being able to recite the letters of the alphabet will be a help when children begin to learn to read and write.

3 Sing/recite songs. Learning simple songs and rhythms helps children develop their learning skills.

4 Take turns and share with other people without a fuss. Learning to get along with other children is crucial.

5 Complete simple activities on their own.

6 Be sensitive to others’ feelings and know the difference between right and wrong.

7 Dress and feed themselves (even if they get it wrong).

8 Join in group activities with other children.

9 Make up stories (even if they make no sense).

10 Join in general conversation at home.

11 Tell the difference between past and future.

12 Be able to focus their attention on one thing for a prolonged period without becoming restless.

13 Count basic numbers and answer number-based questions such as: “How many carrots are on your plate?”

14 Complete simple puzzles such as jigsaws.

15 Ask lots of questions. Curiosity is a great asset in a pre-school child.

16 Know the difference between different groups; eg cats and dogs.

17 Experiment with basic technology, such as typing their name on a computer.

18 Have fun outside and be active.

19 Tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods.

20 Play “make believe” and use imagination.

21 Make things and get messy with paints and crafts.

22 Make music with toy instruments and experiment with different sounds.

Source: Scotsman, United Kingdom
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/The-key-skills-that-make.4652933.jp

Kelly and Tim are a lovely young couple with two beautiful children. One of the things that makes this young family especially nice is the behavior of their children. When Tim and Kelly go someplace, they can take their children along knowing that their children won’t disrupt others or play the obnoxious card.

But Kelly says it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when their daughter, Madison, at age three, was a tantrum thrower and as Kelly describes her, a beast. She would throw her hands up in the air and collapse to the ground sobbing. Her behavior would get beyond comprehension and for the finale the shower of tears rained over what had become a major meltdown.

“We tried everything,” says Kelly. Then they decided that her behavior did not go together with all the things that she enjoyed in her little world, so they decided to withdraw her toys and her games and the things she loved to do and show her that tantrums and toys did not go together.

Kelly and Tim slowly emptied her room of every single toy, every single activity down to a bed, a dresser, and one doll to sleep with. Everything went into their garage and was off limits to the child.

If her behavior was good for a day, she could earn a toy back. If she threw a tantrum, she would lose a toy. It was that simple. The child was able, by her own choices, to either enjoy what her parents had graciously given her, or forfeit her luxuries in favor of a tantrum.

Now what does this teach a child? Critics would say that this was cruel and unusual punishment, and that it won’t work because such a punishment holds a child to a level of competence she doesn’t understand.

On the other hand, Kelly is a teacher and Tim has counseling training, and in this very proactive and non-violent scheme, they have taught Madison to control her temper for her own sake. “If you want your toys, you have to make good choices.”

This wonderful educational scheme allowed Madison to make choices and see the result. She traded up - the tantrums for a beautiful life. The training is proactive because it eliminated temptations, excuses, and interference. It simply and completely said, “Here’s the deal. You live up to your end of the bargain, and so will we one toy at a time.”

What Madison learned is that’s the way life is. If you play by the rules, you get the life rewards of doing well. If you let others always take the blame, take the brunt of your temper; nobody will want to play with you.

And what is the result of this three years later? At the time, it took Madison four months to earn all her toys back. Because of this loving training engineered by her parents, she has become a workhorse. Madison works hard at everything she does. She loves being at big school now, and she loves the challenges in front of her, and at the same time, her parents are very proud of their beautifully behaved young lady.

(Editor’s note: Judy Lyden has worked with very young children for over thirty years. She’s been a preschool teacher for over twenty. She co-owns the Garden School, an early childhood academic center, with Edith St. Louis.)

Source: WFIE-TV
http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=7486189&nav=menu54_2/Global/category.asp

The addition of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Brothers to the ranks of Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson is helping Scottish schoolchildren become enthused about learning and reaping ground-breaking educational results, according to researchers and teachers.

Experts say in games-based learning, using technology such as the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS in the classroom, Scotland leads the world.

According to the Consolarium, the Scottish centre for games and learning which is funded by Learning and Teaching Scotland, the number of pilot schemes around the country has grown exponentially. Last year 10 local authorities were using games-based learning. At the start of the new school term, 27 are investigating its possibilities.

As further evidence of growth, Derek Robertson, head of the Consolarium, points to this week’s Scottish Learning Festival at the SECC in Glasgow. With titles ranging from Thinking Out of the Xbox to Scotland’s Got Game: How Scotland Has Embraced Games-Based Learning, there are 10 seminars sharing examples of how classrooms are using computer games. Last year there were only four related talks.

“I don’t think there is any other place in the world that has done what LTS did,” said Robertson. “I’m continually asked who does my job in England, and there isn’t anyone. For LTS it was a risk, a maverick idea from the left field that has moved into the mainstream. It’s even mentioned in the Curriculum for Excellence. That’s the impact we’ve had.”

The world is now looking to Scotland. Robertson has been asked to speak in Germany, Australia the US. He has already advised the Singapore government. A section of the influential Handheld Learning Conference in London will be given over to what is happening in Scotland.

“People recognise that Scotland is a place that is keen to integrate these things into the curriculum,” said Robertson.

Teachers are reporting that by using games such as Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Guitar Hero, Wii Sports and Endless Ocean, pupils’ motivation, attendance, personal skills and academic performance have improved, particularly among young boys and hard-to-reach children.

Meldrum Primary school in Aberdeenshire employed the game Endless Ocean as a hook for cross-curricular project for its P7 class. After playing the game on the Wii, which involves controlling a diver exploring a seascape, the pupils learned about bio-diversity, wrote stories and staged a debate about developing the a section of the ocean for tourists.

“It got so heated the person acting out the part of the tourist development person was in tears,” said Kim Aplin, the deputy-head teacher. “The quality of the learning that took place was tremendous. There is no doubt at all it improved their academic ability.”

Other examples around the country include West Lothian nurseries and primary schools using dance mats as a way to develop early-years phonics and reading skills, with “huge success”, according to Laura Compton, the authority’s information and communications technology development officer.

In Elrick and Banchory primary schools in Aberdeenshire, P2 pupils learned how to be responsible for looking after a pet using the Nintendogs game on the Nintendo DS.

In Clepington Primary School in Dundee, Jo-Anne Bell used Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on the Wii as a hook to teach her P6 class about the solar system. Pupils were placed into teams named after planets, wrote stories about the creatures that would live there, and competed against each other every morning on the Wii.

After last year’s trial involving a Dundee primary school class using Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Nintendo DS for 20 minutes a day, which sparked a 10% improvement in their basic arithmetic, the project was rolled out to 16 other schools. The results will be revealed on Thursday at the Scottish Learning Festival.

The head teachers’ organisation, School Leaders Scotland, said while it welcomed the rise of Nintendo and Sony consoles in the classroom, it had reservations.

“It’s a great extra resource, a great motivational tool, but it has resource implications and you have to keep it in perspective of the other things that you really need to do in terms of education,” said Ken Cunningham, the general secretary. “The projects are product-dependent and not readily available to everyone all the time. They have to balance all that with all the more traditional style of teaching, the interpersonal skills. So it’s about getting the balance right.”

Source: Sunday Herald
http://tinyurl.com/42tzq2

They used to be a essential part of boys’ play. But fears about gun crime have put an end to toy replicas. Should James Bond fan Phil Hilton abandon his quest for a life-like 007 shooter?

When I’m in toy shops with my family, I quietly run my eye around the shelves to see if they have one. They never do, but I keep looking. I don’t say anything to the children and I certainly don’t ask at the counter. I’m worried the staff will be shocked by my question or think less of me and assume I have a dangerous dog tethered outside. I’m scanning the shelves for a toy gun. Not any toy gun: a James Bond toy gun.

This autumn, the 007 film Quantum of Solace is released and the first licensed Bond toys have been unveiled. I’m excited because my whole family has developed a shared interest in the Bond series, most of all my son, who’s seven. I too was a Bond fan when I was seven, back in 1971; I too watched the films with my father, and the real centre of my secret agent fantasy world was my gun.

I remember with utter clarity my Lone Star 007 cap gun. It stood apart from other toy firearms in that it came with a silencer. I was able, in character, to attach the silencer to the barrel and make a deadened thudding noise with my mouth as I “fired”. The silencer fascinated me because it represented cool-headed professionalism. Anyone could shoot someone but it took real presence of mind to attach an extra part to your gun and then shoot someone.

Pinned down in my bedroom, probably wearing something itchy and nylon, I didn’t panic. I calmly and methodically screwed my silencer on to my gun and did what I needed to do for my country. I also had a shoulder holster and, memory tells me, a lighter that fired plastic pellets. All of which amplified these qualities of manly savoir faire and mastery of one’s tools. The interest in the gun was not about killing or violence, it was a glimpse of life as an adult. James Bond represented the kind of man I wanted to be - not a trained assassin, but someone resourceful with cool stuff he’d use to overcome obstacles.

I have grown up to be one of the least James Bond men in the universe. I wear luminous cycle clips on my bike, foreign travel makes me nervous (what if I suffer a tummy bug?) and if ever called upon to defend the world against a criminal genius I would opt to do so in a clerical capacity.

It is precisely because I am a namby, non-violent modern type of man that I enjoy the escape into microfilm, facially disfigured baddies and unsafe driving that Bond offers. I genuinely don’t know whether I should’ve introduced our most famous secret agent to my family, but he has brought me pleasure over the years and one rainy afternoon I came home with the complete Sean Connery box set.

You introduce your children to all kinds of cultural influences that have meant something to you and it’s impossible to predict which will take hold and which will be met with indifference. Bond was an instant hit. The cool-period jazz of Miles Davis is yet to catch on.

With the four of us watching Bond as a family, my partner and I hoped to place the violence and the (far more shocking) gender politics in context. Now we’ve been to an Ian Fleming exhibition and we own all the films and a couple of posters. The children dress up in crazed approximations of formal evening wear and occasionally allow me into their games. My son hogs the Bond role and my daughter plays female spies who start bad but later change their minds. I’m left playing a series of megalomaniacs (and, yes, I do the central-European accents if you must know). Obviously, as I have plans to take over the entire lounge and garden, Bond has to outwit and finally kill me. He could attempt rehabilitation and find me useful work in the community, but on the whole he’d rather shoot me - over and over again until dinner time. The weapon of choice is mostly pointed fingers. These are sometimes accompanied by an incongruous pirate cutlass from the dressing-up box.

So I can picture the pure joy the addition of a proper weapon would bring to our household but I also realise that while I’m taking cover behind the sofa, real gun-crime is creeping on to our streets. We know now that another horribly out-of-context family photograph of a young person on the news means there has been yet more death in violent circumstances. Last week saw the police uncovering a real gun factory converting replicas into deadly machine guns. Chillingly, the replicas were bought from a legitimate source with the cover story that they were to be used in a James Bond film. The arrival of this terrifying, desperately depressing gun culture understandably means that not everyone finds the idea of a seven-year-old with a toy pistol entirely comfortable.

Somewhat conflicted (and typecast as a criminal genius), I remain reluctant to give up on buying a Bond gun, but my search of London’s toy shops is turning into a hopeless quest. Not only are there no branded Bond-esque guns, there are virtually no toy guns anywhere at all. Have they been banned and no one told me? Am I a dysfunctional dad for even wanting one? Should I make one from Lego? I decide to take my search more seriously.

I sit and methodically work my way through a list of toy shops, call and ask them whether they sell guns. They all tell me they don’t and when I ask why most respond as though the answer is self evident: “All the usual reasons - it’s inappropriate in the present climate and they have such negative connotations.”

I find a memorabilia site called James Bond Toys. Here, collectors pay huge sums for what were once the contents of the cupboard in my boyhood bedroom. If I didn’t have to earn a living, I would devote most of my time to looking at pictures on this site and communing with secret agent suitcase sets with binoculars, plastic daggers, rare, branded roulette games and, of course, guns - with silencers. I call Nick Bennett, who runs the collection, thinking vaguely that I might splash out £30 or £40 and treat my son to the exact model I once owned myself. He tells me that the gun I was probably playing with in the early 70s would cost me around £200 and anyway he doesn’t sell them to children.

His argument is passionate and coherent: “I don’t want kids running round with toy guns these days; there is too much violence in other media. Children nowadays can access any amount of violence at any time through DVDs and video games. I see children playing 18 certificate computer games all the time. I think if children could re-enact those games with guns they wouldn’t have the education to understand that this was wrong. When we used to play with guns as a child there was an innocence to it. We didn’t see the effect a gun could have. Now you can.”

I track down the company that has first dibs on licensed Bond toys in the UK, Popco Entertainment. This is appro-priately called the Master Toy License. (I hope someone shouts, “We have the master toy license!” in a middle-European accent.)

Barry Eldridge, Popco’s marketing manager, confirms that they have no plans for a Quantum of Solace gun. He says there is no market for them and secondly they wouldn’t be allowed to make them accurately enough. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 has outlawed anything that could be mistaken for the real thing, to the extent that a range of bright, non-gun-like colours have been prescribed for toys. This legislation is entirely reasonable and nothing to do with the government attempting to influence play - it is designed to stop crimes being carried out, or potentially fatal confusion arising, if the police were called to deal with someone holding a realistic toy gun.

Eldridge outlines the effect of this law on the toy industry: “If you go into any toy shop you will find that 99% of toy weapons are fantasy weapons - cowboy guns, space guns, that kind of thing. Something that’s meant to be a machine gun is covered in white splodges. Bond is about realism, and you couldn’t have a bright pink Walther PPK - that would be wrong.” Popco will be making a Quantum of Solace range called 007 Mission Arsenal. This arsenal will be a modern one in that it will not contain a gun but will consist of secret phones, surveillance cameras and invisible pen sets. The young Bonds will presumably communicate their enemies to death.

So life has moved on to the point where my old 007 gun has become a dangerous irrelevance and yet I can still picture the pleasure it would bring to our games. Penny Holland is a child development expert and author of We Don’t Play with Guns Here. She used to be against all toy guns but now believes that such games could play an important role in growing up. “There are all sorts of issues that children are playing with when they use weapons in hero-related games,” she says. “These have very little to do with violence and more to do with safety. When you are a very young child, you have to deal with leaving secure situations such as nursery and school and preparing to leave your family and become independent in the world.” She says acting out the role of someone invulnerable can be a way of preparing for independence. Holland sees the way guns have been pushed out of nurseries and schools as an unthinking adult response that doesn’t reflect the way children use fantasy to make sense of real life.

I describe for her my games with my son and she asks about the way I explain real violence to him, because this is the context for our James Bond role-play. As long as I explain the damage actual aggression can do, she doesn’t feel that our imaginary battles are harmful.

Holland believes that violent adults are formed more by the actual violence in their everyday lives and not by what she terms “hero-play”. She points out the narrative that drives Bond is an ancient one and reflects the need for invulnerable figures shared by both adults and children.

Holland seems to have an impressive grasp of the real ways in which children play. She reminds me that if my son actually hits me during a role-play, I obviously stop the game and tell him that it’s ceased to be fun. It’s as if she’s been watching us. There I am stroking my white cat substitute (a light grey teddy bear), I’m being all cold and ruthless in a Larry Olivier foreigner accent when the young 007 tires of our verbal sparring and rams his fist deep into my scrotum. I’m no longer distant and evil, I’m shouty and cross and saying stuff like: “That really hurt. Who taught you that? Stop laughing … ”

Like any modern parent, I feel that everyone else spends more time with their children than I do; that other dads are achieving more golden dad moments than I manage and that I shouldn’t listen to so much Radio 4 when the children are around. It is really this urge to create memorable (ideally photogenic) child and father situations that had me searching for a Bond gun. I’m not a policymaker or politician, but I have reached a conclusion on this complex issue. What it is needed is a certificate or photo card identifying me as Ever So Nice and therefore allowed to buy toy guns as long as I don’t take them out of the house - about three of these certificates could be given out to tremendously nice families every year. I sense the detail of my legislation still needs work …

Source: guardian.co.uk, UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/06/family.seanconnery

Schools across the country will be opening their doors to students beginning next week. For thousands of children across Canada, this will be their first step inside our nation’s educational system and this is the week to prepare your child as well as the family.

To help ease the transition into the classroom, The Learning Partnership (TLP), a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to championing a strong public education system in Canada, is providing strategies and resource ideas that will enable parents to help prepare their children for the start of kindergarten by introducing early literacy and numeric learning skills through play.

“Our children deserve every opportunity to succeed,” says Veronica Lacey, president and CEO of The Learning Partnership. “Starting school is a huge milestone for both the child and parents. More than ever before, it’s important that we reach out to parents and teachers — and help provide them with the necessary tools to make sure that children are given the opportunities to succeed at school.”

Recent research used by The Learning Partnership has shown that when parents are given the proper early learning resources for use at home, pre-school children are better prepared for school and learning. Furthermore, parents who establish a foundation in early learning for their children at home are better prepared to support school success.

Keeping this in mind and recognizing that preparing children for school can be a challenge, The Learning Partnership’s CEO Lacey recommends that parents and children use early learning materials and engage in play-based activities which will help their children with the transition to school.

Top tips for early learning and a successful transition into kindergarten include:

- Take every opportunity that comes along to talk to your child — ask questions and answer questions. This will not only develop the child’s language skills but also nurture curiosity.

- Read to your child and talk about books to help develop your child’s listening skills and an interest in stories and print.

- Talk to your child about letters and numbers and do fun activities with them to help your child develop number and letter awareness. For example, when at the grocery store make a game of looking for items with a letter that is the same as your child’s initials.

- If English is your second language (ESL), speak to your child in the language that is most comfortable for you. ESL parents should continue reading and talking in their first language to their children.

- Initiate activities with resources such as crayons, safety scissors, construction paper, glue and playdough to help your child develop the finger control and the co-ordination they need for writing as well as encourage their creative expression.

- Chant rhymes and sing songs to help your child play with language as well as hear and recognize sounds and learn new words.

- Encourage independence: help your child learn to get dressed; express feelings, thoughts and needs clearly to others (such as going to the washroom or getting a beverage).

- Help your child make choices, for example: which clothes to wear, what activities to do.

Calgary Herald, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/6xp3p3

Q: Can you offer activities for my baby? He’s only 2 months old, and most of the time he’s eating or sleeping, but when he’s awake and content, I’d like to interact with him in a meaningful way.

A: Here are five things that will hold your baby’s interest:

Your face: Babies are fascinated by a face and all it can do. Your mouth moves and makes sounds, your eyes blink, your cheeks puff out, your head nods and shakes and your tongue moves in and out.

The very words you speak, your inflection and intonation all hold a baby’s interest. Your head and face are readily available to engage your child in a context of love and social interaction. From birth, your baby is interested in copying your facial expressions.

A mobile: Most parents purchase a mobile to hang over their baby’s crib. But babies, like all of us, get bored. So if they look at the very same mobile day after day, they’ll soon lose interest.

Therefore, change the appearance of the mobile from time to time (not necessarily daily). So if your baby’s mobile has five horses that dance around in a circle, one day tie ribbons around their necks. Another day add a bell.

Balls: Anything that moves, babies notice. Nothing moves more easily than a ball that ricochets off furniture, bumps into walls and rolls under tables and through tubes. Need a tube? Go to the post office and purchase a large postal tube. When your baby tires of balls rolling around the floor, drop a ball through the tube.

Blocks: Once your baby can sit well without tumbling over, purchase blocks. They need to be small enough for your baby to hold but big enough so that he can’t swallow them. With the blocks, play “stack and tumble.” Your part of this game is to stack the blocks; your baby’s part is to knock them over. See how many blocks you can stack before your baby moves his hand quickly to knock them over. It’s all about cause and effect. It’s as if the child is saying over and over, “When I hit the blocks, they tumble over.”

Vary the play by putting the blocks in a container; your child will love dumping them out. Once your baby can pull herself up to a standing position, stack the blocks on the coffee table. He’ll love to knock the blocks to the floor, learning about gravity as she watches them drop.

Disappearance: A major part of your child’s early learning agenda the first year of life revolves around disappearance, realizing that objects and people continue to exist even when out of sight. Purchase a jack-in-the-box; play peek-a-boo; and later, when your child becomes mobile, play hide and seek. There are so many variations of these games, and there’s no end to your child’s interest in them. You’ll likely tire of them far sooner than your child.

For more of my ideas on infant cognitive development and accompanying activities, go to BabyZone.com and search for “Your Brilliant Baby, Week by Week.”

Source: Seattle Times, United States
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/parenting/2008132733_faull23.html

Video games are wildly popular among children these days. With the widespread diffusion of handheld devices, it is not uncommon to see children quietly playing video games by themselves despite being outside at a park.

Many parents and other adults who see children playing video games without uttering a word feel uncomfortable that so much attention is directed at them.

In June and July, when The Yomiuri Shimbun carried a series of articles featuring the effects of video games on children in our lifestyle news pages, we received more than 150 letters from readers who said they were worried about their children being addicted to video games. Reading the letters, I realized that video games can present parents with serious problems.

In a survey conducted last summer by Goo Research via its Web site for primary school students, about 80 percent of respondents who were primary school students said they played video games.

Among the respondents, 30 percent of boys said they played for more than three hours a day.

According to the survey, while some families had rules for playing video games, including a limit on the amount of time spent playing, 35 percent of families had no special rules.

The survey also indicated that the age of players is getting lower.

According to an ongoing study being conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry for children born in 2001, 15 percent of the children were playing games by the time they were 3-1/2 years old. The rate rose to 28 percent by the age of 4-1/2, and 51 percent by the age of 5-1/2.

The widespread use of video games has created a situation in which children who do not have a gaming device can become left out or ostracized by their friends. This can make it very difficult for parents who have adopted a policy of not buying gaming devices for their children to maintain their stance.

Many parents who have bought gaming devices for their children are worried that the playing of games has created various problems for their children.

The correspondence we received from readers illustrated the kinds of unusual behavior that demonstrate an excessive interest in video games.

Examples include a kindergartner who would rather wet his pants and continue playing a game than go to the bathroom and a primary school student who continually kicks a ball around while playing a video game on a handheld device.

Some neurologists and parenting experts are also concerned about the possible harmful effects of playing video games.

The biggest concern is the influence on children’s brains, but scientists have yet to produce any evidence of a detrimental effect on the brain.

Commenting on the matter, Shu Watanabe, a professor of health science at Tokyo Metropolitan University who is well versed in the functioning of the brain, said: “We can’t be certain that devoting hours of time to playing games doesn’t have a bad influence on [children’s] brains at an important time in their development. Children generally find that no matter how tired their brains get, they can’t stop playing because it’s fun.”

Watanabe added, “Even if children are allowed to play games, it’s necessary for parents to limit the time spent playing them.”

Child welfare specialist Fumiharu Yamagata, a professor at Osaka City University also is worried about possible adverse effects.

“Children may become less competent at building personal relationships with others if they spend too much time just playing video games,” Yamagata said.

When children play together, they have to learn how to communicate with one another to sort out what they are going to do, how they are going to play, what rules they are going to use and so on.

When it comes to video games, however, they only need to switch on their gaming devices and they can start playing immediately without having to worry about dealing with other people.

“These days it’s not unusual for children only to communicate when it suits them and for them not to know how to verbally approach others they want to play with [in the real world],” Yamagata said, expressing deep concern over the matter.

Even experts involved in the video game industry warn against the potentially harmful effects of the games.

“When playing video games, children can only play in a world that has been provided for them by the creators of the games,” said Ritsumeikan University Prof. Akihiro Saito, a game media specialist and a developer of popular video games.

“This may make it difficult for them to develop creativity and the ability to think independently. I want parents to find time to take their children out to play in the real world,” he added.

In many regions, children are still on summer vacation. Some parents let their children play games all day because it keeps them quiet and means less effort has to be made to look after them.

But if your children seem to be too wrapped up in playing video games hour after hour, maybe it is time to reconsider together with your children your gaming ground rules for the sake of their healthy development.

Source: The Daily Yomiuri, Japan
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080821TDY04302.htm

Although a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast can prepare your child for a day of learning, experts are finding other smart ways to beef up the brain.

“Neuro-science is growing so much because of new technologies,” says chartered psychologist Deb Skaret.

“We’re finding that there are lots of things that parents can do to help facilitate the health and overall intellectual development and curiosity of their children.”

Skaret, who holds a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Alberta, has long been a student of the brain and cites the latest research into how exercise benefits the muscle between your ears.

“We’re learning how exercise is critical for brain development. It’s like a spark,” she says, adding that lack of physical activity can be connected to children with attention problems. She says American physician John J. Ratey tested junior high school students by running them on a treadmill before morning classes and found they were more alert in school.

Scientific research shows that exercise increases the fitness level and development of brain cells, and benefits the hippocampus (a seahorse-shaped brain structure) which is vital for memory and learning.

“I’m concerned about a child playing a lot of computer games and not having a balanced, recreational lifestyle. It’s just a hypothesis, but I think we’ll see greater challenges with kids holding down a conversation in the classroom. They’re used to flashy stuff, and maybe it will be hard to sit down and enjoy a book,” says Skaret, who jokes that the thumbs of future generations will be longer because of increased video games use.

Parents should encourage a balance of recreational activities and limit time on computer games, encouraging interaction and conversation with others.

Skaret also recommends parents monitor stressors in their children’s lives.

“A little bit of stress is good. Hey, you got an assignment due, nothing like stress to help you get it done. But chronic stress, such as family fighting, and you get a child with constant anxiety,” she says.

“Chronic stress creates cortisol which inhibits memory. If a child is sitting in school worrying, they can’t concentrate or they learn something and it just falls through.”

Cutting edge research still touts the benefits of sleep and adequate nutrition.

“Basically, when your brain doesn’t have the nourishment it needs, you’re foggy and fatigued. It’s hard to stay focused,” says nutrition specialist Theresa Riege of the Calgary Health Region.

Riege stresses the importance of a breakfast that is a combination of several food groups, particularly protein and whole grains, which will take longer to digest and help students keep their energy level up throughout the morning.

“Avoid that sweet sugar rush in the morning. It will get them going faster, but they’ll lack energy by mid-morning and will inhibit their function from a thinking, and even play, perspective.”

The Calgary Health Region, Nutrition and Active Living, has published a school nutrition guide book for schools, teachers and parents which is available on their website at http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/programs/nutrition/services/school nutrition.htm.

“It will give parents some food options and outlines some strategies for packing lunches and snacks,” says Riege.

Source: Calgary Herald, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/5vsjd6

My 9-year-old son recently declared that he wanted to get rid of his little-kid toys.

For years, our house has been cluttered with hundreds of small objects scattered about by my son.

Picking them up, and using all kinds of incentives and/or punishments to get him to collect them, has been mostly a losing battle.

“Don’t worry,” our friends told us. “It won’t always be like this. He’ll lose interest in all those toys and he’ll have just a few things.”

Well, it finally happened. My son announced the big decision and my wife, a dedicated if not entirely successful anti-clutter activist, was thrilled. We put the air conditioner on high and spent hours sorting through all his stuff.

It was a sad moment. Another vestige of his early childhood was going the way of the, well, dinosaur (he tossed many of those in the giveaway bin). But with all that space suddenly opened up, it was hard to stay gloomy for long.

He said good-bye to hundreds of little cars and blocks and dozens of plastic animals and dragons. The most surprising things he dumped were his Legos, which were his favorite toy until a few months ago.

He announced, “I’m too old to play with Legos.”

Only a few were spared. “These are cooler than the other ones,” he said, holding a few cylinder-shaped attachments. “They hold more weaponry.”

That was a little out of character, given that my son is generally a pacifist, even if he does like watching the Military Channel. But who could argue?

Finally, he revealed the real motivation for the purge. It gave me a jolt, because it shows he’s seriously anticipating the new demands placed on a fourth-grader.

“I need more space on my desk to do homework,” he said.

Indeed, the top of his desk is now cleared off and ready for action. The Legos went to a friend who still plays with them, and other bins went to a grateful new mom.

Now, my son says, his play will focus on a few areas. He has three Nintendo game players and he’s begun organizing his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, his Pokemon cards and his baseball cards.

We have yet to trip over those. And they don’t get stuck in the vacuum.

Source: The Star-Ledger - NJ.com, NJ
http://blog.nj.com/parentalguidance/2008/07/my_tweener_son_gets_rid_of_his.html

If you were an energetic nine-year-old boy who loved school, did your best but also loved charging about, trying to beat your friends at every game possible, imagine the hell of our currrent state school system where ball games are banned from the playground in case someone gets hurt, there is no outside play in bad weather and you are constantly in trouble for being too competitive because winning is not what it’s about. And, worse, Jamie Oliver fruit smoothies have replaced sponge pudding in your school dinner, so you’re starving by two o’clock.

Sue Palmer is a former head teacher, literacy adviser and the author of 21st Century Boys. She says it is a biological necessity that boys run about, take risks, swing off things and compete with each other to develop properly. “If they can’t, a lot of them find it impossible to sit still, focus on a book or wield a pencil,” she says, “so their behaviour is considered ‘difficult’, they get into trouble and tumble into a cycle of school failure.”

Boys are three times as likely as girls to need extra help with reading at primary school, and 75 per cent of children supposedly suffering from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are male. “We are losing boys at a rate of knots, particularly in literacy,” Palmer says, “because at some point in the past 30 years, masculinity became an embarrassment.”

Research by Simon Baron-Cohen, a respected Cambridge professor, that began as an investigation into autism, puts a solid case for biological male/female differences in the brain, with boys tending to be “systematisers” and girls “empathisers”. This explains why boys generally are less keen on reading and comprehension, and lag behind girls in literacy. A lot of boys find it easier to explain the workings of a watch than to discuss how a character in a story is feeling. “But now,” says Palmer, “apart from the very bright ones, boys aren’t even doing better at maths and science.”

Some people blame this nosedive, first noticed in the mid-Nineties, on the “feminisation” of education - too many women teachers, girl-friendly classroom environments and modular exam systems that suit girls’ study skills but disadvantage risk-takers. “Geniuses are much more likely to be male,” Palmer says, “but if you don’t tick the right boxes, you fail.”

There are seven times as many women primary school teachers as men, but Christine Skelton, Professor of Gender Equality in Education at Birmingham University, argues that there have always been far more female teachers than male. “Obviously there are some women who understand active boys, and some men who don’t, just as there are energetic girls and inactive boys,” she says.

The current generation of teachers, though, were born and raised in an atmosphere dominated by women’s liberation and “non-gender-specific” education that began in the Seventies. Barbies were banned, most protagonists in books were female and there was no tolerance of war or superhero play. As a head teacher, Palmer remembers making her reception teacher remove all the cloakroom pegs that depicted tractors for boys and bunnies for girls.

“The belief was that you were shaped by your environment, and it was the teacher’s responsibility to ‘socialise’ boys away from their natural inclinations and to encourage girls to study traditionally male subjects such as physics and technology,” she says.

Palmer would never deny that some of it was absolutely necessary - but with movements such as Reclaim the Night, Greenham Common and Gay Pride, groups that offered an alternative perspective to the traditionally dominant male view taking centre stage, masculinity became suspect. “I really think,” she says, “that the almighty cock-up of the sisterhood in the Seventies was that we believed we could turn boys into girls.”

Palmer says that most women are not natural risk-takers, so for teachers who have not helped to bring up brothers and who don’t have sons, boys’ behaviour can be frightening. “Play-fighting, for example, reaches a peak at age 7 or 8 but is not actually aggressive,” she says. “It’s social - it’s the way boys get to know each other and see how the other one ticks. A lot of women teachers are horrified when I suggest that they should let boys get on with fighting and shouting because eventually they’ll come out the other side and start negotiating.”

Another problem for boys seeking adventure is that, because we live in an increasingly risk-averse society, children are rarely allowed to play unsupervised. When did you last see a group of boys climbing a tree?

“There is a rational fear of increased traffic but also an irrational fear of stranger danger, fanned by media reporting of child abduction,” says Palmer. “Parents are worried about being considered irresponsible, so they never let their children out of their sight.” And because we are not used to seeing boys playing outside, when we do it feels hostile even when what is going on is not particularly boisterous.

Dan Travis, a sports coach, argues that it is very important for boys to muck about on their own. “Coaching is formal and necessary but should only take up 20 per cent of the time they play,” he says. “The informal 80 per cent is where most of the learning and practising occurs - away from adult supervision.”

Travis is running a campaign to bring competition back to school sport. “The Sport for All ethos took hold in the Seventies and never let go,” he says. “Games are only about inclusion, with no winners allowed.” This is disastrous for boys, who need to compete to establish their place in the hierarchy, which is how they organise their friendships and something that they understand from nursery age onwards. It is also bad for sport. Palmer adds that “self-esteem” arrived from America and now no child is allowed to “lose” at anything.

Palmer is not suggesting that boys should be allowed to behave in any way they want. What we need, she says, is to celebrate what makes them boys and help them to understand the things that don’t come naturally to them. That means getting them outside more, particularly as space gets squeezed in urban schools. “Not letting boys be boys is not only detrimental to them but also to girls, many of whom become overcompliant with what is considered ‘good’ behaviour and could do with a shove outdoors to take more risks,” she says. “I certainly wish that had happened to me.”

Palmer is especially enthusiastic about the few “outdoor nurseries” that we have in this country, and about the Scandinavian system that puts off formal learning until the age of 7 or 8, concentrating instead on playing outside and the development of social skills.

In the ideal Palmer world, everyone would go to a Scandinavian-style school. What we are doing instead is bringing in the Early Years Foundation Stage, a new government framework that becomes law in September. It says that by the age of 5 children should be writing sentences, some of which are punctuated. “That would be impressive for a seven-year-old,” says Palmer. “So rather than tackling the imbalance in the way that we have treated boys for too long, we are going to make them sit still and learn even younger. I’d call that little short of state-sponsored child abuse.”

21st Century Boys will be published by Orion in early 2009

Source: Times Online, UK
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4288100.ece