Is our generation too heavily dependent on the Internet? According to a recent Wi-Fi Alliance and Wakefield Research survey, almost three out of five students would not go to a college that does not offer free wi-fi. In fact, “nine out of 10 college students in the United States say wi-fi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers,” says the study.

Some scientists and writers suggest that spending a great deal of time on the Internet can significantly shorten a person’s attention span. The same survey states, “More than half [of the students surveyed] have checked Facebook or MySpace and sent or received e-mail while using their laptop in class.” I have seen, in my lecture classes, no shortage of high-achieving and academically motivated Brandeis students surreptitiously checking Facebook instead of taking notes. The temptation is strong. Is the Internet so addictive it prevents even the best students from concentrating in class?

The Atlantic Monthly recently published a popular article by Nicholas Carr titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Internet allows us a vast range of instantly accessible information; research used to entail hours spent in libraries poring over books, articles, newspaper archives and so on. Now we can click-click-click our way through the Internet, jumping from Web page to Web page, skimming through information from one hyperlink to another. In the article, Carr describes the effect years of doing so has had on his way of thinking: “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”

People who are used to reading on the Internet might find it difficult to concentrate on the linear narrative of a book. A New York Times article states: “Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories. Zigzagging through a cornucopia of words, pictures, video and sounds, they say, distracts more than strengthens readers.” Despite all the obvious advantages of having so much information at our fingertips, it is possible that the format in which it’s presented erodes our reading skills.

In general, it seems to me that spending so much time in the virtual world is slowly turning us into zombies. We are increasingly disconnected from real life. We spend less time outdoors or engaging in physical activity. We are so immersed in our technology we end up limiting our interactions with other people. Talking to friends on Facebook is not the same as talking to them in person. Talking to friends you’ve “met” on the Internet but not in real life doesn’t count at all. The more that technology advances, it seems, the more isolated we become; take the example of Netflix. Even the drive to the video store and the basic interaction with the guy behind the counter is no longer a necessary part of the process of renting movies. We can get them mailed to us directly, so we don’t even need to leave the house and make that tiny effort.

We seriously need to reevaluate our priorities. Do we really need wi-fi so desperately that we’re willing to cross colleges off our lists just because they don’t offer it in restaurants, classrooms, parks, coffee shops, even in our cars? Large percentages of students, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance, use the Internet in all these places.

Despite all its advantages, the Internet, when used so excessively, seems to impair our social skills and numb our brains. The survey even found that “If forced to choose, nearly half of respondents (48 percent) would give up beer before giving up Wi-fi.” For college students, that seems extreme.

Source: Justice, MA
http://tinyurl.com/5jcevc

The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.

“We’re seeing an evolutionary change. The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills,” Small told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“They will know when the best response to an email or Instant Message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email.”

In his newly released fourth book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.

Small, the director of the Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, said the brain was very sensitive to the changes in the environment such as those brought by technology.

He said a study of 24 adults as they used the Web found that experienced Internet users showed double the activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning as Internet beginners.

“The brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others,” said Small.

“We are changing the environment. The average young person now spends nine hours a day exposing their brain to technology. Evolution is an advancement from moment to moment and what we are seeing is technology affecting our evolution.”

Small said this multi-tasking could cause problems.

He said the tech-savvy generation, whom he calls “digital natives,” are always scanning for the next bit of new information which can create stress and even damage neural networks.

“There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language,” he said.

“But you can take steps to address this. It means taking time to cut back on technology, like having a family dinner, to find a balance. It is important to understand how technology is affecting our lives and our brains and take control of it.”

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE49Q34A20081027?sp=true

Many parents cringe at the thought of discipline. They also seem reluctant to have high expectations of their kids, or to hold them accountable for their performance. They do not want to “hurt” or “pressure” their children.

A harried mother approached me after my talk in an exclusive private school. “My son is at his computer till two in the morning,” she said. “He says he has to do a lot of research.” Her son is in first year high school, and has low grades.

“I do a lot of research,” I replied, “but I do not stay at the computer for more than a couple of hours every day. Your son is more likely playing games instead of doing his homework.”

She sighed. “I think so, too. My husband and I actually told him we would ban the computer, but he got mad at us. So we lifted the ban. What do we do now?”

I stifled a sigh. “You need to set limits,” I said. “An outright ban is difficult, because he needs to use the computer for tasks like word processing. But make sure he does not use the computer for more than two hours a day.”

“But he will get very angry!” she said. “He will tell us that he hates us!”

I looked her in the eye. Our children often say things they do not really mean. Your son will at first hate the fact that you are curtailing his leisure, but when his grades improve, he will be thankful, and so will you. Learn to say no—gently but firmly. Set limits because you care for him. He is your son, after all.”

Permissive parenting

In the incisive book Think, award-winning writer Michael LeGault discusses the lost art of sharp and critical thinking in American life. Permissive parenting is one trend; others are pervasive commercialism, anti-intellectualism, and promoting image without substance.

Without clear thinking and the willingness to persevere, LeGault says bad scenarios may repeat themselves such as the United States government’s failure to respond after Hurricane Katrina, the declining quality of US businesses, and the dismal scores of students in international tests.

I believe permissive parenting is one of the causes of educational problems not only in the US, but in our society as well. LeGault cites statistics showing that teenage boys play video games for 13 hours a week and watch television for another 25 hours. Many American parents are aware of this, but do not know what to do. In a 2001 Time magazine/CNN poll, 80 percent of Americans said, compared to kids of 15 years ago, their children were more spoiled; 35 percent said they were more permissive with their kids; 75 percent said children had fewer chores; 48 percent said children had too much influence in family decisions.

I am not saying that kids should have no say at all in the family, but when they stay up till the wee hours to play games, then something is wrong. When boundaries are not set, things go haywire.

In the past five years, I found myself becoming not just a teacher, but a de facto parent to several students, who suffered from depression, insomnia, anxiety; who slept no more than three hours a night, who did not eat well, who had sex without lasting relationships, who were angry at their parents and/or the world.

I ask them about their parents’ role. “Do your parents know you have not been sleeping well?” A shrug. “Do they know you are having sex?” A shake of the head.

Set limits

“Children not only need standards and rules for healthy social, ethical, and intellectual development,” says LeGault, “they desire them. [Standards lead to] good work and study habits, nurturing an outlook that aspires toward excellence, and acquiring a wide, eclectic base of knowledge … I think it’s a very valuable, realistic lesson to teach your kids at a young age that nothing is easy or automatic (even though it looks like it is), and that to be good at even one thing is going to take them way more work and struggle than they ever imagined.”

What happens when parents set limits? “Kids may sulk and be visibly unhappy,” LeGault says. “Parents can feel their pain but know it’s not going to kill them.” I repeat—it is not going to kill them.

LeGault says authoritative parents may appear “stodgy and uptight,” but they can take comfort in the fact that they are doing the right thing.

“The fear of growing up, or fear or loss of a child’s love and respect, or maybe just the path of least resistance, has led many parents to choose to be their child’s friend rather than their guide and mentor,” LeGault says. “Such an approach focuses on providing kids with material pleasures and comforts rather than demanding that they meet high expectations and do the work required to do so. The net result is a generation of adults who have transformed the traditional meaning of the child-parent relationship by adopting the most lax and permissive parenting practices in history.”

Thankfully, many parents have seen the light. Actor and comedian Bill Cosby urged his fellow African-Americans to become better parents in a 2004 speech: “I am talking about these people who cry when they see their son [in jail]. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn’t know that he had a pistol? The church is only open on Sunday and you can’t keep asking Jesus to do things for you. You can’t keep saying that God will find a way … People with their hats on backwards, pants down around their crack, isn’t that a sign of something or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?”

LeGault gives parents a rallying cry: “Dare to try to let your kids fail. Dare to say no. Dare to use punishment when your child misbehaves. Dare to turn off the television. Dare to make them do chores. Dare to kick them off the computer. Dare to turn their world upside down. Dare to set the agenda.” (…)

Source: Inquirer.net, Philippines
http://tinyurl.com/5sqehj

Contrary to popular belief, video games don’t turn teens into anti-social loners, in fact, they make them get more involved with friends and community, says a report.

The Pew Internet study of US teenagers revealed that only a small number of adolescents play alone, while most of them actually join their friends while gaming.

According to the report, gaming had become an almost universal pastime among young Americans, revealing that 99pct of boys and 94pct of girls across the socio-economic spectrum play some kind of computer or video game.

The most popular title was Guitar Hero, and was followed by Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution.

Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, who wrote the report said that a majority of teenagers played a variety of different titles. “They range in terms of their content from things that are about solving problems to things that are about going out and shooting things, or driving things, or racing things, or playing a sport,” BBC quoted Lenhart, as saying.

However, she claimed that playing video games does not necessarily mean that a teen would become a loner. “Three quarters of teens actually play these games with other people, whether online or in person,” she said.

She also claimed that even if teens play games every day, it won”t impact their social lives. “People who game on a daily basis are just as likely to talk on the phone, to email, to spend time with a friend face to face outside of school as kids who play games less,” she said.

On the flipside, those teenagers who were forced to confront problems in virtual communities, had a tendency to raise money for charity, volunteer, stay informed about political issues, persuade others to vote or march in a protest or demonstration.

A large number of youngsters are playing games with a serious message. Lenhart said the report revealed that the amount of time spent playing computer games didn”t dent the amount of community engagement the teenagers took part in.

But, in her opinion, teenagers who played with other people in person were likely to be more engaged with their communities.

She also pointed out that previous research has suggested that similar exercises can directly influence social interaction and community engagement.

According to the results, Lenhart advised parents to monitor the games their kids were playing.

“What we say to parents is pay attention to the games that your child is playing, see what they do in the games, and look for games that offer your child opportunities to have more civically-minded experiences,” she said.

Source: Times of India
http://tinyurl.com/3ffuvj

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

Facebook makes Mom and Dad kids’ mentors, spies and friends

Julia McGovern was shocked when her mom sent her a “friend” request on Facebook. She had been on the social-networking site for four years and had no idea her mother even knew what it was.

“It was my world,” says Julia, 18, of Hopkinton, Mass. “She was still just e-mailing.”

Not anymore. Parents are flocking to social-networking sites – sometimes to monitor their kids, and sometimes for the same reason teenagers signed up: to communicate and to share.

For some teens, this can feel like an intrusion on their virtual space. For others, it’s just a new way to stay in touch with mom and dad. It depends, experts say, on how well parents and kids communicate, online and off.

In general, teenagers are closer to their parents today than in previous generations, says Nancy Robinson, consumer strategist for Iconoculture, a cultural trends research firm in Minneapolis. Kids today often prefer hanging out with their parents to being holed up in their room, she says.

That can easily extend to social-networking sites, which – after texting – are the No. 2 way that teens communicate technologically, according to Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital (1997) and the upcoming Grown Up Digital (both from McGraw-Hill Professional).

Dylan Akers, 17, of Cambridge, Mass., invited his mom, Carolyn Bailey, to join Facebook and helped set up her page. Bailey, 46, a health and fitness counselor, says she has had more conversations on Facebook with her son’s friends than with him.

“I think everybody views my mom as a cool mom,” Dylan says. “I’m pretty open with her about my life. I don’t have to be too careful. Whatever I put on there, I wouldn’t mind her knowing.”

Many parents believe they need to monitor their kids online. Some limit their teenagers’ online exposure to strangers by using the sites’ stricter privacy settings.

Rod Carveth, 53, of New Britain, Conn., made his teenage daughter include him as a friend when she signed up for MySpace and Facebook. He wanted to make sure she wasn’t posting anything inappropriate or revealing too much personal information.

He has had to ask her to remove messages that contained vulgar language.

“It started mostly as a check,” says Carveth, an instructor at the University of Hartford, whose daughter is now 16. “Since then, it has evolved to where I will leave messages, ‘Have a nice day. Don’t forget to do this.’ That kind of thing. And she’s responded to me as well.”

Some experts warn that parents who “friend” their kids without being invited to can send the teens a message that they don’t trust them. Michael Solomon, a professor of marketing at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, says teens who post suggestive photos or inappropriate messages will block their parents from accessing the information anyway.

“It can backfire,” Solomon says. “It can embarrass the kids and their friends and create resentment.”

Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007), believes parents should keep a discreet distance on social-networking sites.

“I do think it can bring them closer together” by helping parents learn more about their children’s interests and friends, she says. “Where it gets tricky is, what’s happening on social-networking sites is really conversations between teens and their friends. You’re not just listening in on your own teen. Suddenly, you are hearing what all their friends are doing as well.”

Goodstein sees these sites as the new mall, a place where teenagers can hang out without authority figures.

Adults also should remember that teenagers are watching them back.

Liz Funk, 19, a senior at Pace University in New York City, says it was strange to see one of her high school teachers send a drink to another on Facebook.

Funk, who blogs about tween and teen girls, adds, “I really can’t recommend that parents get accounts for the sole purpose of monitoring their children. I think what’s more important is parents need to engage their kids in dialogue about what is and what isn’t appropriate to be posted online.”

Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing for MySpace, says most parents are pursuing their own interests on the site, not just watching the kids.

“Other than the front door you come through at MySpace.com, you might never see the same content or have the same experience,” he says. “You might be on MySpace just to discover great music, share it with your friends. Your mom might be on MySpace to share photos and to blog, and never the two shall meet.”

At Facebook, which was originally created for college students, the number of users ages 35 to 54 more than tripled in the 12 months ending in July, according to the site’s survey of 3,100 users. The 13-34 age group doubled, and the number of users ages 65 and older grew by 150 percent.

Kel Kelly, 45, Julia McGovern’s mom, says she didn’t join Facebook to spy on her daughter or be part of her crowd. She doesn’t friend her daughter’s friends, and if one of them friends her, she makes sure to tell their parents.

Sometimes she sees photos or messages she doesn’t like, but she doesn’t intervene unless it’s something dangerous.

Julia says her mom never crosses the line.

“It’s become an easy way to interact with her, to keep her in my life,” says Julia, who is heading to Syracuse University in the fall and plans to use the site to keep in touch with mom. “It will be a lot easier than making phone calls.”

Source: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/FEAT/808120371

For many adolescents, “screen time” is almost a full-time job that could lead to obesity, diabetes and other health issues, a Canadian researcher says.

Adolescents now spend an average of six hours a day in front of some type of screen, whether it’s a television or computer screen or one of the many portable devices now popular with young people, studies done by Dr. Ian Michael Janssen show. “They spend more hours daily in front of a screen than they do in a classroom in a given year,” said Janssen, a researcher at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, who is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Even if they are still playing with friends, children are increasingly likely to be engaging in more passive activities like playing video games, one reason why only half of Canadian children aged 5 to 17 get as much physical activity as they should each day, according to the Health and Stroke Foundation.

The result is a rise in obesity rates among adolescents. Twenty-six percent of Canadian children are overweight or obese, according to a government health committee report, representing a 15-percent increase over 30 years. In the United States, the obesity rates for preschool-aged children and adolescents has more than doubled over that time period, and more than tripled for children aged 6-11.

Unfortunately, fixing the problem isn’t as easy as simply cutting down screen time, Janssen cautions. While a sedentary lifestyle has been associated with childhood obesity, as reported in the Canadian Medical Association journal, Janssen says that physical activity and screen time are separate behaviors in children.

“Decreasing screen time will not automatically increase physical activity levels,” said Janssen, whose research examines how the two are related and what effects screen time may have above and beyond those on physical activity. Some active kids also spend a lot of time in front of television and computer screens, and some kids who have low screen times also have low levels of physical activity, he points out.

The long-term risk for children is that behaviors and health outcomes tend to track over time, Janssen said. “An obese youth is very likely to become an obese adult.” And because obesity-related health problems take time to develop, the longer a person has been obese, the worse off they’re likely to be. A 50-year-old who only recently became obese is in a better position than one who has been obese since childhood, he said.

Janssen’s real worry about the rise in childhood obesity rates is not that there are now rare cases of type 2 diabetes in kids, where once there were none, but the health problems these children are likely to face in the future as adults, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. When today’s obese children are adults, baby boomers will all be seniors, he pointed out, placing a huge burden on the health care system. “That’s when I’m really frightened.”

Source: Reuters
http://features.us.reuters.com/wellbeing/news/FD5592F0-64B8-11DD-AA35-6CC02BCD.html

We soon will experience the most important time in the entire school year for children: the first two weeks. What happens during this critical period pretty much determines how the rest of the year will go.

When children return to school after the summer break, their perceptions about school and themselves as learners are mostly uncertain. It’s a new year with new teachers, new books, new classes, new schedules and new friends. All of these new things come with the hope that this year could be different and better than all previous years.

That uncertainty in students’ perceptions continues only until teachers administer the first quizzes and tests near the end of the second week of school. When teachers assign grades to those first quizzes, the grades put students into categories. And getting out of a category is really difficult.

Students who receive a C on that first math quiz, for example, begin to see themselves as C students. Their uncertainty suddenly becomes fixed, and they accept the idea that they are likely to earn Cs in math for the rest of the school year.

When the second quiz or test occurs, they expect to receive another C. When they do, it reinforces their perception. Similarly, if they receive a failing grade on that first quiz, they think all following grades will be the same.

But if they succeed on that first quiz and receive a high grade, that, too, is their perception of all that might follow.

This means that teachers must do everything they can to ensure students’ success in the first two weeks. And not fake success, but success in something challenging. The key to motivating students rests with that success. Students persist in activities at which they experience success, and they avoid activities at which they are not successful or believe they cannot be successful.

This is the reason that truancy and attendance problems rarely occur during the first two weeks of the school year. They begin to occur after the first graded quizzes and tests. In students’ minds, the grades they receive on these first quizzes establish their likelihood of future success. And why come to school if there is so little chance of doing well?

Parents, too, must be genuinely involved in their children’s education during the first two weeks. Routines established at home in this critical period profoundly affect the likelihood of success.

Daily conversations about school activities help children recognize that their parents value success in school. Providing a quiet place for children to work on school assignments and limiting the time they spend watching TV or playing on computers further increase chances for success. Checking with teachers to make sure children are well prepared and ready to succeed also can help.

Successful experiences during the first two weeks of school do not guarantee success for the entire year. But they are a powerful and perhaps essential step in that direction.

Teachers and parents need to take advantage of this critical time and use it well. It can make all the difference.

Source: Kentucky.com, KY
http://www.kentucky.com/589/story/478728.html

Computer games may have received a bad rap for fostering behavioural problems among young children, but one child psychologist has discovered some games have therapeutic benefits.

Andrew Campbell, a lecturer in psychology with the University of Sydney, has been researching ways to treat ADHD with therapeutic computer games. His ground-breaking research recently caught the attention of a major Singaporean gaming company, which is about to finalise a contract to fund an “e-lab” at the university.

Dr Campbell and PhD student Krestina Amon have discovered that an off-the-shelf computer game - in which the player wears bio-feedback sensors, and must use breathing and meditation techniques to advance through the levels - can markedly improve the stress and concentration levels of ADHD sufferers.

Now the international gaming company Nexon has agreed to fund Dr Campbell’s research and develop an e-lab within the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

Together they plan to develop new therapeutic computer games that could increase self-esteem, reduce anxiety and help children manage ADHD.

“Nexon believes there is a whole new market for therapeutic games that deliver real outcomes, and we’ll provide the science,” Dr Campbell said.

The child psychologist hopes this treatment will offer parents an alternative to controversial stimulant medications used to treat ADHD.

“We’re not saying this is the holy grail of ADHD treatment, but our research has shown that therapeutic games can improve the concentration of those with mild or moderate ADHD.”

Source: The Australian, Austalia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23869261-23289,00.html