Beat synchronization in preschoolers aids learning and reading skills

A team of researchers with Northwestern University in the U.S. has found that an ability to synchronize with a beat may be an indication of how well preschoolers will later do when developing reading skills.

In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes a study they undertook that involved testing for beat synchronization and sound recognition in preschoolers and what they found as a result.

Devising a test for reading aptitude prior to teaching children to read, it is believed, would help children of all levels learn better.

If a teacher knew beforehand that a child was going to have a reading disability, for example, that child could be placed into a program developed specifically for their needs, hopefully offering a better long term outcome.

Likewise, children with an exceptional aptitude for reading could be put into an accelerated program to prevent boredom.

Unfortunately, there is no such test, thus parents and teachers are left to discover a child's reading abilities on their own.

In this new effort, the researchers devised a study to find out if beat synchronicity skills might be used as the basis for such a test.

Reading specialists have suspected that there is a link between beat synchronization and both language and reading ability, reading and speech are both timing based after all.

To better understand that link the researchers arranged to test preschool volunteers.

In the first test, 35 children were given a toy drum and asked to beat it in time with an adult beating on a similar drum.

Those that could do it well were described as synchronizers, those that could not, as nonsyncronizers.

The same group of children then had electrodes pasted to their scalps to measure brain waves, as the researchers watched monitors, the children listened to sounds the researchers played, such as "da" and "ba" with no other sound, and then with background noise.

In studying the data, the researchers found that the children dubbed synchronizers in the first part of the experiment processed the played sounds with greater precision than did the nonsyncronizers.

Further tests revealed that the synchronizers did better on overall language abilities than the nonsyncronizers, which suggests that it might be possible to use the same process to test children as young as infants for later reading ability.

The researchers plan to continue monitoring the same children in the study for five years to see if their testing method is viable.

More information: Beat synchronization predicts neural speech encoding and reading readiness in preschoolers, Kali Woodruff Carr, PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1406219111

Can Toys help develop Science and Technology (STEM) skills in children?

One of the hot topics on social media this holiday season is finding gifts that can help children, especially girls, develop science- and engineering-related skills.

Beth Holloway, director of the Women in Engineering Program at Purdue University, says toys that help children figure out how to turn their ideas into reality - toys that let them design and build something, for instance - are a great first step in inspiring them to consider a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career.

"Toys like that will help children realize that they can make an impact on the world through their ideas," she says.

As for girls in particular, Holloway says they should have a range of toys and experiences.

"Parents need to provide girls with toys that indulge their feminine side but also those that allow them to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from designing and building something," she says.

"Those accomplishments will encourage them to continue to stretch their imaginations."

Holloway says research shows that girls tend to become interested in what they are confident that they are good at doing.

STEM-inspired toys can help foster that confidence in designing and building while reinforcing their existing interests.

For ideas on STEM-related toys, Holloway suggests the websites www.amightygirl.com/ and www.modernparentsmessykids.com

How to Avoid the Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit Trap

Many adults enter parenthood with visions of "picture perfect" children. 

They imagine a warm and loving home, as well as respectful and polite kids, all eagerly doing whatever is asked with only an occasional explanation from Mom or Dad.

These people are living in Rainbow Town.

As a veteran parent, you know this is not reality but many parents have the idea that kids are just smaller versions of adults: reasonable and unselfish. This is the "Little Adult Assumption."

Moms and Dads who embrace this myth often prefer the "modern method" of discipline—talking and reasoning.

Unfortunately, words and reasons alone can prove unsuccessful. Sometimes they have no impact at all, and then parent and child fall into the trap known as the Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit Trap.

This tragic sequence results from the very best of parental intentions. Your child is doing something you don't like. You tell her to stop. She continues with her mis-behaviour, so you try persuading her to see things your way.

When persuasion fails, you start arguing. When arguing is not successful, you yell. Yelling fails, so, feeling there is nothing left to do some parents turn to hitting.

The two biggest parenting mistakes, too much talking and too much emotion, trigger the Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit Syndrome.

Changing Kids’ Behaviour Begins By Changing Your Expectations
If you have a child who is doing something you don't like, get real upset about it on a regular basis and sure enough he'll repeat it for you.

Too much yelling and too much anger on the part of a parent are destructive for several reasons. First, they move the focus off of the child's misbehavior and on to the parent's own outburst.

Second, many children take the emotional eruption of a parent as a challenge to a fight, and there are plenty of kids who love a good fight.

Third, parents who over explain and give three, four or five reasons to a child to encourage right behaviour are almost saying "You really don't have to behave unless I can give a number of good arguments as to why you should."

This is not discipline, it is begging, and the shrewd enough child will simply take issue with the parent's reasons.

Changing children's behaviour often begins by changing parents' expectations of their children. Trying to teach young children appropriate behaviour is actually closer to training than it is to teaching "little adults."

This means choosing a method and repeating it consistently until the "trainee" does what the trainer wants. Very little of the training involves extensive verbal explanations.

Most important, the trainer remains calm, patient and gentle, but also persistent and firm. Keep in mind, children need consistency and repetition in a warm and loving environment.

Take Care of Your Own Behaviour First!
Check your own behaviour. If remaining calm, patient and gentle is most often a struggle for you, perhaps your life needs a little work. It’s very hard to be a good parent, especially if you don’t take good care of your own behaviour first!

Emotional Quotient (EQ): Good for Leaders and Autism

Experts in the field of leadership believe that truly effective leaders possess a high level of emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) focusing on self and relationship management. 

It’s about social competence. Raising a child with autism can assist with elevating your own emotional intelligence.

The 5 Components of  EQ
Dr. Daniel Goleman, psychologist, brought EQ to the mainstream public in 1995. His research concluded that EQ is made up of five components:

1. self-awareness,
2. self-regulation,
3. motivation,
4. empathy and
5. social skills.

Those with a high sense of self-awareness understand how their emotions impact others and their job performance; they can regulate their feelings successfully. 

How we manage our emotions or regulate them makes the difference for leadership success. 

Goleman states that without EQ, a person can have the best training, analytical mind and be good technically, but won’t make a great leader. 

Some leaders possess these traits naturally; however, can EQ be learned?

How to Teach EQ
As Lori Ciccarelli started training leaders in the corporate setting with regard to EQ, she realised that there was not much offered on “how” to raise EQ. 

There are countless articles and books that address “what” it is but no real tools offered to improve EQ. 

Lori started thinking about tools used with Social Cognitive Deficit Disorders (SCDD) since it is about social competence. 

Over the decades these tools became ingrained in her as she taught her son, which in turn assisted in raising her own EQ. 

The best way to learn is to teach. Since the components that support EQ equate to social competence, then why couldn’t these tools used for SCDD work to raise EQ? 

Lori Ciccarelli started bringing forward these techniques in her leadership and customer service development trainings which have proven to be very successful. 

Those who attend her classes are, generally, excited to head back to their jobs with new tools for success.

• Empathy: Tools that have shown success include Michelle Garcia Winners’ perspective-taking behavioural map to enhance empathy. This tool helps one visually and concretely map out behaviors by showing “how” it can make others feel and the consequences or outcomes associated with them. Taking it a step further, you can ask your audience to develop a plan in which to better display empathy, the next time.

• Social Skills: Another effective strategy to help develop appropriate social skills was created by Winners; imaginary “friend files” in the brain. This technique helps store information about others to help initiate conversations. This interactive exercise of getting to know someone by interviewing them, writing down three items about that person, and then storing the information in an imaginary file in the brain help to initiate future conversations. Also, one can keep a journal or card index file to help organise “friend” information.

• Self Regulation: The Incredible 5-point Scale developed by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis can help regulate moods recognising and managing emotional responses. This tool focuses on the “how” by rating the mood on a scale according to intensity and matching it to solutions. According to the authors, how we act, react, and interact in difficult situations depends on our ability to quickly and efficiently assess what is happening and consider the consequences of our actions. This tool can be extremely effective.

As we focus on social competence for our kids with Social Cognitive Deficit Disorders, we can also benefit by raising our own emotional intelligence. A key to effective leadership.

Kids Learn to Flex Their Cultural Muscles

Preschool kids angling for a reward display social skills that may, on a grander scale, turn human cultures into cauldrons of change and innovation.

Groups of 3- to 4-year-olds, but not clusters of chimpanzees or capuchin monkeys, solved progressively more complex tasks in a puzzle box by employing three key social strategies, say zoologist Rachel Kendal of Durham University in England and her colleagues.

First, children who solved a task taught struggling peers what to do. Second, kids often copied what others did. And finally, task solvers frequently shared stickers they received as rewards with kids who hadn’t yet earned stickers.

This package of social behaviours characterized four- or five-person groups in which at least two kids solved a three-stage puzzle and most of the rest reached stage two, Kendal’s team reports in the March 2 Science.

Chimps and capuchins in groups of eight to 32 rarely got beyond stage one of the same puzzle, the researchers say. No evidence of teaching or sharing of food rewards appeared in these primates. Chimps copied others at the first stage but not at higher stages.

“The stark contrast in skills supporting cultural ability between children and both chimps and capuchins was surprising,” Kendal says. Her study is the first to use the same task to explore social learning in different species.

Previous studies of children’s problem-solving in groups have similarly focused on teaching, imitation and sharing, remarks anthropologist Joseph Henrich of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

These behaviors critically enable human cultures to make rapid advances in knowledge and technology, he says. Further research needs to untangle precisely how this process works, Henrich adds.

Children’s puzzle-box successes may reflect other human mental specialties, such as reasoning with language and inferring others’ intentions, suggest psychologist Robert Kurzban of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and anthropologist H. Clark Barrett of the University of California, Los Angeles, in a commentary published in the same issue of Science.

In Kendal’s study, participants reached chutes containing stickers or food first by moving a sliding door to the left or right, then by pushing either of two buttons to move the door further in the same direction, and finally by turning a dial using one of two colored holes, releasing the door to slide still further.

After 30 hours, only one chimp mastered the puzzle box, but the strategies didn’t spread. After 53 hours, no capuchins cracked all three tasks, and only two solved two tasks.

After 2.5 hours, five of eight kids’ groups contained at least two individuals who had conquered the puzzle box, with most remaining kids in those groups solving two tasks.

Skills Rocket: Reading Software - YouTube

Learn about the up-to-date software you can access on today's market to help you with reading.

Skills Rocket is a FREE e-learning website developed by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Nicola James.

Access a range of extra hints and tips for Adults with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, AD(H)D and other Neuro Differences to help improve your reading skills. Simply register for free and watch your Skills Rocket!

Do You Have a Happy Child?

According to a Web site called the Baby Center (US) and Baby Centre (UK), a child's happiness in life can be shaped by a parent.

One may think that it's easy to make a child happy; just give him candy, just give her a toy and everything will be better, right? But that isn't necessarily the case.

One needs to give one's child the proper tools early on for creating a happy life but how can a parent teach that to a 5-year old?

A parent should be able to give a child enough space for free play. That is unstructured, unencumbered time to do what s/he wants without being told as to what s/he needs to do.

Your children are being told every day what to do; don't cross the street, finish your milk, take a nap, etc.

By allowing enough time each day for them to discover what makes them happiest, you are not only raising a happy child, you are giving him/her the skills to think him/herself.

This is linked to another tip from Baby Center, in which a child has to be able to solve his/her own problems without help.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't care as a parent; just let them figure out the little things: how to turn on a light, how to wash their hands in the sink, etc.

These small decisions will lead to bigger things such as how to verbalise feelings without throwing a tantrum, how to say what they want to say with kindness, etc.

The premise is; when kids are given enough freedom to understand concepts on their own terms they learn to be good adults.

Where does this leave you as a parent? You are still responsible for the connection between mind and body which means you still need to form boundaries through the food they eat, the time they sleep, etc.

Nurture the child, don't stifle them and you'll have an exceptionally happy child on your hands.

Teaching self-control skills to children reduces classroom problems

Children taught skills to monitor and control their anger and other emotions improved their classroom behaviour and had significantly fewer school disciplinary referrals and suspensions, according to a study by University of Rochester Medical Centre researchers.

Children in a school-based mentoring program were about half as likely to have any discipline incident over the three-month period of the study, according to an article published online by the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. They also had a 43 percent decrease in mean suspensions as compared to the control group, which did not receive mentoring of the self-control skills.

In the four-month interval after the intervention began, 1.8 percent of children in the mentored group were suspended compared to 6.1 percent of the control group. Children taught the new skills also had a 46 percent decrease in mean office disciplinary referrals as compared to the children in the study's control group

"It is exciting that adult mentors, who are not mental health professionals, taught children a set of skills that significantly strengthened the children's ability to function well in their classrooms and meet school expectations," said Peter Wyman, Ph.D., lead author of the article and associate professor of Psychiatry at the Medical Centre.

"This study suggests that with appropriate guidance from a trained adult, young children are capable of learning a great deal about their emotions and skills for handling their emotions effectively and those skills can have direct, positive benefits for their functioning in school."

The study evaluated the effectiveness of the Rochester Resilience Project that was developed by Wyman and Wendi Cross, Ph.D., associate professor of Psychiatry and Paediatrics at the Medical Centre, to address the needs of young children with emerging behavioural and social-emotional problems by providing an accessible school-based intervention.

In a relationship with an intervention mentor over four months, children learn and practice behavioural and cognitive skills designed to strengthen their self-regulation of emotions and address specific goals to improve school adaptation.

"Our goal in developing the Rochester Resilience Project was to 'translate' findings from research about how children learn skills to be more resilient in relationships with adults into an accessible program in schools," Wyman said. "Being a successful student in elementary school classrooms establishes a foundation that makes healthy development more likely in the future."

Activities establish the Resilience Project mentor as an empathic adult informed about each child's life context, strengths and challenges. Through adult-led interactive learning and practice in natural settings, children are taught to monitor their own emotions and the emotion of others, using cues to identify feelings and intensities of feelings.

Mentors introduce 'feelings check-in' as a standard practice that serves as a teaching tool about feelings and a transition to skills focused on managing feelings.

Self-control and reducing escalation of emotions is taught through the concept of a "feelings thermometer" to depict intensity. Children learn to use "mental muscles" as a tool to monitor feelings and to stop feelings from entering a hot zone.

They also learn to maintain control and regain equilibrium through strategies such as taking a deep-breath, stepping back from emotionally intense situations, and using an imaginary umbrella as protection from hurtful words.

For each of the 14 weekly lessons, children met individually with their mentors for approximately 25 minutes in a private setting during the school day. The skills taught to children are labeled in simple terms suited to developmental level.

Reinforcement and feedback from mentors in settings in which children use new skills is also critical for children to successfully acquire the skills. Mentors collaborated with teachers to identify classroom situations in which the mentors could provide reminders to children to use new skills, and cues were provided, a sticker or button, for example, for the child to take as a reminder.

In the study, 226 children from kindergarten up to third grade in two urban elementary schools took part. They had manifested emerging behavioural, social-emotional, and/or on-task learning problems at school.

This population was selected due to evidence that those problems increase the likelihood that children will be less successful at school and may develop behavioural problems, such as substance abuse.

Children who received the intervention showed improved functioning in all domains of classroom behaviour rated by teachers.

The intervention had a positive impact on children's classroom behaviours and rates of disciplinary incidents, including fewer aggressive or disruptive problems, improved on-task learning behaviours and peer social skills, and less shy-withdrawn and more assertive behaviours, the researchers concluded.

After the study was completed, children in the control group also were mentored and taught the self-control skills. The mentoring improved peer social skills, more for girls, than for boys.

Link: www.urmc.rochester.edu

Channel 4 TV Highlights Failing Number Skills in UK Children

In 2009 more than one in five children left primary school having failed to grasp the basic maths skills required by the national curriculum. In a two-part special, Dispatches asks why and how are we failing Britain's children when it comes to maths.

Dispatches follows a class of final-year pupils at Barton Hill Primary School in Bristol as their staff adopt a radical approach to teaching, in a bid to improve the maths ability of these children before they head off to secondary school.

The problem couldn't be more urgent. Research shows that failing to grasp the fundamentals of maths at primary school leaves only a one in ten chance of catching up by the age of 16.

Dispatches hears from leading lights in the worlds of business and academia - including the CEO of Sainsbury's, Justin King, and George Davies, formerly of Next and Asda - about the impact on the economy and on adult life of leaving school without basic maths skills.

In a provocative nationwide exercise, Dispatches examines the standard of primary maths teaching in this country by testing the teachers. No tricks; just 27 questions that a bright 11-year-old would be able to answer. The shocking results are revealed in the programme.

You can play a shortened version of the maths test by clicking the 'maths quiz' link in the left-hand column of the Channel 4 website page here.

Dyslexia: Hearing helps and Listening aids

Following on from our previous blog on 'Print Awareness' we would like to look at Listening and Hearing in the developing child.

Listen!
Before we, or our children can speak and read properly we first have to be able to listen and understand what we are hearing.

Professional Speech Therapists will always insist that a full spectrum of hearing test are carried out on a child, before they take them on as a 'patient' or client.

This makes perfect sense, because in the early stages of speech we mimic and repeat what we hear and if we do not hear sounds clearly or there is a loss of some tones and frequencies then we will not be able to respond correctly. It may sound OK to the speaker but not to the listener.

Phonemic Awareness
It is essential that your child's hearing is in good working order, so that they can;

• hear and begin to recognise sounds in words (Phonemics)
• begin to match letters and letter sequences to sounds (Phonics)

Nursery Rhymes
There is a very good reason why nursery rhymes were written, repeated and have stood the test of time. It's because they have a very important purpose in helping a child develop a sense of language, in a simple, fun and therefore, acceptable way.

Children need to be able to detect and repeat simple rhymes in words and sentences, to allow them to develop good language skills. Nursery rhymes are essential in encouraging the child's development of phonemic awareness and as a consequence they also develop good phonic skills.

Sing along
So, make it easy for your children to sing along with nursery rhymes and simple rhyming songs. Sing with them and set aside a time in the day to share this activity with your child. It doesn't have to be a formal arrangement, it can simply be in the car on the way to the supermarket, in the shopping mall , when your both 'busy' in the garden or cleaning house.

Music and sounds
Make sure you have musical toys in your child's extensive and colourful collection of toys. Encourage your child to make the noise the toy makes e.g. a bell (Ding!), a car horn (Beep, beep!), a train (Woo, woo or Chuff, chuff), etc. Are they good at it?

This way you will be able to discover how talented your child is in the sound and music department but you may also be able to detect what frequencies they can and cannot hear.



Ear Infections
Be careful with ear infections in small children, they can lead to difficulties in hearing later on in development and therefore in speech and language development. Do not tolerate ear infections and be insistant with you doctor that your child needs speedy and appropriate treatment.


Don't over react but also don't allow yourself to be fobbed off or dismissed by a taciturn or off-hand remark that 'It'll go away itself!' or 'It's normal for kids. Just leave it!' No, get it treated. Otherwise your child's hearing and future development may be affected.

Summary
Hearing is essential in the development of speech and reading skills. Encourage your child to listen carefully and to sing and make appropriate sounds in response to your prompting.

Don't panic! If you have any concerns about your child's hearing or speaking skills, consult a qualified consultant for their opinion and they will be able to provide re-assurance, pertinent comment and specialist observations.