No TV or video for two years?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has  issued a stern warning to parents: TV is bad for kids under 2. And not just some TV shows, all moving screens with pictures from the football game playing in the living room to the Youtube clip buffering on your iPad.

A statement on the AAP website stops short of calling the glowing moving images on your iPhone that transfix your baby what it sometimes appears to be: kid-crack.

“The Academy is concerned about the impact of television programming intended for children younger than age two and how it could affect your child’s development,” says a statement on the AAP website. “Pediatricians strongly oppose targeted programming, especially when it’s used to market toys, games, dolls, unhealthy food and other products to toddlers. Any positive effect of television on infants and toddlers is still open to question, but the benefits of parent-child interactions are proven.

The AAP suggests that parents limit their kids’ media intake, not just with television programming but with apps and websites, at least for the first two years. But they don’t give official guidelines as to where the tipping point lies: is three hours a week of three hours a day of Dora the Explorer going to hold up your child from learning the alphabet?

All of it is a crime according to the APP.  Time in front of the tube is time wasted, according to the report. For every hour in front of the TV, a child loses 50 minutes communicating with a parent. The figures and facts may be accurate, but how realistic is living in screen-less world in 2011?

How much TV does you child watch ? Do you limit their TV time ?

Source: Yahoo shine

Top 5 benefits of reading to your child

1.  A stronger relationship with you. As your child grows older, he’ll be on the move—playing, running, and constantly exploring his environment. Snuggling up with a book lets the two of you slow down and recaptures that sweet, cuddly time you enjoyed when he was a baby. Instead of being seen as a chore or a task, reading will become a nurturing activity that will bring the two of you closer together.

2. Academic excellence. One of the primary benefits of reading to toddlers and preschoolers is a higher aptitude for learning in general. Numerous studies have shown that students who are exposed to reading before preschool are more likely to do well in all facets of formal education. After all, if a student struggles to put together words and sentences, how can he be expected to grasp the math, science, and social concepts he’ll be presented with when he begins elementary school?

3. Basic speech skills. Throughout toddlerhood and preschool, your child is learning critical language and enunciation skills. By listening to you read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, your child is reinforcing the basic sounds that form language. “Pretend reading”—when a toddler pages through a book with squeals and jabbers of delight—is a very important pre-literacy activity. As a preschooler, your child will likely begin sounding out words on his own.

4. The basics of how to read a book. Children aren’t born with an innate knowledge that text is read from left to right, or that the words on a page are separate from the images. Essential pre-reading skills like these are among the major benefits of early reading.

5. Better communication skills. When you spend time reading to toddlers, they’ll be much more likely to express themselves and relate to others in a healthy, constructive way. By witnessing the interactions between the characters in the books you read, as well as the contact with you during story time, your child is gaining valuable communication skills.

Source: Early Moments 

The importance of reading to your baby

Reading books aloud is a wonderful way to spend time with your baby, even before the little one is born!  Hearing adult voices teaches children valuable language skills that are carried through their development.  Intonation, emotions, and expressions can all be taught through story and picked up by babies from their earliest months.  Start building your baby’s library at your baby shower – you could even include a few books in another language!  Remember, babies will be grabby and aiming to put these books into their mouths, so make sure to pick books that are sturdy enough to last through the abuse.  Even if the baby seems distracted, this time sharing a book will really will make a difference!  At this stage, it’s not about the story, it’s about spending time with a book, familiarizing the baby with the activity, and making it part of his or her routine.  Point out images, say simple words and colors, count up details ~ it may not seem like the child cares about what you are saying – but believe me, they are listening! Also, look for bright, vibrant illustrations. Imagery can chapter children from a very young age and children appreciate art more than we give them credit for.

Once you instill a love of reading in your baby, you can look forward to their continued excitement and enthusiasm for reading into their toddler years.  As your baby gets older, try focusing on themes that can open into question and answer time, performance, art sessions, dance routines and a more. Books should to act as springboards for children’s hearts and minds, helping them to express themselves with confidence and integrity, and to explore the world in new ways. These are essential attributes in today’s fragile and fast-changing world. We need creative people in business, in the arts, in medicine and science, and in government. So look for books, CDs and other gifts that offer high educational value and are lots of fun. Also, it helps to find books that creatively honor different traditions, to start inspiring an interest in cultural diversity at a young age.

Creativity doesn’t just happen: the seeds may be in all of us, but the way we raise our children, and the emphasis we place on their imaginative development, is what helps those seeds to grow.

Article provided by Jeanne Nicholson at Barefoot Books. Visit us online at Barefoot Books

 

 

 

Parents do not have a favorite child – Truth or myth ?

In this week’s cover story, TIME’s Jeffrey Kluger confronts the myth that parents do not have a favorite child: “Mom and Dad will say it earnestly, they’ll repeat it endlessly, and in an overwhelming share of cases, they’ll be lying through their teeth.”  Kluger reports on research that shows the hard truth that most parents do indeed have a favorite. In one study, researchers found that 65% of mothers and 70% of fathers exhibited a preference for one child, usually the older one. Other research shows that kids who feel less loved than their siblings are more likely to develop anxiety, low self-esteem and depression. “Not all experts agree on just what the impact of favoritism is,” Kluger writes, “but as a rule, their advice to parents is simple: If you absolutely must have a favorite (and you must), keep it to yourself.”  To read the rest of the article click here.

Do you agree with this article ? Do you favor one child over the other ?

Source Time Magazine

A peak into the life of Sarah Jessica Parker

A glimpse into the life of the STC star, Sarah Jessica Parker with her husband Mathew Broderick and children James Wilkie, 8, and two year old twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha.

You can read her Vogue interview here.

Kids & Ramadan

A great read for parents by Jumana AlAwadhi

Sleepy Wrap gets a nod for safe and proper infant positioning

Many healthcare providers  have now started to support and recommend  upright carrying for  babies and say that it may benefit your child’s health.

I found an interesting article about it. This is what it says:

The average infant between the ages of three weeks and three months is carried little more than two and a half hours a day. Infants, who are placed on their backs during this time, frequently develop a flattening of the back of the skull (plagiocephaly) and poor muscle tone of the upper neck. This positioning straightens the natural c-shaped curvature of the cervical spine and may also negatively influence the development of the hip joints.
Proper upright carrying involves wrapping the baby facing you with knees flexed against your chest, while supporting underneath the baby’s bottom. Swaddling the baby in this way, instead of artificially straightening his legs, is ideal.
Upright carrying tends to be a less stressful position on a baby’s developing spine. It reinforces the natural c-shaped curvature of the spine and allows the baby to practice compensatory movements that aid in the development of fine motor skills.
Also, parents who upright carry have reported improved respiration, digestion, sensory development and reduced ear infections in their child.
A word of caution: some 1980s-style upright carriers which resemble backpacks and have the baby facing outward, do not offer enough neck support and tend to artificially straighten the legs. Look for wrap-style carriers that have the baby facing towards you, such as the Sleepy Wrap.

 

Read the rest of the article here.