Child Development - Child Care - Pre-School Education

Education begins at birth and starts with the mother or guardian. A baby starts learning even before it's born. Everything a baby sees, hears, touches, tastes, smells and feels, shapes the development of that child. In order to maximize a child's learning abilities, a parent must be fully involved in the education process. It's very important to know how humans develop and what influences effect your child's development, and that human development continues throughout our entire lifetime.



Pregnancy and Nutrition - New Born Nutrition - Breastfeeding - Nutrition (food smart)

Early Development (birth) - Parenting

Learning to Read - Milestones - Pre-School

The Human Brain - Gifted - Advanced Learners

Special Needs - Disabilities - Autism

Educational Toys - Learning Games

Child Development and Brain Development Films.

Everyone should learn as much as they can about Child Development and Child Psychology, and also learn about the inner workings of a child’s brain, which in turn could help a person understand their own brain. Especially knowing that the prefrontal cortex, which controls focus, planning, and efficient action, takes almost 20 years to mature. Humans are altricial and have a much longer childhood then any other animal species. Child Development knowledge can also help people be prepared for interactions with children and also teach people about some of the difficulties of parenting and teaching. 

Altricial means that a new born baby is born in an undeveloped state and requires care and feeding by the parents. New born babies are helpless and are incapable of feeding themselves and need to be taken care of for several years until they are mature enough to take care of themselves and move around on their own Secondary Altriciality is a uniquely human long period of early childhood dependency necessitated by the immaturity of the human brain at birth. All human babies are born premature; a newborn is still a fetus for the first 9 months outside the womb in the post-natal womb.

Reptilian Brain - Instincts

Precociality are new born species who are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching.

Postnatal Brain Development. Within the first postnatal year, the period after childbirth, the brain grows to approximately 70% of its adult size. This growth is due to a rapid increase in neuropil  or axons, dendrites, and synapses, and glial cells. Remodeling and myelination of neural circuits extend throughout adolescence. After birth, there is striking biological and functional development of the brain’s fiber tracts as well as remodeling of cortical and subcortical structures. Behavioral development in children involves a complex and dynamic set of genetically guided processes by which neural structures interact constantly with the environment. This is a protracted process, beginning in the third week of gestation and continuing into early adulthood. Researchers studying the postnatal brain found that the neurotransmitter acetylcholine released from cholinergic system cells initiates the branching, or arborization, of axons on chandelier cells in the cortex – and that arborization dictates how effective chandelier cells are at doing their job of using inhibitory effects to counter excitation in other cells. Arborization is the fine branching structure at the end of a nerve fiber. The study is the first to show that these two types of cells, both implicated in such disorders as schizophrenia, epilepsy and autism, communicate very early in brain development. The researchers first observed how chandelier cell axons develop their branching structures, noting that small protrusions emerging from axons were the first signs that branches would sprout. And they identified the chemical needed to start that sprouting process – the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is released by cholinergic system cells. A cholinergic neuron is a nerve cell which mainly uses the neurotransmitter acetylcholine or ACh to send its messages. The interaction between the distant cell types was confirmed through a series of experiments: Knocking out receptors that bind to acetylcholine and decreasing activity of cholinergic neurons lessened branch development, and making cholinergic neurons more likely to fire led to more widespread branching. The most rapid brain development happens in the first five years of life, and evidence suggests back-and-forth interactions between children and their caregivers play a pivotal role. In addition to paring down neural connections, the brain is also strengthening the connections it keeps, so messages can move between the neurons more quickly. Electrical signals convey these messages between parts of the brain — and that electrical activity is what shows up as brainwaves when scientists measure it. The human brain generally has a mix of faster wave activity and slower wave activity. The slower wave activity can be seen when someone is sleeping, and more fast wave activity when the brain is active. Children who are growing up in extreme poverty tend to have less fast wave brain activity compared to their peers who have had more privilege. From good nutrition to good sleep, a lot of factors play a role in brain development for the youngest children. And high-quality interactions with adults are a big factor. These interactions help young kids acquire the fundamentals of how to learn. When children enter kindergarten, the key question is not whether they know the alphabet or can add and subtract. Instead, the important skills include impulse control, attention span, emotional regulation. These abilities don’t develop on their own. Instead, the relevant regions of the brain need to be activated — and often, since the brain’s networks are strengthened through practice. Children carry forward, in their brains, the imprint of what happened to them during these early years and what resources were or weren’t present.

Children progress through four distinct stages, each representing varying cognitive abilities and world comprehension: Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years). The sensorimotor stage is thought to be the stage in development where children's thinking is the most concrete, where information is taken at face value, without thinking beyond the physical for other meanings. A large aspect of the sensorimotor stage is the development of object permanence. Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years). Children use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years). This involves mastering the use of logic in concrete ways. The word concrete refers to that which is tangible; that which can be seen, touched, or experienced directly. Formal Operational Stage (11 years and beyond). This stage is characterized by the emergence of logical thinking processes, particularly the ability to understand theories and abstract ideas and predict possible outcomes of hypothetical problems. Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them.

Childhood is the most critical time in every human’s life for learning. The human brain is built and designed to learn and built to be creative. So having learning strategies and Inquiry Based Curriculum for conceptual understanding is essential.

Infant or Baby is a very young child from birth to 1 year who has not yet begun to walk or talk. Infant in law is someone too young to have full legal responsibility.

Child is a human offspring of either sex of any age. An immature childish person.

Independent Learning - Cognitive Science

It's what you teach, how you teach it, when you teach it, and why you teach it? Everyone stands on the shoulders of giants, but everyone still needs to be lifted up.

There is a lot of material to cover in child development, so here are just a few things that will be covered. Understanding the brain and neurological mechanisms. Concepts of cause and effect. Understanding sensory data and motor skills. Understanding and analyzing statistical patterns and abstract grammatical patterns. Understanding computations. Understanding the formation of intuitive theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms. Understanding object permanence and theory of mind and secondary theory of mind. Understanding how to avoid egocentric and amoral behavior. Understanding why we imagine the experiences of other people. Understanding and appreciating the difference between reality and fantasy. 

TV and Media Dangers (media literacy)

Why we need to end the era of Orphanages (video and interactive text) - The negative effects of institutions.

Development Definitions - Parenting

The most important thing that every human must learn is how to learn on your own and how to teach yourself. Continually learning is extremely important.

Milestones of Learning - Development Stages

Child Development Stages are milestones of child development.

Child Development Stages (PDF) - Development Stages (PDF)

Developmental Stage Theories divide child development into distinct Stages which are characterized by qualitative differences in behavior.

Learning in Stages - Personal Development

Milestone is a significant event in your life or an action marking a significant change or stage in development, or in a project. Progress - Goals.

Milestones (PDF) - Milestones (cdc) - Grades - Structure

Milestones Info-Graph (image) - Milestones Chart (image)

Critical Period states that if a child does not receive the appropriate stimulus during this "critical period" to learn a given skill or trait, it may be difficult and ultimately less successful later in life. Functions that are indispensable to an organism's survival, such as vision, are particularly likely to develop during critical periods. Critical Period Hypothesis states that the first few years of life is the crucial time in which an individual can acquire a first language if presented with adequate stimuli. If language input does not occur until after this time, the individual will find it more difficult to achieve a full command of language—especially grammatical systems.

1 in 4 parents worry that their child is behind in developmental milestones Parents concerned about child's development may not always seek a doctor's opinion, with 1 in 5 turning to the web, family and friends or social media. As their infants and toddlers grow, many parents may wonder if their children are walking, talking and socializing when they're supposed to be. Development Checklist.

Imprinting in psychology is any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. Young children often acquire several of their behavioral characteristics from their parents early in life. Being a good example.

Behavioral Cusp is a special type of behavior change that provides the learner with opportunities to access new reinforcers, new contingencies, new environments, new related behaviors (generativeness) and competition with archaic or problem behaviors. It affects the people around the learner, and these people agree to the behavior change and support its development after the intervention is removed. The concept has far reaching implications for every individual, and for the field of developmental psychology, because it provides a behavioral alternative to the concept of maturation and change due to the simple passage of time, such as developmental milestones. The cusp is a behavior change that presents special features when compared to other behavior changes.

0–1 months: Reflex schema stage – Babies learn how the body can move and work. Vision is blurred and attention spans remain short through infancy. They are not particularly aware of objects to know they have disappeared from sight. However, babies as young as seven minutes old prefer to look at faces. The three primary achievements of this stage are: sucking, visual tracking, and hand closure.
1–4 months: Primary circular reactions – Babies notice objects and start following their movements. They continue to look where an object was, but for only a few moments. They 'discover' their eyes, arms, hands and feet in the course of acting on objects. This stage is marked by responses to familiar images and sounds (including parent's face) and anticipatory responses to familiar events (such as opening the mouth for a spoon). The infant's actions become less reflexive and intentionality emerges.
4–8 months: Secondary circular reactions – Babies will reach for an object that is partially hidden, indicating knowledge that the whole object is still there. If an object is completely hidden, however, the baby makes no attempt to retrieve it. The infant learns to coordinate vision and comprehension. Actions are intentional, but the child tends to repeat similar actions on the same object. Novel behaviors are not yet imitated.
8–12 months: Coordination of secondary circular reactions – This is deemed the most important for the cognitive development of the child. At this stage the child understands causality and is goal-directed. The very earliest understanding of object permanence emerges, as the child is now able to retrieve an object when its concealment is observed. This stage is associated with the classic A-not-B error. After successfully retrieving a hidden object at one location (A), the child fails to retrieve it at a second location (B).
12–18 months: Tertiary circular reaction – The child gains means-end knowledge and is able to solve new problems. The child is now able to retrieve an object when it is hidden several times within their view, but cannot locate it when it is outside their perceptual field.
18–24 months: Invention of new means through mental combination – The child fully understands object permanence. They will not fall for A-not-B errors. Also, a baby is able to understand the concept of items that are hidden in containers. If a toy is hidden in a matchbox then the matchbox put under a pillow and then, without the child seeing, the toy is slipped out of the matchbox and the matchbox then given to the child, the child will look under the pillow upon discovery that it is not in the matchbox. The child is able to develop a mental image, hold it in mind, and manipulate it to solve problems, including object permanence problems that are not based solely on perception. The child can now reason about where the object may be when invisible displacement occurs.

Speech and Language - Mirror Stage

Object Permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way. Infant studies suggest that much younger infants like 3-month-olds can have a clear sense that objects exist even when out of sight.

Ten Percent Of U.S. High School Students Graduating Without Basic Object Permanence Skills (youtube)

Some research suggests a child's moral self starts to develop around age three. These early years of socialization may be the underpinnings of moral development in later childhood. Proponents of this theory suggest that children whose view of self is "good and moral" tend to have a developmental trajectory toward pro-social behavior and few signs of anti-social behavior. In one child developmental study, researchers examined two key dimensions of early conscience – internalization of rules of conduct and empathic affects to others – as factors that may predict future social, adaptive and competent behavior. Children's internalization of each parent's rules and empathy toward each parent's simulated distress were observed at 25, 38 and 52 months. Parents and teachers rated their adaptive, competent, pro-social behavior and anti-social behavior at 80 months. The researchers found that first, both the history of the child's early internalization of parental rules and the history of their empathy predicted the children's competent and adaptive functioning at 80 months, as rated by parents and teachers. Second, children with stronger histories of internalization of parental rules from 25 to 52 months perceived themselves as more moral at 67 months. Third, the children that showed stronger internalization from 25 to 52 months came to see themselves as more moral and "good". These self-perceptions, in turn, predicted the way parents and teachers would rate their competent and adaptive functioning at 80 months.

Passive Learning Vulnerabilities

Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development (wiki)

Developmental Stage Theories (wiki)

Family Rules work well when everyone knows the rules and understands why the rules are important. By doing this, children will be less likely to get mixed messages about what is okay and what is not okay, and thus be more likely to follow the rules. Family rules help children understand what behaviors are okay and not okay. As children grow, they will be in places where the rules may not be so obvious and there may be rules that they have not yet learned. So following rules at home can help children learn how to follow rules in other places. It's normal for children to break rules and test their limits. So consistent follow through is a must. Explaining the consequences when rules are broken will help your child to have a clear understanding about the importance of certain rules. Remember, young kids sometimes break rules because they simply forget. And not all broken rules occur because kids are testing their limits. So learning why the rules were ignored must be discussed. Try not to punish a child indiscriminately or in a random manner that does not show good judgment or care.

Praise vs. Punishment - Interpersonal intelligence (people smart)

Ten-week-old babies can learn from practicing walking months before they begin walking themselves say researchers. They gave the infants experience at “reflex walking” which is a primitive instinct in babies which disappears around 12 weeks of age. When held by an adult at a slightly forward angle, and with the soles of their feet touching a flat surface, the infants will reflexively walk by placing one foot in front of the other. Psychologists at Lancaster University gave this “reflex walking” experience to one half of a group of 10 week old infants, who took an average of 23 steps in 3 minutes. The other half of the group did not share in the experience of walking.

Robot dog learns to walk in one hour. The learning algorithm adapts control parameters of a Central Pattern Generator. In humans and animals, these central pattern generators are networks of neurons in the spinal cord that produce periodic muscle contractions without input from the brain. Central pattern generator networks aid the generation of rhythmic tasks such as walking, blinking or digestion. Furthermore, reflexes are involuntary motor control actions triggered by hard-coded neural pathways that connect sensors in the leg with the spinal cord. A computer program acts as the artificial presentation of the animal's spinal cord, and learns to optimize the robot's movement in a short time. The artificial neural network is not yet ideally adjusted at the beginning, but rapidly self-adjusts. A newborn giraffe or foal must learn to walk on its legs as fast as possible to avoid predators. Animals are born with muscle coordination networks located in their spinal cord. However, learning the precise coordination of leg muscles and tendons takes some time. Initially, baby animals rely heavily on hard-wired spinal cord reflexes. While somewhat more basic, motor control reflexes help the animal to avoid falling and hurting themselves during their first walking attempts. The following, more advanced and precise muscle control must be practiced, until eventually the nervous system is well adapted to the young animal's leg muscles and tendons. No more uncontrolled stumbling -- the young animal can now keep up with the adults.

Potty Training for both boys and girls

First we learn to walk and then we learn to talk. Now its time to learn how to think and learn how to do.

Babies understand counting years earlier than believed.

The Foundation for Child Development.

Society for Research in Child Development.
 
12 Principles of Child Development and Learning that Inform Practice.

Child Development Info 

Evaluations and Screenings (PDF)

Child Development Documentaries (films)

Child Development refers to the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual Progresses from Dependency to increasing Autonomy.

Human Development Biology is the process of growing to Maturity. In biological terms, this entails growth from a one-celled zygote to an adult human being.

Neoteny is when the physiological (or somatic) development of an organism (typically an animal) is slowed or delayed.

Developmental Psychology is the scientific study of how and why human beings change over the course of their life.

Developmental Psychology Categories (wiki)

Developmental Psychopathology is the study of the development of psychological disorders, such as psychopathy, autism, schizophrenia and depression, with a life course perspective. Best understood as normal development gone awry.

Child Psychopathology refers to the scientific study of mental disorders in children and adolescents.

Developmental Biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop, and is synonymous with ontogeny, which is the origination and development of an organism, usually from the time of fertilization of the egg to the organism's mature form.

Brain Development Knowledge

Zero to Three - Newborns and Toddlers Resources - Temple University Infant & Child Laboratory - Baby Centre

Someone is a Handful is a person who is difficult for one person to manage or control.

My Hands are Full is to be very busy with things to do that it is almost impossible to take on any additional workload, burden or responsibilities.

Books on Child Development

Child Birth (birth and reproduction)

Whole Child (PBS)

Nursery is a bedroom within a house or other dwelling set aside for an infant or toddler. A typical nursery would contain a crib (or similar type of bed), a table or platform for the purpose of changing diapers (also known as a changing table), as well as various items required for the care of the child (such as baby powder and medicine). A nursery is generally designated for the smallest bedroom in the house, as a baby requires very little space until at least walking age; the premise being that the room is used almost exclusively for sleep. However, the room in many cases could remain the bedroom of the child well into his or her teenage years, or until a younger sibling is born, and the parents decide to move the older child into another larger bedroom, if one should be available. Plant Nursery.

Teaching your Child to Speak

Babies begin to learn words and what they mean well before they begin talking. Babies communicate in non-verbal ways and learn to communicate verbally before they read or write. Baby sign language is the use of hand and body gestures to help babies communicate before they learn to speak, which typically happens around their first birthday. Baby won't say their first meaningful words until they are about a year old. But even if they can’t form words yet, baby is still trying to communicate with you through cries, coos, facial expressions, and body language!. From birth, babies begin to develop two sets of communication skills: receptive skills and expressive skills. Receptive communication is the ability to receive and understand a message from another person. Babies demonstrate this skill by turning their head towards your voice and responding to simple directions, often with vocalizations. Early on, these vocalizations will just be sounds, but as baby approaches their first birthday, they will begin to use meaningful language. Expressive communication is the ability to convey a message to another person through sounds, speech, signs, or writing. Crying, babbling, and using body language are examples of your baby’s early expressive skills. Babies learn by watching the people around them. Even if baby doesn’t have the vocabulary to have a conversation with you, it’s very helpful for their communication development if you talk to them! Here are some other ways to encourage communication development: Use a high-pitched, sing-song voice. This helps get and keep your baby’s attention. Play with sounds. Don’t be afraid to get silly! Use facial expressions and gestures to communicate the meaning of words. Describe your actions as you dress, feed, and bathe your child. Encourage two-way communication. When your child communicates with you using sounds, words, or gestures, be sure to respond and take turns in the “conversation”. Read with your child. “Reading” can simply mean describing pictures without following the written words. Choose books with large, colorful pictures, and encourage your child to point to and name familiar objects. Expand your child’s vocabulary by building on the words they already know. For example if your child says “dog” you could say “Yes, that’s a big dog!”. Reword your child’s phrases. If your child makes a speech or language error, respond with the phrase in the correct form. This helps them learn proper pronunciation and grammar. For example, if your child says “Doggy big” you can respond with “Yes, the doggy is big.” What does communication help with? Communication plays such an important role in our lives. It is the cornerstone of healthy relationships. It is the vehicle for sharing our joy, fear, and other emotions. It is how we learn new things at school and work, and teach others those same skills. The benefits of communication long outlast childhood. When will my baby start talking? Baby will begin making consonant sounds, such as “da, da, da”, at around 4-6 months. They will also begin to imitate sounds around 7-9 months. But they typically don’t say meaningful language, such as calling the right people “mama” and “dada”, until around their first birthday. Learning ABC's.

Communication - Speech - Language Pathology

Talking Directly to Toddlers Strengthens their Language Skills

Normal Speech and Language Development

Toddler Language Gap 
The Power of Talk (pdf)
Teacher Child Conversations (pdf)

Word Gap - Thirty Million Words

The Genius of Babies (5 videos with text) - Deb Roy: The Birth of a Word.

Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
Belle Project
LENA Research Foundation
Pragmatics

Reading - Memory - Learning Methods

Effective Teacher Student Interactions (pdf)
Early Education Research (pdf)

Bilingual Families - Learning Language

Baby Talk is when babies try to talk but can not speak words clearly enough, usually delivered with a "cooing" pattern of intonation different from that of normal adult speech: high in pitch, with many glissando variations that are more pronounced than those of normal speech. It frequently displays hyperarticulation, which is an increase in the distances between peripheral vowels (such as [i], [u], and [a]). Baby talk is also characterized by the shortening and simplifying of words. Baby talk is similar to what is used by people when talking to their pets (pet-directed speech). When adults talk to each other using baby talk it is generally to either show affection by emulating the fondness shown by adults for children, or as a form of bullying or condescension as children are generally considered much less cognitively developed than adults, implying that the adult receiving the baby talk is less intelligent than the adult talking to them.

Telegraphic Speech is speech during the two-word stage of language acquisition in children, which is laconic or brief and to the point; effectively cut short and efficient.

The Top 10 Assumptions about Early Speech and Language Development

Language Delay is a failure in children to develop language abilities on the usual age appropriate for their developmental timetable. Language delay is distinct from speech delay, in which the development of the mechanical and motor aspects of speech production is delayed.

Hearing Problems - Choose the Right Vocabulary

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" That is a stupid question to ask a kid. This is how the question should be asked, "When you grow up and you become fully educated and intelligent, what kind of things do you think you will do that will benefit the world?" And don't forget to tell them that they don't have to answer the question right now, and that the answers that they give will most likely not be the same answers they will give years from now. Everyone experiences change, and this is just one of many ways that people use that helps them to reflect on their lives as they get older. So it's not, "who do you want to be?" Or "what do you want to be when you grow up?" or "What do you want to major in when your in College?" Because that question explains very little about all the other possibilities that a person will have their life. Plus, the more you learn about yourself and the more you learn about world, the more you will understand that most all of your decisions are based on what you know, and how experienced you are. And if you are a young person you most likely don't know a lot, or have you experienced enough things in life in order to fully understand them. So that's why it's a silly question. Kids should give this answer "How the heck do I know, I'm just a kid, when did you know?" Remember, Kids should definitely have dreams and understand why dreams are necessary, but kids should also know the facts, because after all, the more they know about themselves and the world, the better. Learn together. 

Potential - Purpose of Education - Classroom Management

"All dreams come from some form of information, so the more you know, the better your dreams will be."

Life Readiness - Head Start - Preschool - Early Education

Head Start Program provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to children and their families. The program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. The transition from preschool to elementary school imposes diverse developmental challenges that include requiring the children to engage successfully with their peers outside the family network, adjust to the space of a classroom, and meet the expectations the school setting provides.

Early Childhood Education relates to the teaching of young children formally and informally up until the age of about eight.

Preschool Education is children between the ages of three and five.

Upstart provides four-year-old children access to the highest form of academic support in their early education at no cost to participants: personalized family education and coaching, a new computer and Internet if needed, and adaptive educational software.

Learning Specialist - School Types - Grades - Education Purpose - Self Directed Learning

Early Childhood includes toddlerhood and some time afterwards.

Pre-kindergarten is a classroom-based preschool program for children at or below the age of five.

Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach traditionally based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. "Garden for the children"

Kindergarten Ready Exam - Kindergarten Readiness - Pre K Smarties

Elementary Schools are the main point of delivery of primary education, for children between the ages of 5–11, sometimes 5-10 or 5-12 and coming between pre-kindergarten and secondary education. Elementary school often includes kindergarten to third, fourth, fifth, or sixth grade; less commonly, some elementary schools extend as far as 7th or 8th grade.

Primary Education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school.

Basic Education comprises the two stages primary education and lower secondary education.

Secondary Education is considered the second and final phase of basic education, or the stage before tertiary education.

Tertiary Education is the educational level following the completion of secondary education.
 
Middle School and junior high schools are schools that span varying combinations of grades 4 or 5 to 7 or 8 (sometimes 9), such as 4-6, 4-7, 4-8, 5–7, 5–8, 6–8 (most commonly), 7–8, and sometimes 7–9.

Higher Education - College Degrees - Accreditation - Learning Styles


Pre-School Education Resources - Everything Preschool - Early Intervention - Early Care & Education - Early Childhood - Early Childhood News - Early Learning - Early Learning (PBS) - Learning for Life - Ounce of Prevention - Edu Care Schools - Child Health Booklets - National Institute for Early Education Research - The Baby College - Early Childhood Preschool Education - Beyond Daycare | The Goddard School

Parents as Teachers - Parent Teacher Association

Parent Involvement Education - Family Education - Fun Education - Miss Maggie - Fun Brain - Kaboose - Children Now - Love and Logic - Talk With Kids

Abecedarian Early Intervention Project was a comprehensive early education program for young children at risk for developmental delays and school failure.  It studied the potential benefits of early childhood education for poor children to enhance school readiness. It has been found that in their earliest school years, poor children lag behind others, suggesting the fact that they were ill-prepared for schooling. The Abecedarian project was inspired by the fact that few other early childhood programs could provide a sufficiently well-controlled environment to determine the effectiveness of early childhood training.

Being fair: The Benefits of Early Childhood Education.

During the first few years of life, the human brain grows with incredible speed, from about a quarter of the size of an adult’s at birth to 90 percent by age six. At age five, more than two-thirds of the preschoolers scored 90 or better on an IQ test, compared with 28 percent of the non-preschoolers. Three-quarters of the preschoolers graduated from high school, versus 60 percent of the others. At 27, more than a quarter owned homes, compared with just 5 percent of the non-preschoolers. And by 40, nearly half of the non-preschool group had been arrested at some point for violent crimes, while less than one-third of the
preschool group had.

Parenting - Guardian

Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, financial, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship. Family.

Parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A biological parent consists of a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male through the sperm, and a female through the ovum. Parents are first-degree relatives and have 50% genetic meet. A female can also become a parent through surrogacy. Some parents may be adoptive parents, who nurture and raise an offspring, but are not actually biologically related to the child. Orphans without adoptive parents can be raised by their grandparents or other family members.

Single Parent is an uncoupled individual who shoulders most or all of the day-to-day responsibilities for raising a child or children. A mother is more often the primary caregiver in a single-parent family structure that has arisen due to death of the partner, divorce or unplanned pregnancy. Financial Aid.

Orphans - Mentoring - Adoption - Foster Care

Being a parent is one of the most difficult jobs to do and it's also an enormous responsibility. When you have a child, you immediately become the second most important person in the world, second only to the most important person in the world, your child. Nurturing, listening, talking and teaching are just some of the necessary skills that you will need. Nurture vs. Nature.

Mother is the female parent of a child. Mothers are women who inhabit or perform the role of bearing some relation to their children, who may or may not be their biological offspring. Children who were raised with fathers perceive themselves to be more cognitively and physically competent than their peers without a father. Mothers raising children together with a father reported less severe disputes with their child. Housewife is a woman whose work is running or managing her family's home—caring for her children; buying, cooking, and storing food for the family; buying goods that the family needs for everyday life; housekeeping, cleaning and maintaining the home; and making, buying and/or mending clothes for the family—and who is not employed outside the home (a career woman). A housewife who has children may be called a stay-at-home mother or mom. Marriage.

Father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental legal and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive father is a male who has become the child's parent through the legal process of adoption. A biological father is the male genetic contributor to the creation of the baby, through sexual intercourse or sperm donation. A biological father may have legal obligations to a child not raised by him, such as an obligation of monetary support. A putative father is a man whose biological relationship to a child is alleged but has not been established. A stepfather is a male who is the husband of a child's mother and they may form a family unit, but who generally does not have the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent in relation to the child.

Be More than just a Biological Parent. Be a Loving Father. Be a Loving Mother. Be engaged and supportive of your children. Listen attentively to your child. Spend time with your child and make time for your kids. Plan trips and adventures with your kids. Be your child's role model and lead by example. Don't teach hate or show disrespect for other people. Respect your children and earn their trust. Understand and share their interests and be there for the milestones. Develop strong communication. Teach discipline instead of punishing your children for their mistakes, don't yell or judge, learn. Learn together, read together, investigate and do some research as a team. Teach your children how you learned important lessons in your life. Eat together as a family and learn about healthy food choices and proper eating habits. Admit your mistakes and your own imperfections. Accept that your children aren't you. Reward your children appropriately. Don't place unreasonable expectations on your children. Understand when your children are struggling. Be aware of the changing times. Help out around the house. Realize that a father's job is never done. And learning how to be a good person is always learning new ways how to be good. But how do you learn how to be a good father when your own father never taught you? You learn, and never stop learning. Interpersonal intelligence (people smart).

Parenting is the most important job in the world. And every parent or guardian must understand that they cannot transfer the responsibility of educating a child to a school. Schools only teach basic skills. Everything else that a person needs to learn is not found in schools. The worlds most valuable knowledge and information can only be acquired by reading the worlds most valuable knowledge and information. That is why the skill of reading is one of the most important skills that you will need to have in life. And when you hear that students are graduating high school with 5th grade reading levels, that is nothing more than criminal. If schools could fix these reading deficiencies, then we would simultaneously fix a lot of other problems too.

Partner Effects refer to the ways in which a spouse or consensual mate influences the life of their significant other. More specifically, the effect a partner has on another's career and overall occupational status.

Gatekeeper Parent is a parent who appoints themself the power to decide what relationship is acceptable between the other parent and the child or children.

Parental Alienation - Work–Life Balance

Family Economics applies economic concepts such as production, division of labor, distribution, and decision making to the family. It is used to explain outcomes unique to family—such as marriage, the decision to have children, fertility, time devoted to domestic production, and dowry payments using economic analysis.

Family Structure is considered a family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. However, this two-parent, heterosexual, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and nontraditional family forms have become more common. The family is created at birth and establishes ties across generations. Those generations, the extended family of aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins, can hold significant emotional and economic roles for the nuclear family. Power Structure.

Grandparent are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, thirty-two genetic great-great-great-grandparents, etc. In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be a grandparent increased. It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity but largely results in the improved medical technology and living standard, but it is generally believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the preservation of information which could otherwise have been lost; an example of this important information might have been where to find water in times of drought. In cases where parents are unwilling or unable to provide adequate care for their children (e.g., death of the parents, financial obstacles, marriage problems), grandparents often take on the role of primary caregivers. Even when this is not the case, and particularly in traditional cultures, grandparents often have a direct and clear role in relation to the raising, care and nurture of children. Grandparents are second-degree relatives and share 25% genetic overlap. A step-grandparent can be the step-parent of the parent or the step-parent's parent or the step-parent's step-parent (though technically this might be called a step-step-grandparent). The various words for grandparents at times may also be used to refer to any elderly person, especially the terms gramps, granny, grandfather, grandmother, nan, maw-maw, paw-paw and others which families make up themselves.

Co-Parenting describes a parenting situation where two parents work together to raise a child even though they are not married, divorced, separated or no longer living together. An enterprise undertaken by two or more adults who together take on the socialization, care, and upbringing of children for whom they share responsibility. Coparents may include a variety of configurations, including a mother and a father, two mothers, two fathers, a parent with an adult sibling or grandparent, or a parent and another adult relative. The coparent relationship differs from an intimate relationship between adults in that it focuses solely on the child. The equivalent term in evolutionary biology is biparental care, where parental investment is provided by both the mother and father. The original meaning of coparenting was mostly related to nuclear families. However, since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, the principle that a child has to continue to maintain a strong relationship with both parents, even if separated, has become a more recognized right. Thus, the concept of coparenting was extended to divorced and separated parents and to parents who have never lived together.

Group Decision-Making - Collaboration - Cooperation - Co-Teaching

Alloparenting is a term used to classify any form of parental care provided by an individual towards young that are not its own direct offspring. These are often referred to as "non-descendant" young, even though grandchildren can be among them. Among humans, alloparenting care is often performed by a child's grandparents and older siblings. Individuals providing this care are referred to using the neutral term of alloparent or "helper".

It takes a village to raise a child.

Cooperative breeding is a social system characterized by alloparental care: offspring receive care not only from their parents, but also from additional group members, often called helpers.

Wet Nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child.

Nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting.

Governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, the primary role of a governess is teaching, rather than meeting the physical needs of children; hence a governess is usually in charge of school-aged children, rather than babies

How moms and dads view each other as co-parents affects kids. Poor outcomes when dads unhappy with co-parenting relationship. The best outcome for children was when both parents saw their co-parenting relationship as positive. But children were almost as well-adjusted when the relationship quality was moderate and mothers were less positive about co-parenting relative to fathers. How mothers and fathers see each other as co-parents of their children plays a key role in how well-adjusted their kids become, a new study suggests. Researchers found that, in a sample of low-income couples, children have the best outcomes when both parents saw their co-parenting relationship as highly positive and worst when both parents viewed their relationship as poor. However, child outcomes diverged when couples saw their co-parenting relationship as moderately good, but mothers and fathers had different views on each other as co-parents.

Same-Sex Marriage is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. There are records of same-sex marriage dating back to the first century. As of 2021, same-sex marriage is legally performed and recognized in 29 countries (nationwide or in some jurisdictions) with the most recent being Costa Rica (2020). Switzerland held a referendum on 26 September 2021 that returned a 64% yes-vote, which will allow same-sex couples to marry starting 1 July 2022.

LGBT Parenting refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people raising one or more children as parents or foster care parents. This includes: children raised by same-sex couples or same-sex parenting, children raised by single LGBT parents, and children raised by an opposite-sex couple where at least one partner is LGBT. Scientific research consistently shows that gay and lesbian parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as those reared by heterosexual parents.

Parental Investment in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, is any parental expenditure (e.g. time, energy, resources) that benefits offspring. Parental investment may be performed by both males and females (biparental care), females alone (exclusive maternal care) or males alone (exclusive paternal care). Care can be provided at any stage of the offspring's life, from pre-natal (e.g. egg guarding and incubation in birds, and placental nourishment in mammals) to post-natal (e.g. food provisioning and protection of offspring). Parental investment theory, a term coined by Robert Trivers in 1972, predicts that the sex that invests more in its offspring will be more selective when choosing a mate, and the less-investing sex will have intra-sexual competition for access to mates. This theory has been influential in explaining sex differences in sexual selection and mate preferences, throughout the animal kingdom and in humans.

Godparent in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who bears witness to a child's christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelong spiritual formation. In the past, in some countries, the role carried some legal obligations as well as religious responsibilities. In both religious and civil views, a godparent tends to be an individual chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development, to offer mentorship or claim legal guardianship of the child if anything should happen to the parents. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother. The child is a godchild (i.e. godson for boys and goddaughter for girls).

It takes a Village to Raise a Child is an African proverb that means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. The villagers look out for the children. This does not mean an entire village is responsible for raising a child or the children of a crowd.

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parent or parents. Adoption.

Guardian is a person who is responsible for taking care of someone and protecting them.

Representative - Protector - Mentoring

Legal Guardian is a person who has the legal authority and the corresponding duty to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Guardians are typically used in three situations: guardianship for an incapacitated senior (due to old age or infirmity), guardianship for a minor, and guardianship for developmentally disabled adults.

Rep. Maloney speaks on adoption by same-sex couples (youtube) - Rep. Maloney Speech on LGBTQ Adoption (youtube) Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney gives an impassioned speech to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. When you allow discrimination against LGBTQ couples and call it religious liberty, you deprive kids of families who will love them. There are so many kids in need of a good home and parents who are ready, willing, and able to give that to them. At the end of the day - that’s all that matters. That's why we must pass the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. S.1791 - Every Child Deserves a Family Act.

Ward of the state is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court".

Surrogate is someone who provides or receives nurture or parental care though not related by blood or legal ties. Someone who takes the place of another person. A person appointed to represent or act on behalf of others.

Surrogacy is an arrangement, often supported by a legal agreement, whereby a woman agrees to become pregnant, carry the pregnancy to due term, and give birth to a child or children, all of this for another person or persons, who are or will ultimately become the parent(s) of the child or children.

Foster Care is a institutional system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member. Foster parents can receive 600 to 800 dollars a month. Child Abuse - Foster Care.

Foster is to promote the growth of someone and help develop by providing or receiving nurture or parental care though not related by blood or legal ties.

Indian Child Welfare Act is a United States federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of Native American Indian children from their families in custody, foster care and adoption cases. It gives tribal governments exclusive jurisdiction over children who reside on, or are domiciled on a reservation. It gives concurrent, but presumptive jurisdiction over foster care placement proceedings for Native American children who do not live on the reservation. In 1978, Congress, after extensive hearings, found that public and private agencies had taken hundreds of thousands of Indian children from their homes, sometimes by force. These agencies then placed the children in institutions or with families that had no tribal connections.

Orphan is a child whose parents have died or are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. Orphans.

Oliver Twist was a story that centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the "Artful Dodger", a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin. Oliver Twist is notable for its unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. The book was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. Dickens satirises the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's own experiences as a youth contributed as well. ''Please, sir, may I have some more?''

High Quality Interactions - Communication

A Good Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well. A relationship of mutual understanding or trust and agreement between people. Diplomacy - Rapport (wiki) - Good Example.

Knowing how to talk to your child is extremely important. Be available for your children. Notice times when your kids are most likely to talk — for example, at bedtime, before dinner, in the car — and be available. Start the conversation; it lets your kids know you care about what's happening in their lives. Find time each week for a one-on-one activity with each child, and avoid scheduling other activities during that time. Learn about your children's interests — for example, favorite music and activities — and show interest in them. Initiate conversations by sharing what you have been thinking about rather than beginning a conversation with a question. Let your kids know that you're listening. When your children are talking about concerns, stop whatever you are doing and listen. Express interest in what they are saying without being intrusive. Listen to their point of view, even if it's difficult to hear. Let them complete their point before you respond. Repeat what you heard them say to ensure that you understand them correctly. Respond in a way that your children will hear. Soften strong reactions; kids will tune you out if you appear angry or defensive. Express your opinion without putting down theirs; acknowledge that it's okay to disagree. Resist arguing about who is right. Instead say, "I know you disagree with me, but this is what I think." Focus on your child's feelings rather than your own during your conversation. Remember: Ask your children what they may want or need from you in a conversation, such as advice, simply listening, help in dealing with feelings or help solving a problem. Kids learn by imitating. Most often, they will follow your lead in how they deal with anger, solve problems and work through difficult feelings. Talk to your children — don't lecture, criticize, threaten or say hurtful things. Kids learn from their own choices. As long as the consequences are not dangerous, don't feel you have to step in. Realize your children may test you by telling you a small part of what is bothering them. Listen carefully to what they say, encourage them to talk and they may share the rest of the story.

How to Talk to Your Child: The Best Strategies for Effective Communication (youtube)
Communicating with Your Child (youtube)

You need to keep the Lines of Communication Open with your children, and you must Maintain these Communication Channels, if not, then you will never truly know your child, or educate them fully enough. If a child never Learns how to communicate, or never feels comfortable communicating, then information and knowledge will be impeded, which could have devastating consequences. One of the most devastating things that can happen to a child is when they stop asking questions and stop learning things that are important. Empathy - Mirroring.

Research has found that toddlers with fewer spoken words have more frequent and severe temper tantrums than their peers with typical language skills. About 40% of delayed talkers will go on to have persistent language problems that can affect their academic performance.

Knowledge Guide for the Formative years is the period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. Coaching.

Resources for Moms and Parents
Mums Net Parenting Tips
Channel Mum community for mums.
Parent Further - Mothering
Pediatrician shows how to calm a crying baby (youtube)
Parenting - Parenting - I Parenting
Cafe Mom - Mom 365
Parents Connect - Positive Parenting Program
Free Range Parenting - Every Child Succeeds
Parental Guide - Behavior Techniques and Strategies
Tools for Getting Along Curriculum
Grand Rapids Parent University
The Learning Community
Baby Center - Sixty Second Parent

Punishment - Discipline - Praise - Good Examples - Behavior

Parents want their kids to have more than they did. But what kids need most is knowledge and information that would help them to understand themselves and the world around them. Kids need to high quality education that still does not exist, so it's still not available. There is no amount of material things or money that would benefit a person more than a high quality education and a loving and understanding parent.

Child Care - Caring for New Born Children

Pediatrician is a specialist in the care of babies. Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people be under pediatric care up to the age of 21 (though usually only minors are required to be under pediatric care). A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word pediatrics and its cognates mean "healer of children". Pediatricians work in hospitals, particularly those working in its subspecialties (e.g. neonatology), and as outpatient primary care physicians.

Child Care is the caring for and supervision of a child or children, usually from age six weeks to age thirteen. Child care is the action or skill of looking after children by a day-care center, babysitter, or other providers.

Day Care is the care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family.

Child Care Info
Creative Play - Creative Play Plus
Whole Child Center - Childtime Learning Centers
Educational Play Care - Kindercare
Educare - Educational Daycare
National Network for Child Care
Little Hands Day Care $900 a month for four days a week.

Study of Early Child Care and Development (PDF) - PLEASE NOTE: This information in the PDF above was current at the time the document was published in 2006. The information is not being updated and may no longer be accurate. It is provided for historical purposes only.

Second Pillar Care Quality
National Association for Family Child Care

National Association for the Education of Young Children - Promoting excellence in early childhood education.

Pediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents, and the age limit usually ranges from birth up to 18 years of age. American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dangers of Television and Computers

Teaching at Home - Tutoring
Lesson Ideas - Worksheets
Reading - Writing - Literacy
Teaching Resources
Activity Ideas

Kaiser Family Foundation
Mothers Over 35

The Girl Project
Parents 4 Public Schools
Families and Schools
Teachers and Families

School Family Media
Kids Growth
Perceptual Skills
Discover This
Montessori
Family Fun
Classical Academic Press

Birth - Reproduction - Health Surveys

Human Brain - Educational Toys and Games

Trauma - Stress - Crimes

International Survey of Children’s Well-Being

Growing Pains are recurring pain symptoms that are relatively common in children ages 3 to 12. The pains normally appear at night and affect the calf or thigh muscles of both legs. The pain stops on its own before morning. Growing pains are one of the most common causes of recurring pain in children. Although these pains reliably stop when the child has completely finished growing, it likely has nothing to do with growth. Kids get growing pains in their legs. Most of the time they hurt in the front of the thighs (the upper part of your legs), in the calves (the back part of your legs below your knees), or behind the knees. Usually, both legs hurt. Growing pains often start to ache right before bedtime.

Interactive music device that reduces night-time crying and helps develop your baby's brain in one simple product

Laws to Protect Children and Parents

Poverty Law  /  Low-Income People  /  Center for Law & Education

Boston Student Rights helps students, teachers and parents understand their rights, suspension and expulsion policies, and stay connected to other students in the district. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Crimes against Children (abuse) - Child Protective Services

Refugees - Migration - Parental Rights - Law Knowledge - Legal Information - Children's Aid Society - Children's Advocate

Harvard Family Research Project - Nat. Assoc. Education of Young Children - International Children's Education

Operation Respect - Happy Child - Teacher Quick Source - CDC Child - Integral Education - Child Development Media - National Geographic for Kids

Protecting the Rights of Parents and Prospective Parents with Disabilities.

The most basic of child protection laws are those preventing child abuse and neglect. Children need emotional support from their parents, and most children are heavily reliant on love from their parents. Lack of empathy from parents can be extremely abusive and very traumatic for children. Compassion needs to be taught in every school, and every child needs to learn how to defend themselves against emotionally abusive parents.

Being a Good Example - Things that can have an effect on Children

It's really hard to know exactly what things can effect or influence a child's development. It's also hard to know exactly how and why certain effects happen and how children personally react to things in their life. And more importantly, how would you tell when certain thought processes have been adversely effected in a child? And what steps would you have to take to correct these particular thought processes, or behaviors? What are these key moments in a Childs life that can have a profound effect on how they understand the world? You would have to be totally aware of everything in the Childs life that they are exposed to, like everything that they see, touch, hear, taste and smell in their environment, and all the different things that they Eat, and so on and so on. You would have to be totally aware of the people they're in contact with, and the amount of TV, and the types of shows and other media that they are exposed to. You would need to be aware of what types of music they listened to? You would also have to understand the effects of education quality. You would have to follow a child around all day and correctly examine how they interact with the environment and other people. And then when the child is old enough to be able to speak in sentences, you would have to follow a child around all day and constantly ask them "So what are you thinking now?" But even then, how would you be sure that a child could actually understand the question in order to answer it accurately? I know we have the abilities to understand how important child development is, but the question is, when will we start teaching this in schools to everyone? We should teach by example. Every child is an investment in the future.

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Rules the World means that the person who raises a child can determine the character of that child and can also influence the type of society that the next generation will create. Rapport.

Impressionable is someone who easily impressed or influenced by others. Someone who is capable of being influenced intellectually, emotionally, or morally because of a lack of critical ability.

Social Influences - Mirroring - Assimilation - Language - Paraphrasing - Targeted Marketing - Suggestible - Attention

Impress is to have an emotional or cognitive impact upon someone. To invoke admiration or to make a positive impression.

“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” ~ Aristotle, who believed in the power of education and environment to shape character and reason.

Formative Years or the early stages of childhood are between 0-8 Years of a child's life where they learn more quickly than at any other time in life. These are the years in which a child experiences rapid cognitive (intellectual), social, emotional, and physical development. In the first years of life, the brain rapidly develops its mapping system. Data from Harvard University shows the brain develops rapidly during the first years of life. Before children turn 3 years old, they're already forming 1 million neural connections every minute. The brain develops rapidly during the first years of life. During the first three years of life, a child's brain is already forming one million neural connections every minute because of exposure to experience, in particular learning from their family and community.

Children are like sponges. They soak up information from the world around them and learn things at a fast pace. From birth, infants pick up on emotional cues from others.

Role Model is a person whose behavior or example can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. A role model is someone who inspires others to imitate his or her good behavior.

Example is a thing characteristic of its kind or illustrating a general rule. Something to be imitated that is representative of a form or pattern. A task performed or a problem solved in order to develop skill or understanding.

Real Life Examples - Engineering Models

Epitome is a standard, typical or perfect example.

Precedent is an example that is used to justify similar occurrences at a later time. A subject mentioned earlier preceding in time, order, or significance. A law established by following earlier judicial decisions. A system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws.

Sharing memories sets children on path to better well-being. Toddlers whose mothers received special coaching in talking about memories grew into teenagers who experience better wellbeing, research shows.

Daily, consistent parental reading in the first year of life improves infants' language scores. Daily reading improved language development in infants 12 months and younger, according to a recent study. Everyday Language.

Everyday social interactions predict language development in infants. Researchers found that when the adult talked and played socially with a 5-month-old baby, the baby's brain activity particularly increased in regions responsible for attention -- and the level of this type of activity predicted enhanced language development at later ages.

Babbling babies need timely responses to learn language, social norms. New research shows the timing of others' reactions to their babbling is key to how babies begin learning language and social norms -- a process evident in infants' interactions with a robot.

Young children do better at school if their Dads read and play with them. Fathers can give their children an educational advantage at primary school by reading, drawing and playing with them, according to a newly published report. Read to Grow - Books for Babies.

Toddlers' brains show significant growth in cognitive skills by 16 months. Toddlers engage more regions of their brains around 16-months to help them develop important cognitive skills enabling them to follow simple instructions and control impulses. Findings from the study suggests 16 months is a critical period for brain development.

Sexism and poorer parenting. Fathers and mothers who believe men should hold the power and authority in society and the family were less responsive to their children during family interactions, according to University of Auckland research. Benevolent sexism is a term for attitudes romanticizing traditional gender roles by emphasizing the virtues of men as providers and protectors and women as caregivers.

Young children who are close to their parents are more likely to grow up kind, helpful and pro-social. A new study indicates a strong connection between early parent-child relationships and the likelihood that children will grow up to display socially-desirable characteristics like kindness and empathy. Using data from 10,000 people in the UK, researchers found that children who have a warm and loving bond with their parents at age three are not only less prone to mental health difficulties, but display heightened ‘prosociality’ by the time they reach adolescence. This refers to socially-desirable behaviors such as kindness, empathy, helpfulness, generosity and volunteering. Conversely, children whose early relationships with their parents were difficult or abusive were less likely to develop prosocial habits. The researchers argue that this strengthens the case for developing targeted policies to support young families within which it may be difficult to establish close early parent-child relationships.

Parents take precious moments to play with their babies, despite pressures facing young families. Four in five primary caregivers of nine-month-old babies reported cuddling, talking and playing with their little one several times a day, in the first national long-term study of babies in over two decades. More than half engaged in physical or turn-taking play, singing, pretend games and noisy play with their babies several times a day -- activities which were linked to improved early language development. Around three quarters showed their babies picture books or took them outside at least once a day.

Why parental pressures are taking the fun out of children's play. Modern day parenting pressures and expectations are leading to the death knell for children enjoying spontaneous play, according to a new study.

Terrible Twos not inevitable: With engaged parenting, happy babies can become happy toddlers. Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks. A new study of children under the age of two has found that parents who take a more flexible approach to their child's learning can - for children who were easy babies - minimize behavioral problems during toddlerhood. The study, published in the journal Developmental Science, found a link between parental autonomy support in 14-month-old children, and reduced behavioral problems ten months later. But this link only applied to children who had been rated as 'easy babies'- those in a generally happy mood, who adapted easily to new experiences and quickly established routines. Children who demonstrated high levels of self-control at 14 months were less likely than their peers to have behavior problems at 24 months.

Early Life Experiences Biologically and Functionally Mature the Brain and also have an Impact on Learning and Memory. Because the biological maturation changes no longer occurred with episodic learning at later ages, it's clear that the infant brain employs distinct biological mechanisms to form and store episodic memories. Memory formation is important for thinking, future learning, planning, decision-making, problem-solving, reflecting, imagining, and the overall capacity to form a sense of self. This means that what infants learn and experience is crucial for their later development.

Preschoolers living in impoverished communities who have access to a nurturing home environment have significantly higher intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in adolescence compared to those raised without nurturing care.

Teens who have a warm and loving relationship with their mother are less likely to enter abusive relationships, even if her own marriage is full of conflict. Positive parenting behaviors help children form positive models of themselves as lovable and worthy of respect. Children of abused mothers 50% more likely to have low IQ. Children of women who reported domestic violence in pregnancy or during the first six years of the child's life are almost 50% more likely to have a low IQ at age 8, research finds.

Attention - Self Soothing

Mothers and Babies Brains are more In Tune when mother is Happy. Mothers' and babies' brains can work together as a 'mega-network' by synchronising brain waves when they interact. The level of connectivity of the brain waves varies according to the mum's emotional state: when mothers express more positive emotions their brain becomes much more strongly connected with their baby's brain. This may help the baby to learn and its brain to develop.

Baby and Adult Brains 'Sync Up' during play. You and your baby are on the same wavelength. Researchers developed a new dual-brain neuroimaging system that uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is highly safe and records oxygenation in the blood as a proxy for neural activity. The setup allowed the researchers to record the neural coordination between babies and an adult while they played with toys, sang songs and read a book.

Playtime with Dad may improve Children's Self-Control. Children whose fathers make time to play with them from a very young age may find it easier to control their behavior and emotions as they grow up, research suggests. The study also found some evidence that father-child play gradually increases through early childhood, then decreases during 'middle childhood' (ages 6 to 12). This, again, may be because physical play is particularly important for helping younger children to negotiate the challenges they encounter when they start to explore the world beyond their own home, in particular at school. Despite the benefits of father-child play, the authors stress that children who only live with their mother need not be at a disadvantage. "One of the things that our research points to time and again is the need to vary the types of play children have access to, and mothers can, of course, support physical play with young children as well," Ramchandani added. "Different parents may have slightly different inclinations when it comes to playing with children, but part of being a parent is stepping outside your comfort zone. Children are likely to benefit most if they are given different ways to play and interact."

Creativity starts in the cradle, new research shows. New research indicates that babies can begin grasping complex language and ideas. Infants less than a year old can combine simple concepts into complex ideas, showing that creativity begins in babyhood.

Bonding is the intense attachment that develops between parents and their baby. A parents responsiveness to an infant's signals can affect the child's social and cognitive development. The importance of early bonding on the long-term mental health and resilience of children. Human babies are born very dependent on their parents. They undergo huge brain development, growth and neuron pruning in the first two years of life. The brain development of infants (as well as their social, emotional and cognitive development) depends on a loving bond or attachment relationship with a primary caregiver, usually a parent.

Attachment Theory attempts to describe the dynamics of long-term and short-term interpersonal relationships between humans.

Attachment Parenting is a parenting philosophy that proposes methods which aim to promote the attachment of mother and infant not only by maximal maternal empathy and responsiveness but also by continuous bodily closeness and touch. The relationship between infants and their primary caregivers is responsible for shaping the success or failure of future intimate relationships. The ability to maintain emotional balance. The ability to enjoy being ourselves and to find satisfaction in being with others.

Oxytocin appears to be involved in several types of attachment, including love.

Oxytocin - Love - Compassion - Listening

The Attachment Clinic - Adolescent Parent Attachment: Bonds that Support Healthy Development.

More siblings mean poorer mental health for teens. Study finds similar results in both China and the U.S. Teens from larger families have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large analysis of children in the United States and China. The details of the pattern vary depending on factors such as the spacing of sibling ages and the age of the siblings. But the fact that the overall pattern was found in both countries is striking.

Study takes wider view at household size, children's development. Scientists are taking a more detailed look at how children's language development is influenced by the number of people in their households, evaluating the impact of the adult-to-child ratio within each residence. American demographics have shifted significantly in the last 40 years, with many more children living in homes with extended families. Greater household density -- the ratio of people to bedrooms in a home -- has been shown to have a negative effect on children's language development.

Attachment and Adult Relationships.

Five ways to create a secure attachment with your baby without sharing your bed.

What is Secure Attachment and Bonding?

Unhealthy Attachments - Estrange - Discrimination - Trauma

The Dark Matter of Love (film)

Social connections influence brain structure of rhesus macaques. Scientists have found that social connections influence the brain structure of rhesus macaques. Specifically, the number of grooming partners an individual had predicted the size of brain areas associated with social decision-making and empathy. A team recorded the detailed interactions of a social group of 68 adult rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago, then examined five factors: social status, number of grooming partners, physical distance with other monkeys, connectedness to popular monkeys in the network, and what the researchers called "betweenness," or the ability to act as a bridge between disconnected parts of the social network. They also collected brain scans for every individual in the social group, including 35 juvenile and infant macaques. Analyzing the adult data, Testard and colleagues discovered that the more grooming partners individuals had, the larger their mid-STS and ventral-dysgranular insula were. There's something about the skills it takes to make and maintain a lot of friendships that you get from parents. You'd think it would be written into your brain when you're born, but it seems more likely to emerge from the patterns and interactions that you have.

Imprinting is any kind of phase-sensitive learning or learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage, that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject. Imprinting is hypothesized to have a critical period. Imprinting is a natural process in many animals with extended parental care, including birds and mammals. In the animal behavior and human psychology literatures, imprinting and attachment refer to the social connection that develops between a young animal and its caregiver. Belonging - Conformity - Follow the Leader.

Parents teach their children to walk and talk. Then parents send their children to school where the teachers tell the to shut up and sit-down. This does not end well.

Emulate is to strive to equal or match, especially by imitating.

Be the kind of parent you wish you had when you were a child.

Kids who feel their parents are less reliable take fewer risks vital to learning and growth. Trying something new is a risk every child undertakes as they explore and learn about the world. While risk can be costly, it can also pay off in rewards or knowledge. But new research suggests children without predictable support from the adults in their lives are less willing to take those risks -- and reap those rewards.

Young children prefer to learn from confident people - Confidence.

Children Need Attention, but the ability to give someone your attention needs to be fully understood. Attention is more than just listening to someone. Children communicate on many different levels, just like most adults do. And you need to be aware of all these communication channels in order to effectively understand the entire message. This is difficult for most people because that would mean a person would have to stop thinking about themselves and their world, and instead, start thinking about someone else's world and what they are thinking. You need to be actively involved in your child's milestones and Progress. Avoid spoiling a child.

Second-Born Kids are more likely to behave badly, even into adulthood. A study from 2017 claims that second-born children are more likely to misbehave, sometimes with severe consequences. For example, first-born kids often receive undivided attention from parents, while younger siblings have to compete for attention. And, as the family grows, dynamics change.

Pygmalion Effect is the phenomenon whereby others' expectations of a target person affect the target person's performance. High expectations lead to better performance and low expectations lead to worse performance.

"Instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach your children all the things you were never taught. Material wears out, but knowledge stays." - Bruce Lee (wiki).

Routines are Necessary for children and adults, as long as the child and the adult understands why routine is important and understands the benefits and responsibilities of following a routine. This way the child or the adult can improve or modify the routine in order to make it better.

Developmental and biological disruptions occurring during the early years of life. Structural connections between frontal and parietal areas in children's brains can predict their ability to reason later in life.

How your parenting style affects your child's future.

Family Relationships Effect Children's Emotional Development (PDF)

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy. Child-Directed Interaction is used to improve the quality of the parent–child relationship and strengthen attention and reinforcement for positive child behavior. In the CDI, parents learn to follow their child’s lead in dyadic play and provide positive attention combined with active ignoring of minor misbehavior. They are taught to use the PRIDE skills—Praise, Reflection, Imitation, Description, and Enthusiasm—to reinforce positive, appropriate behaviors. Parents also learn to avoid leading or intrusive behaviors—commands, questioning, criticism, sarcasm, and negative physical behaviors. This phase forms the foundation for effective discipline training in the second phase, the Parent-Directed Interaction. In the PDI, parents learn to lead their child’s activity, first in dyadic play situations and later in real-life situations when it is important that their child obey. They learn to give effective instructions and to follow through with consistent consequences, including praise for compliance and a timeout procedure for noncompliance.

Early-life stress changes more genes in brain than a head injury. A surprising thing happened when researchers began exploring whether early-life stress compounds the effects of a childhood head injury on health and behavior later in life. In an animal study, stress changed the activation level of many more genes in the brain than were changed by a bump to the head. It's already known that head injuries are common in young kids, especially from falling, and can be linked to mood disorders and social difficulties that emerge later in life. Adverse childhood experiences are also very common, and can raise risk for disease, mental illness and substance misuse in adulthood.

Dads play key role in Child Development.

Early Life Experiences influence DNA in the Adult Brain - In-Utero

Family environment affects adolescent brain development. Childhood environment and socioeconomic status affect cognitive ability and brain development during adolescence independently of genetic factors, researchers report. The study demonstrates how important the family environment is, not just during early infancy but also throughout adolescence.

Parenting practices in teen years set the stage for closeness, warmth later on. High-quality parenting practices in adolescence lay the foundation for close parent-child relationships when the children become young adults, according to new research. Based on the study's findings, he suggested these activities: Do something together, like playing sports, bike riding, exercising, going for a walk, gaming, cooking, attending events, or going out for a meal or dessert. Work on a project together around the house. Talk about what's going on at school. Discuss what you want to do in the future.

Children who see movie characters use guns more likely to use them. Children who watched a PG-rated movie clip containing guns played with a disabled real gun longer and pulled the trigger more often than children who saw the same movie not containing guns. Effects of TV.

Children told Lies by Parents subsequently Lie More as Adults, face adjustment difficulty.

Helicopter Parent is a parent who pays extremely close attention to a child's or children's experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions. Helicopter parents are so named because, like helicopters, they hover overhead, overseeing their child's life.

Observation Flaws and Effects

Black Sheep is lacking respectability in character or behavior or appearance.

Praise - Punishment - Bullying - Toxic Parents

Helping Kids to learn how to Relax and Breathe - Breathing Exercises

Experiences (benefits from adventures) - Exercise Benefits

Babies can learn that hard work pays off. Study finds infants try harder after seeing adults struggle to achieve a goal.

Does Noise Affect Learning? A short review on noise effects on cognitive performance in children. Silence.

Babies are forming 700 new neural connections every second.

When children hear their mothers speak, many more brain areas are activated than when kids hear other peoples’ voices. Scientists say kids’ brains are engaged at a higher level when they hear their mothers’ voices. The regions of the brain that are stimulated by a mother’s voice include those linked to emotion processing, reward processing, social functions, detecting what is personally relevant, and face recognition. One-day-old infants sucked more vigorously on their pacifiers when they heard the sound of their mother’s voices.

Listening to Language Boosts Infant Cognition - Mothers Tongue

Language Development and Literacy. Environmental factors affecting language development.

Baby talk words with repeated sounds help infants learn language. Babies find it easier to learn words with repetitive syllables rather than mixed sounds. Assessments of language learning in 18-month-olds suggest that children are better at grasping the names of objects with repeated syllables, over words with non-identical syllables. Researchers say the study may help explain why some words or phrases, such as 'train' and 'good night', have given rise to versions with repeated syllables, such as mama, dada, choo-choo and night-night. Infants have a repetition bias in learning new words.

How caregiver speech shapes infant brain. New research shines light on how parents who talk more to their infants improve their children's brain development. Scientists used imaging and audio recordings to link early language skills to caregiver speech, delivering an affirming message that parents can greatly influence their child's linguistic growth in ways that are trackable in brain scans.

After 'mama,' children’s first words include 'this' and 'that'. Sharing attention is the infrastructure for the rest of language and social interaction. But the type of demonstratives used shows that while very young children are eager to share attention, they have difficulty understanding others' perspectives.

Exploring links between infant vocabulary size and vocal interactions with caregivers. Laboratory studies suggest that different types of infant vocalizations and caregiver responses may have different effects on vocabulary. infants tended to have a larger vocabulary if they produced a greater number of speech-like babbling sounds and, in return, received a greater amount of adult responses that incorporated sounds similar to their babbling. The authors speculate this may be because adults find it easier to respond meaningfully to babbling that sounds closer to real words; adult imitation of infant babbling (with reuse and expansion into whole sentences on the part of the adult) may also help infants develop a larger vocabulary.

Mothers Consistently Alter Their Unique Vocal Fingerprints When Communicating with Infants - vocal timbre.

Back-and-forth exchanges boost children's brain response to language. Study finds engaging young children in conversation is more important for brain development.

How adults understand what kids are saying. It's not easy to parse young children's words, but adults' beliefs about what children want to communicate helps make it possible. Adult listening abilities are critical to the ability to understand children's early linguistic efforts, according to new research.

Chatterbox parents may boost tots' intelligence. Young children who are exposed to large amounts of adult speech tend to have better cognitive skills. Just as long as the words used in speech are intelligent and positive. First Words.

Sleep makes it possible for babies to associate words with content, and not with noise. Protowords which combine only simultaneously occurring visual and acoustic stimuli become real words that are connected to content.

Protowords are words that are similar to actual words, but not quite real words. Protowords are an early word-like utterance produced by an infant before it has acquired true language. (linguistics) A word-like utterance produced by early people who had yet to develop full language capability; a word from a proto-language.

Naming guides how 12-month-old infants encode and remember objects. Encoding objects in memory and recalling them later is fundamental to human cognition. Even for infants just beginning to speak their first words, the way an object is named guides infants' encoding, representation and memory for that object, according to new research. Encoding objects in memory and recalling them later is fundamental to human cognition and emerges in infancy. Evidence from a new recognition memory task reveals that as they encode objects, infants are sensitive to a principled link between naming and object representation by 12 months. the precision of infants' responses reveal that naming objects, even a single naming episode, can have a lasting impact on how infants encode that object, represent it in memory and remember it later. The researchers said this work sheds new light on the powerful and well-documented advantage of naming on infant object categorization, leaving little doubt that naming a set of distinct individual objects with the same noun invites infants to form an object category. Hearing the same name for objects invites infants to focus on the commonalities among the objects, but at the expense of remembering the features that are unique to each individual.

Babies are exposed to a large amount of stimulation. Since no two situations are exactly the same, for babies every moment is a completely new experience— until the infant brain organizes the flood of stimuli. It has to save new information in long-term memory, to aggregate similar experiences and to categorize them. Only during sleep, when the infant brain is isolated from the surrounding world, can it extract and save relations incorporated in this information. And only the interaction of an alert state of experiencing the environment with the offline state of sleep, in which experiences are organised and stored, enables early cognitive and language development.”

Language Processing Areas of the Brain

Brain lays foundation for reason in childhood. Structural connections between frontal and parietal areas in children's brains can predict their ability to reason later in life. strong structural connectivity between rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) and inferior parietal lobe (IPL) in younger children is associated with both increased functional connectivity and improved reasoning in adolescence and adulthood.

Babies use 'helpless' infant period to learn powerful foundation models, just like ChatGPT. Classic explanation for infant helplessness not supported by modern brain data. Babies' brains are not as immature as previously thought, rather they are using the period of postnatal 'helplessness' to learn powerful foundation models similar to those underpinning generative Artificial Intelligence, according to a new study.

Maternal language shapes infants' cry melodies. The very first cry of neonates is marked by their maternal language. This seems to be especially apparent in tonal languages, where pitch and pitch fluctuation determine the meaning of words.

Study shows Language Development starts in the Womb - Language and Thought

Learning to Speak (speech development and communication)

A study on Child Development found that the type of emotional support that a child receives during the first three and a half years has an effect on education, social life and romantic relationships even 20 or 30 years later.

Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation - Institute of Child Development - UofMN

Decades after a good-behavior program in grade school, adults report healthier, more successful lives. Researchers have found that the 'good life' in adulthood can start in grade school, by teaching parents and teachers to build stronger bonds with their children, and to help children form greater attachments to family and school.

"Babies learn best through playful interactions with people who love them, and also know what to teach and when."

Vāsanā is a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present behaviour of a person.

Object Permanence (milestones)

Eye Contact with your Baby helps Synchronize your Brainwaves

Holding Infants -- or not -- Can Leave Traces on their Genes. Amount of close and comforting contact from caregivers changes children's molecular profile. The amount of physical contact between infants and their caregivers can affect children at the molecular level. The study of DNA methylation patterns showed that children who had been more distressed as infants and had received less physical contact had a molecular profile that was underdeveloped for their age. This is the first study to show in humans that the simple act of touching, early in life, has deeply-rooted and potentially lifelong consequences on genetic expression.

Every Human born is altricial, which means that everyone needs to be totally taken care of for the first few years of life. We need to be fed, moved, bathed, educated, taught a language and kept free from danger, otherwise a new born baby would never survive, thus human life would not exist.

Instincts are not enough - Genetic Variations - Adaptation

Playing with your child can many positive effects. When parents played with their 1-year-old children, they found that when a parent focused on a toy, their child paid attention to the toy for longer, continuing even after the parent had looked away. Monkey see monkey do. Mimicry is learning of a process without an understanding of why it works. Another definition implies the act of mimicry, usually with limited knowledge and/or concern of the consequences.

Imitating - Mirroring - Seeing is Believing

Observational Learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. It is a form of social learning which takes various forms, based on various processes. In humans, this form of learning seems to not need reinforcement to occur, but instead, requires a social model such as a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher.

Imitation is an advanced behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of social learning that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture.

Mirroring in psychology is the behavior in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family. The concept often affects other individual's notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others. Broken Mirror Theory claims that a dysfunction of the mirror neuron system may be a cause of poor social interaction and cognition in individuals with autism.

Emulate is to strive or to equal or to match or to surpass a person or achievement, typically by imitation. Emulate in computing is to imitate the function of another system, as by modifying the hardware or the software.

Mimic - Copy - Bio-Mimicry - Theory of Mind - Mirror Stage - Empathy - Conscience - Group Decisions

Mirror Neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.

Contagious Yawning is triggered involuntarily when we observe another person yawn -- it is a common form of echophenomena -- the automatic imitation of another's words (echolalia) or actions (echopraxia). And it's not just humans who have a propensity for contagious yawning -- chimpanzees and dogs do it too.

Emotional Mirroring – Empathizing with someone's emotional state by being on their side. You must apply the skill of being a good listener in this situation so as you can listen for key words and problems that arise when speaking with the person. This is so you can talk about these issues and question them to better your understanding of what they are saying and show your empathy towards them (Arnold, E and Boggs, josh. 2007).

Posture Mirroring – Matching the tone of a person's body language not through direct imitation, as this can appear as mockery, but through mirroring the general message of their posture and energy.

Tone and Tempo Mirroring – Matching the tone, tempo, inflection, and volume of a person's voice when needed.

Our Brains Synchronize during a Conversation. The rhythms of brainwaves between two people taking part in a conversation begin to match each other.

Brain activity associated with specific words is mirrored between speaker and listener during a conversation. When two people interact, their brain activity becomes synchronized, but it was unclear until now to what extent this 'brain-to-brain coupling' is due to linguistic information or other factors, such as body language or tone of voice. Researchers report that brain-to-brain coupling during conversation can be modeled by considering the words used during that conversation, and the context in which they are used. Language and Thoughts.

Apperception is the mental process by which a person makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she already possesses. To perceive, gain, secure, learn, or feel is any of several aspects of perception and consciousness.

Babies know when you imitate them -- and like it. Six-month old infants recognize when adults imitate them, and perceive imitators as more friendly, according to a new study. The babies looked and smiled longer at an adult who imitated them, as opposed to when the adult responded in other ways. Babies also approached them more, and engaged in imitating games.

Parents eating behavior influences how their children respond to food. Young children often display similar eating behavior as their parents, with a parent's own eating style influencing how they feed their children. Avid eaters (37.3%) have high food approach traits such as eating in response to food cues in the environment and their emotions, rather than hunger signals. Emotional eaters (15.7%) also eat in response to emotion but do not enjoy food as much as avid eaters. Avoidant eaters (5.6%) are extremely selective about food and have a low enjoyment of eating.

Echophenomenon is an automatic imitative action without explicit awareness, or pathological repetitions of external stimuli or activities, actions, sounds, or phrases, indicative of an underlying disorder. Echopraxia is the involuntary repetition or imitation of another person's actions. Echolalia is defined as the unsolicited repetition of vocalizations made by another person (by the same person is called palilalia). In its profound form it is automatic and effortless. It is one of the echophenomena, closely related to echopraxia, the automatic repetition of movements made by another person; both are "subsets of imitative behavior" whereby sounds or actions are imitated "without explicit awareness". Echolalia may be an immediate reaction to a stimulus or may be delayed.

How arousal impacts physiological synchrony in relationships. A team of researchers has examined what type of social interaction is required for people to display physiological synchrony -- mutual changes in autonomic nervous system activity.

Social Influence - Body Image (comparisons) - Observation Affects - Gaze Perception.

Parents' brain activity 'echoes' their infant's brain activity when they play together. When adults are engaged in joint play together with their infant, the parents' brains show bursts of high-frequency activity, which are linked to their baby's attention patterns and not their own.

Infants are able to learn abstract rules visually. Babies are doing really powerful abstraction from just their observation of the world. Three-month-old babies cannot sit up or roll over, yet they are already capable of learning patterns from simply looking at the world around them, according to a recent study. For the first time, the researchers show that 3- and 4-month-old infants can successfully detect visual patterns and generalize them to new sequences. Abstract Rule Learning for Visual Sequences in 8- and 11-Month-Olds. Infants were presented with simple rule-governed patterned sequences of visual shapes (ABB, AAB, and ABA) that could be discriminated from differences in the position of the repeated element (late, early, or nonadjacent, respectively). Eight-month-olds were found to distinguish patterns on the basis of the repetition, but appeared insensitive to its position in the sequence; 11-month-olds distinguished patterns over the position of the repetition, but appeared insensitive to the nonadjacent repetition. These results suggest that abstract pattern detection may develop incrementally in a process of constructing complex relations from more primitive components. One common approach in investigations of early pattern perception is to examine infants’ sensitivity to structured relations among stimulus features in visual or auditory input. Experiments on statistical learning, for example, have explored the extent to which infants detect and use distributional information in auditory or visual sequences to combine individual features into larger units. Typically in these experiments, infants are presented with a stream of input consisting of repeating multielement units with randomized order, but fixed internal structure. A Macintosh computer and 53-cm color monitor were used to generate the stimuli. An observer, blind to the stimulus on the screen at any given time, recorded looking times by pressing a key as the infant looked and releasing when the infant looked away. The computer presented stimuli, stored the observer’s data, calculated the habituation criterion for each infant, and changed displays after the criterion had been met. Stimuli consisted of 12 colored shapes (gray octagon, red square, green chevron, cyan diamond, blue bowtie, magenta four-pointed star, orange triangle, yellow circle, white five-pointed star, turquoise cross, pink clover, purple crescent) presented one at a time against a black background. Each shape was shown for 1 sec in the center of the monitor and loomed from 4 to 24 cm in height (2.4°–14.6° visual angle). The shapes were organized into ABA, ABB, or AAB sequences, each followed by a 1-sec blank screen. Six unique shapes were presented during habituation (e.g., octagon–square–octagon, chevron–diamond–chevron., bowtie–star–bowtie) and six unique shapes were presented during test (e.g., triangle–circle–triangle, star–cross–star, clover–crescent–clover). In both habituation and test trials, triplet sequences were randomly ordered with the single constraint that no two sequences successively would be the same.

How our brains track where we and others go. Findings suggest that our brains generate a common code to mark where other people are in relation to ourselves.

The importance of relating to others: why we only learn to understand other people after the age of 4. The maturation of fibres of a brain structure called the Arcuate Fascicle between the ages of three and four years establishes a connection between two critical brain regions: a region at the back of the temporal lobe that supports adult thinking about others and their thoughts, and a region in the frontal lobe that is involved in keeping things at different levels of abstraction and, therefore, helps us to understand what the real world is and what the thoughts of others are. Only when these two brain regions are connected through the arcuate fascicle can children start to understand what other people think.

Deficits in development of the conscience and of empathy. In developing boys, the volume of the anterior insula or gray matter volume — a brain region implicated in recognising emotions in others and empathy — is larger in those with higher levels of callous-unemotional traits. The volume explained 19% of the variance in callous-unemotional traits seen only in, but not in girls with the same personality traits. The researchers found that the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and brain structure differs between boys and girls. Differences in reports of increased or decreased gray matter in anterior insula in community samples of boys, or boys as compared to girls, with elevated callous-unemotional-traits may reflect maturational effects (i.e. delayed maturation of this region in males), the study noted.

Like Adults, Children Show Bias in Attributing Mental States to Others. The data showed that 6 year-olds used more mental-state words overall and a more diverse range of these words compared with children who were one year younger, a finding that highlights the ongoing development of theory of mind  processes in early childhood. Both 5- and 6-year-olds used more mental-state terms when they believed the characters had the same gender or home town as opposed to when they had a different one. Six-year-olds also used more diverse mental-state words in describing characters from the same group relative to those from a different group. This group-based bias extended to direct ratings: Participants also preferred individuals who belonged to their own gender and geographic group. These findings hint at early origins for social phenomena including bias between social groups and dehumanization, the researchers argue.

Noncomplementary Behavior vs Complementary Behavior: If you are always warm to a cold person, you can become a pushover. Meeting dominance with dominance can result in a fight, whereas being submissive with a submissive person can lead to inaction and boredom.

Overprotective Parents may cause kids to have a Peter Pan Syndrome, which is an adult (usually male who is socially immature. Men Who Have Never Grown Up. Body of an adult but the mind of a child.

Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy involves creating a "playful, accepting, curious, and empathic" environment in which the therapist attunes to the child's "subjective experiences" and reflects this back to the child by means of eye contact, facial expressions, gestures and movements, voice tone, timing and touch, "co-regulates" emotional affect and "co-constructs" an alternative autobiographical narrative with the child. Dyadic developmental psychotherapy also makes use of cognitive-behavioral strategies. The "dyad" referred to must eventually be the parent-child dyad. The active presence of the primary caregiver is preferred but not required. a psychotherapeutic treatment method for families that have children with symptoms of emotional disorders, including complex trauma and disorders of attachment.

The Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF)

Momentary Patterns of Covariation Between Specific Affects and Interpersonal Behavior: Linking Relationship Science and Personality Assessment.

Parenting Websites - Child Care - Behavior

Alison Gopnik: What do Babies Think? (youtube)

Michael Merzenich: The Elastic Brain (video)
Reticulon 4 Receptor

What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought (youtube)  Yale Course (PSYC 110)

Plasticity (brain changes) - Pre-Born Development

Interpersonal intelligence - People Smart

Witness - Kay Kay: The Girl from Guangzhou China growing up in a one child family (youtube) - Her final words are my favorite.

Influences of Sibling Relationships - Sibling influences on Childhood Development

Fear is not a good teaching method. There are other methods that can help make someone aware of danger without using scare tactics?

Children instinctively know there is a lot they don’t know, so children have to ask questions. Some children average more than a hundred questions every hour, but not all of those questions are expressed verbally. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 could ask up to 40,000 questions. And how these questions are answered is extremely important, extremely important. The less we know, the worse we are at processing new information, and the worse we are at asking the right questions. Intellectual exploration is extremely important, and knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them, are the keys to a successful journey. Knowledge doesn’t just fill our brains up; it makes our brains work better. 

When do you know enough?

Asking questions is a extremely important process for learning, so never discourage a child's need to learn.

Never discourage a child's need for answers. Questioning is one the most important skills to have, because a child needs to learn. But sometimes, you have to be very careful when you give an answer to a child's question. Sometimes you also need to know the reasons why the child is asking the question, because the child may need more information then originally thought. You also want to teach a child how to find answers on their own, and teach them that the process of looking for answers may reveal even more important questions, and also reveal even more answers then they were originally seeking. When you're looking for answers on your own you sometimes discover a lot more, a lot more then you would if someone just gave you the answer. Having the ability to find answers on your own gives you a lot more freedom, and a lot more power. Though getting answers to your questions very quickly is extremely valuable, sometimes when something is just given to you, you run the risk of not valuing that certain something. When you have to work for something, you value that something a lot more, because you worked for it. This is not to say that all work is valuable, just the work that is proven to be valuable. You also want to teach children about when to get a second opinion. There is a thin line between Trust and Gullible.

Infantilizing is to treat (someone) as a child or in a way that denies their maturity in age or experience.

When growing up there are 1,000's of things that make you the person that you currently are. Things like the relationships with family and friends, learning and reading, tragic moments, inspiring moments, just to name a few. You have a behavior that you can't fully explain, or, be fully aware at times.

Personal Childhood Experiences

Here are just some of the things I believed influenced me and made me the person I am today. The significance of these moments is hard to measure against all the different other things that you are exposed to during your entire life. But it's good idea to document as many experiences as you can. This is a unique type of learning.

When I was 3 years old, I was crying about one of my toys not working, but my mother just sat by and just ignored me and kept reading her book. So I eventually stopped crying. I guess that's when I learned that I would have to figure out things on my own. So does sympathy spoil a child and effect their ability to cope? When is the right time and place to ignore a child in need?

Growing up in a neighborhood is a great experience. But even neighborhood families can still experience suffering.

I was sexually molested at the age of 10 years old. My 16 year old sister committed suicide when I was 12 years old. I suffered from acne my whole life. My parents decided to get a divorce when I was 16 years old. I dropped out of high school in my junior year when I was 17 years old. I wandered for years until I was 48 years old. That's when I started BK101.

Another break through moment in my life was when I was around 15. I decided that I was not going to let my father upset me anymore, or get under my skin with his verbal abuse and ignorant and disrespectable behavior. I will never forget that moment, it was the most peaceful epiphany that I have ever experience, it was like a religious moment with my soul. Not to say that I always remembered what I learned, but most of the time I did, and it was beautiful. But that was just with my father. I did not know how to apply that same knowledge to other people in my life. So I still became angry and upset with other peoples ignorant behavior. And just because you don't let peoples ignorance upset you, this does not solve the problem or does it keep ignorant people from continuing the abuse or from abusing other people. So you just can't ignore peoples ignorance. You have to find ways to help educate people and you have to find ways to communicate more constructively with people, which means you have to educate yourself as well. A parent is supposed to give emotional support and provide a safe environment. If not, relationships degrade. It was sad to see that my father enjoyed antagonizing me. And I knew that it was mostly from his upbringing in the 30's, 40's and 50's, and also how he reacted to his relationship with his parents. So I forgave him and I still do. I have no Father Wound to heal because I have educated myself and now know that knowledge sets you free. I no longer suffer from my ignorance or blame others for their ignorance, or blame myself for my own ignorance. Live, Learn, Love and Progress.

Estrange is to arouse hostility or show lack of understanding towards someone, when there should be love, affection, compassion and friendliness. A person who is no longer close or affectionate to someone. A stranger; Alienated.

My father and mother were not unusual people or typical people. They were just people doing their best with the information that they were given and with their understanding of the personal experiences that they had in life, which is everyone on the planet. Some people are unusual, some people are typical, and most people are somewhere in between.

Freedom is great and absolutely necessary, but without guidance, instructions and knowledge, having freedom can be more problematic because you will make a lot more mistakes that you don't need to make, and you will also suffer and struggle a lot more.

When I was around 16, I was working on my car and became extremely frustrated. But at that moment I decided not to get angry anymore during these circumstances, and I never forgot that moment. Now when things were not going my way, instead of having an angry outburst, or becoming completely frustrated, I would just step back, pause and take a break, and then calmly solve the problem. That's when I realize that anger doesn't help. You can still be passionate about things, but anger is a total waste of time and energy. And anger doesn't even benefit you in a fight, that's how worthless anger is. What a relief to let that go. Strength is not only physical, strength is mostly mental. But later in life I realized that not all my anger and frustration was totally gone. Some people were still the source of anger and frustration. But when I became exposed to someone with mental illness, I realized that everyone has some degree of mental illness, even myself. So one day when I was 53, I was exposed to another mental breakdown from a friend who suffers from mental health problems. But instead of getting angry or upset with that persons outrageous behavior, I calmly talked to the person, so I did not make the situation worse, like I have done in the past. This was a break through. Not only did my friend recover more quickly, I also was not traumatized or full of anger. I was now calm, happy and free from any kind of stress. An epiphany that I wish I had when I was younger. That would have saved me from many sleepless nights, and also saved me from wasting time feeling angry and miserable about other people. Things don't have to turn ugly or violent.

I grew up in a large family where everyone had to pretty much fend for themselves. That is where some of my selfishness comes from and still lingers in my subconscious. That's one of the reasons why I'm not a good host. It's hard to think of others when you have been conditioned to focus on survival, and also, the fact that no one ever taught me how to be a good host and why it's important. And even though many years have passed, that behavior still surfaces now and then. But I am getting better, mostly because I'm a lot more aware and a lot more knowledgeable then I use to be.

Love is the next big moment. When I can finally have love rule my heart, to me, that will be success. But of course it's more then just Love. It's the accumulated effect of good knowledge, good information, and the perfect balance of both good and bad experiences. Love does not mean that you are a pushover. Love is the guide. And that guide is not alone in the decision making process. You still need good knowledge, good information, and the perfect balance of both good and bad experiences. Love is the guide, protect the guide.

"In order to recover and preserve normal learning abilities, you have to use other Learning Methods that allow information and knowledge to enter the brain where it can be correctly processed."

Parents have to realize that they are the most important teacher in their child's life, and sometimes they are the only teacher that matters. Teaching by example is incredibly difficult, especially with the numerous bad examples that are surrounding kids today. You need to weed out the bad examples, even if you're one of them. So where are the good examples? Find these good examples together, and explain why they're good examples, and explain how difficult being a good example is. Teaching Methods.

Gifted - Precocious Advanced Learners

Giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average.

Gifted is to be endowed with talent or talents or a natural ability or quality. A person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity.

Knack is a natural ability or talent. When certain things come easy to you. If you have a knack for doing something well, you can usually do something well enough without extensive training or education.

Child Prodigy is defined as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain to the level of an adult expert performer.

Prodigy is an unusually gifted or intelligent young person or someone whose talents excite wonder and admiration. An impressive or wonderful example of a particular quality.

Savant is someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field. A learned person or pundit.

Savant Syndrome is a condition in which a person with a developmental disability, such as an autism spectrum disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal.

Acquired Savant Syndrome is when a person acquires prodigious capabilities or skills following a head injury or severe blow to the head, or other disturbances like dementia. Dormant Potential.

The Acquired Savant | A Really Great Big Story (youtube)

Precocity is when intelligence is achieved far ahead of normal developmental schedules.

Overachievement are individuals who "perform better or achieve more success than expected complete tasks above and beyond expectations and who set very high career goals for themselves.

Underachiever is a person and especially a student who fails to achieve his or her potential or does not do as well as expected. (Not their fault)

Mature Minor Doctrine is a rule of law found in the United States and Canada accepting that an unemancipated minor patient may possess the maturity to choose or reject a particular health care treatment, sometimes without the knowledge or agreement of parents, and should be permitted to do so. It is now generally considered a form of patients rights; formerly, the mature minor rule was largely seen as protecting health care providers from criminal and civil claims by parents of minors at least 15.

Gifted Education is education of children who have been identified as gifted or talented. Gifted Study.

Grade Skipping is a form of academic acceleration, often used for academically talented students, that involves the student entirely skipping the curriculum of one year of school. This is done when a student is sufficiently advanced in all school subjects, so that he or she can move forward in all subjects, rather than in only one or two areas.

Personalized Education

Academic Acceleration is the advancement of gifted students in subjects at a rate that places them ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum. Because it provides students with level-appropriate material, academic acceleration has been described as a "fundamental need" for gifted students.

Education Reform (improving education)

Gifted Children - Gifted Children

Talented & Gifted - Gifted Development

Stepping Stone School 

Thinking to Learn - The Association of the Gifted - Gifted and Talented

Rasch Model is a psychometric model for analyzing categorical data, such as answers to questions on a reading assessment or questionnaire responses, as a function of the trade-off between (a) the respondent's abilities, attitudes, or personality traits and (b) the item difficulty. Rasch Analysis.

Council on Measurement in Education

Birmingham Grid of Learning

Robinson Center Transition School for young Scholars

Beautiful Young Minds (youtube) - BBC2 2007 - You need to learn more then Math.

DOCS: The World's Cleverest Child and Me (youtube)

Twice Exceptional refers to intellectually gifted children who have some form of disability. These children are considered exceptional both because of their intellectual gifts and because of their special needs. Often abbreviated as 2e, has only recently entered educators' lexicon.

Indigo Children are children who are believed to possess special, unusual, and sometimes supernatural traits or abilities.

There is no standard global definition of what a gifted student is.

"You're not binary, you can be decent and gifted at the same time"

Standardized Tests for Gifted Programs

Testing Mom - Testing Awareness

Gifted Education Teacher - Gifted Education

Gifted and Talented Education Program (GATE)

Education for the Gifted and Talented Certificate

National Association for Gifted Children

Psychometrics (wiki)

Kid Science Challenge - Posit Science

National Lab Day - National Academy of Sciences - Science Tools

The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY)

The Munich Longitudinal Study of Giftedness

Duke Talent Program identifying academically gifted students and providing them with opportunities to support their development.

How to Raise a Genius: Lessons from a 45-year study of Super-Smart Children A long-running investigation of exceptional children reveals what it takes to produce the scientists who will lead the twenty-first century.

Brainy Child - Human Brain Knowledge

Brain Pop - Brain Metrix - Brain Storm USA

Unschooling - Connect a Million Minds - Connect for Kids

Bright Kids NYC - Whole Child Education - Van Damme Academy - Harlem Children Zone

Belin-Blank Center - Gifted Education & Talent Development

Creativity - Educational Toys - Bullying

Ability Grouping places students of similar skills and abilities in the same classes.

Acceleration is most commonly known as grade skipping, subject acceleration, or early admission into kindergarten or college, gives students the chance access opportunities earlier or progress more rapidly.

Special Needs - Special Education - Disabilities

Special Needs describes individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental or psychological.

Special Needs - Challenged Child - Long Term Care - Occupational Therapist

Disability is an impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these. It substantially affects a person's life activities and may be present from birth or occur during a person's lifetime. There are more than one billion people in the world experience some form of disability.

Disability (gov) - Disability Benefits - Disability Insurance - List of Disabilities (wiki) - Disorders - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Neurological Disorder

Handicap is a circumstance that makes progress or success difficult. Something that acts as an impediment that interferes with or delays action. Confidence.

Impaired is being diminished in strength, quality, or utility. Mentally or physically unfit. Having a disability of a specified kind.

Impairment is a symptom of reduced quality or strength. The condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness. Damage or an injury that results in a reduction of strength or quality.

Cripple is someone who is unable to walk normally because of an injury or disability to the legs or back. Deprived of the use of a limb or deprived of strength or efficiency.

Washington Group on Disability Statistics promotes and coordinates international cooperation in the area of health statistics focusing on the development of disability measures suitable for census and national surveys.

Birth Defect is a condition present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities can range from mild to severe. Birth defects are divided into two main types: structural disorders in which problems are seen with the shape of a body part and functional disorders in which problems exist with how a body part works. Functional disorders include metabolic and degenerative disorders. Some birth defects include both structural and functional disorders.

Maldevelopment is the state of an organism or an organization that did not develop in the "normal" way.

Developmental Disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions that are due to mental or physical impairments. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, especially in "language, mobility, learning, self-help, and independent living". Developmentally Disabled (wiki)

Developmental Disorder is a group of psychiatric conditions originating in childhood that involve serious impairment in different areas. These disorders comprise language disorders, learning disorders, motor disorders and autism spectrum disorders. In broader definitions ADHD is included, and the term used is neurodevelopmental disorders.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders are a group of conditions in which the growth and development of the brain is affected. This can impact an individual's language, emotions, behavior, self-control, learning and memory. Causes of early onset neurodevelopmental disorders range from severe social deprivation, genetic risk, metabolic diseases, immune disorders, infectious diseases, nutritional factors, physical trauma, as well as toxic and environmental factors.

Toxins - Processed Food - Body Burden - Dumbed Down Education - Neuron Development - Attention Deficit - Neurological Disorder

Arrested Development is when mental development has slowed or stopped.

Neurodevelopmental Disorder are impairments of the growth and development of the brain or central nervous system. A narrower use of the term refers to a disorder of brain function that affects emotion, learning ability, self-control and memory and that unfolds as the individual grows

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. ADA disabilities include both mental and physical medical conditions. A condition does not need to be severe or permanent to be a disability. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations provide a list of conditions that should easily be concluded to be disabilities: amputation, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, bipolar disorder, blindness, cancer, cerebral palsy, deafness, diabetes, epilepsy, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), intellectual disability (formerly termed mental retardation), major depressive disorder, mobility impairments (often requiring a wheelchair), multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia. Other mental or physical health conditions also may be disabilities, depending on what the individual's symptoms would be in the absence of "mitigating measures" (medication, therapy, assistive devices, or other means of restoring function), during an "active episode" of the condition (if the condition is episodic). Certain specific conditions that are widely considered anti-social, or tend to result in illegal activity, such as kleptomania, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, etc. are excluded under the definition of "disability" in order to prevent abuse of the statute's purpose. Additionally, gender identity or orientation is no longer considered a disorder and is also excluded under the definition of "disability". ADA - ADA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (wiki)

People with disabilities have a right under the Americans with Disabilities Act—to live in a less restrictive setting. The landmark civil rights case gave disabled and elderly people a right to seek long-term care services in their own home, instead of in an institution like a nursing home or a psychiatric hospital. On June 22, 1999, the United States Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities constitutes discrimination in violation of title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Court held that public entities must provide community-based services to persons with disabilities when (1) such services are appropriate; (2) the affected persons do not oppose community-based treatment; and (3) community-based services can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account the resources available to the public entity and the needs of others who are receiving disability services from the entity. Now there are long waiting lists for care at home—at least 700,000 people waiting in some 40 states. But the Olmstead decision requires every state to move toward providing more of that care at home. Federal law makes nursing home care an entitlement for people who meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Home-based care, although it is more popular and became a right under the Olmstead decision, is not an entitlement.

Teacher effectiveness for students with and without disabilities. Research has often focused on how teachers and educators can best instruct and accommodate students with disabilities. However, are the methods used to teach students with disabilities effective and inclusive for all students? Their study suggests that to help schools make decisions that are best for student outcomes, policymakers may want to consider teacher quality measures that look separately at these student groups.

Learning Disability is a classification that includes several areas of functioning in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors. Given the "difficulty learning in a typical manner", this does not exclude the ability to learn in a different manner. Therefore, some people can be more accurately described as having a "Learning Difference", thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled with a lack of ability to learn and possible negative stereotyping.

What Are Learning Disabilities? (youtube)

Dyslexia (reading difficulties) - Dysgraphia (writing difficulties) - Speech (talking difficulties)

National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Learning Disabilities Association of America.

Learning difficulties due to poor connectivity, not specific brain regions.

Genetic Study Identifies 14 new Developmental Disorders in Children.

Cognitive Dysfunction refers to deficits in attention, verbal and nonverbal learning, short-term and working memory, visual and auditory processing, problem solving, processing speed, and motor functioning.

Intellectual Disability is characterized by significantly impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning. It is defined by an IQ under 70, in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that affect everyday, general living. Intellectual disability affects about 2–3% of the general population. Seventy-five to ninety percent of the affected people have mild intellectual disability. Non-syndromic, or idiopathic cases account for 30–50% of these cases. About a quarter of cases are caused by a genetic disorder, and about 5% of cases are inherited from a person's parents. Cases of unknown cause affect about 95 million people as of 2013. Cognition.

American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)

Kids ages 3 to 17 years old, 8.56% have ever been diagnosed with any developmental disability as of 2021, according to the latest results from the agency's ongoing National Health Interview Survey. More than 1 in 10 boys have had an intellectual disability.

Researchers discover new neurodevelopmental disorder. The study found variations in the FBXW7 gene were associated with the newly identified condition, which causes mild to severe developmental delay, intellectual disability, hypotonia and gastrointestinal issues.

Fragile X syndrome neurons restored using CRISPR/Cas9-guided activation strategy. Fragile X syndrome is the most frequent cause of intellectual disability in males, affecting 1 out of 3600 boys born. For the first time, researchers have restored activity to the Fragile X Syndrome gene in affected neurons using a modified CRISPR/Cas9 system that removes the methylation -- the molecular tags that keep the mutant gene shut off -- suggesting that this method may be useful for targeting diseases caused by abnormal methylation. Fragile X syndrome is caused by mutations in the FMR1 gene on the X chromosome, which prevent the gene's expression. This absence of the FMR1-encoded protein during brain development has been shown to cause the overexcitability in neurons associated with the syndrome.

Savant-like skills exposed in normal people by suppressing the left fronto-temporal lobe - Brain Plasticity

I believe that eventually people will have the ability to Selectively De-Activate Parts of their Brain, or Turn Off Areas of their Brain that interfere with the processing of certain information, without using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or Electrical Brain Stimulation. They would be able to accomplish this by using mediation, or a cognitive exercise or a particular brain food. This way everyone will have the same abilities of a savant or of a gifted person, and become a prodigy in their chosen career.

Savant Skills (PDF) - Absolute Pitch (PDF)

Scientists have discovered a new genetic disease, which causes some children's brains to develop abnormally, resulting in delayed intellectual development and often early onset cataracts. The majority of patients with the condition, which is so new it doesn't have a name yet, were also microcephalic, a birth defect where a baby's head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. a gene called coat protein complex 1 (COPB1) caused this rare genetic disease.

Microcephaly is a medical condition involving a shorter-than-normal head. Microcephaly may be present at birth or it may develop in the first few years of life. Since brain growth is correlated with head growth, people with this disorder often have an intellectual disability, poor motor function, poor speech, abnormal facial features, seizures and dwarfism.

The Rat People of Pakistan (microcephalics)

Zika Virus is a member of the virus family Flaviviridae. It is spread by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947. Zika virus shares a genus with the dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile viruses.[6] Since the 1950s, it has been known to occur within a narrow equatorial belt from Africa to Asia. From 2007 to 2016, the virus spread eastward, across the Pacific Ocean to the Americas, leading to the 2015–2016 Zika virus epidemic. The infection, known as Zika fever or Zika virus disease, often causes no or only mild symptoms, similar to a very mild form of dengue fever. While there is no specific treatment, paracetamol (acetaminophen) and rest may help with the symptoms. As of April 2019, no vaccines have been approved for clinical use, however a number of vaccines are currently in clinical trials. Zika can spread from a pregnant woman to her baby. This can result in microcephaly, severe brain malformations, and other birth defects. Zika infections in adults may result rarely in Guillain–Barré syndrome, which is a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system.

DNA - Genetics - 8 million children born with genetic defects every year.

Special Olympics let me be myself, a champion (video & Text) 

Special Needs Resources NYC

Roberto d Angelo Francesca Fedeli: Baby's illness (video)

Dibels Dynamic Measurement Group.

Progress Monitoring Outcomes-Driven Model (PDF).

Our New Off Road Kid Rig - from 'Not a Wheelchair'! (youtube)

Williams Syndrome is a microdeletion syndrome caused by the spontaneous deletion of genetic material from the region q11.23 of a chromosome 7, so that the person is hemizygous for those genes. The deleted region includes more than 25 genes, and researchers believe that being hemizygous for these genes probably contributes to the characteristic features of this disorder.

Microdeletion Syndrome is a syndrome caused by a chromosomal deletion smaller than 5 million base pairs (5 Mb) spanning several genes that is too small to be detected by conventional cytogenetic methods or high resolution karyotyping (2–5 Mb). Detection is done by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Larger chromosomal deletion syndromes are detectable using karyotyping techniques.

Karyotype is the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell. The term is also used for the complete set of chromosomes in a species or in an individual organism and for a test that detects this complement or measures the number. Alpha-thalassemia Mental Retardation Syndrome (wiki)

Assessment Flaws (observer effects)

Sometimes the most perfect person for the job is not the most perfect person, but for that particular job, they're perfect. Sometimes we perceive imperfections as hindrances, when in fact they are a perfect ability under some unique circumstances.

Individualized Education Program education that is tailored to the individual student's needs to help the student learn more effectively.

Rehabilitation Counseling is helping people who have disabilities achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals through a counseling process.

Special Education is the practice of educating students with special educational needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and their community, than may be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Compensatory Education are supplementary programs or services designed to help children at risk of cognitive impairment and low educational achievement succeed.

Personalized Education

Psychology
Mental Health Care for Children
American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 
Mental Health Websites

Brain Balance Centers
Disadvantaged Youth
Eye Writer Invention (youtube)
Spinal Cord 
Avaz
Children with Disabilities
Children with Disabilities
Disabled Children’s Relief Fund
Sheltered Workshop refers to an organization or environment that employs people with disabilities separately from others.
Production Unlimited
Handicapped Children Association
Learning Methods
Special Education Resources
Special Education Programs
Department of Developmental Services
Devereux
Special Education

Blind (sight problems and testing)

Deaf (hearing problems)

Special Needs Trust is a trust designed for beneficiaries with disabilities, either physically or mentally challenged. It is written so the beneficiary can enjoy the use of property that is held in the trust for his or her benefit, while at the same time allowing the beneficiary to receive essential needs-based government benefits.

Council for Exceptional Children
Learning Disabilities Online
Pacer
Technical Assistance Alliance
Special Needs Intervention and Customized Therapies.
Applied Learning Processes.

Physically Challenged Competitions

6.5 million now receiving some kind of special education service at an estimated cost of $74 billion a year

Child Abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an extralegal way with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling (as opposed to a runaway or an orphan). Baby dumping refers to parents abandoning or discarding a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of disposing of them. It is also known as rehoming. Ct Child Law - Child Abuse.

Intrapersonal intelligence (self smart) - Teaching Resources - Memory - Elderly Care - Disabled Care

Service Animal are working animals that have been trained to perform tasks that assist disabled people. Service animals may also be referred to as assistance animals, assist animals, or helper animals depending on the country and the animal's function. Dogs are the most common service animals, assisting people in many different ways since at least 1927. Other animals such as horses are allowed per the ADA in the U.S. The service animal is not required by the Americans with Disabilities Act to wear a vest, ID tag or a specific harness.

Working Animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks. They may be pets or draft animals trained to achieve certain tasks, such as guide dogs, assistance dogs, draft horses, or logging elephants. Those whose tasks include pulling loads are called draught animals or draft animals. Most working animals are either service animals or draft animals. They may also be used for milking or herding. Some, at the end of their working lives, may also be used for meat or other products such as leather.

Camp Jened was a summer camp for disabled people in the state of New York that became a springboard for the disability rights movement and independent living movement in the United States. Many campers and counselors (also known as "Jenedians") became disability rights activists, such as Judith Heumann, James LeBrecht, and Bobbi Linn.

Crip Camp is a 2020 American documentary film about Camp Jened in 1971, a summer camp in New York described as a "loose, free-spirited camp designed for teens with disabilities. The film focuses on those campers who turned themselves into activists for the disability rights movement and follows their fight for accessibility legislation.

Autism

Autism characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. Brain Injuries.

High-Functioning Autism is a term applied to people with autism who are deemed to be cognitively "higher functioning" (with an IQ of 70 or greater) than other people with autism.

Savant Syndrome is a condition in which a person with a developmental disability, such as an autism spectrum disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal.

Ami Klin: New way to Diagnose Autism (video)

Autism study suggests connection between repetitive behaviors, gut problems. The study found that increased severity of other autism symptoms was also associated with more severe constipation, stomach pain and other gut difficulties. Gut Health (microbial balance).

How the Gut Microbiome affects the Brain and Mind (youtube)

Antibiotics - Propionic Acid (wiki) - Clostridia (wiki) - Vancomycin (wiki)

How I use Minecraft to help kids with Autism: Stuart Duncan (video and text).

Differences between brains of girls, boys with autism.

Autism Spectrum is a range of conditions classified as neurodevelopmental disorders. Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder present with two types of symptoms: problems in social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. Symptoms are typically recognized between one and two years of age. Long term issue may include creating and keeping relationships, maintaining a job, and performing daily tasks. Delayed Processing in Autism.

Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule is an instrument for diagnosing and assessing autism. The protocol consists of a series of structured and semi-structured tasks that involve social interaction between the examiner and the subject. The examiner observes and identifies segments of the subject's behavior and assigns these to predetermined observational categories. Categorized observations are subsequently combined to produce quantitative scores for analysis. Research-determined cut-offs identify the potential diagnosis of classic autistic disorder or related autism spectrum disorders, allowing a standardized assessment of autistic symptoms. The Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a companion instrument, is a structured interview conducted with the parents of the referred individual and covers the subject's full developmental history.

Bandit Robot
The Reason I Jump: 13-Year-Old Boy with Autism (Book)
Life, Animated learned how to communicate with the outside world through his love of Disney films.
Mind Spark 
Autism Speaks
Autism Letter (image)

Autism and Dog Therapy - Pet Therapy

Rock your Speech uses music to overcome a speech disorder associated with autism spectrum

Applied Behavior Analysis - Teaching Methods

Research cracks the autism code, making the neurodivergent brain visible. Neuroscientists show how the brain implements responses to unexpected events. Model grounded in biology reveals the tissue structures linked to the disorder. Researchers have discovered how two brain areas, neocortex and thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. These prediction errors are implemented by selective boosting of unexpected sensory information. These findings enhance our understanding of predictive processing in the brain and could offer insights into how brain circuits are altered in autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Kids Who Beat Autism (n.y.times)

Autism Therapy on Glass helps with identifying emotions.

Neurolex uses speech-analysis software to detect signs of autism, schizophrenia, and depression.

Affinity Therapy - Processing (computers)

1 in 88 US Children are Afflicted with Autism–an increase of 25% between 2006-2008. On March 29, 2012, the CDC reported startling evidence: the number of children diagnosed with autism in the United States increased  25% between 2006 and 2008. The autism rate jumped from 1 in 100 (2006) to 1 in 88 children (2008). The autism rate is even higher for boys: one in 54 compared to girls, one in 252. Girls with autism have different behaviors then boys with autism. Why?

Prenatal testing has halved the number of babies born with Down syndrome in Europe, study finds. A new study finds that the growth of prenatal screening in Europe has reduced the number of babies being born per year with Down syndrome (DS) by an average of 54 percent. Southern Europe had the highest reduction in DS births due to pregnancy terminations (71%), followed by Northern Europe (51%) and Eastern Europe (38%). There were, however, considerable differences among countries, ranging from no reduction in the percentage of babies being born with DS in Malta, where pregnancy termination is highly restricted, to an 83% reduction in Spain.

GABA Neurotransmitter is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the developmentally mature mammalian central nervous system. Its principal role is reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. In humans, GABA is also directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone. Brain Stimulation.

Autism Update Report (PDF)

Autism Awareness Day 2016 - A Simple Test (youtube)

Weighted Blankets

Non-Speaking Autism

Gordy Baylinson Nonspeaking Autism Letter (image)

Neurotypical is a neologism widely used in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum.

Some Children can 'Recover' from Autism, but problems often remain, study finds.

Autism and the Smell of Fear. Odors that carry social cues seem to affect volunteers on the autism spectrum differently. Autism typically involves the inability to read social cues. But new research suggests that the sense of smell may also play a central role in autism. The autistic volunteers did not display an inability to read the olfactory social cues in smell, but rather they misread them.

Potential New Autism Drug Shows Promise in Mice. NitroSynapsin is intended to restore an electrical signaling imbalance in the brain found in virtually all forms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Exposure to Specific Toxic Metals and Nutrients During Late Pregnancy and Early Life Correlated With Autism Risk. Mount Sinai found that differences in the uptake of multiple toxic and essential elements over the second and third trimesters and early postnatal periods are associated with the risk of developing autism spectrum disorders (ASD), according to a study published June 1 in the journal Nature Communications. The critical developmental windows for the observed discrepancies varied for each element, suggesting that systemic dysregulation of environmental pollutants and dietary elements may serve an important role in ASD. In addition to identifying specific environmental factors that influence risk, the study also pinpointed developmental time periods when elemental dysregulation poses the biggest risk for autism later in life. Previous research indicates that fetal and early childhood exposure to toxic metals and deficiencies of nutritional elements are linked with several adverse developmental outcomes, including intellectual disability and language, attentional, and behavioral problems. “We found significant divergences in metal uptake between ASD-affected children and their healthy siblings, but only during discrete developmental periods,” “Specifically, the siblings with ASD had higher uptake of the neurotoxin lead, and reduced uptake of the essential elements manganese and zinc, during late pregnancy and the first few months after birth, as evidenced through analysis of their baby teeth. During fetal and childhood development, a new tooth layer is formed every week or so, leaving an “imprint” of the micro chemical composition from each unique layer, which provides a chronological record of exposure.

Brain Maintenance - Brain Injuries - Neurological Disorder

Researchers Link Autism To A System That Insulates Brain Wiring. Brains affected by autism appear to share a difference in cells that make myelin, the insulating coating surrounding nerve fibers that controls the speed at which the fibers convey electrical signals. A myelin-related transcriptomic profile is shared by Pitt–Hopkins syndrome models and human autism spectrum disorder.

Amygdala Overgrowth that occurs in autism spectrum disorder may begin during infancy. The amygdala—a brain structure enlarged in two-year-old children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)—begins its accelerated growth between 6 and 12 months of age, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The amygdala is involved in processing emotions, such as interpreting facial expressions or feeling afraid when exposed to a threat. The findings indicate that therapies to reduce the symptoms of ASD might have the greatest chance of success if they begin in the first year of life, before the amygdala begins its accelerated growth.

Differences in oxygen physiology in people with Down syndrome. Signs of lower oxygen availability and dysregulated red blood cell function point to new targets for medical interventions. A groundbreaking new study reports important differences in oxygen physiology and red blood cell function in individuals with Down syndrome. The Crnic Institute team first analyzed hundreds of blood samples to identify physiological differences between research participants with Down syndrome versus controls from the general population. They observed that triplication of chromosome 21, or trisomy 21, the chromosomal abnormality that causes Down syndrome, leads to a physiological state reminiscent of hypoxia, or low oxygen. They identified major changes in gene expression indicative of low oxygen availability, including induction of many hypoxia-inducible genes and proteins, as well as increased levels of factors involved in the synthesis of heme, the molecule that transports oxygen inside red blood cells.

Cognitive Dysfunction are a category of mental health disorders that primarily affect learning, memory, perception, and problem solving, and include amnesia, dementia, and delirium. Cognitive Testing.

Abnormality Behavior is something deviating from the normal or differing from the typical, is a subjectively defined behavioral characteristic, assigned to those with rare or dysfunctional conditions. Behavior is considered abnormal when it is atypical, out of the ordinary, causes some kind of impairment, or consists of undesirable behavior. Who is normal or abnormal is a contentious issue in abnormal psychology.

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders refer to a disability classification used in educational settings that allows educational institutions to provide special education and related services to students that have poor social or academic adjustment that cannot be better explained by biological abnormalities or a developmental disability. The classification is often given to students that need individualized behavior supports to receive a free and appropriate public education, but would not be eligible for an individualized education program under another disability category of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Giving mums and dads the skills to become "super parents" can dramatically improve their child's autism, a long-term study has shown. In the training, parents watched films of themselves playing with their child while a therapist gave precise tips for helping their child communicate. Parent-mediated social communication therapy for young children with autism (PACT): long-term follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.

100-Year-Old Drug Produces Temporary Improved Learning Skills In Autistic Children. Tests of suramin on mice that display behavior analogous to autism have shown a reversal of some symptoms, inspiring Naviaux to test on humans. In Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, Naviaux reports the boys who received the infusion all showed significant changes, developing better language and coping skills, with social behavior more similar to neurotypical children of the same age. The boys given the suramin were assessed as having a fall of 1.6 points on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule test, where a child is classified as autistic with a score of 9 or above. The scores for the boys given the placebos did not change. Some of the effects were remarkably rapid. The parents of a 14-year-old-boy who had not spoken a complete sentence in 12 years said in a statement: "Within an hour after the infusion, he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room....We saw our son advance almost three years in development in just six weeks." Two previously non-verbal children given the suramin spoke their first sentences within a week. Naviaux stressed treatment is more than a matter of providing an infusion. Instead the suramin “removed the roadblocks,” allowing children to benefit from enrichment programs and speech therapy. However, the effects did not last, and over weeks the participants largely returned to their previous behaviors.

Suramin is a medication used to treat African sleeping sickness and river blindness. It is the treatment of choice for sleeping sickness without central nervous system involvement. It is given by injection into a vein. Suramin causes a fair number of side effects. Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, skin tingling, and weakness. Sore palms of the hands and soles of the feet, trouble seeing, fever, and abdominal pain may also occur. Severe side effects may include low blood pressure, decreased level of consciousness, kidney problems, and low blood cell levels. It is unclear if it is safe when breastfeeding. Suramin was made at least as early as 1916. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. In the United States it can be acquired from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The cost of the medication for a course of treatment is about 27 USD. In regions of the world where the disease is common suramin is provided for free by the World Health Organization.

Teaching Special Needs

Every school needs to teach special needs to every student. This would help students understand what special needs means, and, this would also help students learn all the ways they can help people with disabilities, especially knowing that every person has some form of a disability. This would require every student to spend time with a special needs person. Helping people who need extra help has to be a whole school effort, as well as a community effort. This is the real meaning of "No Child Left Behind."

"Any form of Segregation will always have it's problems."

Isolation - Classroom Management - Learning Methods

"I don't see people as having learning disabilities, I see them having temporary learning inabilities."

Inabilities is lacking the skills (especially mental skills) required to do something or get something done. Lack of ability (especially mental ability) to do something. Lacking the power to perform. Impairment. Something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress.

I think that everyone is Autistic to a certain degree and that Autistic people have the highest degree of this brain impairment so it's easier to notice. We know that the brain is not broken, we just haven't figured it out exactly how our brains work so that we can help autistic people utilize the brain, and train the brain to do what the brain needs to do in order to function accurately and effectively. So I believe that autism will someday soon teach everyone how the brain works and how we can correct any malfunctions that happen along the way. We can learn a lot from our impairments. People with disabilities are just as important as everyone else on the planet. There is something about struggle. When we struggle we see things and feel things that we never would have experienced unless we were struggling. But even though I don't believe that struggle is necessary for learning, or that you will always learn something from struggling, what I do believe is that if you do find yourself struggling, just remember that you could be learning something important, so keep your mind open, or you might just miss an opportunity of a lifetime.

"I believe that one day we will see people with disabilities as gifts from God. Without them, we would have never learned all the things that we did. The same thing with diseases. Without diseases we would have never realized how vulnerable we are, or how many dangers there are. We owe the world to these people." 

When we design for disability, we all benefit: Elise Roy (video and interactive text)

Florida Teacher Starts Each Day Complimenting Students One by One (youtube)

Normal is being approximately average or within certain limits in e.g. intelligence and development. In accordance with scientific laws. The actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group. Some one with good reasoning skills and good awareness. Carry out or perform an action. Perform as expected when applied, Carry out a process or program. Serve a purpose, role, or function. Norm.

Standard is a basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can be evaluated. The ideal in terms of which something can be judged. Established or well-known or widely recognized as a model of authority or excellence.

Struggle is an energetic attempt to achieve something. Make a strenuous effort or labored effort at a mental or physical task. Working hard.

Effort is earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something. Use of physical or mental energy; hard work. A series of actions for advancing.

It's Not Easy Teaching Special Ed.

Joy in the classroom has been sucked out by ignorant administrators, who care more about paperwork then people. So even the kids who need the most help are being suffocated by administrated politics from ignorant people who have no right being involved in the education process, or any process it seems.

People with Disabilities are Gifts from God.

The special education student population in Connecticut is rising, even though the total public school population is on the decline. Last year, 68,445 students in the state received special education services. That is up about 2,300 students — or 3.4 percent — since the 2007-08 school year. The overall school population has been on the decline since 2004 and last year stood at 542,236. In Connecticut, more boys than girls are identified for special education. 2012-13, the last year for which national figures are available. In that year, 6,429,331 students nationwide were getting special education services.

Here is a breakdown of the disabilities that make up the special education in Connecticut public schools in 2014-15: Intellectual disability, 2,380 0.5% - Speech or language impairment, 10,058, 1.9 % - Emotional disturbance, 5,400, 1% - Autism, 7,778, 1.5 %  - Other health impairments, 13,946, 2.6 % - Specific learning disability, 23,416, 4.4% - All other disabilities, 5,457, 1%.

Learning Specialist

Learning Specialist is an educator who is skilled and experienced in providing learning strategies to students who struggle with learning differences. These educators work one-on-one or in small groups to give students intensive support that meets their individual needs.

A Learning Specialist may assist a family in any of the following ways: Conduct observations of the student in his/her work environment to identify problem areas. Review previous assessments of a student to formulate a learning plan. Identify research-based therapies that will benefit the student’s unique learning differences. Use the above therapies to provide remediation to close any gaps that a student may have in his or her reading, writing or math skills. Work cooperatively with teachers to help them understand how students learn. Guide parents and teachers to resources which may benefit the student.

Prekindergarten substantially reduces the likelihood that students will end up in special education programs later on

Children do best in school when they have a team of committed adults supporting them. This is true for all children but it is especially true for children who have psychiatric or learning disorders. Get to know the many professionals who are available to help your child. 

Guide to Learning Specialists

Homework Helper provides structure and support to children who have trouble working on their own. They are particularly beneficial for children who struggle with executive functioning skills like organization, planning, and controlling impulsivity.

Study Help

Make sure that the Homework is beneficial and valuable, and not just about school testing

Tutor is knowledgeable in a particular subject area in school. Tutors offer individualized attention to students who benefit from more education and practice in a subject or need help getting caught up on material. Tutoring.

Learning Specialist - Educational Therapist:
These professionals, who often hold a master's degree, are trained to evaluate and aid children with learning disabilities. They work with you, your child, and your child's school to develop strategies to compensate for any learning deficits. They often work with children one-on-one to develop skills the child finds particularly challenging. The Association of Educational Therapists (AET) can steer you towards qualified therapists.

Educational Therapy is a form of therapy used to treat individuals with learning differences, disabilities, and challenges. This form of therapy offers a wide range of intensive interventions that are designed to remediate learning problems. These interventions are individualized and unique to the specific learner.

School Counselor: School counselors are educators with a master's degree in school counseling. They work with students on their academic, personal, and college and career development needs. The American School Counselor Association has more information. Advising (career counseling).

School Psychologist: School psychologists are trained in psychology and education and receive a Specialist in School Psychology (SSP) degree. They can identify learning and behavior problems, evaluate students for special education services, and support social, emotional, and behavioral health. The National Association of School Psychologists has more information.

School Psychology is a field that applies principles of educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and applied behavior analysis to meet children's and adolescents' behavioral health and learning needs in a collaborative manner with educators and parents.

Social Worker: A licensed social worker has a master's degree, which involves 2 years of post-graduate training, and can perform psychotherapy and other interventions but can't prescribe medications. MSW is the common designation for masters in social work; LCSW means "licensed clinical social worker," and requires a clinician to have significant supervised clinical experience after graduate school. The National Association of Social Workers provides tools for locating help. Services for the Public.

Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT): A SEIT is a teaching specialist who helps children with behavioral, social/emotional, speech, language, or developmental issues integrate successfully into the classroom. A SEIT works with children one-on-one in the classroom or at home, and has a master's degree in special education, psychology, social work, or counseling. 

Itinerant Teacher are traveling schoolteachers. They are sometimes specialized to work in the trades, healthcare, or the field of special education, sometimes providing individual tutoring.

Paraprofessional (Para): Paraprofessionals are trained to assist teachers and special educators, but they do not have a professional license. Paras frequently work with students who have special education needs in a variety of positions including classroom aide, tutor, and inclusion assistant. Paraprofessional Educator (wiki).

Special Education Attorney: An attorney who specializes in special education law. Special educational attorneys can be hired or consulted if you are having trouble accessing educational services for your child. They can help you throughout the IEP process and represent you at a hearing when there is a conflict about what your child is entitled to and how the school should provide it. Law Knowledge.

Neuropsychologist: Neuropsychologists are psychologists who specialize in the functioning of the brain and how it relates to behavior and cognitive ability. Most have completed post-doctoral training in neuropsychology. They may have either a PhD or a PsyD. Pediatric neuropsychologists have done post-doctoral training in testing and evaluation. Neuropsychology behaviors directly related to brain functioning. They perform neuropsychological assessments, which measure a child's strengths and weaknesses over a broad range of cognitive tasks, and they provide parents with a report that highlights those cognitive strengths and weakness, and forms the basis for developing a treatment plan. The report also serves as evidence for requesting school accommodations, and as a baseline for measuring whether interventions are effective. Neuropsychologists also work one-on-one with children struggling in school, to help them devise learning strategies to build on their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. Neuropsychologists who have passed national proficiency exams are certified by the American Board of Professional Psychologists-Neuropsychology or "ABPP-N."

Speech-Language - Hearing Pathologist: Audiologists and speech-language pathologists conduct testing to evaluate language delays and communication problems, and help address deficits symptomatic of certain learning and developmental disorders. These specialists can also identify non-psychiatric causes of troubling behaviors and delays. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) provides information on that sort of testing and aid, and listings of specialists across the country. Oral Expression Listening Comprehension (PDF) - Speech Pathology Services.

Student Affairs - Disability Services: Every college and place of higher learning is required to offer accommodations to qualifying students. Students can meet with a representative from the school who coordinates accommodations at the Student Affairs or Disability Services office at their school.

"Using the raw materials of teaching - time, space, things, and people - a teacher creates his designs, arranging, ordering and reordering those ingredients of education in a constant flow and in an intermingling way." (Quoted from Creative Teaching, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth, 1961. pg.71).

Differentiated Instruction is providing different students with different avenues to learning so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability.

Child Development Books

Ages and Stages: A Parent's Guide to Normal Childhood Development Paperback – August 15, 2000 (amazon)

Parents Do Make a Difference: How to Raise Kids with Solid Character, Strong Minds, and Caring Hearts Paperback
May 7, 1999 (amazon)

Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues that Teach Kids to Do the Right Thing Paperback
September 25, 2002 (amazon)

How to Raise a Human Being: a Parents' Guide to Emotional Health from Infancy Through Adolescence Paperback
August, 1977 (amazon)

Positive Pushing: How to Raise a Successful and Happy Child Paperback – April 23, 2003 (amazon)

Your Child's Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence Paperback – May 25, 2004 (amazon)

Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love Paperback – July 5, 2000 (amazon)

Child Development (8th Edition) Hardcover – July 28, 2008 (amazon)

The Scientist In The Crib: Minds, Brains, And How Children Learn Kindle Edition (amazon)

The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life Paperback
July 6, 2010 (amazon)

Causal Learning: Psychology, Philosophy, and Computation (Oxford Series in Cognitive Development) Hardcover
March 22, 2007 (amazon)

Causal Learning (google book)

Parent Hacks - E-Books

Alison Gopnik (books)

Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children (amazon)

The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care was written by Benjamin Spock, is a manual on infant and child care first published in 1946.

What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning (Core Knowledge Series) (amazon)

"Your children get only one childhood, so make it special."

Choose your Children's Books very wisely. Children's Literature is for readers and listeners up to about age 12.