Thursday, September 13, 2007
Your Suggestions?
Although the brain continues to develop throughout life, it is especially plastic during childhood. Do you have any suggestions that might help parents in facilitating cognitive development and language acquisition in children? In other words, what would you recommend as ways to aid in brain growth and development? For instance, does Sesame Street help? What about reading to children? Does talking to them increase language skills and vocabulary?
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8 comments:
I am not a parent; but from my own mind I would say that their are many different methods to child development. Any word games or puzzles or number games I would say helps. Some cartoon channels that are children related are good such as: sesame street, dora the explorer, or barney. Reading to them before bed is good; and showing them the pictures. Anything is better than nothing just be aware what is good and what is not.
All good suggestions.Yesterday a colleague and I were talking about the number of words that a preschooler of professional parents knows and uses compared to the number that a preschooler of working class parents knows and uses. The first parent is more likely to use more words (variety), talk more, engage the child in more give and take conversation, read to them, and so forth.
ALL parents can do this, by the way. It's just that right now it seems that some do it more than others based on preschoolers' vocabularies.
I can only say what worked for me with my kids...I talked to them all the time! While riding down the road in the car, I pointed things out, naming them, encouraging them to repeat me (once they began verbalizing), walking outside, we would point things out and name them, reading books, I would name everything. I constantly carried on "conversations" with them. I also read several books a day to them, not only at nap and bedtime, but as entertainment. I also always encouraged the use of the correct word, not baby talk. As for TV, that was just for a very short time period each day, usually just one show, maybe Sesame Street or Barney, but I don't know that it helped in language development...just gave me a few minutes to get something done:), sort of a treat for them. We still talk all the time-our dinner table is very noisy...I often wonder about the language development in families that are more introverted, or quiet. My kids have visited other homes that the dinner table is a very quiet time. I know everyone is different; just wonder how different language development is for children in those homes in contrast to more "talkative" households...I also encouraged old-fashioned play, lots of make-believe, no video games/electronic stuff. It worked for us-both of my kids are at the top of their class. Of course, sometimes they talk too much...
I would recommend some television shows as a way to aid in brain growth and development. My daughter, now 15, use to watch several shows that I thought were educational; Sesame Street and Barney to name a couple. I think that Sesame Street really helped a lot. She use to love to watch this show! I think that it is equally important for parents to "play along" too. I use to sing the songs and play the games along with the shows. I believe that it made my daughter look more forward to watching the show because she knew that I was going to watch it and "play" with her.
I think the last part of your post is very important, the part that tells of your interaction with her instead of just plopping her down in front of the TV. Mr. Williams posted a link to an article a couple of weeks ago that underscored the importance of parents of young children watching the shows with them and then talking about what they learned.
Does your daugher like Dora the Explorer?
I FEEL THAT TIMES HAVE CHANGED TREMENDOUSLY OVER THE PAST YEARS AND THAT ANY AND EVERYTHING CHILDREN COME IN CONTACT WITH CAN HELP OR HARM THEIR LEARNING IN SOME WAY. I BELIEVE IN ALL TYPES OF LEARNING METHODS BOTH NEW AND OLD BC CHILDREN TEND TO LEARN ACCORDING TO IN MY OPINION HOW THEY FEEL OR WHATEVER TYPE OF MOOD THEY MIGHT BE IN AT THE TIME. WITH THIS IN MIND, IT WOULD BENEFIT BOTH THE ADULT AND THE CHILD IF MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF TEACHING IS AVAILABLE.
Lisa, I just read your comment; somehow I missed it yesterday. Your home and the interaction with the children that went on there (and that probably still does) sounds like the ideal situation for raising intelligent, confident children. I shudder to think about homes where there are no books and where the "conversation" is based on commands like, "Stop!" or "Come here!" or "Shut your mouth!" (heard that one yesterday)
Nice to hear something from you Lashea. I think (I know) Piaget would agree with your comments. Children are so eager and ready to learn...and can soak up information like little sponges. In fact, sometimes they soak up stuff that we wish they wouldn't.
Back to the gist of what you were saying, yes children need more than one medium by which to learn.
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