Category: Education

LIBRARY CARDS: TICKETS to the WIDE WONDERFUL WORLD of READING!

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Last week in Dallas, I had the pleasure of accompanying my “daughter” and first grandson to the local library for “Baby Time”.  At 4-months, you might expect him to be unaware of anything beyond his immediate surroundings.  However, in observing B. from the perspective of my long career in Early Childhood and Speech Pathology, I was elated, to see him attending to every book read aloud to the children and to every puppet, responding with smiles and squeals.  Following the story time, I took B. to the children’s section of the library, picked out a wonderful, interactive board book called “Woof-Woof”, and read it two times to him.  Once again, he was quite attentive!  While we were reading, B.’s mother was at the desk, obtaining B.’s first library card.  As you can see from this picture, he is very aware of the significance of his “ticket to the world of knowledge”!

PARENTS:  FIND YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY, and READ WITH YOUR CHILD EVERY DAY!!!

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

First Library Card
Reading with B.

 

 

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Reassurance Mastered by a Two-Year-Old

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When meeting the daunting task of having to say goodbye to one of your favorite “little” friends following a faraway visit: listen carefully to his/her method of handling your unwanted departure. Recently, I experienced this event with one of my favorite and brightest two-year-old buddies. She gave me one of her most precious pouting, thoughtful expressions and proceeded to review the sequence of events for the day that she had gathered from our conversations and actions: “Grandma and Terry going to Marble Falls, Ab going school, _____ drive car school, ____ pick Ab up, Mama come home, Mama come home see Ab.” Well done, Ab! Of course, I proceeded in following up with extending her language by repeating her well-spoken sequence of the day back to her, affirming her beliefs. Then,
she was all ready to say goodbye and get in the car to go to school.

We listen to our children and learn how they comfort themselves!

What we need to teach our children…

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One of the most important and powerful behaviors to model for our children is the art of resilience–being able to bounce back, reorganize and start again. In these days of reacting without thought, the ability to negotiate problems is also something families can practice and model in the home for our kids. The author of this article says it so well in describing the additional need for parents to recognize when it is timely, necessary and beneficial to help our children learn a skill in order to be more successful in life, organization, socialization, etc. Parenting is difficult, but modelling resilience, balance, negotiation and skill-learning in ourselves can ease the life journey for our children!

sunflowers and soul

RESILIENCE1

The quotation above is from Nelson Mandela – one of the greatest leaders and teachers of all time & certainly of our time. He knew all about the importance of human resilience and modelled it to the rest of us throughout his extraordinary life…

There is a trend in today’s society to do what they call ‘helicopter parenting…’ I have been guilty of this exact thing at times, when my son was younger, but am increasingly learning that it doesn’t serve the child or the parent to make this a permanent state of being…

When we take away a child’s right to choose their response to bumpy situations, we take away their opportunity to learn – an opportunity to stretch their boundaries of understanding and their perspective on the world…

So which parent are you…?

The one that teaches your kids that life is ‘perfect’, smooth and shiny &…

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JIGSAW the PUZZLE: CONNECTING with your TEENS by Terry Grosvenor

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IMG_2714Are you needing a way to encourage your teenagers to talk about their day?  Would you like them to share some thoughts with you, besides what they would like you to buy at the grocery store for them to eat?  Bring back the jigsaw puzzle and         COME TO THE TABLE.   Provide a few empty chairs and sit down yourself.  If you are able to place the puzzle in a spot near where your teens occasionally pass by, you will soon find them pausing to pick up puzzle pieces that catch their eyes,  or searching for elusive pieces that fit those empty spots.  Soon, your teens will take a seat themselves, in order to pause a little longer.  As they work the puzzle beside you, sit silently yourself for a bit and you will discover that soon  they are commenting about the puzzle or talking to you.  Connect to their statements with your responses.  Avoid asking them questions at first, join the conversation,  and listen to the magic.  It WORKS!

 

And, yes, boys,  our pets are still eating the pieces that fall on the floor!

AUTISM

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It occupies my days and my mind.  I used to give presentations on information from Dr. Jane Healey, who I brought to Abilene to speak about her book “Failure to Connect” regarding her prediction that technology would ultimately change our children’s brains.  As I assess 2- and 3-year old children as the SLP on an Early Childhood Autism team, I am seeing a great number of children who  do not meet the criteria of autism, but who do demonstrate evidence of  “different brains” and spend an extraordinary time within a “television” or “game time” environment.  If you begin hours of this activity  prior to age 2, there will be differences.