Parenting

• Do Preschool Children Have An Innate Ability To Do Math?

  Psychologists at Harvard University have found that five-year-olds are able to grasp numeric abstractions and arithmetic concepts even without the formal education or language to express this knowledge in words. The discovery of these inborn skills among preschoolers could point the way to new teaching techniques, making arithmetic easier and more pleasant for elementary school children.

• Popular Kids More Likely To Smoke Than Less Popular Classmates

  Warning: Popularity may be hazardous to pre-teens’ health. According to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, popular students in 16 Southern California middle schools were more likely to become smokers than their less popular peers.

• Parenting With Different Styles

  When couples marry and decide to have children, they’re sometimes surprised to find their partner has very different ideas on how to raise and discipline their children. How we choose to parent usually comes from how our own parents behaved towards us. We often want to do the same thing, or in some cases, the complete opposite.

• When Kids Can’t Have What They Want

  How to respond when the wants of parents and children differ is one of The Big Questions of parenting. Things usually go well when parents and kids want the same things—problems start when they don’t!

• After The Divorce, What About The Children?

  Although many children are resilient, they may feel trapped by the ravages of divorce. Long term emotional scarring of children can be avoided if divorced parents work to rebuild their relationship with their children.

• Teaching Children Civility Begins At Home

  As parents, we focus a significant deal of attention with our children on school work and social activities. We spend far less time teaching, coaching, and encouraging our children to be sensitive, caring and concerned about the needs of others.

• Providing Behavioral Structure For Your Children

  Children are not usually amenable to being lectured, given moral injunctions, or being coerced into handling responsibilities. A critical issue with parenting is creating a sense of involvement. In this era, a parent must have established a positive relationship with a child before being able to promote understanding of the responsibilities the child must accomplish. A style of relating based upon mutual respect, encouragement and coaching is essential. Parents need to listen to their children and give them feedback about different ways of viewing problems and issues.

• TV Ads Market Junk Food To Kids

  For young Americans, the “food landscape” in television advertising is packed with junk food, according to a new study. The study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the first to explore the nutritional composition of foods advertised to children using Nutrition Facts labeling.