A generation of children and adolescents are now growing up in a digital world. It is estimated that over 90% of American teens use the Internet with the majority logging on daily. Most teens have phones that enable them to access the Internet from anywhere. Although staying connected with peers electronically may offer advantages such as encouraging feelings of connectedness, there may also be challenges associated with increased use of technology. Specifically, cyberbullying is a growing concern for parents and educators.

The Directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center, Drs. Hinduja and Patchin, define cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices”. According to their research, about 24% of students report having been cyberbullied. Some of the most common reported instances of cyberbullying include sending mean messages and spreading online rumors. Being the victim of cyberbullying is associated with negative outcomes, such as lower self-esteem.

The National Association of School Psychologists offers several suggestions for parents:

• Check in with your child about what they are doing online. Teach them appropriate Internet etiquette and encourage them to tell you if they experience any forms of cyberbullying.

• Make sure computers are not in bedrooms but rather in the family room or kitchen so that you can more easily monitor your child’s online activities.

• Let your child know that you may look over their online communication if a concern arises.

• If your child experiences cyberbullying, make sure to document this and share this information with the school. You may also file a complaint with a web site, ISP, or cell phone company.

Although traditional bullying often takes place in the school yard, children may be victims of cyberbullying in their own homes. Parents can get involved in helping prevent cyberbullying. For more information, see http://www.ncpc.org/topics/cyberbullying or http://csriu.org/.

Even at a very young age, temperamental differences are evident in children. Each child has his or her own behavioral style that affects how they respond in social situations. In one of the most famous studies of temperament, Thomas and Chess identified nine different temperamental dimensions: rhythmicity, activity level, approach vs. withdrawal, adaptability to new stimuli over time, threshold of responsiveness, quality of mood, intensity of reaction, persistence, and distractibility. They found that temperamental dimensions tended to cluster in predictable ways and believed children could be categorized as “easy” (even-tempered, positive responses to new stimuli), “difficult” (often negative, react with high intensity), and “slow to warm” (adjust slowly to new stimuli and people).

Thomas and Chess noted that temperament affects social interactions, even those with the parent. They proposed the concept of “goodness of fit”; that is, the fit between the child’s temperament and parent’s style. An example of good fit would be a difficult child who has patient parents who remain calm and insist that the child complies with rules. A less strong fit would be a difficult child who has parents that become irritable, impatient, and punitive.

Goodness of fit is often associated with positive developmental outcomes. The Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (CECMHC) writes that “what is most beneficial about the goodness of fit concept is that it does not require that adults and children have matching temperaments.” CECMHC suggests that parents reflect on how their own style relates to that of the child, and consider how to best adjust their own behaviors to support their child. For example, if a child is “slow to warm”, the parent might keep this in mind and provide extra support and time when introducing the child to a new person or activity.

The CECMHC developed a tool to help parents examine the goodness of fit between their caregiving style and their child’s temperamental profile. The Infant Toddler Temperament Tool (IT³) can be completed in minutes and is available online. After responding to the brief survey, a report describing similarities and differences in parent’s and child’s styles is provided as well as suggestions for how to best foster the individual child’s development.  For recommendations on supporting a “goodness of fit”, complete the IT³ at http://www.ecmhc.org/temperament/index.html.

by Lisa Rosen, Ph.D.

Global Youth Service Day, which is the largest service event in the world, is fast approaching.  On April 20-22^nd, it is estimated that 2 million children and adolescents will participate in service projects to better their communities.  This annual event first began in 1988 in the United States and became a global event in 2000. This year children and adolescents from 100 countries will participate in Global Youth Service Day.

Youth Service America, an organization whose mission is to promote service participation among children and adolescents, sponsors this event each year. Steven Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America, says “Fully half the world’s population is under age 25. Now is the time to activate youth to be the leaders of today, and one of the most effective ways to do this is by challenging them to solve communities’ problems through service…With passion, creativity and fresh perspective, young people are uniquely positioned to come up with new and innovative ways to improve their communities. On Global Youth Service Day, the world stands in awe as we see what is possible when kids take the lead as problem-solvers.” To help youth carry out service projects on Global Youth Service Day, Youth Service America awards grants to schools, organizations, as well as individual children and adolescents who have a vision for changing their communities.

Global Youth Service Day benefits both the community and the children and adolescents who volunteer.  Dr. Jennifer Schmidt of Northern Illinois University has studied the positive outcomes associated with adolescents’ involvement in community service.  Her research finds that volunteerism in high school is associated with higher grades, greater civic knowledge (e.g., understanding of politics and national issues), and fewer behavior problems. Dr. Schmidt also compared adolescents who voluntarily engaged in service and those who are required to participate in service activities. She concluded that “students who do service to fulfill a requirement reap the same benefits of service participation as those who engage in service voluntarily.”  So volunteering – whether required or by choice – can positively impact the lives of children.

For information on how you or your children can participate in Global Youth Service Day, please see: http://www.ysa.org/gysd. Although events such as this are a great time for youth to volunteer, service opportunities exist year-round. To learn about ways that you and your children can volunteer in the community, go online to Volunteer Match, Youth Service America, or your local United Way.

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of the Center for Children and Families’ Juega Conmigo classes, which have been designed to directly foster the cognitive, language, physical, emotional, and social development of infants and toddlers. I was struck by the degree to which music was incorporated into the curriculum from creating homemade instruments to engaging parents and children through song.  After speaking more with our Developmental Specialists, I learned that they incorporated music for more than mere enjoyment but rather as a way to promote children’s development.

This sentiment echoed a recent article in Young Children , Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers, by Rebecca Parlakian and Claire Lerner.  They write that “For very young children, music has power and meaning that go beyond words… music experiences also support the formation of important brain connections that are being established over the first three years of life…”.

Parlakian and Lerner identify several domains of development which benefit from musical experiences:

• Social-emotional skills. Music is a social experience which children can engage in with caregivers and peers. Songs can teach children about emotion (e.g., “If you’re happy and you know it…”) and encourage sharing and turn-taking (e.g., call-and-response songs such as “Who ate the cookies from the cookie jar”).

• Motor skills. Songs that employ finger plays and gestures such as “Where is Thumbkin?” and “The Wheels on the Bus” are ways of practicing fine motor development. Further, dancing commonly accompanies songs and is a way to encourage physical activity.

• Cognitive skills. Children learn through song. For instance, early numeracy is encouraged through songs such as “One Two, Buckle My Shoe” and “Five Little Monkeys”.

• Language skills. Lastly, music influences language development and is a way for children to practice communicating.

For specific song ideas for different age groups, please see: http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201003/ParlakianWeb0310.pdf.

by Nazly Hasanizadeh, Ph.D. Student at UT Dallas

Emotional competence skills in children are extremely important, and sometimes underemphasized. Children who have high emotional competence can manage stressful situations better and effectively form and maintain positive friendships with others.

In the most recent lecture of the 2012 Spring Lecture Series from the Center for Children and Families, Dr. Jackie Nelson highlighted the ingredients defining emotional competence in children and provided tips for how to help cultivate these skills in children.

Here are some of the key components of emotional competence discussed by Dr. Nelson:

• An awareness of one’s own and others’ emotions: At about 2-3 years of age, emotionally competent children can recognize an array of both positive and negative emotions, typically starting with positive ones such as happiness, and then beginning to understand more negative emotions such as sadness. Additionally, children begin to realize that their own views and emotional reactions can differ from their friends’.

• Expressing emotions effectively and feeling empathy towards others: Being able to convey how one is feeling in an appropriate manner and the ability to share another person’s emotions are important skills of emotional competence. These skills help children foster positive interpersonal relationships with peers as well as family members.

• Using emotion regulation during times of stress: The effective use of problem-solving and support-seeking strategies to manage stress is a valuable skill of emotional competence.  For example, an emotionally competent child  may try to deal with a bully at school by seeking  advice from a parent.

Dr. Nelson suggested many ways to support the development of children’s emotional competence. One of the prime facilitators involves sensitive and supportive responses when your child is distressed.  Receiving comfort when distressed helps to build the child’s emotion regulation skills.  Helping children identify their different emotions and discussing emotions helps children understand their own feelings better and supports the growth of emotional competence.

For more information and support for children struggling with emotion regulation or other behavior problems, please visit http://www.challengingbehavior.org or contact The Center for Children and Families for information and referral services.

Inspired by episodes of the “Take Home Chef”, this week’s blog focuses on the Zone of  Proximal Development, a phrase coined by Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky.  In each episode of the Take Home Chef, famous Chef Curtis Stone approaches a random stranger in a grocery store and asks if they would like to take him home and cook a gourmet meal for someone special in their life.  Most of these strangers can barely cook– unless you count frozen pizza, take-out, or canned foods.  Yet in their own homes, with the assistance of Chef Curtis, amazing meals are created.  In other words, with the assistance of a “skilled other,” each person is able to do far more than they would be able to do on their own.  This is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in action.

The same idea applies to children. Imagine Lola, a toddler just learning to count.  On her own, Lola can spout off a few number names but her counting skill is far from sophisticated.  But when her mom points to each of Lola’s stuffed animals, all lined up in a neat row, and helps her count them from 1 to 10, Lola does much better.  In a few weeks, Lola only needs her mother’s pointing to correctly get her from 1 to 10 and in no time, she can fully count her animals on her own.  In other words, Lola’s mother scaffolds or structures and supports the experience of counting in a way that Lola can be far more successful with assistance than she could on her own.

In their book, Tools of the Mind, Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong outline the Vygostkian approach to education in early childhood.  They note that the ZPD “is not limitless; a child cannot always be taught any given thing at any given time…When a skill is outside of the ZPD, children generally ignore, fail to use, or incorrectly use that skill.”  The authors highlight the importance of scaffolding interactions as a way for adults to use the Zone of Proximal Development to support children’s learning.

Bodrova and Leong note that with scaffolding, “the task itself is not changed, but what the learner initially does is made easier with assistance.”   Scaffolding enables adults to provide greater support at the start of the learning process and then gradually withdraw that support as the child becomes more competent.  Ultimately, the child can perform a task independently.  In the example above, mother’s lining up and pointing to the stuffed animals and providing the number names changes to reflect Lola’s increasing competence.  Soon no pointing or naming assistance is necessary.  Lola can count objects on her own.

As another example, Aaron cannot yet cut a banana independently.  Dad can scaffold the experience by first holding both Aaron’s hand and the banana as they carve through it together.  As Aaron’s skill at banana cutting increases, Aaron now holds the banana himself as he and his Dad cut the banana together.  Soon, Aaron can hold the banana and the knife, cutting easily on his own.

Bodrova and Leong suggest many ways to scaffold interactions including:

*Providing an increasingly complex set of objects for your child to enjoy and demonstrating how they work.

*Connecting language to your child’s own experiences (e.g., baby reaches for a ball and parent  says – Do you want to play with the ball?)

* Demonstrating imaginary play and providing the words for the experience (e.g., The doggy is hungry, let’s give him a drink!)

There are many ways to work with the Zone of Proximal Development to support a child’s learning.   Think of what your child can show you this week.  With a bit of scaffolding and your assistance as the skilled other, your child can meet you “in the zone!”

The importance of play for young children’s development cannot be overstated.  Open spaces, active movement, and experimenting with materials are all avenues to support learning and development.  Even very young infants can enjoy and respond to creative and artistic experiences.  Local museums like the Dallas Museum of Art offer special areas, reserved just for children, which are filled with beautiful images and playful materials to support children’s exploration of the arts and creativity.

But what about at home or in childcare?  In a recent issue of Early Years, a publication of The Journal of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children, C. Miki Henderson discusses ways to introduce infants and toddlers to creative play and the expressive arts.  Henderson provides a variety of suggestions and although the article was geared toward the child care environment, these suggestions readily apply to the home environment as well:

• For pre-crawlers, Henderson suggests exposing children to different types of music and and to objects that have differing shapes, patterns, and textures.  Billowing scarves, picture books, and photo cubes are all materials that infants can enjoy.

• For crawlers and young toddlers, provide places for children to climb and cruise as they begin walking.  Again, music can be used in many ways – simple songs, rhymes, finger plays, and instrumental music can provide the background for rest, play, or meals.

• Two- and three-years-olds can use drawing, sculpting and dramatic play to express themselves and connect with those around them.  Henderson advocates for the use of “interest centers” – for example a photo of a garden and some fresh picked tomatoes.

Another suggestion is to use “old crayons baked in muffin tins to make scribble cookies…drill a hole in the center and attach one to your easel using yarn.”  This technique ensures that children can draw and create freely but on an easel instead of on the wall.

Henderson also notes that photography, literature, sensory activities, and creative movement are all beneficial activities to include and that adults can create environments that are safe, peaceful, and supportive of children’s individual differences and temperaments.  With a little creativity and a few simple materials, parents, teachers, and caregivers can support young children’s artistic and creative play.  Crayons, anyone?

by Nazly Hasanizadeh, Ph.D. Student at The University of Texas at Dallas

For decades after first being clinically described in the 1940’s, autism was often combined with other types of disorders due to the lack of research and understanding. The diagnosis of autism continues to be refined as more information about it accumulates. But how can you tell whether your child is showing signs of autism or of another disorder? How can you decide whether you should seek help or not?

In the first lecture of the Center for Children and Families 2012 Spring Lecture series, Dr. Noah Sasson discussed the newly defined two main identifiers of autism: social impairments and repetitive and restricted behaviors. Social impairments include behaviors such as an inability to form peer relationships, less interest in sharing experiences with others, and an inability to understand social cues. Repetitive and restricted behaviors include things like focusing intensely on specific and unusual objects or parts of objects, repetitive motor or language use, and extreme distress with any deviation from routines. Dr. Sasson also emphasized that these behaviors should be present in early childhood and “limit and impair functioning” in order to receive a diagnosis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Sasson, parents should be aware of the following potential red flags after the child is at least 12 months old:

• Social Red Flags:
  • Does not respond to own name by 12 months
  • Reduced eye contact
  • Does not engage in pretend play
  • Lack of sharing interests with others

• Repetitive and Restricted Behavior Red Flags:
  • Rocks body continuously
  • Excessively preoccupied with specific pieces of an object
  • Cannot tolerate minor changes in routine

It is important to note that some of these behaviors appear to some extent in all children, however the difference between those who fall on the Autism Spectrum and those who do not is the intensity and life impairment of these behaviors.  First Signs is a national, non-profit organization which offers guidance for identifying the early signs of autism and related disorders.

If parents are noticing repeated occurrence of one or more of these red flags, here are several excellent resources for getting help:

The Crystal Charity Ball Autism Project:  This is great for obtaining information about diagnosis and intervention, and can be reached at 214-456-7700 and.

The Center for Children and Families: The Center for Children and Families’ Infant Development Program offers low cost developmental screenings and other support services. To speak with the Community Liaison, call 972-883-4827. Referral services are also available.

Reading Rockets, a national multimedia literacy initiative funded by a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education, offers information and resources on how children can learn to read and how caregivers can help.  According to Reading Rockets, what preschoolers know before they enter school is strongly related to how easily they learn to read in the first grade.  Below are some tips they offer for caregivers to use in interacting and promoting children’s literacy and language development.

Parents and Babies:

Babies begin learning as soon as they are born, and although they may not comprehend meanings, they do appreciate hearing your voice as you read books to them. Let the book grab their attention by choosing ones that have bright or bold illustrations. Read it to them in prosody (melodic) speech. This will aid in their speech development. It is also important to acknowledge their coos, growls, and gurgles because this is their initial way of communicating.

Parents and Toddlers:

Engage them in books that have rhymes and songs. At this stage, toddlers like to be active; however, it does not means that they are not listening to the story. Choose books with animals so they can bark and moo as you read. Talk about the pictures and illustrations in the stories.  Help them make connections between the book and their lives, and talk about the books you both love over and over.

Parents and Preschoolers:

Make reading part of a daily routine with your child. Build vocabulary by describing everything in the book with interesting words. Describe objects such as a plane and its wings. Be interactive and ask questions about the contents of the book, pointing out particularly interesting points in the story. Introduce basic concepts of written language by noting that English readers read from left to right and that there are spaces between each word. Be sure to have your child evaluated by a specialist if you have concerns about your child’s language development, hearing, or sight at this stage.

Visit Reading Rockets (http://www.readingrockets.org/article/18935/) for more tips and have fun reading with your child.

There is great concern among parents, teachers and early education supporters that government funding for early childhood programs will continue to suffer cuts in current economic times.  The risk of funding loss continues despite the overwhelming evidence that high-quality early education makes a difference for young children, especially those that are at risk.  An at-risk child is one who is living amongst many complications or risk factors that may impede their ability to be productive members of society.  A recent article by Jeffrey Mervis in the journal Science summarizes the benefits found from three intensely studied early education intervention programs that make a strong case for the benefits of high-quality early education not only for the at-risk children who experience the program, but also society as a whole.

Mervis highlights findings from three well-studied programs, the first of which is the High Scope/Perry Preschool Program, the earliest of the model programs.  The Perry Preschool Program was implemented in a working-class community in Ypsilanti, Michigan, beginning in 1962.  The participating children had below-average IQ scores, were between the ages of three and four, came from low-income families, and had parents who typically did not have a high school degree.  Children attended the program 2 ½ hours per day, five days a week during the school year. They were compared to demographically similar children who did not attend an early childhood program and received no other form of intervention.  Children who attended this program were followed for many years and even into adulthood to determine the long-term benefits of the preschool program.  Through age 14, graduates of the Perry Preschool Program  required less special education, showed better motivation in their schoolwork, and valued learning more than the children who were without the preschool experience.  Cost/benefit analyses of the program over the many years the children have been followed have determined a lifetime per-child benefit of $284,000 from program costs of $17,600 per child.

The Abecedarian Project was initiated in 1972 at the University of North Carolina.  It enrolled children as young as six weeks of age in an intensive early childhood program.  The children attended the university based child-care facility five days a week for five hours a day year round until the children entered kindergarten.  Abecedarian placed high value on stimulating the children’s language development.  Studies of the program’s effectiveness showed that children performed slightly better academically than those studied in the Perry Preschool program, and the results showed that cognitive benefits lasted into young adulthood for the children.

Mervis also highlights the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), a long-term evaluation begun in 1985 that has traced the benefits of early childhood education program attendance for low-income children in the Chicago area.  The CLS program was designed as a low-cost alternative to Perry and Abecedarian and some of the children received services for up to six years.  989 children attended preschool at one of 20 Child Parent Education Centers, initiated by the Chicago public schools in 1967 soon after Head Start had begun.  After receiving either one or two years of the intervention, some of the children continued to receive services through the third grade in one of several Chicago public schools.  What makes the study of the CLS different from the evaluations of the Perry Preschool and the Abecedarian programs is that children were not randomly assigned to receive or not receive the program’s services.  This is because Head Start had been in place for over two decades with growing evidence of the value of early education, making it unethical to exclude children from program participation in a randomized trial of program effectiveness. Instead, the study implemented a quasi-experimental design, which meant that the comparison group was made up of children who attended full-day kindergarten at five randomly chosen kindergartens.  Most of these children had never attended preschool.  The CLS early childhood experience was described as “a happy integration of basic skills, both for language and numeracy, as well as social-emotional skills, combined with an emphasis on parental involvement”.  Studies of its effectiveness showed that kindergarteners without an early childhood education experience had lower basic skills tests scores than the children who had attended either a one or a two-year CLS program.  Long-term societal benefits of program attendance were also found: The children who had attended the early childhood program were less likely to be arrested or to be involved in substance abuse as teenagers.

Although the cost of each of these programs was somewhat high, and considerably higher than the per-child cost of Head Start, the amount of money that they saved society in the long-run in the form of individuals staying out of jail, maintaining employment and contributing instead of costing society money was substantial.  The findings from the studies of these hallmark programs are just a few examples that show us that high-quality early childhood programs, especially for at-risk children, are important not only in helping to promote more optimal development for the individual children, but also in terms of substantial benefits to the larger society.