What is Developmental Science? “Developmental Science” is an exciting and very dynamic multidisciplinary field that seeks to understand and explain human development in its many aspects and the vast number of factors that affect it. Both individual (ontogenetic) and, to a somewhat lesser extent, evolutionary development are considered. It centers on developmental psychology and cognitive […]
Anne Dunlea
New Year’s Resolutions — Can you really keep them??
Zillions of articles appear at the beginning of each year about the ambitious resolutions we set for ourselves. Followed by laments and explanations for why they seem doomed to failure. I suppose this is one more. Except that I don’t think resolutions are necessarily doomed, especially if you re-frame them as goals. Goals are achievable. […]
Recommended Site for Bolstering Executive Function
How To Help Your Child Or Teen Build Executive Functions Executive Functions are a cluster of high level cognitive skills that involve management and effective use of thinking skills. It’s a network of awareness and attention that includes planning, controlling attention, inhibiting inappropriate or ineffective behaviors, processing information in working memory, and other similar skills […]
IGNITING COGNITION WITH PLAY
Play is not pointless fun. For all people, but crucially for children, play profoundly supports and promotes social and emotional skills, self regulation, language and thinking. Most parents easily see that playing with others can help children learn to do things like interact, share and generally get on with others. It fairly obviously encourages children […]
The Trouble With Praise (and what to do instead)
It’s totally natural to get excited about our children’s accomplishments and successes. We feel proud and we want to share their joy. It feels great when our child scores a winning goal, aces a test, makes varsity, has artwork displayed, plays a solo in orchestra, or stays balanced on a bike. What’s not to like? […]
What’s Your Child’s Play Style??
Anna and Ellen are sisters, 1 1/2 years apart in age, octogenarians when I talked with them. Anna’s favorite childhood game was “playing house.” She loved it and delightedly remembers spending hours with her sister playing with their dolls in the little room they set up to resemble a home. It was filled with all […]
Mindfulness and Overwhelmed Brains
Our brains can become overwhelmed when we have feelings of anger, worry, fear, sadness and pain. Even less dramatic feelings like the exhaustion of managing daily life can overwhelm the brain. Stressed Brains Stressed brains become very noisy – constantly checking for the next problem. Ruminating. Chattering. Worrying. Fretting about what comes next. Judging what […]
6 Tips for building a rich relationship with your child and scaffolding skillful behavior
These six strategies nurture your child and yourself and strengthen the close trusting bonds between you. If you decide to use them, you’ll find you and your child are calmer, happier, more connected. Plus, you’ll also be amazed at how much more responsibly your child will behave!!! Each of the tips is based on developmental science […]
THE GIFT OF BILINGUALISM, part 2 Effects of bilingualism in childhood and beyond
Introduction Understanding two languages, and often two cultures, gives bilinguals a broader perception of people and society: they are inherently more socially open and flexible and have a deep understanding that people do not always think alike. Alongside this practical advantage lies a neuro-cognitive one. Numerous studies have shown that bilinguals surpass monolinguals in cognitive […]
THE GIFT OF BILINGUALISM, part 1 Becoming Bilingual
Introduction (This section provides background information about language learning, skip a few paragraphs to “How children become bilingual,” if you wish) There is a small window of time in which a person can truly become a fluent native speaker of a language, and that is during childhood. Native speaker fluency means acquiring a language […]