Give Your Child the Gift of Self-Esteem

By Cassie Simons

 Much has been said about the "gifted child" but in truth every child is born with unlimited potential. As expressed so well by Orison Marden:

"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."

This statement can be true for your child. Not just if he's a "gifted child" but any child. Indeed, perhaps we should consider a "gifted child" to be a child whose parents have gifted him with a high self-esteem.

Children with high self-esteem are happier and more successful. Low self-esteem is common in children who are performing badly at school, have behavioral problems and suffer from depression.

The Newborn

The "helpless" newborn baby actually comes into the world well equipped with the power to get what she wants. Not only do her cries bring her parents running to tend to her; she also uses her body and facial language to get what she wants. It's no coincidence that babies learn to smile while they are still very small - it is an essential tool in their armory of communication. A baby with a disarming smile can frequently wrap mommy or daddy round her little finger!

Brain Building through Smart Play - Techniques and Tips

By Andrew Loh

All parents simply love to have children, who are extremely smart and intelligent with an ability to perform better in their personal and professional life. Till recently, we believed that there is not much that we can do to help our children develop their brains. Most of us were under a wrong impression that intelligence and smartness are inherited and it is almost impossible to enhance our children intelligence after the birth. However, recent monumental research studies on brain-based development in children suggest us that parents can do and perform a lot to help their children develop their brain based activities. The basic brain cells are very rudimentary and basic in a just born baby. However, most of the important brain connections and bridging between neurons occur during the first 10 years of your child's life.

Smart play is a new and modern term that helps your child develop basic brain based skills and talent that goes far behind the conventional type of intelligence that is restricted mainly to academic performance. Academic performance is an essential part of your child's life, but there are certain things that cannot be expressed through mundane scholastic abilities. There are the skills and intelligence that cannot be quantified or measured, just as we do in the case of classroom performance. These skills are absolutely essential for your child's success in life and they are almost invisible to your eyes. These smart play skills can just be felt and perceived.

How Parents Could Influence The EQ and IQ of Their Children

Harvard's visiting faculty member, Daniel Goleman, the author of the highly renowned EQ book, has pointed out that the best place for children to learn EQ is at home. The direction and values of life are formed at home. The way they speak and act are very much influenced by their parents. Even though gene plays the nature part; it is the parental teaching that determines their future.

We all know that parents bear a great responsibility in upbringing of their children. Experiences gained from educationalist again and again proved that parents are the one who would decide how successful are their children when they reach their adulthood. How a parent behaves in his/her daily live subconsciously play a vital role in molding the behavior of the children. In addition, the home education system adopted by the parents and the level of support given to their children will directly affect their children's behavior development and problem-solving ability. A self-confident child usually comes from the family filled with encouragement and praising rather than scolding and punishment. Likewise, helpful children mostly learn to behave the similar way from their parents.

The research from F.E. Williams, a well-known American educationalist, shows that whether the creativity of the children will continue to develop depends upon the attitude of their parents. His research divided the children into 3 groups namely: lucky group, failure group and conforming group.

Music Develops The Child Brain

By Alvin Poh

Music has the ability to train our brain for higher level of thinking - the kind of thinking for problem solving, comparing and contrasting the similarities and difference between objects, analyzing, reaching conclusion, synthesizing, and evaluating information.

In recent research, it was found that music can help in developing human's spatial-temporal reasoning skill. Spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to perceive the visual world accurately and form mental images of objects. It is the mind ability to see in very detailed images and to recognize, compare and find relationships among the patterns and details on an object. The temporal element involves a child's ability to think ahead.

Factors That Influence Child Development

A variety of factors influence the overall growth and development of the child -- structure of the family, home environment, sibling rivalry, marital relationship of the parents, social circle comprising of relatives, friends and peers.

A child may be brought up in different family structures -- nuclear family, joint family, extended family circle, single parent family or even reconstituted family.

Child Development Research

Bringing up children is an experience and not a burden. It is not as complex a task as many parents think. Parents are generally the prime role model that children look up to. Hence, the appropriateness of dealing with a situation coupled with right attitude creates a huge difference in the child’s life.

The current generation adults seem to find parenting, a major challenge. Technological advances, ease of access to the latest information, rapid changes in the thinking pattern, high-pace high-competition world make the parent’s life quite intimidating. 

Child Development And Technology

Research reports on the effect of technology on child development states that the influence of technology on children is mixed. The way kids of the present generation perceive and think is much different as compared to the previous generations.

Child Development And Family Research

The overall development of the child at various levels (physical, mental, social, emotional) depends on the environment in which he or she grows in. A cohesive harmonious family shows the commitment of a child to help and support him in his growth.

Thus, a happy child achieves the best level of confidence and self-development in a gratifying family environment with positive reinforcement from the members and constructive guidance from the parents.

Guidelines for Raising a Well-Behaved Child

• Whenever possible, teach rather than punish. The goal of discipline is to teach children acceptable behavior. Hitting children does not teach acceptable behavior. It teaches children that "might makes right" and hitting is a way to solve problems.

• View children’s misbehavior as a mistake in judgment. It will be easier to think of ways to teach more acceptable behavior.

How do children learn what is right and wrong?

    Children do what they see, more than what you say. It is important for you to provide a good model for your child to follow.

    Children pass through different stages of moral development beginning in early childhood and advancing through adulthood.

    Very young children do not really understand the concept of right and wrong. For them, what is "good" is what they like and what is "bad" is what they don't like. Therefore, it is important for adults to provide controls and limits for them. This is especially true for children who have no words to tell themselves, "No, don't pick the flowers."

10 Tips for talking with kids about tough issues

Introduction

   Raising a child is probably the most gratifying job any of us will ever have -- and one of the toughest. In large part, that's because times have changed. We live in an increasingly complex world that challenges us everyday with a wide range of disturbing issues that are difficult for children to understand and for adults to explain.

   Some parents and caregivers may question the appropriateness of talking about such sensitive topics with young children. Maybe you're one of them. But consider this: our kids are already hearing about these issues from TV, movies, magazines and school friends. If we don't talk with them early and often -- and answer their questions -- they'll get their facts from someone else. And we'll have missed an important opportunity to offer our children information that's not only accurate, but also in sync with our own personal values and moral principles.

How to Keep You Kid Entertained With Toys

It's not very hard to keep a kid entertained with something to play with. In this electronic age every toy seems to require batteries or software in order to work.

However, kid's toys don't have to be sophisticated in order to be fun. Toys that require thinking and the imagination are the best toys that help aide the child in mental development.

Sudoku for kids and connect four both require critical thinking in order to win. This is precisely what parents should be looking for. Games that rely on chance won't do much to benefit a child. A game of chess or checkers on the other hand can be very beneficial. I will be discussing a few kinds of toys and games that aide in stimulating children to learn more.

How to Help Your Child Learn To Read

Words are the tools of thinking and expression. Perhaps one of the greatest home-aids to a child's reading is helping the child develop the art of marking and underlining in order to identify easily the significant material to be remembered. This practice is called "reading with a pencil in hand." It is a practice so valuable as to be worth buying books to be marked.

There are three important underlinings which should be used. The child should be taught to underline fundamental vocabulary words, and this can be started with the very first book that deals with subject matter. The method suggested for fundamental vocabulary words is a line above a shorter line (number, add, count, subtract, multiply, fraction, arithmetic, problem, divide).

The longer line stands for definition, and the shorter line stands for spelling. The second grader who underlines number in his book Fun With Numbers will not be spelling it (nomber) when he is a junior in secondary school, and the fourth grader who learns the definition of the word fraction will not be having trouble with fractions as an eighth grader, because he only learned about fractions, but really never knew what the word meant in terms of whole experience.

How to Help Children Like School

It is an awful feeling for a parent to have to force a child who doesn't like school to go anyway. But of course, you have to make your kids attend school (because education is compulsory for one thing but also because it's important).

So the key is to work on getting your children to like school from a young age on. There are a myriad of reasons that your child might not like school; identifying the reasons and then using some tricks to help overcome them can help your children like school from elementary age on.