pre-school/kindergarten

Motor Skills and Screen Time in Preschoolers.

Jj is for Jottings 165.  Motor Skills and Screen Time in Preschoolers.

We will now look at the topic of motor skills and screen time in preschoolers in some detail.  In Creativity in Children, Part 1 I noted a deterioration in young children’s fine motor skills over the last few years.  I suggested that creative activities involving fine motor skills may have been partly or completely replaced by screen time. It is not just fine motor skills which suffer from replacement by screen time, but gross motor skills as well. Continue reading →

Creativity in Children, Part 1.

Jj is for Jottings 159.  Creativity in Children, Part 1.

Walk into any preschool/kindergarten and you see that they provide many opportunities for creativity in children.  Why is that?  Because arts and crafts are one of the most important ways to help children develop and grow between ages 3-8.  Here is a chart of communication milestones as a point of reference.  Creativity isn’t just about art and crafts, but they are major avenues for growth and development at these ages. Continue reading →

Hearing Loss and Speech, Language and Literacy.

Jj is for Jottings 88.  Hearing Loss Effects on Speech, Language and Literacy.

Picture of a young father reading a book to his baby with the caption: 'Hearing loss effects on Violet's speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading "Aa is for Alpacas" to her.'

Hearing loss effects on Violet’s speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading “Aa is for Alpacas” to her.

 

Moving on from discussing fluctuating hearing loss in the previous article, we now turn our attention to the effects of hearing loss on speech, language and literacy. Continue reading →

Communication Milestones.

Jj is for Jottings 68. Communication Milestones.

Here is a chart put together by a group from Queensland and the National Office of Speech Pathology Australia which you may find useful.

Here is the link if you want to print copies.
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/milestones

Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?

Jj is for Jottings 54.  Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?

This is Linguine, Kieran’s Murray Darling carpet python. The pic I really wanted was too blurry. Shikha caught a 23 cm long baby brown snake last week and brought it to the front door step to play with. Having just stepped out of the shower I snatched him inside and dressed hastily. When I returned it was nowhere in sight. I found it wriggling around in David’s boot, on the step below! Taking photos inside boots doesn’t work too well. Great composition – reared up with its mouth gaping open – but blurry. Linguine said he’d be happy to stand in (and he’s beautiful and harmless).

 

Many parents these days are concerned that they will somehow damage their child’s psyche if they correct their speech and language Continue reading →

Auditory Sequential Memory – Useful Figures.

Sam, the toenail-eating dog in Spring 2014, aged 15 years.

Jj is for Jottings 22. Auditory Sequential Memory: Some Useful Figures.

Thinking/cognition involves auditory sequential memory (also referred to as short term auditory processing or short term auditory memory) and visual sequential processing, working memory and executive function.
Auditory and visual sequential processing is how many pieces of information you can take in.
Working memory is how many pieces of information you can take in, hold it in your memory and DO something with it (manipulate the pieces).
Executive function is where you have taken in the information and remembered it, and now you are bringing in other information from long term memory and using visualisation (thinking in pictures) and conceptualisation (thinking in words) to manipulate the information and make associations i.e. think.
Auditory sequential memory is measured quite simply by using digit span – how many single numbers are remembered when presented one second apart. eg. 9-5-2-4. The average adult has a digit span of 7 (but this starts to decline after the late 20’s). At birth the sequential processing is 0. Typically it takes around 15 years to go from 0-7. Here’s a little guide:
Age Number of Digits
3 years 2-3
4 years 3-4
5 years 3,4,5
6 years 5-6
7-15 years 7 Continue reading →