screens

Cutting Out Visual Props.

From the colour I thought it was Geisha on the shearing table (she’s medium fawn), but when I saw her face on the next frame it turned out to be Nina – white! I should add that the alpacas are not suffering whilst on the shearing table – not keen, but not suffering, and the result feels so wonderful – no more itchy grass seeds against their skin, and ….freedom! Looking at her this way makes me want to tickle her tummy.

 

Jj is for Jottings 41.  Cutting Out Visual Props.

Enlarging upon the comment on Jottings 40 made by Ann on Facebook, who said she finds another great listening activity is to read a story to children without pictures – spot on!  When you ask them questions about the story afterwards, you will really begin to find out their ability to listen and to Continue reading →

Comments Made by Experienced Teachers.

1. Shanti decided she would jump onto Glenn’s back to get a good view of the toenail cutting. 2. “A good position – I think I’ll sit down.” 3. Settled in to watch the full performance.

Jj is for Jottings 35. Comments Made By Experienced Teachers.

Following are some observations I have made and some comments made by experienced teachers in the last couple of years. I find that experienced teachers have an excellent understanding of what enhances learning and what undermines learning, partly because of their long experience Continue reading →

The Queen’s Swan Marker: Too Much Computer Time.

Picture reproduced by kind permission of This England magazine. www.thisengland.co.uk

Jj is for Jottings 34. Even the Queen’s Swan Marker Thinks Children Spend Too Much Time on Computers.

Every July, David Barber, who is the Queen’s Swan Marker, leads a team of Swan Uppers in a flotilla of skiffs up the River Thames from Sunbury to Abingdon in a colourful ceremonial pageant. Their task is to count and mark the bird population in this section of river. Continue reading →

Televisions in Children’s Bedrooms.

It’s that time of year again when the alpacas have new neighbours. When these twins were a week old, their mother took them further down their paddock into line with our back paddock. The lambs were playing just next to the fence. I came across the paddock – unfortunately with no camera – to find a line of interested alpacas staring at the lambs. Geisha tried to jump on them twice (that’s how they attack unwanted animals) because “They Didn’t Belong There” and “It Was Her Territory”. Thankfully she couldn’t actually get at them through the fence.

Jj is for Jottings 31. Televisions in Children’s Bedrooms.
A few days ago one of my “therapy children” – 7 years of age – brought a soft toy into the session. When asked about it she said she’d been given it as a reward for behaving well in the shop where her parents had bought her a television for her bedroom. (Fancy having to be rewarded for behaving well when you are being bought a big-ticket item!) When asked why she should have a television in her bedroom she said because “lots of” the other children have them in their bedrooms. I don’t know what percentage of children do, but I do know it’s not uncommon. Since children having televisions in their bedrooms fills me with horror, I thought it was a good time to say my piece on the subject. Here are some reasons why TVs and children’s bedrooms should never meet:
• Programs screened when the child is in bed are likely to be inappropriate for the child’s age. Children are unable to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate content.
• Watching TV in bed will erode sleeping time.
• How are parents going to know if the child wakes up during the night and turns on the television? If children do turn on the TV in the middle of the night, see the first two points above.
• Watching television in bed can be overstimulating and undermine the body’s readiness for sleep. You might argue that the same applies to reading in bed – and it can, but this is more of an adult problem than a child problem, and it is magnified by….
• All screens emit short-wavelength blue light. Light affects our internal body clock, which affects our circadian rhythm, which is our (more or less) 24 hour body cycle which influences many internal functions. This determines when our body is primed to stay awake and be productive and when we feel tired and want to go to sleep. When it gets dark in the evening, our pineal gland secretes the hormone melatonin, which signals to our brain and body that it’s time to get tired and go to sleep. Blue light inhibits melatonin production. As a result, our bodies don’t get the proper signal that it’s time to go to sleep, reducing both the quality and quantity of sleep. In effect, the body is tricked into thinking it’s daytime. Blue light (which we also get from the sun’s rays) are crucial during the day, but have a disastrous effect at night. There is any amount of research on this, from Harvard University, Monash University, University of Toronto to name just a few.
• Tired children do not concentrate or learn well. (Or adults either, for that matter.) Their behaviour is likely to suffer, and this will have a knock-on effect to everybody in the classroom.
Being a parent is a tough call, there’s no denying that. But one of the things we must do is to step away from our children’s whims and “what everybody else is doing” and to think about the long-term effects of our decisions on our child’s health and wellbeing.

More of the Neuroscientist’s Comments.

Peaceful paddock scene.

Jj is for Jottings 29. More of the Neuroscientist’s Comments.

Continuing the theme from Jottings 28, Baroness Greenfield warns that children who once used their imaginations are now more likely to sit in front of a screen with a menu of choices somebody else has designed. I have heard people say that reading books also stifles imagination, because someone else has imagined the story. This is not the same thing, however. Continue reading →

Routines/Fewer Choices=Smarter, Happier Children.

Jj is for Jottings 18. How More Routine and Fewer Choices Make for Smarter and Happier Children. Part 1.
Here is the first part of an article which appeared in the Pulse section of the Border Mail on February 6 last year, and it bears repeating. We will visit other parts of the same article in other Jottings.
IT’s 9.30pm and little Johnny is sprawled on the couch, fast asleep in front of a gruesome television crime drama.
The bright green remains of the freezer’s last three icypoles stain his lips and cheeks.
A laptop lies open on the carpet next to an exercise book, its screen saver blinking almost in remonstration of homework not done.
Aah, but how’s the serenity?
The golden silence of a sleeping child after one of those insanely busy days at work and a mountain of washing, dishes and catch-up emails to tackle at home.
Parents, does any of this sound familiar?
Welcome to the juggling act that can be parenting in the modern world.
But according to education experts on the Border, these day-to-day pressures could be hampering a child’s ability to learn and thrive at school.
From too much technology and too many choices about what they can eat through to the absence of a set bedtime, educators and the people helping the kids who fall through the cracks of the education system are seeing common issues with children who struggle at school.
And it starts long before they take a seat in the classroom.
Rhonda McCormack has been a teacher for 45 years, retiring in December after 40 years as a much-loved fixture at St Patrick’s Primary School in Albury.
She says there could not be a better job in the world.
But Mrs McCormack says teaching is not what it used to be — there’s more paperwork and there’s a lot more parenting.
And while she doesn’t want to sound like “an old school marm”, the mother of five boys herself says a lack of structure and discipline at home is creating students who are less resilient and harder to teach.
“By discipline I mean things like a set meal, bath and bed routine,” she says.
“These days kids have so many choices — if they don’t like what there is to eat, they get something else.
“Children also tend to be built up to think they are brilliant at everything … they take criticism poorly and the word ‘no’ is often not in their vocabulary.
“These factors can make it hard to concentrate on a task and school can become very challenging.”
Mrs McCormack is not necessarily having a shot at parents; she says the challenges of modern society and high cost of living can make the parenting job a stressful and demanding one.
“Parents often work full-time and at the end of the day they can give in on things just for some peace and quiet,” she says.
“And children are experts at zoning in when you are at your most vulnerable. Before you know it, you’ve given them the last five ice-blocks out of the freezer.”
But she says at the end of the day parents have to decide which job is more important because “eventually you will make a rod for your own back”.

“It didn’t look that good anyway.”

 

Royal Children’s Hospital Survey.

Signing books outside Dymocks, Albury. With thanks to David Lewis of Dymocks, who kindly offered the book-signing, And to all of those people who visited me there.

Jj is for Jottings 14. Royal Children’s Hospital Survey.

I heard a report on the ABC news on December 2nd, and grabbed a pen and paper as it was introduced. Consequently I have only the bare bones of the report, but roughly – there was a survey of 2000 families undertaken by RCH, asking what parents’ greatest concerns were about their children’s health. The number one greatest concern was … Continue reading →

Effects of Screens on Children, Observations Part 1.

Meet the new neighbours on the other side.

Jj is for Jottings: 7. Effects of Screens on Children – My Observations, Part 1.

During the 35+ years that I have worked as a speech pathologist in education, technology has made its way into our children’s everyday lives at an ever-increasing pace. At the beginning of my career there was just television, Continue reading →