Blogging Parent

A Belgian professor, who specialises in early childhood education, has said that children who attend good childcare centres can reap social and employment benefits later in life.

I have got to agree with the professor. We put Matthew into infant care when he was 3 months old. And we can see that he’s much better in socialising and he knows how to interact with others. He learns how to share and communicate with his friends and teachers. Of course, he’ll still have the occasional tantrum, but which kid doesn’t. And we make sure that we communicate and spend time with him.

However, it must be noted that it is quite important to choose a quality childcare centre for your child. Otherwise, the kid might be picking up the wrong messages.

P.S.: Do read the comments in the news article. They are quite interesting and provide alternative views.

I’m sure you have heard of drug testing at sporting events to prevent drug cheats, but I bet you have never heard of drug testing at exams.

Well, things are going to be different from now on. A news article in the BBC News has reported that schools and universities may soon need to conduct tests on students sitting for exams for brain improving drugs.

Drugs for diseases such as Alzheimer’s were being used by healthy people to boost their alertness and memory. Experts are worried that this would be an issue in time to come and might implement urine drug tests during exams. And even more drugs will be designed in future as we begin to know more about the workings of our brain.

Hmmm … I can imagine students queuing up after their exams to provide urine samples for testing. Wonder if a student will be banned for two years from taking exams if he is caught doping as it is for sports at the moment.

Matthew has been read to since he was born. And he enjoys been read to as well as doing his own reading. Although he might not know how to read the words yet, he can re-tell the stories in the books to us through the pictures. Sometimes, he’ll gather all his soft toys and tell them stories with his storybooks.

And researchers have recently done a study to show that reading helps stimulate child development and gives them a head start in school. Besides the reading, sharing a book with them also helps with their motor skills when they turn the book’s pages and their memory. The bonding with the parents during storytime helps with the child’s emotional and social development.

The study also shows that children who have been read to from an early age have better language scores later in life. And I definitely agree with that point as Matthew does have a rather wide vocabulary though he’s not even three yet. The sentences he constructs sometimes make us ask him to repeat himself just to be sure it’s coming out of his mouth.

As a librarian, I wholeheartedly promote reading! Happy Reading!!!

A study of 5,000 families by the Eastern Virginia Medical School has found that children have smaller vocabularies when their fathers are depressed whereas children with fathers who are not depressed do not. However, mothers who are depressed seem not to have the same effect on the children.

Children with depressed fathers used 1.5 fewer words than the average of 29 at the age of two. This could be due to depressed fathers spending less time reading (9% less) to their children, wrote the researchers in New Scientist. However, for depressed mothers, they would still spend the same amount of time reading to their children, thus there was no impact.

The researchers said that though the difference is small, there might be a significant difference when it scales up across a child’s complete vocabulary.

So, fathers who are feeling depressed or feels depression is coming along, I guess it’s time for you to seek help early as it might affect your children’s future.