Research Article about Down syndrome

I love research.  This one particularly hit home because my daughter has Down syndrome.  You can find this research information from the Harvard Gazette HERE.

MIT Research titled How You Talk To Your Child Changes Their Brain.

Those of you who know me well know I love research.  Here is a FANTASTIC article about MIT's current research on child language acquisition.  It turns out that back and forth conversation with your child does more to increase language skills than using flashcards or electronic games. 

My two favorite takeaways:  

“The really novel thing about our paper is that it provides the first evidence that family conversation at home is associated with brain development in children. It’s almost magical how parental conversation appears to influence the biological growth of the brain,” says John Gabrieli, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and the senior author of the study.

AND.....

"Babies tend to learn by watching and copying the adults they are most attached to, which is why singing and cuddling are much more effective than high-tech educational tools when it comes to development. "

Here is the link:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/how-you-talk-to-your-child-changes-their-brain/

Blocks - more technical than you thought!

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) posted an article in 2015 titled Ten Things Children Learn From Block Play.  Among the 10 - problem solving, mathematics, creative play, and science.  Click on the article title to see the whole thing.  It is a quick read.

Parenting Science posted an article titled Toy Blocks and Construction Toys: A Guide For The Science Minded.  This one has references and tips on how to get the most out of your block play.

The American Journal Of Play (for those of you who like research articles) has an article titled Building Blocks and Cognitive Building Blocks: Playing To Know The World Mathematically.  It includes ways on how parents can support block play and learning (play with your kids!).

Block play is a great way to build language - provided you are on the floor playing with your child. There is a lot of vocabulary from concepts (big/little, long/short, etc), prepositions (front, back, top, under, next to), Wh- questions, and more. Blocks aren't vintage toys - they are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) toys. Our preschool kids love to play with them.  Plastic, wooden, cardboard, painted or not, blocks are fun.