Jane Gilbert

Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason

One basic need all children have, Kohn argues, is to be loved unconditionally, to know that they will be accepted even if they screw up or fall short. Yet conventional approaches to parenting such as punishments (including “time-outs”), rewards (including positive reinforcement), and other forms of control teach children that they are loved only when they please us or impress us. Kohn cites a body of powerful, and largely unknown, research detailing the damage caused by leading children to believe they must earn our approval.

Television's Impact on Kids

Television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ live – watching TV is a daily pastime for 75 percent of Canadian children, both boys and girls from Grade 3 to Grade 10. How much impact TV has on children depends on many factors: how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults, and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on TV.

How TV Affects Your Child

Most children plug into the world of television long before they enter school; in a year, the average (American) child spends 900 hours in school and nearly 1,023 hours in front of a TV. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids in the United States watch about 4 hours of TV a day – even though the AAP guidelines say children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming – and children under age 2 should have no “screen time” at all.

Report: Early Years and Child Care Programs in Canada

There are two major contexts in which preschool learning occurs for many children: the first is the family, the second is early learning and child care programs.The objective of this review is to determine the current state of knowledge about the effects of these types of programs on early childhood learning and development, and then to recommend directions for future Canadian research to expand this base of knowledge.

NB: to view this report, look down the provided CCL webpage for the link to the Early Years Review

(Source: Canadian Council on Learning)

How To: Strategies for Parents to Foster Early Literacy

There is much truth in the cliché that parents are a child’s first teachers. Simple activities such as reading storybooks or singing songs to a child can have significant impact on a child’s ability to develop language and literacy skills, but there are many more things parents do and can do to ensure that their children get off to a good start on the road to speaking, listening, and reading.
(Source: Canadian Council on Learning)

Learning About Parenting for Optimal Early Years

Parents are vitally important throughout a child’s life—as sources of love and security, as teachers and as role models—but they are particularly important in the earliest years. This article discusses various parenting styles and examines programs directed at helping parents to achieve better outcomes for their children.
(Source: Canadian Council on Learning)

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Matter

Dr. Neufeld has dubbed this phenomenon peer orientation, which refers to the tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction: for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behaviour. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture.

Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning : How Computer and Video Games Are Preparing Your Kids For Twenty-first Century Success

The reason kids are so attracted to these games, Prensky says, is that they are learning about important “future” things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions. Prensky’s arguments are backed up by university PhD’s studying not just game violence, but games in their totality, as well as studies of gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals.

Opinion: Teach low-income parents how to become involved

Low-income parents must learn how to work the education system in the same way wealthier families do, writes Edwin C. Darden, education-policy director at Appleseed, a network of public-interest justice centers. Maryland’s Montgomery County schools, for example, offer around 35 free Parent Academy workshops, as well as a call center that will answer questions in both English and Spanish. Education Week (premium article access compliments of Edweek.org) (12/26)
[[http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/12/26/17darden_web.h27.html?tmp=929586154]]

You are here

Jane Gilbert