Music ‘can boost wider learning’

Playing in a class prepares children for being in an orchestra

Learning a musical instrument at primary school can boost a child’s confidence and learning in other areas, a report suggests.
Nine out of 10 schools asked about a government-funded scheme that teaches pupils to play instruments in a group, said the process raised self-esteem.

Many teachers said the scheme led to more positive attitudes to learning and improved motivation in other subjects.
The groups are run in 6,500 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The study by the University of the Arts, London, focuses on the Wider Opportunities Programme, in which eight and nine-year-olds learn to play an instrument together as a class for free. Even the class teacher joins in and learns to play.
They are not competing against each other, they have to collaborate

Some 97% of primary head teachers and staff in the 1,389 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who took part in the research said pupils looked forward to lessons and enjoyed playing instruments.
Many of the teaching staff said team-working skills had improved as a result, as had pupil concentration.
The scheme also had an “empowering effect” on some of the participating children, the study said.
‘Whole child’
John Witchell, chief executive of the Federation of Music Services, which commissioned the report, said there was a lot of evidence from all the people who responded about the wider impacts, such as better motivation and improved behaviour.
“It’s one of those activities that is a social activity where all the children work together,” he said.

“They are not competing against each other, they have to collaborate and use their minds and bodies to produce the music.
“They also have to use their emotions to enable self-expression as well.”

In terms of music education, the study found learning an instrument in class as effective as small group tuition.
The programme was particularly useful as an introduction to learning an instrument, identifying talent and in promoting a joyful experience that benefits the “whole child’s development”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8485690.stm

All tech and no play for our tots

Oliver Roach is 20 months old but he already knows how to put on and play a DVD. He is among a growing band of toddlers teaching themselves to use computers, games consoles and other devices.

But technology’s home invasion is forcing children to learn, some experts fear. Oliver’s mother, Kate McQuestin, a public relations consultant from Freshwater, was shocked at how good her son is with technology.

”He mainly likes remote controls and iPhones,” she said. ”He likes to mimic what his father and I do.”

But some parents and experts are worried that technological expertise comes at the expense of socialisation and outdoor playtime. ”I try to allocate certain periods of each day for time to do that,” Ms McQuestin said.

Child psychologist John Irvine, author of The Handbook for Happy Families, said children needed playtime and social interaction.

”The problem is that communication has increased because of the availability of technology, but what it’s not providing is a social dynamic – you can’t get that from a machine.”

He recommends parents limit their children’s tech time without cutting them off completely.

Parents should also be aware of dangers to children from technology, such as electrocution and eye damage, says a report from Early Childhood Australia, Information Technology and Young Children.

But Jillian Fox, lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology’s School of Early Childhood, said that growing up in a technological environment wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. ”Children mimic their parents’ behaviours and because digital tools are in their home environment.”

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/all-tech-and-no-play-for-our-tots-20100123-mrnj.html

No grounds for learning to read at five, says researcher

Teaching children to read at the age of five is not likely to make them better at reading than children who start to learn at seven, according to new research.

Author Dr Sebastian Suggate from the University of Otago in New Zealand said he decided to carry out the research because, apart from a small study from 1974, he was unable to find any research to back up the widely held view that children should learn to read from the age of five.

He said his findings showed that this view was ‘contestable’.

The study will lend force to the argument of many early years experts that children are being pushed into formal schooling too early with no real benefit.

This month the DCSF is sending out Government guidance to all nurseries and childminders advising them on how to encourage three-and four-year-old boys to write (News, 7 January).

Dr Suggate’s three-year research involved 400 New Zealand children and included a study that compared the abilities of children from Rudolf Steiner schools, who do not start learning to read until they are seven, with children from state-run primary schools.

It found that by the age of 11 there was no difference between children who started to read at age five and those at the Steiner schools who started reading later.

The research also found that by eight or nine, the lower performing readers had caught up with the earlier higher performing readers.

Dr Suggate stressed the importance of early language development, which he said was ‘in many cases’ a better predictor of children’s later reading abilities than early reading.

‘Because later starters at reading are still learning through play, language and interactions with adults, their long-term learning is not disadvantaged,’ he said. ‘Instead, the activities prepare the soil well for later development of reading.’

He added that if there were not ‘any advantages to learning to read from the age of five, could there be disadvantages to starting teaching children to read earlier? In other words, we could be putting them off.’

All the Steiner schools involved in the study were state-funded and children were from varied socio-economic backgrounds.

Dr Suggate said that children in the most disadvantaged groups caught up at the same time as the other children.

‘There’s the argument that by getting the ball rolling earlier with reading, the ball will roll faster.’ But he said his study found that this was not the case with reading.

He said he was now extending the project into the development of children’s social, language and creative skills, by comparing children from Steiner schools in New Zealand and Germany with children in state-run schools.

http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/bulletin/NurseryWorldUpdate/976973/?DCMP=EMC-NurseryWorldUpdate

A sign of success for babies

Shira Fogel has found a way to communicate with her children at an early age, and she will pass along this “life changing” knowledge with new parents in an upcoming workshop at the North Clackamas Aquatic Center called Baby Sign Language 101.

“I began to research baby sign language when my daughter was a baby and too young to communicate with us. My daughter loved learning sign language and consequently became a very early speaker because of it; she was speaking full sentences by 18 month of age,” she said.

When her son was born, Fogel and her husband worried that the new baby would not get as much one-on-one time, so they decided to “give him a voice of his own,” by working even harder on teaching him sign language.

“Both my kids were able to be an active member of the family at such an early age, telling me their most basic needs at such an early age. Both kids were signing milk at 6 months of age and able to engage in conversations, when their non-signing peers were still grunting, pointing and consequently having temper tantrums, because their parents and caregivers were unable to decipher their wants and needs,” Fogel said.

Then Fogel discovered something else: people who saw her signing with her son were so interested in the process that she found herself talking about sign language and its benefits to new parents in Gymboree and at the playground and library.

“I love talking to other parents and caregivers about how amazing sign language is and have always been intrigued by the benefits of baby signing with hearing babies, so I thought about expanding it into a business concept. I couldn’t wait to become certified in order to spread this knowledge of American Sign Language with other parents who want to be less frustrated, give their child a gift of communication and have a greater bond with their child/children. So I got certified from a speech and language pathologist through Kindersigns, a nationally accredited organization, and created my own company called Tiny Talkers,” she said.

Sign language 101

Fogel created a baby sign language workshop where she teaches parents, caregivers and grandparents everything they need to know to get started signing with their babies; she does want to emphasize that the sign language she teaches is for hearing babies only.The single-session workshop is less than two hours long.

“I teach them what they need to know to be successful at signing with their babies and then they take all the information home to begin working repetitively with their children. This workshop is geared toward adults, but non-mobile babies are welcome if the parents feel they can comprehend the material while caring for them,” she noted.

“Many parents attempt to teach their baby sign language by using books and learning signs themselves. Teaching yourself is very limiting, because what you are learning is just the sign itself but not how to teach it to a baby. It also doesn’t tell you how to teach ‘abstract’ concept words such as hurt and help, which are extremely important signs for a baby to know. Many parents often get frustrated in their self-taught efforts and give up frustrated,” Fogel said.

One woman was hesitant to sign up for the workshop, because she had tried teaching her daughter on her own for over a year.

“She was working so hard to teach her ‘milk’ and ‘more’ with no success. She took the workshop and a week later I got an e-mail that said, ‘It worked – what you taught us worked,’” Fogel added.

In the workshop, participants learn specific how-to information, tips and techniques based on how a baby’s brain works, how to recognize signing readiness, guidelines for success, activities and games to promote verbal language, a baby-signing dictionary with over 80 helpful signs and a journal to keep track of progress. The most important thing that the workshop offers is practical advice on how parents can reach their ultimate goal-verbal language development, she said.

Personal success

Teaching her own children sign language has been “a huge parenting tool for me. [Her son] hardly ever has temper tantrums and there is no communication breakdown when he’s trying to tell me what he needs,” Fogel said.

“When my son was 8 months old, we were at the mall and he saw another baby go by in a stroller. He looked up at me and signed ‘baby’ and then signed ‘hat.’ At such a young age you don’t expect babies to even recognize other babies, let alone point out what they are wearing. From this, we were able to have a conversation based on something our son was interested in. What an amazing opportunity to have a window into my son’s head,” she added.

Fogel, who lives in Clackamas County, was a preschool teacher for a couple of years, and most recently worked as a sustainability specialist for the county’s Department of Transportation and Development.

Now that Tiny Talkers has taken off, she is looking ahead to training herself how to teach sign language to developmentally disabled children.

“Sign language is highly recommended as a way to bridge the communication gap for children with special needs. Speech pathologists recommend teaching hearing non-verbal children who suffer from Down syndrome, autism, childhood apraxia, cerebral palsy, trauma and brain and speech disorders. A huge number of parents now rely on sign language as a mode of communication particularly with their children who suffer with speech delays, limited language capabilities or short attention spans,” she noted, adding that parents who are interested in having a workshop specifically for their special-needs child may contact her directly.

Advantages of signing

• It is a fact that babies can acquire the ability to understand language long before the muscles in their mouth enable them to actually speak.

• Research proves the gap between comprehension and speech production can be bridged by using sign language.

• Sign language helps provide an earlier foundation for language development.

• Sign language has been scientifically proven to raise IQs an average of 12 points higher than non-signing children.

• Even when children start speaking, their words are often very difficult to understand; sign language provides an additional clue to help toddlers tell you what they are trying to say. This helps tremendously in minimizing the “terrible two’s.”

http://www.oregoncitynewsonline.com/features/print_story.php?story_id=126281174626779300

US – Program gives preschoolers violin lessons

Aim of $300,000 federal effort is to give kids hand up on life skills

They used imaginary instruments made of cardboard and rubber bands, but their progress was real.

As they sat in a circle at Hayward Elementary School, they clapped to learn rhythm and practiced fingering to build fine motor skills. In two weeks, they’ll switch over to the real thing and by spring will be playing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

In the end they will learn two things that might be missing from their lives: satisfaction of reaching a goal and the power of a compliment.

“We’re not trying to turn all these kids into concert violinists. It’s just a process for them to get structure and accolades,” said Fred Slunecka, president of Avera McKennan Hospital, a program sponsor.
“They’ll have something to be proud of. They can see success,” said Louisa Biteler, coordinator of violin instruction in the Avera Health family wellness program.

The musicians, ages 3 to 5, are in the district’s early childhood program, which serves children who show developmental delays or are from low-income families.

Sen. Tim Johnson visited class Monday in connection with Congress sending $300,000 to help the Avera program. He sees the musical program as part of a larger effort that is pushing local health care and education to a lead role in understanding how genetics and family environment relate to learning.
“Sioux Falls, South Dakota, could be known as the center for mental health,” he said.

He watched Sophia Donovan and Zoey Brown, both 4, and a dozen other children as they sang, clapped and practiced the footwork a violinist would use on stage. It all fit a strategy for learning, said Carla Miller, early childhood administrator at Hayward.

“Research shows a connection between music and brain development,” she said.

Avera began the family wellness program in 2008 by providing $1.5 million. Another $1 million came from community donations.

The violin instruction, 25 minutes four days a week, is one element in a plan also using drama, visual arts and other lessons. More than 100 Hayward children in the program will use 65 violins the Our Guardian Foundation has provided in memory of Ann J. DenHerder.
The wellness program includes outreach to parents who agree to meet with family wellness coordinators.

Julie Fieldsend, one of the coordinators, told Johnson that many homes lack positive reinforcement or a foundation for social skills. Some parents are high school dropouts who since have earned their general equivalency diplomas.

“They wanted to be better parents,” Fieldsend said.

She thinks the intervention can help children pick up a sense of seeking a goal.

“If you stick with it, you will get there,” she said.

http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100105/NEWS/1050328/1001

Use the off switch often

EARLIER THIS year, the mighty Walt Disney Company was forced to offer refunds to parents who bought the best-selling Baby Einstein DVDs.

The decision was a triumph for an organisation in the US called the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) which filed a complaint for false and deceptive advertising in 2006.

It maintained that, far from being the educational tool Disney claimed them to be, the Baby Einstein DVDs and their spin-offs were actually a hindrance to children’s development. The DVDs are popular in Ireland too.

The CCFC campaign was endorsed by researchers in 2007 at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute. They found that, for every hour a day that infants spent watching DVDs, they understood six to eight fewer words than infants who do not watch them.

The American Association of Paediatrics reiterated its view that children under the age of two should not, in any circumstances, watch television.

The Walt Disney Company was forced to drop the words “educational” from the DVDs along with egregious claims that they are a “rich and interactive learning experience that . . . fosters the development of your toddler’s speech and language skills”.

The campaign by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) chimes with the views of one of a world authority on early childhood development.

Prof Stuart Shanker of York University in Canada, who was in Dublin earlier this month to launch a new childcare initiative in Ballymun, said there was no substitute for interaction between parent and child.

His central message was that parents do not need to do anything out of the ordinary, or buy any kind of “educational” DVD to further their child’s development.

Shanker launched youngballymun’s Ready, Steady, Grow service which is dedicated to children aged zero to three and their families. Ready, Steady, Grow is a universal service for every child born in Ballymun.

Youngballymun was established two years ago as a prevention and early intervention programme. It is jointly funded by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Atlantic Philanthropies, US billionaire Chuck Feeney’s charity.

Its aim is to foster the development of children in an area that was once synonymous with deprivation and crime. Youngballymun is being rolled out in two five-year phases until 2016.

Shanker’s views will reassure parents who are bombarded with DVDs, CDs such as Baby Mozart and electronic toys all holding out a promise that they will improve their infant’s development.

“Neuroscience proves that playing, touching, paying attention or talking at a level that comforts the baby, for example, are the building blocks for healthy infant brain development,” he explains.

“These brain-to-brain experiences are vital for sensory and motor development as well as helping the child to self-regulate later on so that he can control and understand temper, emotions, stress or attention span.”

Every child is different and every child rewards patient attention, he believes.

“We want to get them more aroused so they get interested and sometimes we want to get them to calm down a little bit, and be less aroused.

There is no such thing as a lazy child or a stupid child or a bad child. There are kids that provide different types of challenges.

“It is better that we understand them.”

His presentation emphasised the importance of interaction between primary caregiver, either a parent or a guardian, and the child especially in the first year.

The baby learns through the caregiver’s expressions, tone of voice, gestures and facial expressions. Babies look to their caregivers to understand new situations. These vital brain stimulations cannot be obtained from watching television or a DVD.

“If a kid is spending too much time alone watching these videos, what is not happening are these interactions back and forth. It is the interactions that lead to language development or intelligence. It is everything that the kids are doing with their mums and dads,” he explains.

Shanker says there is growing evidence that children are being exposed to too much stimuli, particularly television.

This was being attributed to growing noise pollution, especially the effects of television, and demographic changes which meant that infants were not spending enough time either with a parent or a childminder.

Along with the interaction of parents, children need a quiet environment to develop themselves.

He defined self-regulation as meaning the steps a child takes to soothe itself, a vital step in maturing as a human being. “If they get angry or if they get frustrated or they get afraid, they can calm themselves down, control their impulses, deal with their frustration. These are all things that the child learns from their primary caregivers.”

Shanker says he fears that infants who do not have an ability to self-regulate might turn out to be adults with a lack of empathy and will be more vulnerable to addictive or risky behaviours in later life.

He says President Barack Obama had referred to the “crisis of empathy” in a celebrated speech three years ago, before he was elected.

The then Senator Obama said the definition of growing up was that “the world doesn’t just revolve around you” and to empathise was “to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room”.

Shanker admits he is very impressed by the work of youngballymun. “They thought it through very carefully before they hit the ground, they had a well worked out model before they started. They have brought in the right people.

“A programme like this might be the best thing on paper but if you don’t have the right people, it won’t fly.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2009/1229/1224261338305.html

US – Good for the (preschool) soul

When school returns in the new year, the halls at Handy Head Start will be filled with music.

Thanks to a new music program – the first ever at the preschool serving 3- and 4-year-olds – children are not only learning how to play instruments but also how to be better students in the classroom.

Handy director Leshia Burt said the program came about after a presentation earlier this fall to the school’s policy council by Michael and Denie Riggs, of the Early Childhood Music Program. The couple have taught music classes for several years and now teach throughout the Tennessee Valley.

“We could certainly see that this would be a wonderful opportunity to benefit our children at Handy who otherwise might not have it,” Burt said. “Studies show that children who are exposed to structured music education perform better than those who are not exposed to such a program. The policy council wanted to pursue this endeavor on behalf of children and level the playing field for them.”

A music curriculum, created by the Riggses for preschoolers, was introduced in early December. Michael Riggs said he and his wife “know that the missing link in education is music.”

The school’s music teacher, Laura Riner, has been trained to lead the program for each class once a week. Each class lasts 30 minutes.

“It’s a wonderful program, and it fills these

students with such joy,” Riner said. “They’re learning about music and a great deal more.”

Playing instruments such as the triangle, bells, hand cymbals, egg shakers and tambourines, the students study notes and how the notes form various rhythms.

Through the class the students are learning syllabication through rhythm, fluency in reading and how to better follow directions.

“They have a great time, and it’s the fastest 30 minutes in their day,” Riner said. “They don’t want to leave the class.”

Handy student Dylan Howard just turned 5, but already he’s thinking about a possible musical career.

“I’m pretty good in music class, and it’s making more muscles in my fingers,” he said, reasoning that one day he’ll be a great piano player because of his new finger muscles.

Tanner Thirkill, 4, said his favorite instrument is the egg shakers.

“I love the eggs and playing them to my favorite song, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.’

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20091226/ARTICLES/912265010/1011/NEWS?Title=Good-for-the-preschool-soul

Japan – Preschool training takes off

‘Yokomine Method’ gains following after developing ’super kids’

Chubby Haruku Takarabe was the last of his 14 classmates to master walking on his hands across the gym. But now he can stand on his head, turn cartwheels on one hand and vault over the 110-cm-high box just like the rest of his fellow 5-year-olds.

“All children are gifted,” said Toriyama nursery operator Yoshifumi Yokomine, 58. “If you let them do handstands everyday against the wall, all children can start walking on their hands in a year. Some of them may take time, but no one is incapable,” he said.

Yokomine runs three nurseries in the port city of Shibushi, Kagoshima Prefecture, which has a population of less than 35,000. Total enrollment at his three nurseries is nearly 300.

The fact that every child gets this degree of exercise before school age has pushed Yokomine, an uncle of pro golfer Sakura Yokomine, into the spotlight.

A TV show featuring “super kids” from Yokomine’s nurseries became a hit after airing in May. Parts 2 and 3 were broadcast in July and October, with part 4 scheduled to show in the near future.

Dubbed the “Yokomine Method,” the preschool training techniques he has developed since setting up Toriyama nursery in 1980 are now used in more than 150 preschools across Japan, which has nearly 23,000 nurseries and over 13,500 kindergartens.

A project to promote the method, begun in 2005, is aiming to spread the techniques not only to more preschools but also to preschools for Japanese kids abroad, said Tetsuo Hatta, 43-year-old director of the Japan Education Management Institute. The Tokyo-based institute runs the project under parent company Youji Corp., which provides services to around 2,000 preschools nationwide.

“I was suspicious at first and thought teaching small kids to do handstands was unnecessary,” said Hideyuki Kaneko, who heads Nijigaoka Kindergarten in Kanagawa Prefecture, which adopted the method in April 2006.

Kaneko said he was impressed by Yokomine’s strong desire to avoid dropouts in defiance of what he described as the stereotypical view that underachievers are as inevitable as overachievers.

“The best part of this method is that the results are visible to both staff and parents. That is not usually the case in education,” Kaneko said.

The TV footage of the kids was so sensational it prompted academic expert Katsumi Tokuda to warn parents in his new book to avoid putting more pressure on children with the method’s “everyone can do it” mentality.

Yokomine’s method “is acceptable overall because he appears to be speaking about empirical rules, but it raises rhetorical concerns,” said Tokuda, a professor of childhood education at Tsukuba University’s Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, in a telephone interview.

The Yokomine Method, however, is not only about the eye-catching physical ability of the kids but their ability to learn by themselves, Yokomine said.

“Nurturing ’super kids’ is not my goal. It is just the beginning,” he said.

“We as professionals should feel responsible for their future. . . . If they firmly acquire basic academic abilities by 10, they will be capable of learning anything they want at 11 or 12 and of carving out their own path during adolescence,” he said.

The nurseries start teaching children reading, writing, arithmetic and mouth organ at age 3, using original workbooks compiled by Yokomine.

By the time they enter elementary school, the kids will have read 2,000 or more picture books, written daily messages to their parents, mastered multiplication, and become capable of playing the mouth organ by ear, said Yoshie Ono, vice principal at Toriyama nursery.

For the physical side, kids are made to participate in running every day from age 3 and to begin gymnastics at 4, before starting training for handstands — one of the most challenging skills — around the time they turn 5, Ono, 47, said.

Both physical and scholastic exercises are necessary because “you need to have good motor skills to write neatly,” said Hatta, a licensed gym teacher. “If you are good at running, you can sit upright and concentrate.”

The method did not materialize overnight, however, and only took form in the last eight years or so of his nearly 30-year career, Yokomine said, admitting he had no expertise when he established his first nursery.

After graduating from an agricultural high school and serving in the Ground Self-Defense Force for 2 1/2 years, Yokomine was forced at age 28 to close a shop he was running as supermarkets encroached on his turf.

He spent nearly two decades trying other early education methods to no avail, he said.

Kids frequently suffered bruises, broken bones and other injuries back then, and the nursery was viewed as a neighborhood oddity, said Ono, the longest-serving member of Yokomine’s staff.

But that view has since changed, and he has developed a step-by-step method for training kids safely, she added.

In a group interview, the parents of seven kids who attended Yokomine’s nurseries voiced confidence in his method.

Nobuko Shimazu, a 38-year-old mother of three whose daughter attends Toriyama and whose second son left another nursery last March, even asked Yokomine to set up an elementary school so kids can continue using his method, citing dissatisfaction among kids who have left his nurseries.

What could have been just a local success story jumped to the national stage in 2005 when Hatta’s boss, Koichi Yamashita, president of Tokyo-based Youji, which provides physical activities for preschoolers and is listed on Osaka’s Hercules stock market, discovered Yokomine and tied up with him in just a month, Hatta said.

“Drilling children is seen as the antithesis of an age when children live comfortable lives,” said Tokuda, the Tsukuba graduate school professor.

“The method may have been accepted because the time of relaxed education is ending . . . but whether it will take root remains to be seen,” he said.

Hatta said the response from nursery operators and parents, who are often critical of prodding children to study at a young age, has turned positive since the TV coverage.

“Though it might take 15 years or so for the kids to mature and prove by themselves that the method is on the right track, I’m convinced that we are moving closer to changing education in Japan, starting from preschools,” Hatta said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091226f1.html

The Power of Magical Thinking

Research Shows the Importance of Imagination in Children’s Cognitive Development.

Is the Tooth Fairy real? How about the garbage man? Those questions may seem trivial, but how young children answer them is an important indicator of cognitive development.

For years, imagination was thought of as a way for children to escape from reality, and once they reached a certain age, it was believed they would push fantasy aside and deal with the real world. But, increasingly, child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality. Imagination is necessary for learning about people and events we don’t directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up.

“Whenever you think about the Civil War or the Roman Empire or possibly God, you’re using your imagination,” says Paul Harris, a development psychologist and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who studies imagination. “The imagination is absolutely vital for contemplating reality, not just those things we take to be mere fantasy.”

Psychologists like Jacqueline Woolley, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, are studying the process of “magical thinking,” or children’s fantasy lives, and how kids learn to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t.

The hope is that understanding how children’s cognition typically develops will also help scientists better understand developmental delays and conditions such as autism. For instance, there is evidence that imagination and role play appears to have a key role in helping children take someone else’s perspective, says Dr. Harris. Kids with autism, on the other hand, don’t engage in much pretend play, leading some to suggest that the lack of such activity contributes to their social deficits, according to Dr. Harris.

Dr. Woolley’s group at the Children’s Research Laboratory has conducted a series of studies involving Santa, the Tooth Fairy and a newly made-up character known as the “Candy Witch” in order to examine the age at which children are able to distinguish between real and fictional entities and how they process contexts and cues when dealing with them.

In one study involving 91 children, Dr. Woolley asked young kids if a number of people and characters, including Santa and the garbage man, were real. She found that 70% of 3-year-olds reported that Santa Claus was real, while 78% believed in the garbage man. By age 5, kids’ certainty about the garbage man grew, and Santa believers peaked at 83%. It wasn’t until age 7 that belief in Santa declined. By 9, only a third believed in Santa while nearly all reported the garbage man was real.

So, “if kids have the basic distinction between real and not real when they’re 3, why do they believe in Santa until they’re 8?” says Dr. Woolley.

.The researchers found that while children as young as 3 understand the concept of what is real and what isn’t, until they are about 7 kids can be easily misled by adults’ persuasive words or by “evidence.” They hold onto their beliefs about some fantastical characters—like Santa—longer than others, such as monsters or dragons. Most of the kids in the study were Christian, and the numbers of those who believed in Santa would likely be smaller if there were children of other religious backgrounds in the sample, says Dr. Woolley.

Evidence of Santa
Logically, from what young kids observe, it makes sense to think that Santa is real, says Dr. Woolley. And Santa and the trash collector share certain characteristics. Both are people whom kids have heard about but have likely never met before. There is proof for Santa’s existence—the gifts that appear on Christmas morning—as well as for the garbage man’s—he makes trash disappear—even though kids don’t usually see them in action. A 5-year-old has the cognitive skills to put together the pieces of evidence, but because the pieces are misleading, he or she comes to the wrong conclusion. Younger children may not have the cognitive skills to put the pieces of evidence together, so may in fact be less likely to believe in Santa’s existence. The realness of some other characters, such as Sesame Street’s Elmo, can perplex kids because they know Elmo is a puppet, but does that make him real or not?

Dr. Woolley has also looked to see what types of cues and contexts are most convincing to children. In another experiment involving 44 children, her research team went into preschoolers’ classrooms and told them about a new character dubbed the Candy Witch, a friendly woman who arrives on Halloween and replaces the candy kids have collected with a toy. The researchers showed the kids a picture of the witch, and in some cases told the parents to provide “evidence” of the witch’s existence by making the candy and toy swap at home.

Nearly two-thirds of the children were convinced that the Candy Witch was real. Those kids who were “visited” by the witch were more convinced of it. And, like with Santa Claus, older preschoolers, who were on average 5 years old, were more convinced than younger preschoolers who averaged 3.5 years old. These results were published in the journal Developmental Science in 2004.

Impossible or Improbable
Currently, she and her students are examining another concept related to reality: when an event is impossible versus improbable. Experimenters show children various pictures and give a brief description. They then ask the child whether he or she thinks the scene is real or not real by placing it on a book shelf where the “things that can actually happen” are filed or a different shelf where things that aren’t real go.

One recent morning, 5-year-old Mia, wearing a flowery blue dress, arrived at the lab with her father and her small plastic purple pony. One of the scenarios was “Sarah owned a peacock as a pet.” When asked whether this scene was real or not, Mia immediately answered, “not real.” And why is that? “Because nobody owns a peacock,” she said. Another scenario—”Julia jumped in the air and never came back down”—also wasn’t real because “nobody wants to live in the clouds where they can’t see the sky,” said Mia.

Her responses are typical for her age, says Dr. Woolley. Early results suggest that 5-year-olds don’t yet have the ability to distinguish what is impossible from what is unlikely to happen but could technically happen. In future work, Dr. Woolley and her collaborators plans to investigate whether a researcher acknowledging that the situation is strange alters kids’ views of whether the scenario is real.

What Should Parents Do?
It is important but not necessary for parents to encourage fantasy play in their children, says Dr. Woolley. If the child already has an imaginary friend, for instance, parents should follow their children’s lead and offer encouragement if they are comfortable doing so, she says. Similarly, with Santa, if a child seems excited by the idea, parents can encourage it. But if parents choose not to introduce or encourage the belief in fictitious characters, they should look for other ways to encourage their children’s imaginations, such as by playing dress-up or reading fiction.

If a child asks if the Tooth Fairy or Santa is real, parents might want to assess their child’s level of doubt. If the doubts appear strong then the child might be ready and it is time for the truth. Ideally, the child will find out for him or herself, like a little scientist, so parents might ask, “Is there something you saw or heard that makes you think Santa isn’t real?” and “What do you think?”

“You want to find a balance to lets [children] be open to possibility but also to question,” says Dr. Woolley.

Fantasy play is correlated with other positive attributes. In preschool children, for example, those who have imaginary friends are more creative, have greater social understanding and are better at taking the perspective of others, according to Marjorie Taylor, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon and author of the book “Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them.”

Imaginary friends can also be used to help children cope with stress, Dr. Taylor says. “This is a strength of children, their ability to pretend,” she says. “They can fix the problem with their imagination.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703344704574610002061841322.html

Fairy Tales, Child Development, And Unconscious Learning

I just read a review of what sounds like a fascinating new book by film historian David Thomson, called The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder. Thomson explores the far-reaching cinematic influence of this seminal film, a legacy that he argues lingers on today in the increasingly cool depiction of violence in movies and the growing disconnect between filmic images of gore and its actual emotional content. The famous, much-studied shower scene with its gouts of crimson (shot in black-and-white, no less) broke new ground in the way it aestheticized violence. Today, we routinely watch buckets of fake blood merrily exploding every which way in movies, on TV and the internet, all in the name of a quick adrenaline burst, a dark laugh, a gruesome visual. What’s missing is the emotional, psychological and even cultural meaning of that vital red fluid – the fear, terror, even wonder.

This is odd, when you consider that according to the National Institute of Mental Health up to 18 percent of Americans, mostly women, suffer from phobias — the most common being fear of blood. Maybe it’s intrinsically hard-wired into our brains; after all, if one is watching blood spurt out of someone’s torso, especially one’s own, who wouldn’t assume something has gone horribly wrong and start freaking out? And yet we know that blood is also a healthy part of an everyday, non-pathological body process, namely menstruation. As a result, most grown women can deal with their periods without the panic brought on by, say, the sight of arterial spray. But what about children? In the days before sex education and femcare marketing, how were clueless little girls taught that the sudden and unexpected appearance of blood wasn’t a fearsome thing, something to shriek at and cower from in abject terror?

Enter Bruno Bettelheim, whose seminal 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, remains a must-read for anyone interested in childhood development and kids’ literature. In it, he claims that classic Western fairy tales — with their improbable heroes and heroines, cannibalistic villains, impossible tasks, talking animals and magical talismans — are in fact the best tools to teach young children how to handle the basic, underlying fears, problems and questions in their lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way fairy tales deal with menarche, menstruation, and a girl’s transition to sexual adulthood.

This doesn’t mean it’s overt; trust me, you’ll be searching the Brothers Grimm until hell freezes over if you’re looking for specific references to the endometrium, follicle-stimulating hormones, or Fallopian tubes. But even the most metaphor-challenged can’t help but notice how many times the color red plays an important role in a fairy tale involving a young girl, or how often blood is a significant part of the plot: Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty … even Cinderella and that weird little bird singing “there’s blood in the shoe”.

Fairy tales communicate strong, unconscious messages to children in terms they can grasp and even carry into adulthood. This is because these stories possess genuine resonance and dreamlike power, the kind you’re just not going to find, say, on your average TV sitcom. As for sitcoms, I’ve found that literal references to menstruation in film and on television, while more common than you might think, are singularly underwhelming. Even when a woman’s period isn’t treated as the eye-rolling punchline to another sophomoric joke, the best-intentioned references tend to be bland and safe, with a distinct lack of resonance or importance attached to the process. Nothing I’ve seen as an adult even hints at the mystery and potential psychological power of menstruation the way fairy tales do… with the possible exception of one movie.

Carrie, the 1976 movie directed by Brian DePalma, written by Lawrence D. Cohen and based on the first novel by Stephen King, is one of the most whoppingly effective fairy tales ever made for adults. It’s a Gothic horror story, a supernatural fable about menstruation, the taboos surrounding it, and the power it can unleash — filtered through a Roman Catholic sensibility and juxtaposed against 70s American suburbia. To some, it’s a cheesey camp-fest; to me, it’s one of the best horror films ever made and, I bet, probably the only one about primary amenorrhea.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big Hitchcock fan, and Psycho definitely makes it on my desert island list. Yet it’s intriguing to think this classic film may have helped usher in a new era of stylized storytelling… in which the resonance has basically been bled out of blood.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-kim/fairy-tales-child-develop_b_397620.html