Stand
firm
Any parent who knows the particular
hell of a child's tantrums in response
to a set of screen-time rules may
eventually begin to wonder: Is it
really worth the fight? But a new
study wants to assure you that, yes,
it really is. The research, published
in
JAMA Pediatrics
, found that parents who set limits can
count on some seriously positive results for their kids, including
improved sleep, better grades, less aggressive behaviour,
and lower risk of obesity.
“What we saw was this kind of ripple effect,” the lead
researcher said, explaining that limits on screen time –
specifically, watching shows or movies in any form, and
playing video games – improved kids’ sleep, academics,
pro-social behaviour, and even body mass index.
source:
Yahoo! Shine
Everybody hurts
We’re familiar with the stereotypical teenage victim of bullying:
they’re usually the loners, the kids on the fringes of the school’s
social network. But new research suggests a previously
overlooked group of bullying victims: the kids who are popular,
but not quite at the top of the school’s hierarchy. Specifically, as
a kid climbs his or her way into the school’s upper echelons of
popularity, that kid’s chance of being bullied increases by more
than 25 per cent, the lead researcher said. The findings were
true for both boys and girls.
source:
Today Health
Sleep smarts
Babies and young children make giant developmental
leaps all of the time. Sometimes, it seems even overnight
they figure out how to recognise certain shapes or what
the word “no” means no matter who says it. It turns out that
making those leaps could be a nap away: New research
finds that infants who nap are better able to apply lessons
learned to new skills, while pre-schoolers are better
able to retain learned knowledge after napping. While
we’ve long thought of sleep as a necessary evil for an
organism to stay functional, the researchers say it’s much
more important than that. “Sleep plays a crucial role in
learning from early in development,” said Rebecca Gómez
of the University of Arizona.
source:
ScienceDaily
16
Researchers at the University of Southern California have
discovered that children can hone their fine motor skills
up to the age of 16. “This tells us that it’s never too late to
correct messy writing or even to learn to play a musical
instrument, such as the piano,” said the lead researcher.
“The brain is still able to learn.”
source:
Parents
finger on
the pulse
