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parent of 3 and 6

CHILD - PLAY

FAQ: Raising Bilingual Children. Why want bilingual children? There are many reasons, but the two most common are: 1) The parents speak different languages (say, an American woman and a Turkish man). 2) The parents speak the same language, but live in a community where most people speak something else (say, a Korean couple living in the USA). In the first case, both the mother and father may want to be able to use their own language when talking to their children. This is the bilingual home situation. Don't children get confused when they hear two languages spoken around them?

The short answer is no. Fifty years ago educators throughout North America used to tell immigrant parents that it was better for their children's schooling if they spoke English at home. Bilingual development sometimes results in slightly slower language development than for some monolingual children. Don't bilingual children ever mix their languages up? So how do we start teaching our children two languages? One problem can be balance. Relax. Why does my toddler love repetition? Paediatric speech and language therapist It may test your patience when your toddler demands 'Row, row, row your boat' for the 10th time.

Why does my toddler love repetition?

But there's a good reason for her insistence. Toddlers love repetition because it helps them to learn, and because it's familiar and comforting. From around the age of two, you will notice your toddler repeating the same words and phrases constantly. By the time she's three, she will also demand her favourite stories and nursery rhymes over and over again. Through repeating things, your toddler is able to take in new information each time. And she will love stories and nursery rhymes with repeated phrases, because she can join in.

A small study has found that repetition of stories may help children to learn new words. After hearing her favourite book many times, your toddler may even remember it well enough to add the endings to some of the sentences. Repetition is also comforting for your toddler. Have fun singing nursery rhymes and songs. Early childhood development – it’s not rocket science, it’s neuroscience! I was introduced to Mine Conkbayir when she contacted me about neuroscience informing early years practice, which I think is such an exciting, and growing, area of study.

Early childhood development – it’s not rocket science, it’s neuroscience!

So I was very enthusiastic when she offered to do a guest post on this subject. Here she discusses how neuroscience can add another dimension to our understanding of child development: Like many individuals in this increasingly frantic world, I’m often busy juggling my responsibilities as a parent while I work and continue my studies – a very exciting journey as I try to achieve my PhD in early childhood education and neuroscience. Having been a lecturer across a range of child care and education qualifications for the past 14 years, I continue to be bewildered by the lack of consistently embedded teaching of neuroscience and early brain development across these qualifications. You may well ask ‘how?’ Here are just a few key messages from neuroscience which can inform how we care for and educate our youngest: References: Moodle. The Power of Evening Routines.

The word “structure” can evoke less than positive associations. It suggests constraints, which are never a good thing, right? Wrong. It turns out that everyone benefits from a certain amount of daily structure, so long as that structure is pleasant, productive, and meaningful. Whether it’s the most inventive minds in history, or those people who live in good health past 100, a daily routine or set of micro-routines is correlated with productivity, health, and longevity.

As beneficial as routines are for artists and centenarians, they are even more essential for children. Not surprisingly, children from unstructured homes often struggle in school. In order to support families of school-aged children, I surveyed best practices in child development and operationalized them in a two-hour school night routine, which I call “prime-time parenting” (which is also the title of my recent book). 6:30 p.m. – The Dinner Half-Hour: Enjoy a nutritious dinner as a family.