Many parents wonder whether their child’s difficulties are considered “normal”. In our society, there is a long history of stigma against mental illness and going to therapy. Fortunately, these ideas are starting to change and people are starting to accept that these symptoms exist and require treatment. It is important to recognize mental health as a part of our physical health – we regularly take children to get check-ups at the pediatrician’s office, but we don’t often do the same thing to check on their mental health. Just like pediatricians can help us prevent certain issues by helping us with healthy eating behaviors, mental health clinicians can help children learn skills that will help them manage challenges as they grow. Mental health clinicians can also be beneficial in that they can help parents understand normal developmental milestones from those challenges that may require more support. 

Even if your child is only going through expected changes throughout development, many children can still benefit from therapy which will help with strategies for managing the difficulties that come with these types of changes. Mental health problems have also increased in our youth since before the pandemic, so therapy may be helpful for more and more children. 

Generally, research suggests that therapy helps in improving patients’ quality of life. It is important that children get the type or types of therapy that is used for their specific challenges. Therapy can help young children build skills that will help them deal with challenges that adult life may bring. Going to therapy can also be a helpful lesson to children that asking for help is a good thing and this can be a helpful life skill – learning to ask for help when you need it. A therapist is also another person to add to your “village” when raising a child and helping them grow. It is also vital to recognize that if you or your child do not like therapy, you can switch to a different therapist, stop therapy completely, or try a different treatment. 

When finding a therapist for a child, it is important to figure out what challenges your child is going through, and if you would like the therapist to specialize in a specific area or age group. There are many other qualifications that you may consider, like how many years of experience a therapist has, whether they do family therapy or parent training, and what kind of insurance can cover their services. Pediatricians, as well as friends, and asking around your community, can also help you find what you are needing. 

It is important to find a therapist that your child is comfortable with and can trust – as different personalities are compatible with different people. It is important to find a therapist that your child likes. 

To conclude, if you aren’t sure whether your child needs a therapist, it can be helpful to ask their pediatrician or find a mental clinician that could evaluate your child. This clinician could help determine whether your child could benefit from therapy or if there are other tools that may be a better fit.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article link:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/afraid-the-doctor/202204/does-my-child-need-therapy

Many children who would have started preschool earlier and would have started learning numbers and letters there missed out on this chance because of the pandemic. Despite missing this traditional classroom setting, many of them are still learning letters and numbers on their own – like the author’s 3-year-old son. Many people describe children as sponges in that they are great at learning new information. 

Neuroscience research has shown that infants are born with a large number of synapses – connections between neurons. This causes them to be adaptable to situations and change depending on the world around them, which is called plasticity. This plasticity allows infants to learn in a way that adults are not able to. One instance of this is that infants can tell the difference between the sounds of all languages. Infants can also tell the difference between all kinds of faces – no matter the species. For example, in one study, 6-month-old infants were better able to tell the faces of pairs of chimpanzees apart compared to adults. The ability to tell the difference between a variety of sounds and faces and then get more specific in our distinguishing skills as we get older is a phenomenon called perceptual narrowing. As we live and gain more experience with the sounds of our native language and the types of faces that we see most often, we become better at distinguishing the sounds of that specific language and the faces that are most common in our environment. We also lose the ability to tell the differences between the sounds of the languages that we rarely encounter and the faces that we rarely see. In the brain, as babies gain more experiences, the number of synapses they have ends up decreasing, which results in this “use it or lose it” situation.  

When it comes to learning languages, many scientists believe that there is a critical period of time in which a child’s brain is more receptive to learning a language. In a study analyzing the English language skills of those who had immigrated to the United States between the ages of 3 and 39, the performance on language tests was more related to the age at which they immigrated rather than how long they had been in the United States. In general, the younger that these immigrants were when they came to the United States, the better their English fluency. 

Learning all about how great infants’ brains are at learning makes it seem as if adult brains are at a disadvantage. However, our brains as adults are still adaptable, especially when we go through changes in our environment. One example is the change in the structure of a mother’s brain that happens during pregnancy – scientists think that these changes help mothers to be more attentive to the needs of their newborns. 

To conclude, children’s brains can still be sponges even through a global pandemic, and they can still learn a lot.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202205/why-children-are-so-good-learning

We hear a lot about how our children are spending too much time inside and watching screens. Family time outside is vital – and promotes motor and brain development as well as family bonding. A quick walk in nature can be incredibly helpful for improving attention and wellness for families – a new study found. 

Our current problem is that we are pulled in by screens and technology in a relatively new way. This “pulling in” is even stronger for children who were born into the internet age – compared to those born in the 70s and 80s. Many children and teens – those born after the 1990s, don’t even know that they are stressed, as this is “the new normal.” Research shows that nature may be the key here. 

One way to accomplish this is to find toys and activities that are more engaging than our screens – which may be challenging to do. One activity specifically mentioned in this article is the flying maze toy. This is described as a combination of a frisbee and a maze combined into one. Another idea is to make a TikTok video of your family together and outside. This way, children could improve their motor skills, as well as video editing abilities!

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smart-baby/202204/how-and-why-get-kids-nature

Today’s Friday Feature is CJ Williams!

CJ Williams is a Project Coordinator and Research Assistant in the BrainLENS Lab.

CJ is currently responsible for a project called “Intergenerational neuroimaging of language and reading networks” (H17-317UCSF).  This project is also called The Family Study or the UConn Family Brain Program.  For the study, families with children (5-12 years old) are invited to participate in a study of how genes and environment contribute to the organization of the brain for language, reading, and cognition. Families complete some questionnaires and visit their lab at the Brain Imaging Research Center for several hours. During the visit, families complete language, reading, and cognition assessments and have an MRI of the brain. They also collect saliva from your family. At the end of participation, they provide reports of the results and brain pictures for everyone in the family.

CJ obtained a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in the Russian language from Kenyon College in 2013. As a Graduate Assistant for the Men’s and Women’s Tennis Teams, he graduated with a M.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Social Sciences from Wesleyan University in 2021. 

CJ was raised in Richmond, Virginia, and spent most of his life dedicated to the sport of tennis. He played collegiately at Virginia Commonwealth University and at Kenyon College, where he developed a passion for psychology and mental health. After his playing career, he decided to coach high-performance junior tennis at various junior programs in Richmond, VA, and Boston, MA. CJ also coached collegiate tennis at various universities. During his time as a coach, CJ volunteered with organizations designed to provide support groups for young people from marginalized communities, particularly within the LGBTQ+ community. Through these experiences, his passion for psychology transformed into a passion for helping young people develop. Studying and maintaining yoga and meditative practices, he incorporated mindfulness and compassion into his coaching and saw its potential to affect the lives of his players and even his own. As the mental health crisis touches all groups of people, his time as a coach exposed him to a variety of struggles that young people experience. With his passion for helping people and intellectual desire to learn more about the clinical mental health field, he decided to fully transition into the field of psychology. Using his M.A. at Wesleyan and his experience with the awesome researchers at the BrainLENS lab, CJ plans to apply to Clinical Psychology programs so that he can become involved in the holistic development of young people at the formative stages of their development.

CJ’s favorite at-home activity is doing a full-body scan meditation where you lie down on a mat, close your eyes, focus on breathing, and mentally scan and breathe into each part of your body. While this is a relaxing and refreshing activity itself, it’s made all the better and more sensational when his cat sniffs around him with her cold, wet nose, and plops down next to him with her soft fur. CJ is also a huge consumer of film, television, and literature (comic books, too!), and music across all genres. CJ will listen to, read, or watch anything! The weirder the better. CJ still plays tennis recreationally and continues to develop his practices within the school of Ashtanga Yoga.

Although picky eating can be common, and there aren’t any terrible consequences for this behavior, it can be frustrating for parents and caregivers. Additionally, picky eaters consume fewer vitamins and minerals than other kids – as they usually eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Studies have found that toddlers in the United States do not eat the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables. 

It is important to keep trying and making new foods for your kids, even if they take one look and decide that they don’t want to try them. This is because many children prefer what is familiar when it comes to food – one study illustrated that children ages 2-5 need to try a new food 8-10 times before they can even make a decision about liking it. This study also showed that when given a choice, children were more likely to eat a food the more often they were exposed to it. 

Repetition is vital in the process of supporting children in trying new foods. Research has shown that after exposing babies to different vegetables over multiple days – they were more likely to accept new ones – even spinach and green beans. Researchers reason that repetition is helpful because, over time, children learn to associate certain food with the feeling of fullness, causing them to like it more as time goes on. Also, teaching children to associate a new food with one they already enjoy will make them more likely to eat the new food. This was illustrated in a study that found that those babies exposed to green beans after peaches enjoyed the green beans more than those children who were exposed to only green beans. The main idea here is that parents and caregivers should not get frustrated when children don’t want to try a new food because they may need to try it multiple times to like it, and this may increase their likelihood of trying other foods that are similar. 

It is important to expose children to a variety of foods as soon as possible – as these early events shape their ideas and taste preferences as they get older. As soon as month 7 of pregnancy, a fetus starts to develop preferences for tastes that are most common as they can taste and smell the flavors of their mother’s food in the amniotic fluid. Further, although 2-5-year-olds may need many exposures as previously described, fetuses and nursing babies may only need to taste a food a single time to accept something new. 

Children are more likely to try the foods that they see their family members eat, and children who watch the picky eating habits of their parents are more likely to develop these same habits. This illustrates the importance of modeling good eating habits and understanding that as children get older, meals become more of a social experience. Having healthy foods easily available is also important, as the types of foods that are available at home are usually the types of foods that children enjoy. 

It is also important not to stress out and force children to eat – as being controlling with eating habits can cause issues with overeating and can lead children not to understand their own bodies and hunger signals. It is necessary to remember that meals should be a relaxed time for loved ones to enjoy each other’s company – and not to focus too much on how much a child is eating. Many young children and especially toddlers do not eat too much at once, as they have small stomachs. One trick mentioned in the article is asking kids to take one “adventure bite” – and if they don’t like it – they do not have to eat it anymore. 

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202111/mealtime-wars-how-parents-can-manage-picky-eaters

 

Most people cannot remember anything before the age of 2 or 3 at the earliest – and these are usually memories of vital or emotional events, such as the birth of a sibling. We know that memories people recall before the ages of 2 or 3 are generally due to someone else recalling an event and can be revised as time goes on. The fact that most of us aren’t able to remember anything before the age of 2 or 3 is referred to as infantile amnesia. We don’t know for sure why infantile amnesia occurs, but there are some theories. 

One older theory that has been disproven is that infants are incapable of forming any kind of memories. We now know that this is not true, as babies remember their mother’s face a few hours after birth. By the time infants are just a few months old, they smile at familiar faces – illustrating their ability to remember and recognize those who are closest and most important in their lives.

In an attempt to study their memory skills, Carolyn Rovee-Collier created an activity for infants under 6 months. In this task, the babies were placed in a crib under a mobile, and their normal kicking activity was measured. Rovee-Collier then added a string to the mix – tying it from the infant’s leg to the mobile, so that every time the infant would kick, the mobile would move. After learning this connection, that they were in charge of the mobile moving, the infants would start to kick a lot more than they did at first. To connect this to infant memory, the intention here was to test whether the infants could remember that they could make the mobile move a couple of days later. The research findings illustrated that 2-month-old infants could remember this and would start kicking right when they saw the mobile, even after one or two days. Although the youngest infants could only remember this connection for a couple of days, the older the infants got, the longer they could remember this connection. This research taught us that we could definitely form memories from infancy, meaning that the inability of forming memories was not what caused infantile amnesia.

It is important to note that the type of memory that was tested in this study by Rovee-Collier is called procedural memory – which refers to remembering the events of how to do something or how something works. The type of memories we think of when remembering past events are called autobiographical memories – which are more about remembering something that happened to us in our lives. Autobiographical memory usually requires a sense of time passing, which is not something that infants have. Additionally, forming this type of memory requires a sense of self, which doesn’t develop until about 18 months. Before about 12-18 months, infants cannot store information with language – making it much more difficult to remember a story. The hippocampus, largely responsible for keeping memories, is not fully developed in infancy. The reason for infantile amnesia is still unclear, but it is likely a result of one or a combination of these factors. There is also research proving that children’s memories throughout the preschool age can be misconstrued and changed based on misleading information – causing them to make false memories. 

It is vital to understand that memories are imperfect, and are likely to change over time as they are retold by others and shared throughout the years. 

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202204/why-we-can-t-remember-our-youngest-years

Singing to babies is common in many different cultures. There are many benefits to exposing children to music at an early age. There is evidence that babies like songs and music. It is also possible that music has a calming effect on infants. There is research illustrating that playing music for premature infants decreases the amount of time they spend crying, and betters their physical health. Although the evidence is not clear about whether hearing music helps babies with learning, exposing them to music may be helpful for remembering information. Music and language have been compared in some different studies – as they are quite similar. They both have certain rules and are used to express feelings and ideas. Similar to how babies naturally learn many rules of language quite young, they learn some properties of music at a very young age. By 6 months many of them can understand when a song goes up in pitch. 

Learning to play an instrument at a young age can also be beneficial to many areas of development – as learning to play before age 7 makes greater connections in the parts of the brain responsible for movement. Learning to play an instrument could get the brain ready for the coordination needed to play that instrument later on. 

There have been both correlational and experimental studies relating learning a musical instrument to increased skills in language, reading, and math skills. In experimental studies in which children were randomly assigned to get music lessons or another type of lesson – like computer classes – the music training itself was found to be helpful for building academic skills. For many of these results, the children experienced more benefits the longer they played and the easier in life that they started playing. Additionally, musical lessons can also increase a child’s IQ, and these benefits may last into young adulthood and the college years. 

It is also important to recognize that music training can be unaffordable and inaccessible for many families. It is a great opportunity to get involved with school music programs or free group sessions at the library or music schools. Singing and dancing casually with children is also free and beneficial – sharing music at home may contribute to pro-social skills.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UCONN KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202109/why-music-matters

It is important to recognize that no matter how much caregivers try to protect them, children will always be exposed to some stress. However, exposure to chronic stress in early childhood can cause a lot of problems in the long term. Significant stress in childhood can affect a child’s later decision-making and cognitive and social-emotional development. Some children may have impulse or anger problems as a result of this stress, as well. Performance in school can also be affected, and rates of drug abuse, later on, can increase. Many people are wondering how some children are able to thrive in more stressful situations, while others are unable to accomplish this. 

Resilience – the idea that a person is able to come back from a setback- is a big component of this type of success in childhood. Ann Masten, a developmental psychology expert, states that resilience can be developed.

Building up the executive function skills that are necessary for doing well in school is helpful for coping and building resilience. Getting better at concentrating on tasks, solving problems, and successfully switching back and forth between different tasks helps children find ways to adapt to obstacles. Learning how to balance their emotions is also vital in building resilience. Close “attachment” relationships are also vital in building resilience, as they help children build a sense of safety. When a parent, guardian, or caregiver are consistently supporting a child, which is important for general healthy development and can foster more resilience. However, other relationships with supportive adults are also vital – mentors, coaches, and friends are so important in building strength and a high self-concept. 

Parents giving their children time to talk and listen attentively is helpful in the development of resilience. Trusting children and allowing them to do things on their own and make some of their own decisions can be helpful. Allowing them this autonomy and letting them fail sometimes can help them learn to deal with anger and upsetting emotions, which is key to building resilience. 

Community-based programs can also aid families to reduce risks and help children improve their resilience. Affordable housing and healthcare interventions can additionally help families and children, especially those in poverty who are facing countless hardships at the same time. Schools have also been starting to teach social and emotional learning courses, which have been helping children with decision-making, emotion management, and developing empathy. Studies have shown that these courses raise grades, improve behavior, and cause participants to be less likely to engage in criminal activity, use, drugs, or drop out of school. 

Many children live with chronic stress and coupled with a pandemic, it is important to support children and help them build resilience skills. It is additionally vital that parents build resilience so that they can best support themselves and their children.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202201/how-help-young-children-build-resilience

There is a lot of research portraying the importance of gestures for communication. Research has shown that gesturing helps young infants and children learn.

Especially in the deaf community, there is work showing that these children are more likely to use gestures to communicate. At the age that hearing infants start to babble, deaf infants start to babble in their own way – through gesturing that looks like sections of words in sign language. There is also research explaining that deaf children can learn how to communicate with each other through hand gestures, even without concretely being taught sign language. 

Hearing children can also greatly benefit from learning gestures – baby signs have become a helpful way to communicate with babies before they begin talking. These baby signs were developed to stand for important phrases that infants need to express, like “milk”. There are certain products out there that are based on these baby signs claiming they will improve an infant’s language development, although there is no evidence supporting that these baby signs are particularly helpful in terms of long-term development. However, there is no evidence suggesting that there are any negative effects either. If they find them helpful, parents can use these signs as strategies to help their hearing infants in communicating before they are able to specifically verbalize their needs. 

The act of gesturing has also been shown to help children articulate what they know, but may not be able to verbalize. This evidence has been seen in specific math problems explained in the article. 

When instructors gesture, research has shown that children are more effectively been able to learn the information. Specifically with math problems, when teachers combine verbalizing the explanation of the solution with gestures, this helps to draw attention to the more important parts of the teacher’s explanation. 

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202108/the-handiness-gesture-childrens-learning

A study conducted on children ages 6-14 showed that face masks may get in the way of children recognizing and processing faces. Specifically, children experience a greater decrease in their ability to recognize these faces compared to adults. While adults most commonly use a “holistic processing” strategy in which they process the face all at once, children more commonly focus on a specific feature to recognize a masked face. This strategy that is more often used by children is less effective for recognizing faces. Learning how to recognize faces in the early years is important because it will help children become proficient at understanding faces when they are older. The ability of children to process and understand faces is affected by the types of faces to which they are more commonly exposed – a previous study showed that children are better at recognizing the faces of their own race. This research raises many questions regarding the effect of masks on children’s perception and the possibility that children will gain expertise in recognizing masked faces but have trouble with unmasked faces. Future research is necessary to determine the long-term impact of children experiencing most of their practice in facial recognition with masked faces.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-translator/202202/recent-study-finds-masks-may-impact-face-processing