Getting your child up in the mornings is one of the most difficult tasks parents must endure every day. There could be multiple factors effecting your child’s everyday morning routine; not knowing what to wear to school, having a slow start to the morning, waking up late… the list is endless! However, reason why most of this happens is due to the underlying factor that children are not getting enough sleep. Teenagers, even middle schoolers, constantly are asked to complete multiple hours of work each night along with participating in extra curriculars. This can lead to a major loss of sleep, leading for kids to not get enough sleep every night.

In the article, Later High School Start Times May Benefit Teens’ Mental Health, a study was done at a high school in Rhode Island where they pushed back their school start time from 8:00 am to 8:30 am. 69% of the students reported initially that they did not ever or rarely ever receive enough sleep each night and 37% reported they were never satisfied with the amount of sleep they got each night. With even the small 30 minute change change, the number of students who did not get enough sleep dropped to 34% and those who were never satisfied dropped to 9%. Students were able to get enough sleep to feel well rested and ready to learn the next day even with just 30 minutes of extra time each day.

Sadly, the article reports that 31% of students in high school across the US receive a proper 8 hours of sleep each night. This scary statistic is something worth noticing. Sleep acts as a physical and mental reset each night, allowing your body to rest and prepare for the next day’s activities. Not having this can lead to mental exhaustion and even some other mental health issues. Sleep is important in all ages, especially when developing and preparing for life’s next step!

Read the full article here!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

 

Welcome to Ted Talk Thursdays, where every other Thursday we will share an interesting Ted Talk about research in the world of child development! We are excited to add this on to our blog and hope that you get the chance to learn something new about your young ones. (for Facebook): Feel free to share and comment thoughts about each talk and open up the discussion to other parents.

This week’s Ted Talk Thursday dives into Molly Wright’s presentation on the importance of parental connection within the first five years of a child’s life. Child development is affected in multiple ways and various factors including community, playing, talking, connecting, and having a healthy home environment. While a child can develop these skills with their peers, it is just as important for a parent to have the same level of connections, talking, and play time.

There are multiple different strategies to enforce these connections; serve and return, vocabulary and copycat names, and even peek-a-boo all help a child develop within the first 5 years successfully. Yes, these are important strategies to help your child, but what is most important is being present with your child. Your child is seeking those connections with you, and just as Molly describes in her talk, being present makes even more of a difference within your child’s first five years.

Watch the full Ted Talk here!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Dance is something that can benefit children of all age groups regardless of skill levels. It provides structure like a school environment, where children learn from a teacher, while also having the ability to create movement and use their creativity. In an environment like this, children are not just stuck to learning facts rather they can explore and figure out various ways to creatively express and respond to prompts. For example, in a dance class, a dance instructor may ask the student how they would travel across the room without walking. This gives the child the ability to explore their limits and figure out how they would solve this problem without doing the obvious.

This article written in the Transworld Institute of Technology demonstrates how varius skills and aspects of dance can help children develop further skills outside of the regular structured school setting. Children are used to learning in such a static setting that it can be harder for them to expand on different skills. By schools integrating dance into physical education or other aspects of the child’s learning, it allows for the children not only to further creative skills but also further the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, emotional expression, and working with peers.

Children have such a vast imagination; they come up with various games and stories all while exploring the world around us. Unfortunately, it is so common for a child to sit down and learn in a traditional way that we often forget about alternative ways to integrate learning in settings other than a classroom. By integrating dance into a child’s everyday learning routine, it allows for them to expand their horizons and learn in new ways that are not as commonly practiced in a new, fun way that allows for growth, creativity, and other important life skills.

 

Read the full article here!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Today’s Friday Feature is Mikayla Clemens!

 

Mikayla Clemens is a research assistant here at UConn KIDS. She is a junior psychology major on the research track with a minor in human development and family sciences with a concentration in early childhood. This is her first semester working with UConn KIDS and is so beyond excited to work with her team and further her research journey here at UConn!

Mikayla knew she wanted to work with kids for most of her high school career. She began as an assistant dance teacher at her dance studios and currently works with kids at the UConn Child Lab. Eventually, her end goal is to conduct her own research involving our education systems and classrooms to improve learning for all students as well as becoming a school or child psychologist.

Typically, Mikayla spends a lot of her free time with her friends, family, and boyfriend. She also enjoys hiking, going to the gym, and dancing with the UConn Dance Company. Over breaks, she loves traveling and going to find new places around New England including hidden coffeeshop gems. Locally, she recommends Silk City in Manchester, CT and RaonJena Coffee and Dessert in Glastonbury, CT!

       

One of the first senses you receive in the womb is sound; whether that be your mother’s voice or muffled talking and noise coming from outside the womb, your unborn infant can hear it. Plenty of studies have been conducted by researchers about what they can hear, respond to, and prefer, but what about newly born infants?

In the article, Neonatal Musicality: Do Newborns Detect Emotions in Music?, the goal of the study is to determine the emotional effects of various background music on neonates that are deemed healthy. This was examined through analyzing the baby’s’ movements frame by frame paired with their heart rate in two different experiments (one experiment for behavioral responses and the other on heart rate). Behavior that was recorded was yawning, sucking, arm stretching, arm flexion, finger movement, finger clench, finger stretch, smiling, leg flexion, leg stretch, toes curled, toes stretched, and eyes open, barely open, and closed. The emotions that were used in the study were happy and sad and songs were pulled from a various large collection of lullabies and children’s songs. A control (referred to as ‘baseline’ in the study) was also used that monitored the neonates’ responses with no music playing.

The study found that infants’ heart rate would decrease along with decreased their movement and forms of self-regulatory behavior while sad music there was stillness and longer leg stretches. There were no differences in heart rate examined while infants listened to sad music. Further discussion on this experiment goes deeper into why this may have occurred as well as other various aspects that may explain the results.

What is interesting is how this is how like how we respond to music. Later the study mentions that with happier music the infants were more likely to have stronger response and are noted to “absorb” the sad music. With how today’s society is, music is something we constantly are exposed to and listen to on an everyday basis. Next time you listen to music, think about how your child may be interacting and responding to music and how your responses, even close to your first day of life, are quite similar!

 

Read the full article here!

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

With fair season right around the corner (some of them are already here), there are plenty of opportunities to get outside and enjoy the remaining summer weather and the upcoming cool fall air! With that being said, without these fun fall activities, it can be harder to get outside with your kids. As screens are constantly around us, it is so easy to forget to connect with nature and let our kids explore the world around us.

In this literature review, the importance of allowing children to connect with nature and exploring the ecosystems around them is described as necessary and often overlooked in importance. Exploration of the environment reaps multiple positive benefits such as enhanced cognitive development, increased levels of social esteem and self-management skills, and even independence and/or skills in team building. Not to mention, it is proven that children who had access to the outdoors were able to have focused, direct attention as well as increased cognitive ability.

These skills are deemed important and necessary for development but can be forgotten about and overlooked as kids may seek an altered sense of connection to nature virtually or within a video game. As mentioned in the review, fear of injury by parents or lack of access to an accessible outdoor area can inhibit the availability for outdoor exploration. As children still have their curious nature and ability for fantasy and role playing, the lack of an outdoor play area may lead children to turn to video games and virtual reality.

With the outdoors providing a space for children to explore and grow, it brings to the table new ways for children to expand their cognitive abilities as well as provide a way for kids to unplug and de-stress naturally.

Read the full article here

Mikayla Clemens

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS