Oftentimes, parents know when their kids’ schedules are too full but succumb to the pressure of making sure their kids do not miss out on anything. They want their children to have all the experiences and resources possible. However, packing too much into a child’s daily schedule can hinder development. The challenge becomes knowing how much is too much for children.

One major consequence that can result from overscheduling children is stress. Children and teens often complain that they have no time to relax. Parents are constantly asking them to complete new tasks and criticize their child’s methods of relaxing. This can lead the child to feel guilty, ruining the entire purpose of taking a break. 

A second consequence that can be seen from overscheduling children is their inability to fill time on their own. This can lead to false expectations of children thinking their parents will constantly create a schedule for them. Children have a hard time entertaining themselves and thus become even more dependent on their parents.

Ultimately, it’s important for parents to recognize that implementing free time into their child’s daily schedule is equally as important as providing them with the necessary resources and activities. Free time helps children figure out solutions on their own, fostering frustration tolerance, problem-solving, and flexibility. These are all traits that are essential for the rest of their lives. 

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Emma Dineen

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Molly Wright is a seven years old child under Minderoo Foundation. In this video she is speaking about the method she experienced in the Minderoo Foundation that adults can do to help or play games with children to improve children’s learning ability in different aspects. Her speech increased public awareness of the vital significance of brain development in a child’s early years of life and the effects it has on their future. It emphasizes the real advantages of constructive, reciprocal “serve and return” relationships on a child’s lifelong learning, behavior, and well-being with the hope of inspiring and energizing parents, caregivers, and community members to interact with kids more deeply and frequently.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Emma Dineen is a research assistant at UConn KIDS. She is a sophomore at UConn double majoring in Psychological Sciences and Human Development and Family Sciences. This is Emma’s first semester working with UConn KIDS, and she is very excited about everything she is going to learn this semester.

Emma developed her love of working with kids through babysitting and working in an elementary school. After she graduates, Emma plans to go to graduate school to further her education in developmental psychology.

On campus, Emma is a Floor Mentor for the Public Health House Learning Community and a member of the UConn Kickline team. Her favorite thing to do at UConn is going to sports games; especially basketball. In her spare time, Emma loves to dance, hike, read, and spend time with her two dogs: Izzy and Pippa.

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As children grow up and become teenagers, it’s common for them to decrease the frequency at which they talk with their parents and the amount of information they choose to share. Before encouraging your child to open up to you, it is important to know why children may choose to withhold information in the first place. Adolescents may keep information to themselves if they think that it could become material for gossip or if it may incite negative judgment. When children tell you something sensitive, remember that it requires them to become vulnerable and may be something that they prefer to keep private. Further, children may not share stories with their parents out of fear that it might cost them their autonomy or prompt unwanted advice. 

If you have a young child that’s open or maybe an older child that’s beginning to close off, here are a couple of tips for strengthening communication between your child and you. First, be sure that you are making time to regularly engage and interact with your children; an easy way to do this is through family mealtimes, as eating meals as a family creates a setting that encourages conversation. When children share stories with you, make sure you’re not making any assumptions about their behavior or feelings; instead, ask them about their own emotions to better understand how they’re feeling. Further, it’s okay to connect with what your child is sharing and to relate it to your own stories, but ensure that you don’t accidentally steal their thunder, as it may make them feel like their story isn’t as special. 

Finally, children may be upfront about why they aren’t communicating with their parents as much. When this happens, it’s vital to consider what changes you need to make in order to improve communication with your child, as it will ultimately help your child feel more comfortable sharing information with you. 

In all, to encourage open communication with your children, make sure that you’re making time to socialize with them and letting them know that any conversation is welcome. 

Kylie Robinshaw

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

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According to Professor Ryan Kelly, “Sleep has both this short-term effect and long-term effect on mental health. In our samples, we also consistently find teens don’t get enough sleep.” In a survey conducted by Professor Ryan Kelly and his fellow coworkers, parents also noted deteriorating mental health functioning in the teens who participated. Particularly reliable predictors of depressive symptoms, anxiety, and aggression include daytime sleepiness, shorter sleep length, more night awakenings, and more variability in sleep duration across multiple nights.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Parents always want the best for their children. In this process, there are several resources to teach how a parent can prepare their child for success, tiger parent or free choices. However, science provided a different option, the science that can predict a child’s future from parents’ choices, just like how a simple butterfly leads to a hurricane. There are several forces in the process when a child grow up, every single force could be the critical one, but how can we know? It turns out, research shows that growing up in the same home, or neighborhood doesn’t make children more alike. But it doesn’t make your parenting less important, they are just more likely to develop different types of children, even under the same kind of parenting. Your first child might want to be you in the future while your other child doesn’t. You are flapping your butterfly wings to shape the future of your child.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

 

A recent study about the timing for a child to return to school after being injured by concussion with symptoms at 14 days of postinjury. In this study, a randomized clinical trial of child participants aged 8 to 18 years with concussion symptoms was observed. This research was featured through the Post-Concussion Symptom Inventory (PCSI) score on the 14th day post-injury, which is a standardized test that focused on the after-effect symptoms of concussion such as cognitive, emotional, sleep, and physical changes. In short, a student’s return to school timing within two days of the head injury presented a lower lasting effect rather than returning to school after 14 days of the injury or later timed return.

 

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

New research found that virtual reality (VR) games can be used to detect the signs of ADHD in children. Through playing in a VR game researchers developed, Executive Performance in Everyday Living (EPELI), the result of this particular game outperformed conventional behavioral tests in differentiating between children with ADHD and those without ADHD. 

 

In contrast to the surveys, interviews, and clinical observations that are typically used to assess ADHD, EPELI simulates tasks that occur in daily life. It is advised that players remember to conduct daily tasks like brushing their teeth.

 

Today, VR is used increasingly frequently in the treatment of ADHD. VR is being used in mental health treatment by businesses like XRHealth and Amelia Virtual Care, and various research institutes are currently examining how well VR therapies may treat ADHD symptoms like working memory, executive function, and cognitive processes. Initial assessments suggest that “this technology is effective in delivering optimal rehabilitation of children with ADHD, by replicating and providing a virtual environment for diagnosis, training, monitoring, assessment, and therapy,” even if more research is required.

 

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

​​Study revealed that frequent use of mobile devices to calm children ages 3-5 was associated with increased emotional dysregulation. Devices may displace opportunities for development of alternative methods to self-regulate, researchers say. Children who already experience hyperactivity, impulsiveness and a strong temperament may struggle with coping skills. The habit of using devices to manage difficult behavior strengthens over time as children’s media demands strengthen as well. The more often devices are used, the less practice children — and their parents — get to using other coping strategies. Alternative soothing methods can help build emotion regulation skills.

Caretakers can also teach kids emotional coping skills when they are calm, according to Radesky. They might discuss with them, for instance, how their favorite stuffed animal might be feeling and how they deal with their strong emotions and relax. Kids can relate to this kind of lighthearted conversation because it employs their language.

According to Radesky, “all of these methods help kids understand themselves better and feel more competent at managing their moods.” “It requires practice on the part of the caregiver, who must likewise try to maintain composure and avoid overreacting to the child’s feelings, but it helps children develop lifelong abilities for managing their emotions.

“Contrarily, employing a distraction like a mobile device doesn’t teach a skill; instead, it simply diverts the child’s attention. In cases where parents are tempted to use a device, Radesky suggests several alternatives. Sensory techniques: Each young child has a different profile of the sensory input that settles them down. Swinging, cuddling, or pressure, jumping on a trampoline, squashing putty in their hands, listening to music, or gazing at a book or sparkling jar are a few examples of what this might entail. If you notice your child becoming agitated, try to distract them with body movement or sensory activities.

Identify the feeling and offer a solution: Parental labeling of a child’s feelings demonstrates to the child that they are understood while also assisting the child in making the connection between language and emotional states. More composed parents are better able to demonstrate emotions to their children.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Depression affects everyone, according to the CDC’s 2022 Children’s mental health report, in the United States nearly 3 million children between the ages of 3 to 17 have been affected by depression. Since depression is one of the major reasons that might cause suicide, and the rate of child suicide has been climbing yearly. It became a serious topic that has to be discussed.

Try to explain that depression is a common mental health condition to older children when you are opening the conversation. It is crucial to emphasize that it is never a person’s fault, that it can happen to any one of us, just like other chronic health conditions such as diabetes. Next, when you think your child may have depression, you can go through the list of symptoms with them and ask them which one they felt like they have been experiencing. When your child tries to share about their experience of depression, put in some effort to listen without your judgment and avoid jumping to give your advice. In the end, you can reassure them that many people who have treatments have experienced long periods of being symptom-free.

In contrast, since younger children may not be able to understand sophisticated concepts, try to link depression to emotional experiences such as when they felt sad or blue. You could describe depression as a sad feeling that never fades away. Using analogies when making this conversation about depression works too, analogies such as “dark rain cloud”, and “outside is in the sunshine, but it’s always raining above them” could help them understand better. In the end, reassure them that there is nothing to feel bad or embarrassed about depression, and with some treatment, they can feel better again, just like when they caught a cold before.

Finally, as intimidating as to start a conversation about this topic with your child, there is a lot of guidance that is available online. There are some great resources that have released their own guides about depression for children. Resources such as:

• Nemours Children’s Health
• Children’s Mental Health Matters!
• National Institute of Mental Health

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant