The concept of a “gentle” parent is fairly new to this past decade and refers to a parent that tries to emotionally connect with their child and try to understand the etymology behind their child’s behavior. The overarching theme of a gentle parent is that they do not scold or condemn their child immediately, and try to first validate their child’s feelings. When a parent shows an understanding of a child’s emotions, they are essentially trying to get the child to calm down without having to escalate the situation. This approach helps children be able to identify their own emotions and promotes emotional intelligence for the future. Higher emotional intelligence is associated with fewer emotional problems and higher school attainment. This was supported by a research study conducted that showed that mothers who responded sensitively to their children in the first three years of life led to them building better academic and social skills by the age of fifteen. 

In addition to validation and sensitivity, parents need to learn to set boundaries, and children need to learn to follow them. If limits are set in a calm manner, children will learn to treat the situation just the same. Another main concern of misbehavior and negative feelings stems from the inattentiveness of the parents. If parents pay more attention to their children and create a continuous positive environment, children will soon reflect that. In conclusion, gentle parenting needs time and positivity from both the parent and child in order to further promote the relationship and the skills of both parties.  

Article link: https://theconversation.com/what-is-gentle-parenting-an-expert-explains-184282

Tulsi Patel

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Tapping into your inner child when playing with children can be difficult, but studies have shown that being playful with children promotes their imagination. 

Play can be a way for caregivers to connect with their children, given that play is treated as a balanced exchange of ideas between caregiver and child, rather than solely the parent or child leading it. When treated as a brainstorm session rather than an obligation, play allows both the caregiver and child to have fun and enjoy each other’s presence. One practical play rule, especially for adults who may struggle with imaginative play, is the improv “Yes, And…” rule. 

The “Yes, And…” rule involves caregivers engaging with the child’s ideas and adding onto them logically. For example, if a child says that you live in a castle, you could engage them by saying “Yes! My castle is full of diamond crowns and is protected by mighty knights.” An important exception for the “Yes… And” rule, nonetheless, is that it does not need to exceed set boundaries; caregivers, of course, do not always need to say yes to children. The “Yes… And” strategy is simple and effective in that caregivers who use it are able to participate in and prolong their child’s playtime with no planning needed. Further, the “Yes… And” rule boosts creativity and imagination in children. 

Overall, using the “Yes… And” rule is an important tool that can be used to help caregivers and children connect and bond over laughter-filled play.

Kylie Robinshaw

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/play-your-way-sane/202210/how-turn-playing-children-childs-play

Perhaps one of the things that people miss most about childhood is play.  Who doesn’t miss getting to create your own story and your biggest choice was deciding which dress to put on which Barbie.  While play may seem like a simple task, the benefits of play in your child’s learning and development continue to come to light.  

In a recent study researchers explored the effect of guided play on children’s development and their ability to learn in different subject areas.  Guided play is a type of learning that is play-based in which an adult must provide guidance such that a learning goal is achieved, children are still able to make choices and lead the play-time, and the adult has multiple methods in how they guide the child.  Adults can guide play by prompting children with open-ended questions relevant to the type of play, hints, and modeling how to play during an activity.  

Guided play is thought to be beneficial particularly for learning because of the engagement it provokes from children.  Children enjoy playing and have the ability to make their own choices which may be limited throughout the everyday.  During guided play children get to be hands-on in their participation and can reflect on what their play means in a broader context.  This benefits a child’s learning because the adult is able to teach them how to play a new activity, content may be learned that a child is able to discover on their own, and adults can assist in activities that a child alone may not be able to do just yet.  This type of play is also beneficial in that there is a meaningful connection between an enjoyable experience and what is being learned which can increase memory retention which is important for learning.  

Researchers found that guided play had a greater impact on early math skills, executive function, and shape knowledge than direct instruction.  Guided play also had a better influence than free play on spatial vocabulary.  

Guided play can be a useful tool in extending your child’s knowledge and confidence by providing them with new opportunities and support.

 

Read the full article: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cdev.13730

Marissa Robarge

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Today’s Friday Feature is Cynthia Boo!

Cynthia Boo is a graduate student working with Dr. Letty Naigles in the Child Language Lab. She is currently a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Developmental Psychology division at UConn. Prior to coming to UConn, Cynthia completed her bachelor’s in Psychology at Juniata College in PA and master’s in General Psychology at The New School for Social Research in NY. 

 

Cynthia is currently working on the “Early Predictors to School Age Language: Individual and Interactional Child and Parent Factors” project (IRB Protocol #: H18-208AARH; PI: Dr. Naigles), where she is investigating autistic and non-autistic children’s storytelling abilities. She is interested in how these groups of children differ, or are similar, in their abilities to tell stories based on books and from their personal experiences, as well as various factors that may contribute to their storytelling abilities (i.e., overall language and cognitive functioning). 

 

Cynthia’s primary research interests are on the social communication and pragmatic language abilities of school-aged autistic children. Her current research investigates these children’s use of discourse markers (e.g., “like”, “well,” “um”) in their naturalistic speech. As a fourth-year graduate student, Cynthia is gearing up to collect data for her dissertation, which will assess the ways autistic and non-autistic dyads of friends communicate with one another as they play games in the lab (stay tuned!). 

When she is not in the lab, Cynthia enjoys cooking and trying new recipes. She also loves to explore the trails all around Connecticut with her dog, Mochi. When she needs a break, Cynthia likes to whip out her old Pokemon games as it reminds her of her childhood. Her favorite Pokemon game has been Let’s Go Pikachu! 

 

 

Research studies at Penn State looked at how changes in parental involvement, warmth, and discipline during the early stages of development and through adolescence affected the quality of the parental-child relationship during the young adult period of their life. In the study, 1631 participants from rural and semi-rural neighborhoods were surveyed in a long-term research study starting from between sixth to twelfth grade up until they were 22 years old. 

The research showed that during the teenage years, parenting had a lot of variation and changed quite often. In fact, parents seemed to show less affection and warmth during this time. It was noted that less time was spent with children, and more discipline was applied. This built a negative parental-child relationship in the adult phase and parents were not able to maintain a close relationship with their children. 

As children grow older and are exposed to independence and the idea of autonomy, it becomes harder for parents to stay involved in their children‘s lives. However, simple activities can help keep this bond close. For example, playing sports, games, or even going for a bike/walk, going out to eat or having regular meals together, working on errands together, and keeping open communication about the school, friends, social life, and the future. In addition to activities and time spent together, it is important for parents to keep in mind the words they speak to their children. Simple phrases such as “I love you” and “I’m proud of you” or even affectionate signs such as hugs and kisses can help really tighten the bond. 

In terms of discipline, during the teenage years, adolescents start to want to be treated as adults and respected as one. And so, using harsh tone and language, or using overpowering discipline will only make them feel like a child and not want to create that bond with the parent. Rules and regulations are important and should be maintained, but having open discussions about them and creating a list of what is expected from them together as a family can really help enforce discipline. When children are included in the decisions and the decision-making process, it makes them feel like they have played a part and are equal to the parent.

Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/10/221004213343.htm

Tulsi Patel

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

It’s no secret that there is a gender disparity in the STEM field, with men making up a wide majority of STEM employees; part of this disparity can be accounted for by the stereotype that women are not good at science. However, a recent study has found that girls may find motivation to study and partake in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields when they pretend to be a female scientist. 

Researchers Reut Shachnai, Tamar Kushnir and Lin Bian studied 240 four to seven-year-olds to investigate if acting like successful role models is valuable for children. They used a between-groups design, randomly assigning the children to one of three conditions. Children put in the baseline group played a science game and hypothesized whether an object would float or sink in water. Children in the exposure group played the same game, but were told about an accomplished scientist of their gender before the game started. The researchers chose scientists Marie Curie for the girl participants and Isaac Newton for the boy participants, as they believed that the kids would be unfamiliar with them. Kids in the roleplay group were given the task to roleplay as the gender-matched scientists (Marie Curie or Isaac Newton), and were referred to as Dr. Curie or Dr. Isaac. 

The children were prompted to play another round of the game after they finished, and it was found that boys in each condition were motivated to continue playing, with an overall average of 14 rounds. Average rounds played differed for girls in each of the experimental groups, with girls in the baseline group completing five rounds, girls in the exposure group completing nine rounds, and girls in the roleplay group completing twelve rounds. The results of this study show that when reminded of or prompted to act like successful female scientists, girls are able to mentally distance themselves from their stereotypes and therefore may be more motivated to partake in STEM activities. 

Overall, enacting successful figures can help girls persist against the stereotype that they are not good at STEM activities.  The researchers highlight that it’s important to have children roleplay as role models whose appearances and backgrounds they are unaware of, as knowingly role playing as someone different than them can produce very different results regarding motivation. This research may be extended to how representation is taught in schools, and suggests that representation may need to be taken further as children benefit more from performing role model actions instead of just learning about them. 

Kylie Robinshaw

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/news-release/2022-sept-girls-roleplay-science.html

When asked to think about a classroom, there are some key features that stand out in one’s mind.  A classroom has desks with chairs, probably a carpet for read-aloud instruction, a teacher’s desk, and computers.  There is another aspect of classrooms that tends to stand out in one’s mind when remembering their years in school…decorations.  Most people can remember bright posters telling them “Reading is awesome!” or “The Steps of the Scientific Method”.  For years these posters have been thought to not only motivate and serve as reminders for students, but to also provide a source of sensory stimulation to help in child development.

Researchers have begun to question the impacts of such colorful decorations and backgrounds on development of the senses and cognitive abilities.  This questioning comes from the knowledge that some colors are known to distract and alter performance of a task in adults.  So, why would certain colors and patterns not also affect children who have less-developed attention spans?

Most often colors have the ability to alter focus when there is a contrast of brightness between two objects as well as multiple brightly colored objects in close proximity.  It has been found that too much color whether it be from decorations in a child’s environment or the colors of a screen, have the ability to overstimulate children.  But what is the effect of this overstimulation?

A recent study examined the ability of preschoolers to sustain attention on a given task.  These tasks included puzzle making, lego reconstruction, and completing a visual task after a read aloud.  These tasks were completed by each child once on a surface that was colorful, and once on a surface that was white.  Their attention spans were also observed in rooms with lots of colorful posters and those with white walls. Attention was measured based off of certain behaviors such as frustration, eye movements, missing a piece, and how the child searched for pieces.  

This study revealed that colorful backgrounds both within the direct work environment as well as in the background make it more difficult to sustain their attention to a task and can cause them to become distracted.  Children in the study had a difficult time completing tasks that required them to discriminate between pieces on a colorful background.  Attention is a crucial part of being able to complete tasks, often those involved with learning, which suggests that colorful environments and play areas may hinder children’s learning abilities.  More research is needed to investigate how these processes are disrupted but it is suggested to limit colorful objects in the child’s environment.

 

Marissa Robarge

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Read the full article here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5083879/

 

Today’s Friday Feature is Kylie Robinshaw!

Kylie Robinshaw is a research assistant at UConn KIDS. She is a junior at the University of Connecticut and is pursuing a B.A. in Psychological Sciences and a minor in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. After she graduates, she plans on going to graduate school to become a school psychologist. Kylie is excited to learn about research and recruitment processes and looks forward to spending a great semester with UConn KIDS!

Kylie has a passion for working with kids, and has been employed in child-care facilities, whether that be summer camp or after-school programs, for 3 years. Recently, she spent her summer as an Inclusion Camp Counselor, working one-on-
one with children with Down Syndrome and autism.

In her spare time, Kylie enjoys going to the gym, learning K-pop dance routines, reading fantasy novels, and spending time with her pets! Fun fact: Kylie has 4 golden retrievers and a cat! On campus, you can find Kylie working at UConn’s Child Labs, dining in Whitney, and visiting the cows at Horsebarn Hill!

The coronavirus pandemic has provided the world with a socially challenging environment. Amidst quarantine and the fear of getting sick, many people witnessed their in-person interactions with others dwindle for the sake of their own health. According to a recent study, adults are not the only ones struggling with talking to others; babies are too. 

Researchers compared babies who were born pre-pandemic to babies who were born in the course of the pandemic and found that the latter had more issues with speech. Babies who were born during the pandemic struggled with turn-taking in conversations and with babbling. The researchers suggested that parents of babies born during the pandemic may be talking less with their babies as a result of COVID-19 stress, but reassure parents that this problem is fixable. 

One method the researchers suggested to promote baby vocalizations is to use serve-and-volley interactions. Serve-and-volley interactions are a turn-taking-based strategy in which parents keep an eye on what motivates their baby and respond to it. For example, if a baby is looking at a pig stuffed animal, the parent can pick up the pig and make pig noises (“oink oink”). This encourages the baby to keep playing with the pig and allows the volley to continue. Serve-and-volley interactions therefore can be used practically in any environment a baby is in, as long as parents center on what motivates their baby. An important aspect of engaging with speech-and-volley interactions is to make sure to consistently and immediately respond to a baby’s motivations and vocalizations, as babies are sensitive as to what goes around in their environment. 

Speech-and-volley interactions contribute to brain development and enhance a baby’s language and learning. They are also useful with older children, helping them improve their focus, attention and academic success. Overall, speech-and-volley interactions are a convenient and constructive tool that parents can use to help build their children’s speech and learning abilities.  

Kylie Robinshaw

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smart-families/202209/babies-babbles-and-beyond-serve-and-volley-infants

Today’s Friday Feature is Tulsi Patel!

Tulsi Patel is a research assistant at UConn KIDS. She is an undergraduate student majoring in Nursing and minoring in Biological Sciences. This is Tulsi’s first semester working with UConn KIDS and she is grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait for everything she will learn throughout the year.

Tulsi’s main passion is working with children or in the NICU and is currently doing her clinicals at Connecticut Children’s Hospital. In the future, she wants to move back to New Jersey and hopefully find a job working in the city.

On campus, Tulsi is a Resident Assistant at Towers, a mentor for middle-schoolers in UConn KUBE teaching them about both education and culture, and Late Night and Student Activities. She really enjoys meeting and getting to know new people. In her free time, Tulsi loves to be outdoors, to dance, to paint, and to get a crunchwrap suprme at Taco Bell.