As Thanksgiving rolls right around the corner, it is important to discuss the significance of family dinners in a child’s life. Research has found many benefits on a child’s development when they have consistent family dinners. Children having family dinners four or more times a week have been shown to do better in school, improve in mental health issues such as anxiety, and are less likely to be involved in drug abuse. Yet, for an effective and fulfilling family conversation at dinner, several details parents need to consider. First, put away cell phones and other distractions. Removing digital distractions from the dinner table allows families to increase their engagement with each other. Second, ask open-ended questions. One example could be “What was your favorite part of the day, and what was your least favorite part?” Asking this question will help parents to understand what their child is excited about at the moment, and also where they might need more guidance. Parents can additionally ask more general questions that relate to their child’s life at the moment: “How is your team sport doing” or “How are your friends?”

Yet, in recent years we have seen an increased pressure on parents to have a family dinner every night. As family members, we need to understand and acknowledge family dinners will not happen every day. Parents have long work days and kids have many extracurricular activities that happen at night. Therefore we need to have a flexible mindset. While family dinners are one of the best opportunities to connect as a family, the importance lies in making sure the family is talking and staying up to date on each other’s lives and mental states. 

 

Laura Hinsch

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

 

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/decisions-teens-make/202111/the-art-and-science-family-dinner

At the University of California at Irvine, there have been recent developments in creating STEM learning activities in family community spaces. These are spaces where kids and families play and interact, such as local parks, stores, and playgrounds. The STEM learning activities reflect science and mathematics practices, while also incorporating community culture and history. Integrating STEM focused activities in places such as parks, gives children the chance to have hands-on experiences in daily life events

In one of UC Irvine’s projects, they have developed an outline for a STEM activity at a bus stop that involves the well-known cultural game “Loteria” in the area. UC Irvine has also created an “I-Spy” mural at the bus stop where parents and children can talk about the different pictures and objects they observe. In addition, the program has created a new game called “Fraction Ball” at a local Santa Ana basketball court. The game gives kids the ability to learn about fractions through playing and shooting at the basketball court.  

UC Irvine’s STEM learning projects are part of a bigger national movement called Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL). Playful Learning Landscapes creates these community STEM learning activities based on child development research about learning, school achievement, and the parent-child relationship. 

These-up and-coming STEM learning activities in daily life are a great initiative to get kids outside and playing, while also learning about mathematics, science, and more! It will be exciting to see if more pop up around cities and towns in the near future. 

 

Laura Hinsch

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

 

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/playful-stem-learning/202111/playing-the-way-high-quality-stem-learning

In the midst of a pandemic, many stressors in our lives are still in play and some are even amplified. Stress that is not managed at its starting point, can lead to both physical and mental health issues such as high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression. When thinking about stress in children, there are several main areas where this feeling arises from. Many kids develop stress when dealing with conflict at home. This might involve parental divorce or new changes in the family atmosphere such as moving. School is also a huge factor when it comes to stress in children. School brings the issues of bullying, teachers and friendships together that may cause some degree of concern in kids. For teenagers, not only is school a common stressor, social issues seen in the media such as school shootings and climate change are also of large concern. To help identify how these stressors might be impacting your child, look for the following behaviors: 

• Avoiding responsibilities and duties
• Increase in physical sickness
• Behavioral changes
• Increase in moodiness or anger
• Changes in diet

After identifying some of the symptoms of stress your child may be having, try and implement these stress management tactics in both you and your child’s everyday life: 

1. Get a sufficient amount of sleep each night – Children are recommended to get at least nine hours of sleep each night while teens need at least eight. 
2. Fitness routine – Try to develop about 60 minutes of physical activity into your child’s daily routine.  by ways of walking, attending fitness classes, or weight training. Being physically active has been seen to reduce stress levels in all ages.
3. Have conversations with your child – Talk directly about the situations that might be causing stress in your family. Understanding why your kid might be having a hard time and talking through it will help put the situation in new light and hopefully new solutions. 
4. Journal – Have your children write down their thoughts and feelings about anything going on. Writing down whatever you are thinking has been seen to lower stress symptoms and have children focus on mindfulness.
5. Avoid negative words and thoughts – Try to avoid speaking negatively and model positive affirmations for your child. Promoting positive self-talk will remind them of their worthiness and the positives in each situation. 

 

Laura Hinsch

Research Assistant, UCONN KIDS

Article link: https://www.apa.org/topics/child-development/stress

Halloween and child development: Does trick- or – treating help our kids learn to socialize?  

 

With the upcoming holiday, it’s important to discuss the value they have. Especially with halloween children gain many benefits from it. For one, Halloween helps to nurture important social skills and allow parents the opportunity to be creastice with their children. In addition, Halloween has benefits for all ages. A baby is able to experience the world through the new touches of pumpkins, the sound of leaf crunching. For toddlers they get to taste new fall tastes that they haven’t had before. Preschoolers and early elementary school aged children are in the height of the pretending stage. They learn to role play, taking other people’s sides and creating the basis for empathy. But the most beneficial component of Halloween is that children get to spend that quality time with parents which helps to form positive family connections. 

 

Article link: https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/10/halloween_and_child_developmen.html

 

Katie Nguyen

Research Assistant, UCONN Kids

 

                   

 

This week’s Friday feature is Olivia Arciero! She is a research assistant in the child language lab! She is a senior pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science with a minor in English. She is from Cheshire, Connecticut, about an hour away from UConn Storrs. At home she loves to hike and play guitar, she’s been playing for 13 years!

  The study she is helping with is titled “The Relationships between Neural Encoding of Speech and Lexical Access.” 

• IRB protocol #: H20-0078
• PI: Letitia Naigles
• Student Researcher: Lisa Tecoulesco
• Link to our lab page: https://cll.research.uconn.edu/

In this study they are investigating the relationship between brainstem responses to speech and eye-movements in response to speech. What they are doing is measuring the children’s brain waves while they watch a video and recording their eye movements while they are asked to identify words. They are hoping to see whether there is a relationship between how children neurally encode language via the brainstem, and their eye-movements during sentence comprehension. Our kids are aged 6-12 and it’s always fun to see how excited they are when they see what their brain waves look like!

In conjunction with the study she is a research assistant for her own investigation titled “Predictors of Individual Differences in Semantic Competition During Lexical Access.” (Same IRB info) Her general research interests lie in how the brain processes and stores information. In this study she will look at semantic competition in an attempt to discover whether early auditory processing or semantic categorization abilities explain individual differences in a semantic competition task (ex: Identifying whether “robin” and “penguin” are both members of the same category “bird”).

 

A child’s first years of life require significant care and attention from their parents. They are the main providers and supporters to their child’s life in the beginning and therefore have the biggest impact on the child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. In fact, the mental health of an infant and toddler is heavily dependent upon the parent-child relationship and their socio emotional growth. When there is a strong parent-child relationship created through trust and affection, a child learns what security and dependency and healthy attachment feels like. Through a nurturing relationship, children are able to learn from their parents how to regulate and express emotions. Yet, in the end, the parent’s well-being ultimately determines the child’s well-being. A parent must be giving themselves the proper self-care in order for their child to receive the support and care they need. 

The following are some suggestions on how parents can take care of their health, along with their child’s:

• Try to keep a balanced diet. Eating nutritious foods and drinking lots of water will keep the body energized and fueled.
• Encourage family meals. Sitting down and having family meal time together promotes relational growth in the family.
• Participate in physical activities. Whether it is through an organized sport, or a walk around the neighborhood, getting your body moving benefits your body and brain.
• Maintain regular sleep habits. Getting enough hours of sleep a night (7-8 hours) will not only give your body a rest, but your mind a rest too so it can give maximum effort the following day. 
• Seek out psychiatric care when needed to gain full understanding of your mental health and growth.
• Form connections with supportive individuals. Having trusting and caring relationships are vital for everyone to feel supported as they walk through life’s obstacles.
• Take time to relax and practice mindfulness. This can be through yoga, breathing exercises, journaling, or taking a nap. 
• Spend time outside and in nature. Immersing yourself with sunlight and fresh air may help clear your mind and the stress in your life. 

 

Overall, parents are the backbone of a child’s health. When children see their parents practicing the above behaviors and actions, they are more likely to follow it. Therefore we need to remember children model the behaviors and attitudes of their parents, and providing them with models of self-care in the early years will enforce to them that mental health is important. 

 

Laura Hinsch

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

 

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/babies/202110/what-does-it-mean-children-and-families-be-healthy

As our world becomes more and more centered around technology, we must learn how to quickly adapt to the different features it entails. Social media is a huge platform and interactive network that technology has brought forth to us. Yet, research has discovered a positive correlation in teenagers between social media use and the issues of mental health such as anxiety, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders.

 

TikTok and Instagram are the top applications that increase these mental and body image problems. They produce a constant display of images and videos that lead to teenagers comparing themselves to other people’s bodies and lives. It is still unknown if social media itself leads to symptoms of mental health, or if mental health problems lead to using social media more frequently. 

 

On the plus side, research has found social media has created an increased opportunity to view educational content, interact with similar people your age, and learn about important topics such as mental health. 

 

Here are a few tips Dr. Cara Goodwin suggests on how to educate your children about social media:

1. Set time restraints on social media applications. This might decrease the frequency of which children see negative content online. 
2. Ask your child who they follow and why. Ask how viewing these posts makes them feel.
3. Help your child develop “social media literacy”. Research has shown teaching your children the “filters” social media displays can help them learn the unrealistic image and videos social media can produce.
4. Have your child put necessary social media privacy measures in place. This includes only allowing people they know personally to follow them, set their account to private, and keeping personal identifiable information off their page. 
5. As a parent, abide by the technology and social media rules you put in place for your children. When they see you doing these actions, they will feel more motivated to do them also. 

 

Overall, it is how your child is using social media that needs to be considered. Research has indicated many positives of social media, but the manner in which a child uses it is where harmful effects may take place. 

 

Laura Hinsch

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-translator/202110/seven-evidence-based-ways-teach-your-child-about-social-media

Let’s learn more about Laura Hinsch!

 

Laura Hinsch joined the UCONN KIDS team as Research Assistant in September. Laura is currently a senior at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Human Development and Family Sciences and minoring in Communication. After graduation she hopes to find a job centered around child development in a non-profit sector, school, or educational faculty.

For about the past eight years, Laura has been constantly working with kids, whether that be in the role of a babysitter, mentor, tutor, or camp counselor. Specifically, this past summer she worked as a program coordinator at an overnight summer camp, creating lesson plans involving different physical, social, and educational activities that promoted self-growth and learning. Through these experiences, she has found a strong passion to improve the systems we have in place for children. She has a desire to help children become confident in their skills, abilities, and themselves through learning experiences and social/emotional support. 

In her free time she enjoys hiking, traveling, attending fitness classes, and cooking new recipes. On campus you can find her working with UConn Student Activities. Laura is looking forward to supporting researchers through participant recruitment, and connecting kids with the opportunity to be a part of science!