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!

What is your full name?

Emma Nguyen

What is your current status within your degree, what are you studying and who do you work with?

I am a doctoral student in Linguistics working with Dr. William Snyder.

Where were you before you started studying at UConn and what do you plan to do after graduating from UConn?

Before UConn, I received my BA in Linguistics at the University of Maryland. I am originally from Annapolis, Maryland. After graduation, I hope to continue in academia as a research scientist or professor at a university. 

What are your research interests and why?

I am mainly interested in investigating how young children successfully acquire their first language and the factors that may impact learning. My research specifically explores how children’s knowledge of the passive voice in English is influenced by the meaning of the verb that is used. For example, children’s early success with a sentence like “Tom was surprised by Lucy” may be due to their understanding of the verb “surprise”.

By establishing a baseline for what typical language development looks like for mono-lingual children, we may be able to have a deeper understanding of language development in populations that are different from this, including bilingual children as well as children from clinical populations. 

What are your favorite at home activities? 

During this pandemic, I’ve been reading a lot of books! This is a great opportunity for me to explore new worlds when I can’t go outside. I recently finished the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan which reignited my long love for Greek and Roman mythology. I also love to knit, crochet, and embroider. I really enjoy making homemade gifts that I can give to family and friends. I have made a bunch of baby blankets already!

To find out more about the study Emma works with, please follow this link: https://pal.uconn.edu/

Today’s Friday Feature is Gayoung Lee!

Let’s find out more about Gayoung Lee!

Gayoung Lee is currently a junior at UCONN, majoring in Biology and minoring in Psychology. Her goal after UCONN is to become a cardiovascular surgeon. She is passionate about low-income families and minorities being able to have access to affordable and high quality health care. Another big passion of hers is helping kids and being a part of their learning experience. She was a Taekwondo instructor for kids from the age of 3-16. She was also a Sunday school teacher at her local church. She is an advocate for mental health, minority rights and equality, and health equity. She works hard to educate her young students about kindness and acceptance of all people. Gayoung joined UCONN KIDS as a way to learn more about child development and become more educated about their cognitive skills and children with disabilities. Her favorite quote is by Malala Yousafzai. She said “Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you. It’s you who can change the world.” Gayoung strives to become a leader and help people grow and learn in a unified front. In her free time, Gayoung enjoys spending time with her family and learning how to cook traditional Korean dishes. She loves creating vision boards and mood boards to help strike inspiration and motivation.

LEGO companies have become very popular for children who are visually impaired. They are using LEGO toys as braille bricks by forming them into a letter, number, or punctuation mark of braille writing. A normal LEGO block has the same arrangement as a typical braille letter with 6 raised dots in a 3X2 pattern. 

 

The Danish Association of the Blind pitched this idea of implementing Braille Bricks to the LEGO foundation in 2011. Even though technological advancements have lowered Braille literacy, it is important that audio books and screen-readers do not replace braille. Sean Randall, an IT instructor at New College Worcester, a school for the blind, explains that those who have no sight use their sense of hearing, but lack the ability to spell and lose their grammar and punctuation skills. 

 

Guided play involves teaching students in a way that is actively engaging and interactive. Children need to see the importance and purpose of what they are doing in order to better learn and grasp the skills. LEGO’s Braille Bricks uses guided play to help with phonetics, spellings, and mathematics. It can even promote motor coordination and tactile skills. 

 

The benefit of using braille bricks versus a braille machine is that it doesn’t highlight your mistakes. It lets children learn from their mistakes and try again. It is highly convenient to be able to move letters around and be more hands on. A simple block of lego has become a form of play while maintaining the importance of braille literacy. This will help so many children in the blind community have better opportunities in the future. 

 

 Gayoung (Jessica) Lee

Research Assistant, UCONN K.I.D.S.

 

Article Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-sensory-revolution/202101/lego-braille-bricks-help-blind-children-learn-read

The flag that represents our world right now is the face mask. It has become embedded into our everyday lives and a required fashion accessory. It has become habitual to put on a face mask in order to protect ourselves and those around us from spreading the virus. Although the vaccine has started to be administered, face masks will still become a staple piece in our wardrobe for a while. This raises a question for parents wondering if face masks will become a barrier for children’s emotional learning. A lot of information that children gain are from facial expressions. Babies are able to look at their parents and see their reaction when interacting with an object or a person. If a child sees an adult be fearful of an animal, the child may pick up on the facial cues and gain information from it.  

 

Although facial expression is a crucial part of improving emotional intelligence, there are other ways that children pay attention to gain information, such as body language and tone of voice. A recent study showed that 7-13 year old children were able to accurately determine the emotion of the adults who depicted a variety of emotional expressions while having their face be covered. Another study focused on seeing if adults and children were able to identify emotional expressions soly from their eyes, a task in which they called “reading the mind in the eyes”. Children from the age of 6-7 were highly capable of determining most emotions, like anger and sadness. 

 

Children are very adaptable and flexible in their learning abilities. Researchers studied deaf children from Nicaragua who ended up developing their own sign language in order to communicate with each other. Children are able to find other ways to communicate and learn due to their young age and developing brain. 

 

With all the worries that this pandemic has brought, we can take a deep breath and not stress about the toll it will take on a child’s emotional learning. Their flexibility in what and how they learn will allow them to gain a strong emotional understanding and pick up on social cues. 

Gayoung (Jessica) Lee

Research Assistant, UCONN K.I.D.S.

Link to Article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/202101/face-masks-and-children-s-emotion-understanding