30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Card Sorting Games for Young Children
Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task
In the Dimensional Change Card Sorting Task (DCCS), children are initially asked to sort cards by a single dimension (such as color), and are subsequently required to alter their strategy to sort cards based on a second dimension (such as shape).[18] Typically, three-year-old children are able to sort cards based on a single dimension, but are unable to switch to sort the cards based on a second dimension. However, five-year-old children are able to sort ...
1 Games for very young children to test their cognitive flexibility
27 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Upstairs and Downstairs Brain
Our amygdala (pronounced uh-MIG-duh-luh) is about the size and shape of an almond and is part of the limbic area, which resides in the downstairs brain. The amygdala’s job is to quickly process and express emotions, especially anger and fear. This little mass of gray matter is the watchdog of the brain, remaining always alert for times we might be threatened. When it does sense danger, it can completely take over, or hijack, the upstairs brain. That’s what allows us to act before we think... 1 
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notesOur instinctive, more primitive brain overrides our logical, more advanced from time to time. Children are even more prone to it.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Los Angeles's Air Quality Regulations
Los Angeles air quality has improved in recent years because of new regulations on automobile and plant emissions, but the American Lung Association still ranks the Los Angeles area as the metropolitan region in America most polluted by year-round particles, short-term particles, and ozone. This persistent ranking contrasts with other data on Los Angeles's environmental progress. For example, the number of "exceedance" days in the Los Angeles / Long Beach area of southern California (days tha... 1 notes
notesCalifornia requests additional federal regulations because its cities have unhealthy levels of ozone, which are poisoning its citizens.
24 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Training Memory in Preschool Children
Psychologists have tested memory performance in people all over the world and found that those who have completed at least a few years of formal education score higher than those from the same culture and economic status who did not attend school; and the more years completed, the better the performance. Where formal schooling especially helps is in learning memory strategies, deliberate tricks like verbal rehearsal, information clustering, and note-taking that children use to make it through...Schooling appears to be the most influential factor in training memory in children, but parents can do more by coaching children to remember things and build narratives as a tool for memory.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
When Babies Learn Categorization
However, there is some surprising evidence that young babies are actually not particularly interested if a blue toy car goes in one edge of the screen and a yellow toy duck emerges at the far edge on the same trajectory! A grown-up would assume the duck that came out was brand-new and the other toy was still there behind the screen. But young babies seem content to think the toy somehow magically became a new kind of thing behind the screen. The particular kind of category-crossing magic tric... 1 notes
notesBy three years of age, children develop a fairly sophisticated sense of categorization. Perhaps a playing close attention to taxonomy will benefit the child at this stage in their development.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Teaching Babies Science
But we also have some more direct evidence for the idea that children learn like scientists. Alison and Virginia Slaughter, one of her students, looked at three-year-old children who didn't yet fully understand belief—children who still said they had always thought that there were pencils in the candy box. Then, over the course of a few weeks, Virginia gave the children systematic evidence that their predictions were false. She told them firmly that they hadn't said pencils at all, they had... 1 notes
notesHaving children predict something and then systematically demonstrating how their prediction is false makes them more capable of understanding how beliefs work.
07 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Learning Different Perspectives Makes Children Better Liars
Children's discoveries about belief also have consequences for other aspects of their relations to people. To deceive peopie, or to recognize that they are deceiving you, you need to be able to understand the differences between what they believe and what you believe. Doing that depends on understanding the way beliefs work. It depends on knowing what you have to do to make someone believe something that isn't actually true. Two- and three-year-olds are such terrible liars. they hardly qualif... 1 notes
notesBefore they understand that other people have different perspectives, children make terrible liars.
07 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Babies Don't Remember How They Learned Things
Alison has done other experiments that point in a similar direction. For example, three-year-olds seem to be unable to remember how they learned about something, even when the events took place only a few moments before. In one study the experimenter hid a cup under a cloth "tunnel," a wire arch covered with cloth, with an opening at either end. Children found out what was underneath the tunnel in one of three ways: they picked up the tunnel and saw the cup, they put their hands in the tunnel... 1 notes
notesAround the age of three, children are unable to explain how they learned things, calling into question their testimony in legal cases since their memories can be implanted without knowing their origin.
07 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
When Babies Learn About Perspective
Alison and Andy designed an experiment to test this idea further. First they set up an imitation game: you give the toy to me and I'll give it to you; you put the sticker on my hand and I'll put it on your hand. Children are very good at this and love doing it. Then Alison and Andy put a screen on the table between the experimenter and the child. The experimenter hid a toy from the child by placing it on her side of the screen. Then she gave the toy to the child and asked him to hide it from ... 1 notes
notesBefore the age of three, babies learn that the perspective of other people differs from their own.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Fathers Underepresented in Children's Stories
The very first article I ever had published appeared in Newsweek and was called "Not All Men Are Sly Foxes." It was all about what I perceived to be the negative stereotyping of fathers in children's literature. I spent an entire day in the children's section of my local library talking to the librarians and reading children's books, and found that dads were almost completely absent. In the vast majority of children's books, a mom is the only parent, while the dad—if he appears at all—was... 1 notes
notesFather's are either not present at all or under-represented in children's stories, leading to a question of cause and effect.
