TIPS FOR TRANSITIONING BACK TO SCHOOL
As most of you already know, the return to school can be stressful for kids of all ages, as well as for their families. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has published a comprehensive set of guidelines to ease this transition. Here are some of the health and safety tips. Feel free to share these with parents you know or work with.
Making the First Day Easier
- Remind your child that she is not the only student who is a bit uneasy about the first day of school. Teachers know that students are anxious and will make an extra effort to make sure everyone feels as comfortable as possible. You might suggest that he or she observe her peers for evidence that everyone feels awkward and anxious during this time of change.
- Point out the positive aspects of starting school: It will be fun. He'll see old friends and meet new ones. Refresh his positive memories about previous years, when he may have returned home after the first day with high spirits because he had such a good time.
- If you feel it is appropriate, drive your child or meet after school for a special back-to-school treat.
- You can also use the first day "jitters" to practice talking with your child about anxiety, setting the tone to develop ways you can address worries one at a time as they come up so that your child does not become overwhelmed.
Backpack Health
- Choose a backpack with wide, padded shoulder straps and a padded back.
- Pack light, using all of its compartments. Pack heavier items closest to the center of the back. The backpack should never weigh more than 10 to 20 percent of your child's body weight.
- Always use both shoulder straps. Slinging a backpack over one shoulder can strain muscles.
- If your school allows, consider a rolling backpack. This type of backpack may be a good choice for students who must tote a heavy load. But remember, especially for smaller children, that rolling backpacks still must be carried up stairs, and they may be difficult to roll in snow.
Traveling to and From School
Don't forget to review some of the basic rules with your youngster for riding the bus to school, walking, participating in carpools, or biking. Newly licensed teenage drivers may benefit from special rules related to the use of cell phones or texting while driving, travelling with multiple passengers, night driving, and so forth. Crafting a driver contract can prevent misunderstandings and enhance safe practices.
Readjust Family Routines
Family routines tend to slide in the summer -- after all, what's summer without crazy bedtimes, a popsicle habit, and wearing swimsuits for days on end? "It can be hard to readjust come fall, especially bedtimes," notes Patricia Tanner Nelson, Family and Human Development Specialist at the University of Delaware. "Well before school starts, focus on choosing sleep, exercise, healthy foods, and other kinds of time together," she says.
Beyond the Start of School
There are many other tips that can help kids of all ages feel more secure about their school experiences. These are excerpted from Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D., associate clinical professor of psychology at UCCLA and author of The Power of Your Child's Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success. For more information, visit http://www.imageryforkids.com/learnMore.html.
Help Your Kids Become Better Learners
At the start of a new school year, you may feel like a spectator who's simply cheering your child on. After all, his brainpower is largely out of your hands, right? Wrong. The truth is there's a lot you can do to boost your kid's ability to learn and reach his potential. Child Educational Psychologist Charlotte Reznick says, "Children are born with their brains hardwired in a certain way, but parents have a tremendous influence on the development and shaping of their child's brain and the connections that are being made inside." Here are 7 of the 20 tips she shares on her website.
1) Sign Up Your Kid For Breakfast
Make breakfast nonnegotiable for your kids. Researchers at Ulm University in Germany found that high school students who ate breakfast had better visual-spatial memory and were more alert than those who skipped the morning meal. Likewise, a study from the U.K. found that a breakfast rich in complex carbohydrates helps kids maintain mental performance -- particularly in the areas of attention and memory -- throughout the morning. "A healthy breakfast with whole grains, fruit, low- or non-fat milk or yogurt and a protein-rich food -- such as nuts, eggs or peanut butter -- provides the body with key nutrients as well as with glucose, which is the main source of fuel needed by the brain and provides steady blood sugar levels, which can help a child focus," explains Elisa Zied, M.S., R.D., author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips.
2) Ask Open-Ended Questions
You know how your kids love to ask you why? Well, turn the tables on them and crank up their brainpower in the process. Ask them why they like certain friends as much as they do, or why they think certain rules exist, or what's the best vacation they've ever taken and why it was the best. Try to involve your kid's senses in your questions -- by asking what the ideal vacation spot looks like, sounds like and smells like -- and you'll engage and stimulate her brain even more.
3) Be Warm and Fuzzy -- But Firm
"Research suggests that a warm, emotionally stable home, in which children's decisions are monitored and age-appropriate rules and goals are set, is important for the development of executive cognitive function -- skills involving planning, abstract reasoning, working memory and emotional regulation," notes Nathanial Riggs, Ph.D., an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California. "Conversely, kids with punitive or harsh parents are at risk for problems with these skills during childhood." The take-home message: Provide your child with rules, clear limits, and guidance through decision-making processes -- with love and compassion -- so he or she can learn to anticipate the long-term consequences of his or her choices.
4) Make Sleep a Priority
If your child doesn't sleep enough, he or she may lose precious brainpower. "Sleep impacts every aspect of a child's cognitive functioning, including attention, memory, problem-solving and decision making." says psychologist Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Take Charge of Your Child's Sleep. "Studies have shown that children who don't get sufficient sleep are more likely to do poorly in school and be identified as having learning difficulties and/or attention problems." Set a consistent bedtime and wake-up time for your child, enforce an electronic curfew (no TV, texting, computer or other device) two hours before bedtime and create a relaxing bedtime routine to set your child up for enough good quality sleep every night.
5) Encourage One-Thing-at-a-Time-Tasking
A recent study by researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium found a U-shaped curve in people's ability to multitask throughout their lifespan: At the ages of 9 and 11, kids struggled to perform a task that required naming items in certain categories while walking; young and middle-age adults did much better. There's a reason for this: While kid's brains are undergoing full-throttle development, it's easier and more efficient for them to focus on a single task rather than try to juggle several. "The research shows that when kids multitask, many do everything worse," explains Reznick. Make a no-TV-while-doing-homework rule, and encourage your child to focus attention on the task at hand before moving on to another one.
6) Put Omega Power on Your Side
Whether it's because of their anti-inflammatory or anti-clotting effects, or the way they improve signaling between nerve cells, this much is certain: Omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for the brain. Research at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine found that when healthy boys ages 8 to 10 took daily doses of 400 or 1,200 milligrams of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) -- the primary omega-3 fatty acid in gray matter -- they experienced changes in the activation of areas of the brain that could potentially promotie improvements in attention, memory and other aspects of cognition, says the study's lead author Robert McNamara, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "It's critical that children get DHA in their diets to support brain development. Supplementation with fish oil (1 gram of EPA + DHA daily) is one option, and several foods are now fortified with DHA." Incorporate them into your child's diet regularly.
7) Get Your Kid Off the Couch
Regular physical activity is beneficial for every aspect of a child's health including brain function. A recent study at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta found that when sedentary, overweight kids ages 7 to 11 put in 20 or 40 minutes of exercise a day, after 13 weeks they experienced improvements in executive function and ability to do math; what's more, MRIs revealed that important areas of their brains became increasingly activated. (Their sedentary counterparts experienced no such increases.) Meanwhile. research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that kids who are more aerobically fit perform more accurately on cognitive tasks requiring attention and control in response selection. Sign up your kid for the sport or physical activity of her choice, make playground trips a regular part of the day, schedule family bike rides on weekends -- anything to stay active.
A Word About Bullying
If you suspect bullying, including the level where your child is being picked on by peers, reassure your child that you and school professionals will provide support. Check in often with your son or daughter to find out how things are going and stay actively involved with school personnel. Understand that he or she may feel uncomfortable about talking about these issues due to shame or fear of further harm. If the problem isn't resolved, seek the help of a mental health professional.
A Final Note About Communication
Dr. Michael Yapko, one of our popular teleseminar presenters, has studied the use of stories with young children to help them learn about life issues. The use of storytelling to teach the ways of the world is an old tradition. Michael asks, do children really learn from stories, and if so, what kinds?
In a new study published in the online journal, Child Development, cognitive researchers Rebekah Richert and Erin Smith tested pre-schoolers' ability to transfer solutions learned from fantasy stories to real-world problems. The children were divided into two groups; half heard a fantasy story about a boy and an astronaut rescuing other astronauts from danger and the other half heard a real-world story about children playing with their babysitter and rescuing a toy. The children told the real-world story did significantly better on problem solving than those who heard the fantasy. Older children, or those who have developed more symbolic reasoning, may do better with fantasy stories. When in doubt, check your child's application of any stories you use through further discussion. Further details of the study can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01603.x/abstract
Have a great month and thanks for reading,
Maggie
P.S. You may be interested in the World with Less Pain campaign sponsored this month by the American Pain Foundation. If you're interested in how you and your children can join this national effort to promote effective pain care for all ages, visit the APF Facebook page to share your story: "If I Lived in a World with Less Pain, I Could..." at http://www.facebook.com/#!/painfoundation
