| Ideas For Helping Parents With Ill
Children: How To Improve Mental Development Of Children With Chronic
Illnesses? by Madina Bakhitova
Disclaimer: None of the content of this article should be considered
medical or psychological advice. You should consult with your health care
professional for specific advice relating to your medical and
psychological questions or conditions.
An important issue for psychologists, pediatricians, and other specialists
working with children is physical and mental development of children and
adolescents. There are many age periodizations in child’s development and
going through every period, child learns and gets new abilities. However,
children with chronic illnesses like diabetes, sickle cell anemia, severe
asthma, cancer and others cannot go through regular physical and mental
development. Due to special treatment they cannot go to ordinary school
like healthy children, sometimes they have to stay in hospitals for a long
period of time. How to help children with illnesses develop mentally and
not drop behind children of the same age?
1. Create special home or hospital-educational plan and organize short
mathematics, logics and reading lessons every day or week. Together with
your child you can make this time very interesting and useful. New
information, which you can find for your child, will help him or her to
feel completeness of life and self-efficiency.
2. Create homework assignments for your child. Begin with easy
arithmetical (or any other subject) tasks. Doing it successfully will help
your child to raise self-confidence and interest to new knowledge.
3. Even small tasks which demand accuracy (for example, measuring table in
centimeters or inches) can be very interesting if you explain that every
item around us should be planned and measured very accurately first,
before constructing. Manual tasks demanding attention and accuracy are
very useful, because they increase ability to concentrate and regulate
attention.
4. Be patient and teach your child to be patient. This will help your
child to be optimistic during treatment process and have positive attitude
to the environment – some of the major components of psychological and
physical health.
5. Contributing to your child’s mental development will help your child
feel all your love. Receiving interesting information, positive attitude
and cheerful mood create a special condition to improve health and stop
illness progress. Help your child be interested in knowing more and more
about this world, prompt him or her to be healthy and you will see
positive changes in your child’s life.
About The Author: Madina Bakhitova-Niazoff, MS Psychology, is the chief
editor for
http://www.psychologyspace.com - an online psychology portal
providing news and information on various psychology subjects, discussion
forum, psychology RSS feeds and web links.
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Ready Your Child For Reading by Brent
Sitton It's never too soon to start your child on
the path to reading. Simply talking to your infant and toddler helps her
develop the vocabulary she will need as she enters school and begins to
read. As you point and name objects, she will begin to understand the
meaning of words, and will eventually begin to incorporate those words
into her vocabulary.
The U.S. Department of Education recommends beginning to read to your baby
when she is six months old. According to their 2003 report, "Hearing words
over and over helps her become familiar with them. Reading to your baby is
one of the best ways to help her learn."
In that same report, the Department of Education also recommends that
parents reach out to groups that can:
* Help you find age-appropriate books to use at home with your child;
* Show you creative ways to use books with your child and other tips to
help her learn; and
* Provide year-round children's reading and educational activities.
A child's love for reading grows when the words on the page come to life
through experiences shared as a family. For example, after reading Eric
Carle's Ten Little Rubber Ducks to your toddler, you can learn all about
real ducks, make ocean snacks, or go on a family outing and feed the ducks
at a nearby pond.
In order to help your child get ready to read, the Department
of Education also recommends:
* Using sounds, songs, gestures, and words that rhyme to help your baby
learn about language and its many uses.
* Pointing out the printed words in your home and other places you take
your child to, such as the grocery store.
* Spending as much time listening to your child as you do
talking to her.
* Taking children's books and writing materials with you whenever you
leave home. This gives your child fun activities to entertain and occupy
herself while traveling and running errands.
* Creating a quiet, special place in your home for your child to read,
write, and draw.
* Keeping books and other reading materials where your child can easily
reach them. Having her own bookshelf or small bookcase will not only make
her feel special, but will also communicate to her that reading is
special.
* Reading books, newspapers and magazines yourself, so that
your child can see that reading is important.
* Limiting the amount and type of television you and your child watch.
The best thing for you do to ensure that your child will grow up reading
well and loving to read is to read to her every day.
The time you spend reading together will create a special bond between the
two of you, and will open the doors for a dialogue that will continue
throughout the more trying years of adolescence. The Department of
Education suggests that, when you're reading, you discuss new words. As an
example, they suggest that you say, "This big house is called a palace.
Who do you think lives in a palace?" Likewise, they suggest taking time to
ask about the pictures and what your child thinks is happening in the
story.
The same report suggests additional strategies for early literacy:
* When reading a book with large print, point at each word as
you read it. Your child will understand that the word being spoken is the
word she sees.
* Read a favorite book over and over again.
* Read stories with rhyming words and lines that repeat, and have your
child join in.
* Read from a variety of children's books, including fairy tales, poems,
and non-fiction.
The more strategies you can incorporate into your child's reading
experience, the more likely you are to help your child develop into a
strong reader.
About The Author: Brent Sitton is a founder of
http://www.DiscoveryJourney.com
, which features tools to promote a love of reading. Character Trait based
Children’s Book Reviews include 5 related fun and educational Child
Activities to inspire reading passion.
http://www.discoveryjourney.com/bookchild.htm
http://www.discoveryjourney.com/charactertrait.htm
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