Confirmation Of The Praise Paradox

If you are not familiar with the downside of too much praise for your child then stop what you're doing because I'm going to ruin what you used to know.

First read at NYMag: How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The inverse power of praise.

Via TheAtlantic comes confirmation from an extensive study: Be Wary of Calling Kids 'Gifted'

The Berenstain Bears Were Right

You have to teach kids to defend themselves against bullying.

The CSMonitor carries an opinion piece arguing that the way kids should deal with bullies is to teach them the art of the comeback.

See: Bullying: The advice you got is wrong. Here's what really works.

Perhaps my children's bedtime reading should be Oscar Wilde so they can learn the art of quipping.

Jaundice And Autism

Correlation or causation?

A Danish study simply links the two. See PhysOrg: Newborns with jaundice more likely to develop autism: study

My first reaction is that this is an example of correlation and there's nothing here to indicate a shared causal agent in autism and jaundice.

Except for this part: "the risk of autism was higher... if the child was born between October and March."

Is this another argument for Vitamin D? Research is indicating this vitamin is a super-agent for health. Hopefully further studies of the jaundice-autism link will be forthcoming.

The Story of ChopChop

ChopChop is a new food magazine for kids.

The story of how it came to be is at TheAtlantic: Secret Weapon Against Childhood Obesity: A Magazine