Child Spacing

Via Freakonomics: Want Smarter Kids? Space Them (At Least) Two Years Apart

The hypothesis is the older kids get more of their parents time before the second sibling comes along. However, based on my observations I would hypothesize that the role the older child plays in teaching their younger sibling skills they already have (such as reading) is what leads to better test scores.

Practicing Free Throws

I never did homework in high school but I did practice my free throws. Not that I was an excellent basketball player, I underachieved in academics and basketball, but I always liked the repetition of free throws.

However, it was only in graduate school when I learned to apply myself academically, and that was by thinking of complex math and chemistry formulas as shooting free throws.

I saw that doing these equations over and over was the only way to get better at them, and it definitely worked for me.

OvercomingBias mentions a study similar to what I found about math work: Only Do Math Homework

...we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores.

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.

Sleeping Babies

I know of parents who would not let their baby sleep more than 15 minutes at a time during the day in the belief that it would promote better night time sleeping. No, that isn't how it works. Sleep begets sleep.

And it is accepted that good sleeping promotes overall health. New research indicates babies can also learn while sleeping.

See PhysOrg: Study shows newborns learn while asleep

So do whatever it takes to get your baby to sleep. If it means driving around or walking in the stroll for two hours then that's what you do.

Recent Parenting Reads At The New York Times That I Found Interesting

INCONCEIVABLE! Exercise is good for kids: Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?

An Explanation For Why Dads Toss Their Babies: Why Mothers and Fathers Play Differently

Re-defining Maslow’s Hierarchy: Living to Be a Parent

Breastfeeding Saves Lifes?

Via CNN: Study: Lack of breastfeeding costs lives, billions of dollars

Another Study Confirms The Importance Of Reading To Your Children

Via PhysOrg: Reading to kids a crucial tool in English language development

Eat Your Dirt

Following up on the post Rub Some Dirt On It comes a study indicating early exposure to pathogens leads to a decreased risk of stroke and heart disease later in life.

See 80Beats: Let Kids Eat Dirt: Over-Cleanliness Linked to Heart Disease

...parents should develop a healthy medium between letting kids get dangerously sick and raising them in a nearly sterile environment. “In the U.S we have this idea that we need to protect infants and children from microbes and pathogens at all possible costs. But we may be depriving developing immune networks of important environmental input needed to guide their function throughout childhood and into adulthood”

Rub Some Dirt On It

The hygiene hypothesis usually refers to respiratory illnesses such as asthma, but the BBC reports on new evidence that indicates when kids play outside and get dirt in their scrapes and wounds they are introduced to bacteria that prevents unnecessary swelling.

See: Dirt can be good for children, say scientists: Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Some Antibiotics During Pregnancy Are Okay

Others are not.

See NPR: Study Clears Most Antibiotic Use In Pregnant Women

A study this month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that most common antibiotics — penicillins — appear to be safe. But the study raises a red flag with two types of antibiotics, sulfa drugs (brand names include Bactrim and Thiosulfil Forte) and urinary germicides (brand names Macrobid and Furadantin). These medications are typically used to treat urinary tract infections.

Don't Necessarily Blame Sugar

From Yahoo!Green: Food coloring can cause hyperactivity in kids

Read packages and look for questionable food dyes
Here are the specific dyes called out by the FSA and/or CSPI:

* Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40 (both groups)
* Yellow 10, Carmoisine, Red 4 (FSA)
* Blue 1, Blue 2 Green 3, Orange B, Red 3 (CSPI)

Recent Studies About Television Viewing

Background TV found to have negative effect on parent-child interactions

When the TV was on, the researchers found, both the quantity and the quality of interactions between parents and children dropped. Specifically, parents spent about 20 percent less time talking to their children and the quality of the interactions declined, with parents less active, attentive, and responsive to their youngsters.

Children under 3 can't learn action words from TV - unless an adult helps

Without adult support, children under age 3 could not learn the words directly from the program, nor could they understand them when they appeared in a different context within the video.

DHA Enhanced Infant Formula Research

A new study indicates that if you have to bottle feed a baby it may be wise to use formula that has had DHA added.

See PhysOrg: Supplementing babies' formula with DHA boosts cognitive development

Making A Base

As mentioned before on this site: Kids Need Domestic Stability

New research reinforces the idea that what kids need to thrive is a stable base to grow upon: Family stability may be more crucial than two parents for child success

The advantage that children get from living in two-parent families may actually be due to family stability more than the fact that their parents are married. A new study finds that children who who are born and grow up in stable single-parent homes generally do as well as those in married households in terms of academic abilities and behavior problems.

Smart Is As Smart Does

Via PhysOrg: Educate yourself to boost achievement in kids

"If you want your kids to do well in school, then the amount of education you get yourself is important," said Pamela Davis-Kean, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). "This may mean that parents need to go back to school.

"A growing number of large-scale, long-term studies now show that increasing parental education beyond high school is strongly linked to increasing language ability in children. Even after controlling for parental income, marital status and a host of other factors, we find that the impact of parental education remains significant."

It Takes Genes And An Environment

It is time to end the nurture vs nature debate. We are all products of the interaction of our genes and the environment around us.

See PhysOrg: Nature? Nurture? Scientists say neither

Babies And Dogs

I read a story at PhysOrg that was presented as demonstrating the ability of babies to pick up on behavioral cues.

See: Babies understand dogs

Infants just 6 months old can match the sounds of an angry snarl and a friendly yap to photos of dogs displaying threatening and welcoming body language.

But my takeaway of this research is that it is an example of the long history of the relationship of humans and dogs and perhaps represents co-evolution as in early tribes those infants best able to discern a friendly dog from a threatening canine would be the most likely to survive.

A Reason For Fathers

In their parenting roles, fathers (very generally speaking) are engaged in more physical play with their kids than mothers. It seems there may be a biochemical reason for this. This early physical contact may stimulate the brain of young children to be more receptive to the neurotransmitter chemicals that make people social creatures.

At least that is my intuitive leap based on this story at NewSci: Fathers aren't dispensable just yet

Recent Studies Regarding Children

PhysOrg: Being active as a preschooler pays off later in childhood

Being active at age 5 helps kids stay lean as they age even if they don't remain as active later in childhood, a new University of Iowa study shows.

NewSci: Why children paint trees blue

...children may colour trees blue or grass red because their memories can't "bind" together the colour and shape of an object.

ADHD Kids And The Speed Of Light

Einstein's theory of relativity suggests that as one approaches the speed of light time will slow down.

Boys who appear to have ADHD may actually have a similar issue in that they do not perceive time correctly.

See NewSci: Time moves too slowly for hyperactive boys