Childhood Education, Spring 2000 by Leppo, Marjorie L, Davis, Diane, Crim, Bruce

So little time, so much to learn to do! The first two years of life are the beginning of an individual’s recognition, understanding, and thinking, all of which are a result of movement experiences and their consequences (Payne & Isaacs, 1999). Between birth and 2 years, the time identified as the sensorimotor stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, movement is crucial to children’s thought processes.

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By Marie Roker

Although many parents are concerned with our children’s intelligence quotient (IQ), research shows that a child’s emotional quotient (EQ) is just as important for that child’s personal success. So what is Emotional Intelligence? Emotional quotient is your child’s ability to feel, while intelligence quotient is your child’s ability to think. Although the term was coined in 1990 by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer, the person responsible for bringing more awareness to emotional intelligence is a science writer Daniel Goleman.

Mr Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence brought to light the importance of a child’s skill of awareness, empathy and ability to manage emotions. Although there is some controversy regarding how emotional intelligence plays a role in a child’s life, there is evidence of the value of emotional intelligence.

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Pediatrics for Parents, April, 1994 by Michael K. Meyerhoff

Jason is an extremely bright and apparently happy kindergarten pupil. Quite cheerfully, he will read aloud from the daily newspaper, list all the state capitals, and recite the multiplication table up to 12 times 12. The problem is that he is at his best only when he is by himself. Although his teachers and classmates admire him enormously, they don’t like him very much. And while he will continue to impress them with his accomplishments and collect whatever scholastic awards are available, he will find himself becoming increasingly isolated and lonely as time goes by.

In order to be truly successful in life, being personally secure and academically adept is not enough. Because everyone must Operate as part of a larger society, it is necessary to be socially skillful as well. And, as is the case with most of a person’s important characteristics, the roots of interpersonal proficiency are formed during infancy and toddlerhood.

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This article was written by popular parenting expert Michael Grose.

Bringing out children’s better behaviour is easy if you have easy children. It can be more testing if you have challenging kids or when you are raising active toddlers and feisty teenagers with plenty of ‘tude (attitude).

My work over two decades shows that those parents who are most successful at bringing out their children’s best behaviour use a variety of strategies, rather than one or two.

They also get help when they need it, whether sharing the parenting with a partner or calling on broader family or friends for support. Sometimes taking a break is the best strategy to use rather than get a locked into power struggle with strong-willed kids.

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Pediatrics for Parents, May, 2004 by Michael K. Meyerhoff

Parenting would be a lot easier if one could get away with the old “Do as I say, not as I do” routine. Maintaining consistency between words and actions isn’t easy, but the consequences of failing to do so are inevitable. Children always get a stronger message by observing the actual behavior of their mothers and fathers than they do by listening to their admonitions and instructions.

This is especially true during the early childhood period. For one thing, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers have a lot to learn. They simply don’t know how to act or react in certain situations and constantly turn to those who mean the most to them for guidance. Furthermore, their capacity to comprehend verbiage is quite limited. What they see is far easier to understand than what they hear. And even with what they hear, it is the inflection and tone that carries more weight than the words.

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