Hot answers tagged social-development
23
Luckily young children get something of a "pass" when it comes to social awkwardness since the world by-and-large understands what it's like to be a child.
I wouldn't go out of my way to downplay the situation. As a parent, your primary responsibility is in teaching the kid, not distracting him or otherwise quashing the social embarrassment. Most people ...
20
In a related question, a user linked this article. It might be relevant to your concerns about the social implications of home schooling.
However, if your child enjoys his current school, then I would suggest simply adding in in-home supplemental education.
Allow your child to pick subjects (or suggest a list of possible subjects, if you'd like), and do ...
14
When you are talking about babies and toddlers, bullying is a lot simpler than it can be with older children. At this age, it's pretty much one of three scenarios:
Someone taught the child bullying behavior.
If the child's parents encourage the behavior, it's unlikely you'll be able to un-teach it. Better to just stop spending time with that family. If ...
14
I was a "gifted" kid growing up in a place where there wasn't much for me. I made it my mission for awhile after that to learn as much about gifted education as I could.
There's only so much that traditional formal education can do for a really bright kid: traditional educational models are heavily rote, which is anathema to the active gifted mind. To ...
13
Definitely don't let it slide, but also don't overreact. We used a consistent timeout policy (warning, ultimatum, timeout) with our teenager when he was younger, and despite the fact that he cusses like there is no tomorrow with his friends now, he will almost never cuss in front of us. With our four younger kids, all under 6yo, we also use a consistent ...
13
The biggest problem with the whole system is that it's categorized as two opposing sides, when, in reality, most people agree with some points on both sides.
I would simply explain specific issues in as neutral a way as possible: "Some people believe X for these reasons, and other people believe Y for these other reasons." If you try to cover the ...
13
It sounds like you are trying to provide an objective definition to a subjective characterization.
In point of fact, your definition as-is seems rather bias-heavy, simply because the meaning of "left" and "right" are so subjective.
For example, you characterize "right" as believing that the government should stay out of people's lives as much as possible, ...
13
Well, formally speaking, I'm not in a parenting role but am gifted myself (16 y/o, from Israel). Just thought I'd give some input from my experience in that age.
In the third grade I was accepted into a special program for gifted children at my school, where we learned all the subjects at a quicker pace but that wasn't the great part. The great part was that ...
13
I think its also proper to set expectations, many 2 year olds while they "play" tend to do so in parallel not with a lot of interaction. So you may want to be careful in what you expect, so you don't see something that is not there. Significant change is also something to aware of, as Torben notes, and will definitely influence young children who have ...
12
In summary, research findings to date might suggest a correlation between television viewing and developmental problems, but they cannot show causality.
There is no evidence that television, even educational programming, has any positive effect on children younger than 2 years old. In fact, some studies suggest it may be harmful.
According to the above ...
10
Disclaimer: I have a daughter, so I usually refer to "the child" as a she. I don't mean to offend anyone, I just think typing "he or she" everywhere is silly.
Teaching Politics to a Ten-Year Old:
Define Politics
I would say the first thing is to explain what "politics" is. You have a set of issues, and a set of people who have an opinion on those issues. ...
9
From my own experience moving 6 times as a child, and talking to others about their childhood moves, I would say the earlier you relocate, the better. Socially, in general other children are less accepting of outsiders the older they get. This is especially true if you're moving somewhere with a visibly different culture or accent. My wife moved from ...
9
I can imagine that he's feeling uneasy at being moved from his grandma and dropped into full-time daycare that abruptly.
Usually, you'd start daycare just a few hours a day and gradually increase to full time.
I understand that with evebody working full-time as well, it's hard or impossible to provide a transition phase.
I think two weeks is not enough ...
9
Some of the main proponents of attachment theory, which is a theory of how children develop a relationship with their primary caregiver and how that impacts their relationships throughout the rest of their life, are generally opposed to daycare, as described in this article. If you look into attachment theory and daycare you will find more information from ...
8
For me, the answer depends on the age of the child.
Younger Children
For a child who is, say, 3 years old or under, just ignoring it is a best practice. At that point, if they don't get a reaction, they probably won't use those words again.
Another technique at that age is to morph what they've said into a different word. If they say "fuck" for example, ...
7
At 4 months they're not going to get much out of parallel play yet.
But there is an important thing YOU can get out of it... talk time with another adult. There's a reason they're called "play*dates*", it's kinda like dating when you were a teen... part of it is to get to know the other parents to know if over time these are parents you're ok with your ...
6
There are some good answers, but I wanted to speak up a little for us introverts to provide some counterpoint.
There's a big difference between being able to get along with new people and liking to meet new people. As hard as it is for extroverts to believe, introverts are more comfortable alone. When we want to unwind, we seek solitude rather than a ...
6
I cannot offer research-based hard facts, but I can offer you my personal experience:
I've moved 16 times in my life, between 5 countries, at varying ages. (My father was a valued specialist at the time.) My bullet #2 would be most appropriate to you, but I'll list other ages for reference. In summary, I would recommend that you move sooner rather than ...
5
Good job not over-reacting! At this age, redirection (distraction) is very effective. Perhaps saying something more like, "Hey! Look at this cool dragon!" might have worked better.
As they get older, explaining the impact of their words will help keep the verbal reactions to a minimum.
When my guys were smaller, we crossed paths with a short person in the ...
5
First, you need to understand why your child is using these words.
They are part of the language; your child has heard adults use these words; children learn language by emulating adult speech. So, it is entirely normal, natural, and healthy for children to use swear words as part of learning about them.
I know a 4-year-old who likes to call everyone ...
5
Playing on his own a bit can increase his independence (or perhaps his desire to do so signals he's already pretty independent?) -- either way it's not a bad thing. It sounds like he's getting plenty of social interaction :)
As for "how much" solo play is good and how much is too much, it depends entirely on the personality of the child. As long as he's ...
5
I think that as with many things, it is always important to explain to your child that different families do things differently and the way we do things is that gifts are for special occasions... It is important to help your child find ways to have intrinsic value for many of the occasions I see parents giving presents for. In the case of things like school ...
5
The simple answer to your question is to only give and allow gifts to be given on special occasions.
However, there is a reason we give gifts: it strengthens our relationships (this link is interesting commentary on the subject). There is much pleasure to be gained in the giving, probably more than in the receiving. Why would we want to restrict spreading ...
5
The key issue, as noted in Beofett's studies, is that increased TV use is generally a sign of less social interaction. However, it's important to recognise that "Low Media Use" is an abnormal state in most Western countries. If parents are actively avoiding TV use, that's generally a sign that they're going to try harder to read to their children and ...
5
Some of the other answers seem to address older children. I'm focusing on infants as per the question.
Yes, TV is harmful to an infant because it overstimulates.
A TV screen is very active. This fast-paced activity should be avoided so as to not overload the mental processing capacity of the infant. While you're right that moving patterns and sounds are ...
4
I think the best thing to do is get your child thinking and talking about social situations. Presenting your child with hypothetical stories, role-playing exercises, and discussing real stories of people you know and people in the news are a great way to introduce social situations to a child (or adult).
In particular, discussions about ethical or moral ...
4
Fun: Not all people are fun. But the more people you meet, the more fun people you will meet, and the more fun you will have, and it will be easier to avoid the people who are not fun.
Growing: Great people usually comes in groups. I once saw a documentary about British punk. They talked about a group of kids (several from the from the same suburb in ...
4
Making friends is important because:
The world is full of people, so there's no chance that you never have to interact with anyone.
Things are easier to accomplish if others help you because they can help you solve problems and think up new ideas.
It's more fun to do things together because you have someone you can share the joys and triumphs with.
...
4
IMHO this is one of the things you can't teach to your children - you can only live it. You are a role model for your kids (up to a certain age). If you are genuinely humble, they will internalize that. Even though they may behave differently (or even the completely opposite way) during their adolescent years, to explore their boundaries and "free" ...
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