News

Good Education News for Texas

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 20:29:09 Z

The Texas Education Agency and the state's new-ish education commissioner, Michael Williams, are pointing to two new reports that show the state's students doing well.

The first is a report that says Texas ranks 13th in the nation in the percentage of 2012 high school graduates taking Advanced Placement courses and exams. Students who take these courses can "place out" of college courses they might otherwise be required to take, such as freshman English or first-year Spanish. Read More

Submitted by Laurel L. Scott on February 21, 2013 - 3:21pm

Obama On Preschool Education: 'Let's Give Our Kids That Chance'

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:00:08 Z

President Barack Obama visited an early education center in Decatur, Ga., Thursday to make his case for dramatically expanding pre-school access. After sharing a classroom with 16 young children -- one of whom asked, "Are you our teacher?" -- Obama elaborated on his State of the Union plan, saying it would give pre-K to every single American child.

"Let's make it a national priority to give every child access to a high-quality early education," Obama said Thursday. "Let's give our kids that chance." A brightly colored banner behind the audience read, "PRESCHOOL FOR ALL."

But that's not exactly what the White House's plan delivers.

"The White House pre-K plan is very different from the signal the president sent in the State of the Union and the signal he's sending by visiting Georgia," Russ Whitehurst, a former federal education official who heads the Brooking Institution's education program, told The Huffington Post.

The Obama administration has billed this plan as "universal pre-Kindergarten," using the language of legions of advocates who argue that 'pre-K for all' is the best long-term economic investment America can make. But in reality, the White House plan is much more targeted to poor kids.

Report: State School Funding Unfair

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:59:29 Z

A recent report commissioned by Congress found that states don’t fund education fairly across jurisdictions, need to do a better job intervening in struggling school districts and encouraging better-qualified teachers to enter the profession — and stay.

“In far too many communities, in far too many cities, in far too many states, there are inequities,” said U.S. Education Secretary Duncan, speaking with reporters Tuesday (February 19) about the report, which is intended to provide guidance for the department he oversees. “This report doesn’t just compel us to think and talk, but to act.”

The report, overseen by a broad commission that includes academics, education advocates, state and federal officials and labor leaders, targets five major areas for improvement: school funding, teacher quality, preschool, resources in high-poverty communities and school governance and accountability.

It calls for tying federal aid to requirements that states adopt more equitable funding formulas, promote greater diversity within all schools, train and retain better teachers and provide quality preschooling to all students.

While it’s unclear how soon most of the report’s recommendations are likely to spur legislation, the... <a href="http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/report-state-school-funding-unfair-85899452759" target="_blank">Read More</a>

Weighing Prospect of Changes in Graduation Requirements

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:58:50 Z

Following backlash over the rocky institution of a new student assessment system last spring, Texas lawmakers are scrambling to scale back the requirements they passed four years ago. As the Legislature tackles such reform, attention is also focused on another area of education policy: high school graduation requirements.

Wrapped up in legislation that reduces the number of state-mandated standardized exams are several measures that redefine the curriculum prescribed for a high school diploma in favor of loosening the required courses for graduation.

The plans have received support from superintendents and public school educators, who say the new flexibility would give students the ability to focus on their interests and encourage them to continue their education. Industry and trade groups are also supportive, saying the changes would get people with the skills they need into the work force sooner.

But some state education officials and business leaders... <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/us/weighing-prospect-of-changes-in-texas-graduation-requirements.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& target="_blank">Read More</a>

Beware of Caller Claiming to be a Texas Education Agency Representative

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:58:04 Z

The Texas Education Agency has issued an alert that a caller claiming to be an agency representative attempted to get a person’s personal information.
Here’s the customer alert from the agency:
Recently, a member of the public notified TEA that a caller claiming to be a representative of the Texas Education Agency attempted to verify the person’s birth date and social security number. This member of the public was not involved in any business with the agency. Please be advised that the Texas Education Agency will never contact employees or the public to ask for or verify their dates or birth or social security numbers unless they are part of legal proceedings or they have open investigations. The privacy of your personal information is important to us; awareness of potential threats to that privacy is a top priority. If you have been contacted in this manner and you do not have ongoing business with TEA, you may call TEA Complaints at 512-463-9290 to confirm that the agency did not contact you.

George P. Bush Calls for Change in Texas Education System

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:46:20 Z

ROCKWALL — Texan George P. Bush, the eldest son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the nephew of former President George W. Bush, and the namesake grandson of former President George H. W. Bush, told about 250 Republicans Saturday night at the Rockwall County Republican Party’s Reagan Day Dinner that we need to “radically change” our nation’s educational system and make sure Texas has the best educational system in the country.

The attorney, real estate developer, and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, who said two months ago that he will soon announce his campaign for a statewide office, explained that the U.S. already spends more money on education than any other Western nation in the world -- so spending more money is not the answer.

He added that the definition of insanity is doing the same unsuccessful thing over and over and expecting different results.

Instead, he said we need to “revamp and rethink” how we educate our children, get rid of social promotions, and emphasize technology and science. He said he does not believe we need to import more scientists and engineers to do it.

Texas Senators have Harsh Words for STAAR

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:45:32 Z

AUSTIN, TX -- A Senate education panel spent hours Tuesday maligning the state's standardized testing system, even questioning whether it's appropriate to ask youngsters across sun-kissed South Texas math problems about the possibility of frost forming on their sidewalks.

By the end of the meeting, it seemed the exam stood only a snowball's chance in Brownville of surviving the legislative session without a major overhaul.

Members of the state Senate Education Committee demanded answers on the exam regime known as the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, particularly asking why so many high school students are failing it.

Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who chairs the committee, said testing "is the most important issue in front of us this session."

"We're obviously going to go back and make some changes," he said.

STAAR was passed into law in 2009 and is designed to be tough and get progressively more difficult through the years. But it has sparked heavy criticism since students began actually taking it last school year.

Parents, teachers, school administrators and community and education activists packed a Senate hearing to complain about the exam and suggest alternatives, and members of the House Public Education Committee also discussed ways to remake it during a separate meeting Tuesday.

Roughhousing With Dad Crucial for Development, say Researchers

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:44:47 Z

Dads play roughhousing with their young children is crucially important in the early development of kids, according to a study by Australian researchers. As Father's Day approaches, maybe the best gift is simply for kids to play with their dads.

"We know quite a lot about how important fathers are in general for a child's development. Over the last decade, for example, that it's mainly mother that interacts with children and that's how they develop, and that's the important bit, that's changed. We know fathers are important," Richard Fletcher, the leader of the Fathers and Families Research Program at the University of Newcastle in Australia, told ABC News.

"Father's Day reminds us parents that we have no more solemn obligation than to care for our children," President Barack Obama said Wednesday in calling for fathers to be more involved with their children. "But far too many young people in America grow up without their dads, and our families and communities are challenged as a result." Sunday is Father's Day.

Talking Toddlers: Seven Tips to Help Develop Language Skills

Thu, 27 Oct 2016 15:43:37 Z

A nine-month-old child is typically developing if he can speak even one word. With the benefit of proper scaffolding, he'll know fifty to one hundred words within just a few months. By two, he will speak around 320 words; a couple months later — over 570. Then the floodgates open. By three, he'll likely be speaking in full sentences. By the time he's off to kindergarten, he may easily have a vocabulary of over 10,000 words.

For years, the advice has been that the way to kick-start a child's language learning was to simply expose kids to massive amounts of language. However, as we explain in our book "NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children," the newest science has concluded that the central role of the parent is not to push massive amounts of language into the child's ears. Rather, the central role of the parent is to notice what's coming from the child and respond accordingly.

With that in mind, we shared some of the scientists' hottest tips in children's language learning.

Sports and child development

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:29:08 Z

Physical inactivity is a growing problem. It contributes to the obesity epidemic and is particularly worrisome among the youngest in society. As a result, many countries have programmes aimed at increasing the physical activity of children – the "Let's Move!" campaign led by the US first lady, Michelle Obama, is a prominent example.

Folklore around the world tells us that physical activities are good for a child's development. Moreover, many scientific studies have shown a positive association between the level of physical activity and measures of children's health, skills, and wellbeing (Strong et al 2005). Yet, empirical evidence, at least about the causal effect of physical activities on the non-health outcomes, is scarce.

Our study (Felfe et al 2011) aims to fill this gap and to shed some light on the effect of sport activities on smaller children's human-capital formation. Our results reveal that active sport club participation leads to improvements in children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, which are of similar size to the ones found for largescale educational programmes.

So far, the economic literature has mainly focused on sport activities among adolescents. A positive relationship between participation in high school sport and educational attainment, on the one hand, and professional success, on the other, is well established (Barron et al 2000, Eide and Ronan 2001, Pfeiffer and Cornelissen 2010, Stevenson 2010). Yet, the underlying mechanism is not yet well understood. In particular, the question of when and through which mechanism sport exerts its influence on people's educational and professional success remains open.

Texas Pre-K Programs Improve Kids' Elementary Achievement

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:23:08 Z

Really important new CALDER study finds evidence that participation in Texas' state-funded pre-k program is associated with increased 3rd grade math and reading scores for participating youngsters, as well as reduced rates of grade retention and special education placement.

This is a very important finding for several reasons: First, Texas enrolls more kids in pre-k--224,000--than any other state in the country, so this evidence indicates that a lot of kids are being helped.

Second, this study should definitively put to bed the (mis)conception among a lot of K-12 education reform types that the evidence on pre-k effectiveness is shaky or based only on small, boutique programs. Yes, a decade ago the argument for pre-k was based primarily on evidence from the small samples in the High Scope/Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs. But that hasn't been true for a while now. Today we have evidence of strong positive impacts from the Chicago Child Parent Centers, New Jersey's Abbott Pre-K Program, and Oklahoma's UPK program--all large scale programs funded with relatively modest amounts of public funds. And we have similar positive evidence on a growing number of state-funded pre-k programs. With over 200,000 kids participating and an average per pupil spending of $3,761 per participating child, no one can say that Texas's pre-k program is a small, boutique program that can't be widely replicated. Texas is the definition of scale, and the level of resources in play here is modest.

Third, this study is particularly powerful because it finds evidence of impact on test scores in 3rd grade--four years after children participated in the pre-k intervention. Thus, Texas joins New Jersey as one of two (very different) states where we have evidence that pre-k participation improves academic achievement into elementary school. That's important, particularly because "fade-out" of test score gains is commonly cited by opponents as a reason not to fund pre-k. Yes, some studies find evidence that pre-k or Head Start learning gains fade out, but the overall body of evidence is much more complex and suggests that some benefits do last into the elementary grades and beyond. We need to move from using "fade out" as a rhetorical tool in policy conversations to focus on identifying the policies and practices--in both pre-k and the early elementary grades--that maximize the extent to which pre-k gains are sustained through elementary school. And we need to fund a lot more kids to attend pre-k in the first place.

For Early Childhood Development, the U.S. Should Look South

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:22:23 Z

In the ongoing debate over education reform in the United States, a new issue has taken center stage in the weeks since President Obama included it in his most recent State of the Union address: early childhood development, and the benefits of expanding preschool and other early education options. And while this is not historically an area in which the U.S. has seen much success, it may be the case that finding the best examples from which to learn will mean looking south, to the experiments undertaken in Mexico and Brazil.

The evidence is strong that beginning education earlier has outsized effects on students' lifetime learning -- and thus, earning -- abilities. As President Obama put it, "study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road... For poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives." Indeed, Brookings estimates that high quality universal preschool could add $2 trillion to annual U.S. GDP for a cost of $59 billion.

Unfortunately, this is not an area in which the U.S. has historically had much success, despite a number of efforts. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which serves as a clearinghouse of statistical information for the world's developed countries, the U.S. ranks 28th out of 38 countries in terms of the number of four year olds attending preschool. And according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the situation in the U.S. is even worse for minorities: Latino children of 3-5 years attend preschool at a rate of 56 percent, compared to 67 percent for white students of the same age. The results can be seen down the road, as Latinos have lower test scores and higher high school dropout rates than the average American -- what is known as the achievement gap.

Read more: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriel-sanchez-zinny/early-childhood-development_b_2980111.html" target=_"blank">Early Childhood Development</a>

Subcommittee Plans To Enhance Education

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:21:44 Z

The Core Four represent the entities in Hays County that concern public education. The City of San Marcos, Texas State, the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District and Hays Consolidated Independent School District are all members of the education subcommittee. The Core Four hope to increase graduation rates and decrease the number of students dropping out of high school.

Mayor Daniel Guerrero and City Manager Jim Nuse established the Core Four as part of the “Dream San Marcos” project, which developed a long-term vision for the area.

The Core Four outlined a plan to provide secure environments that promote education. According to a Feb. 13 University Star article, representatives of Core Four gave a presentation during a Feb. 12 Commissioners Court meeting to outline goals for education throughout the county.

Provost Eugene Bourgeois, the Texas State representative, said the plan outlined six vital elements to ensure San Marcos would be a “community of choice.” Hays County needs stable neighborhoods, community amenities, family-wage jobs, sustained economic development, good public schools and an educated workforce to create the environment.

Having a public education system of choice in San Marcos would bring in economic development, Bourgeois said.

The committee looked at many indicators of students succeeding in the classroom, said Stephanie Reyes, assistant director of human resources for the city.

Reyes said research suggests if students are reading on grade level by third grade, they are more likely to graduate high school. Ninth grade is another key indicator.

The Core Four recommended two initiatives to county commissioners—one dealing with pre-K education and the other pertaining to after-school programs.

Bourgeois said the committee discovered a child’s chances of succeeding in education are impacted most during pre-K, kindergarten and first- through third-grade years, according to studies from around the country.

Read more: <a href="http://star.txstate.edu/node/6834" target="_blank">Enhance Education</a>

Toddlers Obsessed with iPads: Could It Hurt Their Development?

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:21:01 Z

Liana Vilanova can't even sit up yet, but her father is already cheering his 2-month-old's digital prowess, praising her for interacting with an iPad app.

There are dozens of proud parents sharing their infants' touch screen skills in videos posted on YouTube, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over their kids as they interacted with various apps. Babies are transfixed by iPads, so when the device shuts off or is taken away, YouTube videos show them going into full-fledged tantrum, screaming and crying for the device.

Beth Brooks put an iPad in front of her 10-day-old baby, Alex, to see how he would react.

"I guess I just didn't think it was going to hurt, so why not give it a try," she said. "And he seemed to like it."

The iPad didn't exist until three years ago, so there is no hard data yet on the effects the device might have on a child's development.

But could all of the electronic play hurting kids developing brains -- shrinking their attention spans, stunting their social skills or ruining their eyesight?

Toddler meets hero, Winter the dolphin

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:20:22 Z

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A toddler whose feet were amputated after her father accidentally backed over her with a riding lawnmower had a special meeting with her hero.

Ireland Nugent has often been seen clutching a stuffed animal of Winter, the dolphin with a prosthetic tail, in her wheelchair since the April 11 accident. She even carried the toy with her when she left the hospital nearly a month after the accident.

On Saturday, she got to meet the real Winter the dolphin.

Bay News 9 reports she initially cried, but soon reached out and touched the mammal.

Toddler Reviews Google Glass: Almost as Good as Apple Juice

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:19:23 Z

We’ve seen Michele Bachmann and a half-naked blogger wear Google Glass over the last couple of weeks.

But those images don’t exactly warm your heart. But a two-year-old with the connected glasses on? That might be one of the cutest things you see on the Internet this week.

Chris Angelini, a writer and editor at tech site Tom’s Hardware, decided to put the glasses on his two-year-old son, Lucas. The result is an adorable video of Lucas telling people to “Look at my cool glasses!” Lucas only wears the glasses for 2 minutes and 42 seconds in the video, but that’s long enough for him to document the experience of getting some watered-down apple juice, show off his Lego collection and play catch with his dad.

It’s long enough for him to point out some of the bad things about Glass too. The video, shot in a low-light room, is hard to see at times, and at the end he screams, “They’re hot!” It’s true, the glasses do get fairly warm on the right side after shooting more than a minute of video or providing GPS navigation.

The video is extremely cute, but it has also inspired some thoughtful comments from its 100,000-plus viewers, many of whom point out that Lucas’s generation will grow up with this new wearable technology. Google, however, does say that the glasses shouldn’t be worn by anyone younger than 13 since it could harm developing vision. Angelini, 33, said he doesn’t plan on allowing his son to wear the glasses at length and that when they were on, he made sure the boy was looking around and not at the small display.

Early Childhood Teacher Evaluations Must Consider All Areas of Child Development

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:14:28 Z

Given the unique challenges faced by preK-3 teachers, teacher effectiveness at those levels should not be evaluated on student reading and math achievement alone but should also account for how young children actually learn, according to a report from the New America Foundation's Early Education Initiative. The report, "An Ocean of Unknowns: The Risks and Opportunities in Using Student Achievement Data to Evaluate PreK-3rd Grade Teachers," identifies three approaches currently in use, the risks and benefits or each one, and lessons learned from their use.

As of 2012, 20 states and the District of Columbia require teacher evaluations to include evidence of student learning. For grades 3 through 8, states typically use standardized tests as evidence, but these states must now find a way of evaluating teachers of the younger grade levels that don't participate in standardized tests. According to the report, teacher evaluations as these levels must consider students' "acquisition of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional skills; their base of general knowledge; their strength of persistence and motivation; and their language and literacy ability" as measures of student learning, not just reading and math.

Key recommendations of the report:

Early childhood teacher evaluations should account for specific attributes of preK-3 teachers;
States and districts should conduct pilot programs of student learning measures and implement teacher evaluations in stages; and
Standardized test data from later grades should not be the only measure of teacher effectiveness in the early grades.
“The PreK-3rd grades lay the foundation for a student’s success throughout their years in school,” said Laura Bornfreund, author of the report and senior policy analyst for New America's Early Education Initiative, in a prepared statement. “The effectiveness of teachers in these grades is critically important, especially for children who are otherwise receiving limited support at home for their cognitive and social development. Taking the right approach to evaluating the work of these teachers is paramount to improving students’ learning not only in these grades but throughout the public education system.”

Study: Breastfeeding can prevent the development of ADHD later in childhood

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:13:15 Z

Breastfeeding has a positive impact on the physical and mental development of infants. A new study suggests that breastfeeding may protect against the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in childhood. The study is reported in Breastfeeding Medicine, the Official Journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Breastfeeding Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com/bfm.

A team of Israeli researchers led by Aviva Mimouni-Bloch, MD compared breastfeeding history and other factors in a group of children 6-12 year of age diagnosed with ADHD to control groups of children who did not have ADHD. The results demonstrated that overall, the children with ADHD were less likely to have been breastfed at 3 and 6 months of age than the children without ADHD. This association between ADHD and lack of breastfeeding was statistically significant.

"Breastfeeding has been shown to have a positive impact on child development, good health, and protection against illness. Now, another possible benefit of breastfeeding for three months and especially six months or longer has been identified," says Ruth Lawrence, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Breastfeeding Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine. "This study opens another avenue of investigation in the prevention of ADHD."

Early Childhood Development Program improves lives of kids in developing nations

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:12:38 Z

What are the benefits of the Early Childhood Program as implemented by the Madrasa initiative in developing nations?

Close to 70 million children in developing countries have limited or no access to basic education.

We know that 85 per cent of the brain is developed by the time an individual is five years old. So if most of brain growth is happening before a child begins formal education then we need to pay more attention to the formative years and how best to lay the foundations for learning in these early years. Very young children begin to learn and develop at an incredible rate during this time. Children who are placed in a positive and stimulating environment benefit immensely in terms of intellectual, emotional, physical and social development, and this development is at its greatest intensity during the preschool years.

In the early 1980s, socio-economically vulnerable communities from across East Africa expressed a concern that their children were being increasingly marginalized from primary schooling. Without access to basic education, there is little hope to respond to poverty and disparity. These concerns led to the development of the Madrasa Early Childhood Development Program – a community-based and community-driven initiative designed to have a significant impact on the lives of children who would otherwise have no access to basic education.

Read More: <a href="http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/05/13/early-childhood-development-program-improves-lives-of-kids-in-developing-nations/">Early Childhood Development Program improves lives of kids in developing nations<a/>

Principal helps elementary students dance, act

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:11:59 Z

SARASOTA - There are just two elementary schools in all of Sarasota County that include dance and drama in their curriculums.

One of those schools is in a working class neighborhood where three-quarters of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The other is an upscale West-of-the-Trail institution where renting a sign to promote your business on the school's property costs $2,500 a year.

What do they have in common?

Steve Dragon.

"We have a very supportive principal," says Deb Lombard, one of two dance teachers at Southside Elementary, who followed Dragon to the 90-year-old school three years ago after working with him for many years at Gocio Elementary. "That's the bottom line. That's why it happened at Gocio and that's why it's happening here."

While all the county's elementary schools offer music and visual arts classes — which are funded by the district — only Gocio and Southside have made dance and drama — which are not — a part of every student's arts experience.

To do so has meant getting creative with funding, scheduling and partnerships. But most of all, it has taken the will to make arts education a priority.

"I believe what we're doing should happen for all kids," says Dragon, whose office is filled with stuffed animals representing his last name, the first given to him when he began his teaching career at Southside in 1986. "I don't even think we should have to have a discussion about this. In a perfect world, every school would have all four art forms."

Photo Above: Sydney McKee, center, plays Annie in Gocio Elementary School's production of Annie.

STAFF PHOTOS / DAN WAGNER

Read More: <a href="http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20130519/ARTICLE/130519612/2055/NEWS?Title=NEW-Principal-lets-elementary-students-experience-dance-and-drama">Principal helps elementary students dance, act</a>

Weber Elementary sports camp gets kids playing

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:11:19 Z

IOWA CITY — Gavin Brown faces Lauren Clapp, a Velcro paddle in his right hand.

“Do it the highest as you can!” he shouts.

Lauren, a sophomore at Regina High School, tosses a ball high in the air. Gavin holds the paddle out, laughing when the ball sticks to it.

“My turn,” the 8-year-old cries.

Swinging his arm, Gavin lets go. The ball flies backward instead of forward. Both Gavin and Lauren laugh.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Weber Elementary School, which means one thing for 16 Weber students and several high school and college-aged volunteers: Weber Dolphins Sports Camp.

The after-school activity is a hands-on program dedicated to teaching students the basics of four common sports: baseball, basketball, track and field, and soccer. The group meets for an hour every Wednesday, rotating through several stations designed to teach the basic skills of each sport. What sets this program apart from other sports camps, however, are the kids.

All participants are Weber students, but four, including Gavin, have an autism spectrum disorder. The sports camp is their opportunity to participate in a physical activity at their level, without pressure.

The program was created by Nolan Burns, 18. The idea came after playing catch with his 10-year-old brother, Peyton, who has ASD.

“He told me he wanted to play sports but couldn’t because of his autism spectrum disorder,” Nolan, a senior at Regina, said.

Overcoming challenges

Regular physical exercise helps promote physical and mental health, but for those with ASD, team sports come with more challenges than benefits. Youth coaches aren’t always trained to work with children on the spectrum. Likewise, teammates don’t always know how to react to a child who may exhibit stereotypical behaviors of a child with autism, such as flapping his arms when excited or frustrated.

Read More: <a href="http://thegazette.com/2013/05/18/weber-elementary-sports-camp-gets-kids-playing/">Weber Elementary sports camp gets kids playing</a>

Make the most of kids' first 5 years, childhood development expert urges

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:08:20 Z

Did you know a 4-year-old’s brain uses more energy than it ever will again?

The first five years of life are a time of tremendous growth and change in the developing brain, said Samuel Meisels, one of the nation’s leading authorities on the development of young children and early childhood learning.

More than 800 people — mostly educators, community leaders and parents — filled the Holland Performing Arts Center on Wednesday night to hear Meisels’ advice on how early education can significantly improve the life of all children.

And it starts at home.

Parents need to nurture and build a positive relationship with their children, Meisels said.

“Their most important educators are their families.”

Environment and community also play a huge role in a child’s development. A child spends 15 percent of his time in school and 85 percent in his community.

Many children, because of poverty, abuse or other chal lenges, enter school unprepared to learn and thrive. The root of low academic achievement is poverty, Meisels said.

If parents are unwilling to support their children and there is no strong community base, there’s very little success.

“Those born to parents of limited means will never live up to their potential,” Meisels said.

Meisels recently was named founding executive director of the University of Nebraska’s Buffett Early Childhood Institute, a universitywide research, education and policy center focused on children from birth to age 8. He has served since 2002 as president of the Erikson Institute in Chicago, the country’s premier graduate school in child development.

Meisels also spoke about the developmental assessment of young children; the impact of state and federal policies on the families of children with disabilities; development of alternative assessment strategies; the developmental consequences of high-risk birth; and the effect of standardized testing on children.

Read More: <a href="http://www.omaha.com/article/20130502/LIVEWELL01/705029907/1694">Make the most of kids' first 5 years, childhood development expert urges</a>

Community book fair helps support early childhood literacy and development

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:07:40 Z

Parents and kids can enjoy an action packed day of arts and crafts, story time, music and dancing, and hobnob with "Tiana" from "The Princess and the Frog" at a community book fair sponsored by Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Urban Health Program.

On Saturday, May 4th, pediatricians and third-year medical students from Emory are teaming up at the Barnes & Noble Edgewood to support Reach Out and Read, a nationwide early literacy program.

"With so many electronic distractions, fewer than half of parents in the United States read to their young children daily," says Veda Johnson, MD, executive director of Emory’s Urban Health Program. "Reading aloud not only stimulates language development - it also builds motivation, curiosity and memory cognition. Events like this offer a fun way to introduce parents and caregivers to the importance of reading aloud to children. We want to nurture a nation of readers.

"By supporting our program, we get closer to our goal of giving every child between the ages of six months and five years that we see in our primary care clinic a new, developmentally-appropriate children's book to take home and keep."

Read More: <a href="http://news.emory.edu/stories/2013/04/community_book_fair_for_early_childhood_literacy/campus.html">Community book fair helps support early childhood literacy and development</a>

ADHD in childhood may raise risk for obesity in adulthood

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:06:49 Z

MONDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Boys who are diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are twice as likely to become obese adults as those who didn't have the disorder when they were young, a new 30-year study shows.

Researchers found that men with childhood ADHD tended to have a higher body-mass index (BMI) and obesity, even if they no longer had symptoms of the disorder. Socioeconomics made no difference; well-off or poor, they tended toward obesity.

"The bottom line is, boys who were hyperactive when followed up for more than 30 years turn out to be more likely to be obese than comparable kids from their same communities," said study co-author Dr. Francisco Xavier Castellanos, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry in the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

"That really seems to be reflective of their early hyperactivity. It doesn't matter what their current diagnosis is so much, so we think these are longstanding issues that likely arose in early adolescence," he added.

A lack of impulse control and poor planning skills, symptoms often associated with ADHD, could lead to poor eating habits and food choices as well as the tendency to overeat, the study authors speculated.

"It fits with other studies, and suggests that the inability to control one's impulses, the tendency to be relatively reward-driven, may represent a risk of obesity over time," Castellanos said.

The study, published online May 20 and in the June print issue of Pediatrics, tracked 111 men diagnosed with childhood hyperactivity, touching base with them at ages 18, 25 and 41. By adulthood, 41 percent had become obese, compared with a non-hyperactive control group that had a 22 percent obesity rate.

Read More: <a href="http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/22297332/adhd-in-childhood-may-raise-risk-for-obesity-in-adulthood">ADHD in childhood may raise risk for obesity in adulthood</a>

Temple Hills teacher named ‘ambassador’ for anti-childhood obesity campaign

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:05:58 Z

Sarah Chaplin, a health teacher at Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Prince George’s County, successfully launched a campaign to remove sugary drinks from her school. She has taught her students about healthy meal plans and has incorporated yoga into her lessons.

And now she has been selected by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, which was founded by American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, to serve as a healthy schools program ambassador. As an ambassador, Chaplin, along with a handful of other representatives from 18,000 schools that participate in the program, will be a national spokesperson for the alliance’s Healthy Schools Program.

“I am excited to be acknowledged nationally for my contribution in implementing the district’s school wellness policy,” Chaplin said.

Prince George’s County Schools Chief Executive Officer Kevin Maxwell offered Chaplin congratulations.

Read More:<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/temple-hills-teacher-named-ambassador-for-anti-childhood-obesity-campaign/2013/09/11/06ee45fa-1afd-11e3-82ef-a059e54c49d0_story.html">Temple Hills teacher named ‘ambassador’ for anti-childhood obesity campaign</a>