baby christian

baby product

I read an article that may be of interest to anyone who has, or works with, children with autism spectrum disorders. Children with autism usually have some degree of difficulty with social skills. Just basic communication may be difficult, but even for kids who are able to speak, understanding what to talk about, when, and with whom, can be very hard to learn. Often, kids with autism want very badly to have friends, but just do not know how to make connections with other children. The problem is, social skills are a very hard group of skills to actually teach to kids. Other children typically pick up social skills naturally, without needing to be formally taught. But for kids with autism, just picking this type of thing up isn't so easy. Some kids with autism go to special groups or classes to practice talking to each other, asking questions, using manners, etc. However, social skills groups and classes can be sort of contrived. And the formal curriculum of social skills taught to kids is often more like super- polite adult social skills, instead of the types of social skills that would help a nine-year-old to make friends on the playground at school. Now, imagine a different kind of group... a group of children working together, under the guidance of therapists and other trained adult helpers, on a project involving Legos. They are trying to make a type of animated movie, by snapping many different photos of Legos in different positions, and then putting the photos together. All of the kids are interested and involved in the job, and all of them speak to each other and work together to get the job done. When one child seems to withdraw, or seems to be having trouble finding his place in the group, an adult helper gently helps fold the child back into the group. All of the children in this group have autism. The group is meant to help them learn social skills, in a more natural setting than typical social skills group.The group, called the Lego Club to the kids but also known as Lego Therapy, was created by Dr. Dan Legoff. While working with kids with autism, especially boys, Legoff (whose Lego-like name is just a coincidence) noticed that the kids he worked with didn't seem to be interested in most of the toys he had in his office. However, they did seem to be interested in Legos! Often, kids would come to their appointments carrying Lego creations they had made at home. Legoff also noticed that, while waiting in the waiting room for their appointments, Lego-loving kids, even those who usually were shy and had trouble initiating conversations, would start talking to each other about Legos.Legoff did something that I wish more people who worked with kids with autism would do. He took this interest in Legos, and tried to find a way to use it to help the kids. Thats when he created the Lego Club! It The Lego Club is a very structured group, where members have a hierarchy. The children are assigned roles, with the higher roles belonging to kids who have been in the club the longest and worked the hardest. Together, the kids come up with project ideas that involve Legos, and then work together to make them into reality. The Lego Club is a program of the Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health, in Voorhees, New Jersey. As of now, the new Jersey program is probably the only existing Lego Therapy program. Because it is novel, can be expensive, and doesn't have proven results yet, the program hasn't really caught on in other places. But, even if the medical community doesn't embrace Lego Therapy, perhaps parents, teachers, and mentors of children with autism will think about creating their own Lego clubs!

Read more...

baby shower favors

Children…0-14 year olds in the UK take up 17.5% of our society. They are our future. They will soon be the adults in our parliament, the drivers in our buses, the police force of our country and one of them will one day be the Prime minister. This is a fact. Another fact is that in the past year 13% of these children have carried a knife with them to social activities, school or in public. So why do children carry knives?
Street cred, a buzz, respect, fear: these are just some of the reasons identified by young people for carrying knives. However, these reasons do not justify why they feel the need to carry such a lethal object. Children are ignorant to the damage a knife can do; they seem to imagine somehow that having a knife is not going to cause the same damage that would be caused if they were shooting at somebody.
Why have knives become an issue? There have been a number of recent incidents in which children have been attacked with knives. In May 2006, 15-year-old schoolboy Kiyan Prince was stabbed and killed outside his school in London. A few days later, another boy, aged 14, was hurt in a stabbing incident in Birmingham. In 2003, 14-year-old Luke Walmsley was fatally stabbed at his secondary school. Sixteen-year-old Alan Pennell was convicted of Luke's murder and was given a life sentence. Research suggests that children as young as 10 are carrying knives and a third of under 16s regularly carry a knife. Scottish police say there are almost four times as many stabbings in Glasgow than in any other part of the UK. And half of knife crimes there are committed by people under the age of 21.
David Wilson is professor of criminology at the University of Central England. He has spent five years investigating why children carry knives. During an interview with Lizo for Newsround he said “I think there are two groups of reasons. Firstly there are defensive reasons why children would carry knives. In other words, they feel they are going to be bullied, they feel they are going to be attacked. Crucially, they don't feel they get protection from the adult world when they face those threats. However I think there's a second group of reasons which relate to the fact that simply by carrying a knife in their hand or in their pocket they get, very quickly, a great deal of respect from their peers.
Kids will often get into more trouble when they have a knife because they have too much confidence; they feel that can deal with the threats themselves. Whereas in fact all that this means is that they are likely to get into further trouble. What the adult world has got to be able to do is convince young people that the solution to their problems is not in carrying knives. The evidence seems to suggest from all kinds of different sources that children as young as 10 are carrying knives. And that is quite a frightening statistic when you think about it, because that takes the problem not into our secondary schools, but into our primary schools.”
So now with an expert's opinion on the matter we can have identified at least two reasons why a child would carry a knife. Mr. Wilson's first explanation was “defensive” .We've all heard of stories about bullying, how bad it can be and how the victim goes through hell, but would this lead to the need for them to carry a knife? In addition, Mr. Wilson refers to being attacked, is our society such a dangerous place that a ten year old feels he needs to carry a knife in order to get home safe? The second explanation Mr. Wilson contributed was “simply by carrying a knife in their hand or in their pocket they get, very quickly, a great deal of respect from their peers.” So in order to be “cool” in today's modern world a child has to carry a lethal object around. Quite simply, in my opinion these are not excuses for a child to even think about carrying an object that could snatch a life in just a few seconds.
Inspector Tom Halbert works in the Violent Crime Reduction Unit in Glasgow. He also had an interview with Newsround and told of the problems he has encountered. "There is a problem in Glasgow with the carrying of knives. So far, it's my experience that when young people come to your attention for carrying knives, it would tend to be teenagers, kids from 12 years upwards. In the main, young people will carry knives that they know are quite easily hidden. Some use the excuse that they are carrying it out of fear, but the truth of the matter is a knife is not a defensive weapon. It's an attacking weapon. It's there to inflict injury and harm. If there's any young person out there anywhere in the UK who is carrying a knife or thinking about carrying a knife, my message is simple: don't do it. It's a mug's game. You'll cause yourself serious harm, and your family serious harm." However, children in our society do not seem to realise this

Read more...

babys

Hit all milestones very early.smiled and cooed at 2 weeksFound foot at 2 monthsHeld rattle at 2 monthsRolled over both directions at 3 monthsSat unsupported at 5 1/2 monthsCrawled at 6 monthsThrew ball overhand at 9 monthsFirst steps at 9 1/2 monthsWas running by 11 monthsPretended to feed stuffed animals at 14 monthsAsked what's this (then shortened it to just this?)and wanted an answer from 15-19 monthsDidn't really talk too much (except for when he wanted and very few words) until he turned twoOne months after he turned 2 he was up to over 250 words that I could understand. Saying 2 and 3 words often. Sometimes saying 4 or 5 word phrases.I believe he can identify a ton of letters...upper and lower case (but not sure exactly what as if I ask him he won't tell me), but I have caught him flipping over the number 3 and saying E. And flipping the letter P over and saying d. I know he knows upper case D,O,N,C,Q,L for sure because that is what I was able to get out of him. And I am pretty sure he knows way more then that. He will actually physically count items, but yet doesn't know how to say them all. So, he will usually say two, two, two, three. I believe he knows all of his basic colors including black. He for sure knows what a circle is. And will tell you watch...circle, moon...circle, ect. And I know he knows the star shape. As for the others...not exactly sure, because he is so stubborn. He understand emotions...sad, scared, and silly. At 14 months old he was watching Monsters Inc and the little girl was screaming and his lower lip came out and was extremely sad. I thought it was a fluke, but he has done it since with anything that is sad. He now will tell me what is going to happen in a movie before it happens or with only hearing the music coming from another room. His interaction with children his own age or lower is horrible. He will interact and share all day long with a 6 year old. His imaginative play is ridiculous! He pretends the couch is a piano, the arm of the couch a cash register and will swipe a card on the stitching, he pretend he is wearing a tool belt and will grab imaginary tools out and do the task of the one he pretended to grab. His memory is really good. I asked him to tell his papa about how he painted that day. He told him...paint, brush, walls, and tape (for the painters tape). He has been obsessed with the computer since before he could walk. When he crawled, he crawled straight for the remote. He knew how to work a DVD player without us ever doing it in front of him. He has known how to work anyones digital camera since he was 15 months. He properly understand how to use a computer mouse and has known how since he was 18 months. He was able to crack and separate an egg by himself without me telling him what to do since 20 months old (the first time I let him). His love for cooking is high! He loves all animals and has known all the sounds of the basic animals since 18 months. When I buy him a wooden puzzle, I give it to him and he does it in less then a minute and will never play with again. He can do one of those basic 9 piece puzzles with the object under it (if you understand...not sure what they are called). He also just painted an object with just a little out of the lines (I have never told him to do that...he was at the table by himself and just did it). he also has a great sense of humor!!! Laughing at the tv maybe around 18 months.These are some of the problems we have with him...head banger from 6 months to 15 months (only when angry)extreme tantrumssleeps very little, like 9 or 10 hours (sometimes 6.5 if he has been over stimulated)when he is sleeping he has vivid dreams and will wake up telling me while he is screamingpicky eater (never ate baby food)refuses to wear clothesrefuses to brush teethwill not ever become on any type of routinelines itemsconstant need of my attention 24/7We thought he had a speech problem since he wasn't saying anything on a regular basis, so we got an evaluation done on him. He was slightly below normal. But, they also did an OT evaluation and determined he had sensory processing disorder. All of his doctors keep leaning toward autism, b/c all of the major problems started at 15 months old (which happened to be after a bad car accident we were both in). He was evaluated by 2 OT's and they both said he is not autistic. And if he were...very low end. I always thought he was injured in the accident and the doctors did nothing to check (which is changing now) to make sure. But, after reading the info on some sensory processing sites, I now wonder if he is gifted. I would say all of the characteristics are there, but I am not sure. He has never been a "normal child". I am wondering if any of you have seen your children go through the things I have. I have not been around a lot of children through my life and really don't know what is normal or not. Please I am in need of some real people that have gone through gifted infants and babies to tell me their opinions. I am exhausted from lack of sleep (I have gotten woken up for an entire year 3-20 times a night)and I am so tired of talking to doctors. Thanks!ANSWER: Firstly, the question is not whether he is gifted OR disabled - many children are both. It sounds pretty clear that your son is quite gifted. The big question is whether his problems indicate an additional disability, or are within the range of 'normal' for a child as gifted as he is.It's hard to tell, because he's very young, but a lot of those behaviors are common for autistic kids. Another complicating factor is that some of those traits, such as sensory sensitivities (picky eating, refusing to wear clothes, refusing to brush teeth) and reduced need for sleep are also seen in non-autistic highly gifted children. But his lack of speech, his tantrums, his lining up objects, etc are more typical of autistic kids.If he is autistic, be aware that predicting the development of autistic kids is very difficult. There's no way an expert can look at a young autistic kid and say how they will turn out as an older child or adult. A fairly common occurance is for an apparently severely autistic preschooler to suddenly have a developmental spurt around 4-5 years old and end up high functioning. A few autistic kids (though this is less common) loose skills in adolescence.As for the car accident, that could be related in two ways. One is that he experienced some degree of head injury. Not knowing more details about the nature of his injuries, I can't say how likely that is. The other possibility is that his worsening behavior is due to stress. This is an area that has not been explored enough, in my opinion, but stressful events can cause regression and increase in autistic behavior in some children (who usually seem to have preexisting differences, as in your son).Lastly, although this does not completely rule out autism, his pretend play and understanding of emotions are atypical for autism. Most autistic kids (with the exception of a subtype called Pathological Demand Avoidance) show reduced or completely absent pretend play. His understanding of emotions is even more atypical for autism - I'm not entirely sure what's normal, but he's certainly not delayed in that area, unlike most autistic kids. The only way he could have that kind of emotional understanding and still be autistic is if he has obvious social problems in other areas. He does have trouble with same-age children, but that's typical of gifted kids.---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------QUESTION: Do you think his lack of speech, could have been because he asked what everything was from 15-19 months (I believe this is early for that age)? It seemed like he was learning what everything was before he wanted to start talking.Also, do you think lining up objects could be him counting them? I have lined up items before and counted them previously to him and I wonder if now he is just imitating me b/c he never did it before.Also, I did want to tell you that he is a huge control freak. Everything has to be done when and how he wants it. As far as the car accident, they are going to be doing MRI's on his brain and neck. We finally switched doctors and we were sent to a pediatric neurologist. Just waiting on insurance to go through, so hopefully more answer with that to come. Doctors have also said possible post traumatic stress and he will be seeing a pediatric behavioral specialist next month (it took 6 months to get the apt., since there are only 3 in our state). I feel like all of his behaviors in the past were caused by the accident as it is now happening less often. We had given up on all doctors and took him to a Chiropractor a few months ago for just an evaluation. He said he is out of alignment for sure and when he just felt my sons C7, my son freaked out. That was the last straw in my head and made the apt. myself for the specialist and went over the doctors head.I have never heard of the Pathological demand Avoidance before. I looked up some info on it. Some things seem like him, but others do not. It seems like everything I look up doesn't really all fit in place. But, I am glad you brought that up to me as I will keep that in my head and watch for those things as he gets older.I was also wondering what else I can possibly start teaching him. I really wonder if working with him with letters, colors, numbers, ect all seem boring to him now. And I am wondering if that is why he doesn't want to tell me what he knows and answer me. I feel like I can't give him enough new information, but really don't know where to go from here and not giving him too advanced material. Also...when I am working with him he is always doing something else, but is retaining the information. Could this be boredom or hyperactivity?Thank you very much for all of your input. You have been very helpful.
Get the answer below

Read more...

baby celtic

ot long ago, a group of teenagers joined many prestigious writers appearing at the national book fair to personally promote their works. Their achievements seem encouraging. At least they ¡®re not losing in sales volume to their senior counterparts,acorrding to latest issue of Beijing Review.
In recent years, many of the works of teen writers have become bestsellers and are currently occupying the most eye-catching positions in bookstores across China. On this basis, the public has also become very familiar with some of them, such as Han Han¡®s Triple Door; Yu Xiu ¡¯s The Wonderful, the Tearful; Guan Yanzhuo ¡®s Last Days in Senior Middle School; Yang Zhe ¡¯s Flying; Gu Zi ¡®s I, Boy, and My Best Friend; Qiqige¡¯s Up and Down; Zhang Mengmeng¡®s I ¡¯m Shining, Too; as well as the Teenagers¡® Portraits Series published by Huacheng Press.
New books are being published one after another. Early last February, 17-year-old Cui Lijing from the countryside of Zhejiang Province and Han Han had their latest books published. Cui ¡®s was a work of fiction of 270,000 characters entitled The Fallen. Han Han ¡¯s book was called One Degree Celsius Below Zero. Recently, the China Youth Press, the China Teenagers Press and the Chinese Teenagers ¡® New Century Reading Club jointly launched the WOWO Series, which included 16-year-old Jin Jin¡¯ s Rebuild the Gate Toward Hell and 15-year-old Wei Ni ¡®s My Rebirth Is for You.
The reasons why these teen writers have written creative literary works vary.
Yang Zhe, 18, is in third grade of the senior part of Beijing Normal University¡®s No.2 Affiliated Middle School. His wish is to first raise his name in literary circles through writing and then become a famous movie director. For this purpose, he completed his 250,000-character-long work of fiction entitled Flying. His second book, An Angel Without Wings, which has been serialized online by Chinaren.com, will be published soon. Up to now, Yang has published a large number of articles and has set up his own home page.
The quiet Jin Jin is Yang ¡®s classmate. The youngest poet recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, she published a poetry anthology when she was six. When she was 10, Jin, together with another little girl, began to create a book of their own with Jin making up the story and her partner writing it down. Feeling the work was too burdensome to continue, Jin ¡¯s partner later gave up and sold her copyright share to Jin for 12 yuan. Recently, Jin¡®s Rebuild the Gate Toward Hell, a 200,000-character-long surreal novel, went on the market.
Wei Ni is the penname of Tu Hanbi, a third grade student at Beijing No.2 Middle School. A year ago, Tu happened to read the Teenagers ¡® Portraits Series, a group of fictional stories written by middle school students. Suddenly, she was struck by the idea of trying to write herself. It took the girl just half a month to complete her 130,000-character-long work of fiction entitled My Rebirth Is for You.
The emergence of teen writers has aroused various responses, encouraging, worrisome and critical. People criticizing the loudest say the phenomenon is a result of commercial promotion, which is completely harmful to children ¡®s growth. Worse still, some people say unreasonable promotion of teen writers is likely to ruin their talent.
The work of teen writers is favored most by their peers.
Yan Weining, a middle school student, said she appreciates creative literary works by her peers very much. Without the tactfulness and affectedness commonly found in adult writers ¡® works, they are smoother and more natural, despite their immaturity and relatively low literary values. Adult writers have always focused on middle school students ¡¯ fretfulness in puberty or puppy love, Yan said, adding that such works have underestimated the colorfulness of contemporary middle school students ¡® life.
Chief Executive An Poshun of the Chinese Teenagers¡® New Century Reading Club revealed that prior to the WOWO Series, the club had unsuccessfully attempted to solicit surreal fiction from adult writers. While adult writers have ceaseless enthusiasm to write about real lives, An said they are weak in imagining and singing the praises of the beauty of the human world and nature.
As a result, the WOWO Series has centered on works by teenagers. To the editors ¡® surprise, more than 30 novels and 269 examples of prose and liberary fragments, which embodied unprecedented enthusiasm and admirably rich imagination, were sent to them within a month.
The intellectual level of today ¡®s children is far higher than that of previous generations, An said, adding that teen writers¡¯ creative ability does not lag behind adults at all. Great efforts should be made to help teenagers with literary talent, he stressed.
An expert on teenagers¡®creative literary writing, Yang Peng attributed the promotion of teen writers to the improved awareness of the press working in line with international conventions, which not only benefits talented teen writers, but also fosters reserves for China ¡¯s literary circles. Nevertheless, Yang called for objective, instead of unreasonable, promotion, in order to prevent misleading children with no talent.
Both Jin Jin and Yang Zhe are now studying in China ¡®s only class that caters to students with outstanding literary talent. The class was established on a pilot basis with the approval of the Ministry of Education. Three students in this class have had their novels or literary works of other types published. As for the school as a whole, such students number five. Wu Linshu, director of the Dean ¡¯s Office of Beijing Normal University ¡®s No.2 Affiliated Middle School, said the leadership of the school takes a positive attitude toward students ¡¯ creative literary work that doesn ¡®t disrupt the normal teaching order. But he criticized the media¡¯s overheated coverage of this issue, saying both ridicule and lavish praise are not beneficial to youngsters.
According to a report in Beijing Youth Daily, teenagers ¡® creative literary works mainly fall into the following four categories:
--Family members¡® influence. For example, famous writers Xiao Fuxing and Bi Shumin have both instructed their children to complete literary works on middle school students ¡¯ life.
--Record of personal experiences. The representative is Yu Xiu¡®s popular fiction The Wonderful, the Tearful.
--Private writing out of personal aesthetic standards.
--Commercial activities of publishers.

Read more...

Fathers tolddo more for your children

Fathers-only parent evenings at schools and other special events are to form a big part of a new parenting strategy to be outlined by the education secretary, Alan Johnson, today.
He will present his plans in a speech drawing on research that shows disengagement of fathers is a crucial source of the relative failure of boys in schools. The strategy is also designed to counter rising crime and educational failure.
Though the initiative is likely to be criticised by some family campaigners, Mr Johnson believes there is merit in fathers-only parent evenings, at which they would hear reports from teachers about the progress of their children.
Research suggests that, especially in cases where parents are separated, the father either does not attend or ends up arguing with his former partner.
Mr Johnson is also convinced that some errant fathers need to be persuaded to re-engage with the value of school. He will argue that many unsupportive fathers have had a negative experience of school themselves.
One solution is to ask disengaged fathers to attend courses designed to help them in their role as a father, understand the value of school or to offer practical educational advice.
Mr Johnson will point out that almost half of all children from separated families did not see their father once last year.
He will make no direct reference to the recent gun crimes in south London, but his intervention is bound to fuel the debate on the failure of some fathers to remain committed to their children, an issue that has been raised by many community leaders and educationalists.
The speech is part of a counterattack by the government against claims by David Cameron that a form of social breakdown has gripped Britain, largely due to the decline in the traditional family.
Tony Blair will use his monthly press conference today to attack suggestions recently raised by the Unicef report on children's wellbeing that Britain is suffering a social breakdown. He will say that since 1997 the bottom 20% of society have seen their income rise faster than the richest 20%. A No 10 spokesperson said: "This remarkable progress is the untold story of this government," adding that the challenge now was to offer more support to those who have not benefited as much as they could have from the progressive reforms introduced.
Mr Johnson, who was largely brought up by his older sister, will use his speech to call for "a welfare state that does more to support parents". He will also say that fathers "are not optional extras in the family unit - and should not be regarded as such, not in the workplace, the home or the courts".
"The trouble is that many of the systems and structures we inherited in connection with family life were created in a world which unashamedly sought to keep women at home. As society modernises so must the welfare state be modernised."
Mr Johnson has been studying myriad academic research suggesting the role of parents has a massive direct effect on a child's educational achievement aged 16 and that the effect is far greater than other factors in their upbringing. The speech is an attempt to undermine proposals from Mr Cameron to shape the tax system to favour marriage through transferable tax allowance.
He will claim Labour's abolition of the married couples allowance "was not the act of a government that had no respect for marriage - it was essential in ensuring that children came first". He will argue the MCA discriminated against the 4 million children - one third of all children - whose parents were not married".
However, he will also say: "Marriage represents the pinnacle of a strong relationship: requiring a public commitment between two people.
"But that does not mean all children from married couples fare well, nor that every other kind of alternate family structure is irretrievably doomed to fail."

Read more...