Read books boosts child language

A new study by researchers from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research provides more evidence that reading books to young children and helping them visually to follow story improves a child's language.

The results have been published online in the international journal First Language.

Lead author Dr Brad Farrant said they investigated the factors that facilitate children's language (vocabulary) development between 9 and 34 months of age using data from Growing Up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).

"We looked at a range of factors for 2188 children in LSAC including joint attention, book-reading, child vocabulary, child temperament, maternal age, maternal education, parenting, number of siblings at home, household income and community socio-economic status," Dr Farrant said.

"Our findings indicate that higher levels of parent-child book reading are associated with significantly better child language (vocabulary) development.

"CHildren with more educated mothers have larger vocabularies because they engage in more parent-child book reading"

The study also confirmed previous research demonstrating a gender gap favouring girls, who had a significantly greater vicabulary than boys at around 3 years of age.

Dr Farrant said the results add to the body of evidence that parents play a major role in children's early language development.

"Combining the findings of our study with previous research suggests that interventions targeting children's early language development would be well served by focussing on book reading as early as possible in children's lives," Dr Farrent said. 

"Parents from all backgrounds can help ensure their children have sound language skills at school entry and beyond by reading to them throughout the preschool years."

Parent-child picture book reading provides an excellent opportunity for vocabulary expansion by learning word-object mapping in a more structured setting and involves pointing gestures, joint attention and verbal labelling.

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Toys: How to ensure their safety?

There are plenty of toys from different manufacturers available in the market. One may offers great toys for motor development skills, stimulates the children’s brain etc. We as parents always look for the best, which is beneficial for our children’s developments and most importantly is their safety while playing with the toys.

Some tips to ensure safety:-

1)      When we first buy the toys, to ensure that it is as per the age recommendation by the supplier on the box. For instance, toys such as blocks or Lego may not be suitable for children below the age of 3 due to choking danger. As most of us well understood, children under this age category tend to put everything insides their mouth. Thus, toys with small parts are definitely a no-no for them.

2)      Immediately discard the plastic items and all packing materials when buying new toys.

3)      Avoid buying toys with sharp edges or that is easily broken. Toys with long cords or strings also need to be avoided, which may lead to strangulations

4)      Check for any damages or broken parts of the toys regularly. Immediate throw away any broken & worn-out parts immediately.

5)      When playing bicycle, tricycle outdoors, always be sure that they are being monitored by us their parents and use helmets or knee-guard

6)      Teach our children to put away their toys that may lead them to tripping or fall over the toys

7)      For those who have elder children, always teach them to put away their own toys from their younger siblings especially those with small parts and not recommended for younger age.

8)      Always ensure that our children play in a safe environment either in the playground or large area, and away from stairs and water area

9)      Last but not least, be sure that all toys are clean! Do wash them as per the instructions at the box.

Have fun in making your children’s toys safety!

Why my child refuse to nap?

Sleep is vital especially to baby and children. It is the time where brains and bodies are developing at an extraordinary rate.

How can we know whether our children have adequate sleeping hours?

It depends on their age actually.  Generally, baby of the age of one year old and below needs as long as 15 hours in total of sleep. This includes of 5 to 7 hours of day time sleeping time. As they grow older, the total of sleeping hours will decrease to 10-12 hours daily (inclusive of 1-2 hours nap time) for children at the age of 3 years old. No wonder my daughter refuse to take longer nap time and prefers playing rather than sleeping!

But, why my children seem to just have a short nap time? Can they get a nap any longer?

Yes, they can! But how, once they opened their eyes; that’s it! It’s just like “Yeah! It’s time to continue playing and playing!”

The first thing that we need to understand is that when our children grow older, they do not taking nap as much as they were before.  They are reducing their nap time gradually, for instance from 1-2 hours in the morning till none and only nap in the afternoon.

source: google

Tips to encourage your children to nap

1)      Try putting them to sleep at the same place as their night sleeping time, where they will associate that they are going to sleep

2)      Make sure they are well dressed in a comfortable clothes during the day

3)      Avoid letting them playing in a loud noise or stimulating play especially when nap time is approaching.  This is to ensure that they would be easier to settle down and get their nap effectively

How do we know when will our children stop taking nap?

As long as they have the adequate total sleep throughout the day, parents should not to worry much. However, it is better for them to continue taking nap as they cannot stay awake for long stretches as much as older children and adult. They normally skip the morning nap and start to feel tired when afternoon comes.

Besides we can continue with the house chores and our ‘me time’ when they nap during the nap, there is actually an advantage for the children themselves if they nap. Researches as per Healthy Day News here says that babies who nap are more likely to exhibit an advanced level of learning called abstraction i.e. the ability to detect a general pattern contained new information!