Do you focus on how smart your children are, or how they are smart? This is a question often asked by Professor Howard Gardner. An Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Gardner is an expert on education theory and describes himself as a ‘student of creativity’... Professor Nancy Mather from the Department of Special Education, University of Arizona, says they “often feel surrounded by feelings of failure at school, and their life is consumed by the thought that ‘I’m not good enough’”. More emphasis is needed on how a child with a learning disability is smart, she says. Read full article
On the day we went to Sea World our girl Ivy was tired.
We all were.
As we walked into the park two girls pushed past us hurriedly and into the bathroom, which is where we were headed to. We took our place right behind them. It would have been fine except that those two little girls then turned around and made loud comments about Ivy’s "fat" face and her "fat" cheeks and her "squishy eyes" (whatever those are anyway). Then they proceeded to whisper and look back at Ivy in that hateful little girl way that makes me want to stab something ... Read full article
This video was shared on Twitter by a lovely friend who, like me, was moved by the moving reaction of a young Brazilian girl after a cleft palate operation. Watch her face when she sees herself in the camera towards the end - it's perfect slice of happiness. Operation Smile is a charity organisation that heals children's smiles - they measure themselves by the joy they see on faces. Read full article
If there is only one video you take the time to watch with your children this week, please let it be this one. Arun Abey who occasionally blogs for this site, shared this video with me today. it features the moving and gorgeous singing performance of Emmanuel Kelly on the Australian X Factor - rescued from an Iraqi orphanage with his brother, Emmanuel and his family demonstrate love, compassion, determination and everything that is good about humanity. I promise you will want to show this video to your children. Read full article
Yvette Vignando interviewed Sarah Cottman about her experience of ADHD - she has it, her husband has it and so do her now-adult children. Yet she made the best of it and now runs workshops for adults about getting organised and living with ADHD as well as teaching them about some of the upsides. Her ideas about organisational parenting strategies for children with ADHD come from years of experience and her current work as professional organiser at Heavenly Order. Read full article
A 2007 study found that 1 in 160 Australian children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The majority of these children will be educated in mainstream schools, so it’s likely there will be at least one child on the spectrum - and quite possibly more - attending your son or daughter’s school ... Autism Awareness, one of Australia’s leading autism education and advocacy organisations, decided it was time they did something to help. Using a $300,000 grant awarded to them by the former NSW government, they have produced a short film about autism, targeted at 8 to14 year old children. Read full article
What Are You Doing? is a short film, created by Autism Awareness, which aims to teach school aged children about acceptance and understanding of their peers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The film addresses some of the fears children may have about ASD, answers their questions and helps show them how they can be a great friend to a classmate on the autism spectrum. IThe film will be screened at primary schools across Australia later this year. View trailer. Read full article
Being a mother of a child with a special needs diagnosis tends to turn one into more of a Bear Mother than a Tiger Mother. The "Tiger Mum" tag, as outlined in Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is not unique to "Chinese parenting" although it may be most fully expressed there ...When my inner Tiger Mum starts to roar too loudly, both literally and psychologically, I can rely on my husband and children to let me know that I have crossed the line and need to put my inner Tiger Mum in lockdown mode. Read full article
Earlier this week I wrote a blogpost about the news that children are being held in detention on Christmas Island. There were a few questions that were unanswered so we researched the facts for you including contact with the Department of Immigration. One surprising fact stands out - as at 22 December there are more than 465 unaccompanied minors being held in immigration detention in Australia. Read full article
It's so easy to get lazy about political and international issues when you (read "I") are comfortable in a middle class home with your children well-fed, safe from persecution and well-educated in an Australian school. Read on please ... this is not a political announcement. Because I am busy with bookkeeping, blogging, cooking, housework, writing, mothering and socialising I have not spent nearly enough time researching the issue of children of asylum-seekers being held in mandatory detention in Australia. Read full article
