« Experts say parents should make efforts to restrict access to prescription medications | Main | Study indicates newer antipsychotics may be no more effective than older medications for pediatric psychotic symptoms »
September 19, 2008
Experts point out how parents can sharpen their toddlers' executive skills
The New York Times (9/15, H4, Carey) reports that "toddlers are interruption machines, all impulse and little control," because "the brain that is critical to inhibiting urges, the prefrontal cortex, is still a work in progress."
While "some children's brains adapt quickly...others' take time." Now, some "educational and cognitive scientists say that mental exercises of a certain kind can teach children to become more self-possessed at earlier ages, reducing stress levels at home, and improving their experience in school.
Researchers can test this ability, which they call executive function, and they say it is more strongly associated with school success than" intelligence quotient. According to experts, "parents can use a variety of home activities to help children sharpen executive skills."
By "reading to a child while continually establishing eye contact," or "by tilting" a "book so pictures are obscured, parents force youngsters to follow the words carefully, holding more of them in mind at one time -- a function of working memory."
Related links:
- "Training Young Brains to Behave," Benedict Carey, New York Times, September 14, 2008.
Posted by admin at September 19, 2008 01:19 PM