Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, March 25, 2008 11:26 am

First of all, thanks for all the kind comments wishing me well on the last post. I am not 100% right yet, but am definitely on the mend. Now my oldest has it. Ugh.

What a nice Spring Break we are having here in Albuquerque! At least we are staying at our house here and not in a hotel somewhere. It’s even less fun to be sick in a hotel.

Anyhow, today I will try to get back to business with a “real” post:

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It’s hard to believe that my blog is over one year old now (the UPYK Blogiversary was back in February) and it has come a long, long way! There are even now actually a few people besides my sister and my best friend Wishy who seem to read my words from time to time. Amazing!!

Most of you probably weren’t around last spring to take part in, or even read about, my TV Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge. Well, April has been very sneaky this year and has arrived on quiet little mouse feet. I only just realized that it is almost here!

Since National TV Turn-Off Week is just around the corner (April 21-27, 2008), I’d better get going with the Unplug Your Kids TV Turn-Off Blog Challenge!

During TV Turn-Off Week, any interested bloggers, or non-bloggers can join the challenge. Can you turn it off for one whole week? If you have been lurking about here, considering the possibility of unplugging completely or partially, then now is a great time to give it a try. I am getting a lot of Google hits at the moment related to TV Turn-Off Week, so there must some interested people out there.

The way it works is this:

1) You and your family decide if you want to attempt to turn off the TV from April 21-27. Since we don’t have TV, my personal challenge will be to reduce time with that “other” screen and spend less time online (my addiction). I plan to be online just long enough to post a few times and keep the challenge going. So feel free to tailor your Turn-Off challenge to your family’s personal needs.

2) Next week, when I have returned to Arizona, I will put up a post containing a Mr. Linky, a repeat of the instructions, and a button.

2) Once you have decided to join in, write a post about the TV-Turn-Off Week Blog Challenge linking back to Unplug Your Kids. If you want, you can also copy the button and place it in your sidebar with a link back too. The idea is to spread the word so we have as many participants as possible. Once your post is up, put a link to it in Mr.Linky.

3) Turn it off from April 21-27! Try to stick to your plan, but don’t be frustrated or discouraged if things don’t work out perfectly. This is supposed to be a fun, learning experience, not a week of family torture and self-loathing!

4) After the week is over, I’ll put up a final post with a new Mr. Linky. Write a post about your week: how it went, the ups and downs, what you would try differently in the future, etc. That way, we can all learn from each other’s experiences. Link to your final post in Mr. Linky.

5) And if the worthy nature of this endeavor itself is not enough to convince you to try it, please take note that I will be offering the bribe prize of a $10 Amazon gift certificate to a randomly selected participant who completes the challenge and writes a final post.

6) Finally, if you are a blog reader but have no blog yourself, you can still join in via email. I had one person do this last year. I will post your plans beforehand, and then post your final summary at the end too (plus you will also be eligible for the bribe prize!).

So with this post, I have hopefully “planted the seed.” The next step is to think about it all and discuss it with your family. When I get the Mr. Linky post up next week then you can sign up and commit yourself to the challenge!

Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, March 17, 2008 9:01 pm

I spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of reducing children’s television viewing, but I don’t always say much about HOW to do it. For us, it has always been pretty easy. Since my children have never had TV, they don’t miss it. Definitely the easiest way to go.

But how do you reduce or eliminate TV-watching when your children are used to it, and most likely really enjoy it? I imagine that this could require some…hmmm…”delicate handling.”

Of course for the very strong among you, cold-turkey is always an option. While you’re at it, cold showers, 10-mile winter hikes, and cod liver oil are probably good for kids too. But let’s be real here: is it really worth it? The resulting drama, weeping and wailing that could possibly occur, might make life not worth living for the parents! So what can parents do to reduce TV-time without undue suffering?

Jonah Lisa has some ideas. She wrote an interesting and witty post about how her son Huck’s television-viewing gradually and insidiously increased. Finally, caught in a “shame spiral” about his viewing-time, she decided to take action and came up with a very practical TV-reduction plan (her “7 Step TV Trap Action Plan”). Last I heard, the plan has been in place for a week and seems to be working with minimal misery for all!

I will not list her ideas here since they are her ideas, not mine. Instead I will send any of you interested readers over to The Toby Show to read Jonah Lisa’s “7 Step TV Trap Action Plan” for yourselves. Her post is entertaining and the advice is great! Please stop by if you have any interest at all in reducing your children’s TV-viewing.

One last thought: National TV-Turn Off Week is coming soon (April 21st-27th), so if you plan on giving it a go, now might be a good time to begin, or at least think about decreasing TV-dependency, so that turning it off for one whole week is not quite such a shock!

Photo courtesy of morguefile and photographer Kristine Kisky.

Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, February 27, 2008 9:01 pm

Tomorrow morning (February 28, 2008) on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, a story will air that is a natural extension of the NPR piece that I wrote about on February 21st in my post: Imaginative Play and Cognitive Function. According to the February 21st piece, children today no longer engage in imaginative, creative play. Unfortunately it turns out that imaginative play is essential for the formation of self-control and self-regulation. These are obviously very important skills in life and are a more accurate predictor of success in school than is IQ.

Tomorrow’s NPR story, Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control, describes a preschool program based on the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, entitled “Tools of the Mind” (currently being implemented in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Oregon). The program was developed by Dr. Elena Bodrova and Dr. Deborah Leong of the Metropolitan State College of Denver.

According to the description of the program on the Metropolitan State College of Denver website, Lev Vygotsky believed that

… until children learn to use mental tools, their learning is largely controlled by the environment: they attend only to the things that are the brightest or loudest and they can remember something only if has been repeated many times. AFTER children master mental tools, they can become in charge of their own learning by attending and remembering in an intentional and purposeful way. Similar to how using mental tools transforms children’s cognitive behaviors, they can also transform their physical, social and emotional behaviors. From being “slaves to the environment,” children become “masters of their own behavior.” As children are taught and practice an increasing number of various mental tools, they transform not only their external behaviors, but also their minds, leading to the emergence of higher mental functions.

Alix Spiegel’s NPR report describes a visit to the Geraldyn O. Foster Early Childhood Center in Bridgeton, N.J. where the Tools of the Mind program is being implemented for preschoolers. The point of the Tools of the Mind program is to intensively build “executive function” (ie. “self-regulation”) skills. Please read the NPR transcript for a detailed description of the activities observed at the center. It is quite interesting.

Adele Diamond, executive function researcher and professor of developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, has observed and studied the Tools of the Mind program (she is in no way affiliated with the program). Here is her description of the first time she observed a Tools of the Mind class:

“I was totally blown away. The kids were sitting together working quietly. It was like a second-grade classroom instead of a preschool classroom. I couldn’t believe it.”

Ms. Diamond conducted a study following 147 preschoolers for two years. Half the children were in enrolled in a Tools of the Mind class, the other half were enrolled in a regular preschool curriculum. After two years, the children were all given an executive function assessment. The results? The regular school kids performed roughly “at chance” while the Tools kids did much better (about 85% correct).

Could reduced executive function skills be a contributing factor to the rising number of kids diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)? Ms. Diamond and a few other researchers think so. Professor Diamond says:

“I think a lot of kids get diagnosed with ADHD now, not all but many just because they never learned how to exercise self-control, self-regulation, the executive functions early.”

This is really fascinating to me, but sad. How could today’s children have lost all their natural and apparently important imaginative play behavior? Why do we have to have programs like Tools of the Mind to help these children self-regulate?

Is it because today’s kids spend much of their free time watching TV, playing video games and taking formal, adult-lead instruction for sports or other extra-curricular, “enrichment” activities? That’s what executive function researchers seem to think.

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Be sure to listen to the story tomorrow morning (February 28) on NPR’s Morning Edition, or check the transcript page for a link to the audio version.

Links:

Metropolitan State College of Denver

Tools of the Mind Program

Lev Vygotsky

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Photo courtesy of morguefile.com and photographer tangle_eye.

Comments (10)

By Mom Unplugged, February 21, 2008 3:31 pm

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On NPR’s Morning Edition this morning was a VERY interesting story (“Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills“) about how children’s play has changed in the last century. Instead of engaging in self-directed, imaginative, improvised play, play has become centered around toys and the latest movie or TV show: “Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch” they play “Star Wars with a toy light saber.”

Commercialization is only partly to blame, as child safety has become more of a concern in recent years. Parents are now more reluctant to let their children run loose around the neighborhood. They enroll kids in structured, adult-lead activities.

This change in play-habits has actually changed children’s brains according to researchers. Imaginative play helps kids develop what is known as “executive function,” which is a cognitive skill necessary for self-regulation (controlling emotions and behavior, resisting impulses, and exercising self-control and discipline).

Read this interesting excerpt from the NPR piece:

We know that children’s capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn’t stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at the National Institute for Early Education Research says, the results were very different.

“Today’s 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today’s 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago,” Bodrova explains. “So the results were very sad.”

According to executive function researcher, Laura Berk: “Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.” In fact, good executive function is a more reliable predictor of success in school than IQ. Poor executive function leads to high dropout rates, drug use, and crime. Of course there must be a middle ground here, but the better a child’s ability to self-regulate, the better they will perform in school, and in life.

So here is yet another reason to turn off the TV, ignore the terrible whines, agonizing howls of boredom and claims of inhumane parental treatment and see what happens. They just might surprise you with the games they come up with on their own. And…they will be improving their executive function skills!

I urge you to listen to this fascinating NPR piece (7 min 50 sec), or at least read the online transcript.

+ Some suggestions for activities that promote self-regulation:

(from researchers Deborah Leong, professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver, Elena Bodrova, senior researcher with Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning, and Laura Berk, professor of psychology at Illinois State University, found on the transcript page of the NPR website):

- Play “Simon Says”

- Encourage “complex imaginative play” (child plans and acts out scenarios, invents own props, etc. Best if play lasts for several hours)

- Activities that require planning (the examples given are: games with directions, patterns for construction, recipes for cooking)

- Read storybooks with your children

- Encourage children to talk to themselves (“fosters concentration, effort, problem-solving, and task success”)

+ A related Unplug Your Kids post: Let Your Kids be Bored

(Photo (taken in Madagascar) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and photographer Harald Kreutzer.)

Comments (5)

By Mom Unplugged, February 13, 2008 3:44 pm

CJ of Resources 4 Home-Education (a great blog by the way with lots of links to educational resources!) left me a comment today with a very interesting link. The link is to a Reuters article entitled: Psychologist Warns of Educational Television Myth. Thank you CJ!

Psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman, author of Remotely Controlled: How Television is Damaging Our Lives is waging a battle against so-called educational television for children, what he calls “recreational junk food.” According to Dr. Sigman, the brains of young children who are exposed to screen time (be it TV, computers or DVD/video) are physically developing in a less healthy way despite any actual learning that might occur as a result of this screen exposure.

He says: “There is a definite inverse relationship between time spent watching any kind of television or screen when you are young and your ability to read and concentrate when you are older.”

He believes that the sensory complexity of TV, video and computer games (rapidly changing images, colors, noises, etc.) is having a detrimental effect on the wiring of the child’s brain and is producing children with shorter attention spans. This claim is backed up by a study that I wrote about here: Children’s Behavioral Problems Linked to TV.

Dr. Sigman also says:

Studies of brain activity have shown that a child doing simple mental arithmetic with coloured counters or beans has greater blood flow to the brain than one engaged what may look like a far more complex computer game… It may well be that your child learns from the TV that a certain country is in Africa, but that may well also come at the cost of doing something to their attention span…(w)hereas if a parent is talking to their children about geography or nature, they can learn without that risk and will physically exercise their brains in the process.

Do Dr. Sigman’s kids watch TV? “My children have candy sometimes, and television is just like candy, it’s recreational junk food…(b)ut it’s a complete myth that children somehow inherently need TV — otherwise they would be born with a television built into their stomachs, just like the Tellytubbies”.

Yet again, the old adage “all things in moderation” seems to be good advice!