Know about Autism found in Children

Autism is a brain development disorder characterised by a set of behaviours that affect individuals differently. There are three main types of autism spectrum disorder: Asperger's syndrome, Pervasive developmental disorder, and Autistic disorder. And two rare, severe autistic-like conditions: Rett syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder.

Children with autism are withdrawn, in a world of their own. Children suffering from autism can be helped with appropriate intervention and increased awareness in society. Symptoms may vary from moderate to severe. One needs to look out for when trying to detect autism at home and ensure that the child gets treatment early before it becomes a serious problem that stays within the cortex when they become young adults.

Children with autism start to show difficulty in maintaining social interactions with others around them. Moreover, they prefer to be left alone, all by themselves. They tend to remain within their nut shell and avoid contact with others by displaying unusual eye contact. They also demonstrate difficulty in verbal and nonverbal communications resulting in a hard time to cope up in school.

Children suffering from autism show symptoms of extreme distress for no apparent reason and posses a short attention span. Besides, they have difficulty taking turns in turn-taking games or activities. Moreover, they enjoy rotating or spinning object, or lining up objects. They keep themselves occupied with objects such as knobs, switches, wheels.

Autistic children suffer from communication problems, display signs of difficulty to start or maintain a social conversation. They tend to communicate with gestures instead of words. Moreover, they slowly develop language and repeat words or memorized passages. For instance when encountered with a commercial, they would keep repeating it. This inability to demonstrate verbal and nonverbal communications makes situations worse at school.

Autistic children should be dealt with care and not considered as disabled. Children can overcome the problem of autism if treated well in time with patience.

http://www.edarticle.com/articles/35639/know-about-autism-found-in-children.php

Noelia Rodríguez

  The Mulitple Effects of School Bullying

"Children that expereince hostility, abuse, physical discipline and other aggressive behaviors by their parents are more likely to model that behavior in their peer relationships," he writes. "Children learn from their parents how to behave and interact with others," Cerullo says. "So if they are learning about aggression and angry words at home, they will tend to use these behaviors as coping mechanisms when they interact with other children in school, the playground, or their after school activities." 


School bullying has become a widespread social phenomenon involving both individual and group variables. The present study was aimed at analyzing how students' perception of a bullying episode might be influenced by group and context variables. A convenience sample of 355 adolescents read a short story, in which the in-group role (Bully vs. Victim) and level of teacher likeability (high vs. low) were manipulated. Participants were asked to evaluate their own group and an out-group, in terms of four dependent variables: liking, right to use the basketball court, attribution of blame, and attribution of punishment. Current data showed a strong participant in-group bias and a generalized tendency to favor the in-group, especially when it was the victimized group. Conversely, the manipulation of teacher likeability did not affect students' perception of bullying, except for girls' attribution of punishment. Lastly, a clear gender effect emerged, in that boys accepted physical bullying more readily than girls did, except amonh middle school gilrs. Results are discussed in terms of group dynamics and pre-adolescent social identity concerns.

Many children in schools today report having frequent headaches or tummy aches, anxiety, depression, and fear that they sleep poorly, wet the bed, or feel sad, as a result of being bullied. Children who report these symptoms also report being bullied substantially more often than do their peers. Although it is not clear whether the association is causal, health professionals seeing such children should ask about bullying.

Nearly 3 out of every 4 high school teenagers say they were bullied online at least once during a recent 12-month period, and only 1 out of every 10 reported such cyber-bullying to parents or other adults, according to CDC.

Of those who were bullied online, eight-percent also have been bullied at school, the psychologists found. The probability of getting bullied online was substantially higher for those who have been the victims of school bullying.  Rather than threatening a child with physical violence, these bullies target a child's social status and relationships by shunning them, excluding them from social activities or spreading rumors, said Victoria Demis a local high school student. In the middle school, nearly half the sixth graders in two local area public schools say they were bullied by classmates during a five-day period, and or assulted after school.  We must esbalish more proactive approaches when dealing with bullying.

 http://www.edarticle.com/articles/35639/know-about-autism-found-in-children.php

Maira Pioli 

 

                                  Mother Teresa

Synopsis

Baptized on August 27, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, Mother Teresa taught in India for 17 years before she experienced her 1946 "call within a call" to devote herself to caring for the sick and poor. Her order established a hospice; centers for the blind, aged, and disabled; and a leper colony. She was summoned to Rome in 1968, and in 1979 received the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work.

Early Life

Catholic nun and missionary Mother Teresa was born circa August 26, 1910 (her date of birth is disputed), in Skopje, the current capital of the Republic of Macedonia. On August 27, 1910, a date frequently cited as her birthday, she was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Mother Teresa's parents, Nikola and Dranafile Bojaxhiu, were of Albanian descent; her father was an entrepreneur who worked as a construction contractor and a trader of medicines and other goods. The Bojaxhius were a devoutly Catholic family, and Nikola Bojaxhiu was deeply involved in the local church as well as in city politics as a vocal proponent of Albanian independence.

In 1919, when Mother Teresa was only 8 years old, her father suddenly fell ill and died. While the cause of his death remains unknown, many have speculated that political enemies poisoned him. In the aftermath of her father's death, Mother Teresa became extraordinarily close to her mother, a pious and compassionate woman who instilled in her daughter a deep commitment to charity.

Although by no means wealthy, Drana Bojaxhiu extended an open invitation to the city's destitute to dine with her family. "My child, never eat a single mouthful unless you are sharing it with others," she counseled her daughter. When Mother Teresa asked who the people eating with them were, her mother uniformly responded, "Some of them are our relations, but all of them are our people."

Religious Calling

Mother Teresa attended a convent-run primary school and then a state-run secondary school. As a girl, Mother Teresa sang in the local Sacred Heart choir and was often asked to sing solos. The congregation made an annual pilgrimage to the chapel of the Madonna of Letnice atop Black Mountain in Skopje, and it was on one such trip at the age of 12 that Mother Teresa first felt a calling to a religious life. Six years later, in 1928, an 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and set off for Ireland to join the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was there that she took the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

A year later, Mother Teresa traveled on to Darjeeling, India for the novitiate period; in May 1931, Mother Teresa made her First Profession of Vows. Afterward she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at Saint Mary's High School for Girls, a school run by the Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching girls from the city's poorest Bengali families. Mother Teresa learned to speak both Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and dedicated herself to alleviating the girls' poverty through education.

On May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's principal. Through her kindness, generosity and unfailing commitment to her students' education, she sought to lead them to a life of devotion to Christ. "Give me the strength to be ever the light of their lives, so that I may lead them at last to you," she wrote in prayer.

Review of Middle School Physical Science Texts

John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu

Purpose
The purpose of this grant was to review and critique the physical science in Middle School (grades 6, 7, and 8, although some schools called Junior High designate grades 7, 8, and 9) science textbooks with regard to the scientific accuracy, adherence to an accurate portrayal of the scientific approach, and the appropriateness and pedagogic effectiveness of the material presented for the particular grade level.We also noted such things as readability, attractiveness, quality of illustrations, and whether material such as laboratory activities, suggested home activities, exercises to test understanding, and resource suggestions where considered appropriate.

We want this report to be read so we have left in some of the humor, suggestions for improvement, references to available and often inexpensive tested materials, a variety of print styles, some references to aid teacher enhancement, some website addresses, and other reports of a similar nature.Early on we noted that listing all the errors would make this report much too long (over 500 pages) so we decided to set up a website dealing with errors in texts relevant to the Middle Schools. This website will be maintained after the grant ends as a service to teachers, potential authors, and publishers. We also noticed that publishers, when presented with lists of errors, suggest that their new printing or edition has taken care of those errors. Subsequent looks at these “new” books showed some corrections and often more errors. Teachers, of course, do not have access to the many printings and newer additions as they are often dealing with books from the same publishers that are five to ten years old. We can expect the same to happen with the dissemination of this report. The website should help.

Procedure

A letter was written to all the relevant publishers as determined by lists garnered from school districts that were considering or had recently considered adopting science textbooks for Middle School grades.In some instances three letters were sent to publishers at different addresses. The letter explained the project, asked for a company liaison with whom we could communicate during the project, and asked for copies of their texts at the Middle School level. No publisher responded. Several letters came back 'Undeliverable as addressed, forwarding order expired' and permutations on that theme. It appears that these addresses were temporary while decisions were being made and once a decision was made they left town. Telephone calls resulted in only two publishers willing to talk: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and South-Western Educational Publishing. The former publisher sent a complete set of texts and the latter sent a sample (1 out of 14 slim volumes.) Neither volunteered a liaison.

The reviewers, for the most part, were quite familiar with local school districts and publishers and were able to locate not only the latest texts, but also texts seven and over ten years old that were still being used in school districts. Recognizing that some Middle School teachers may have used these same books in earlier editions we decided to include them in our survey. Each major market text was reviewed by at least two reviewers and no two reviewers reviewed the same two books. A few other books used within smaller markets were also included to determine if there were distinguishing characteristics that might indicate a trend toward newer approaches that utilized findings from physics educational research. In addition a few books being used by teachers that were at a slightly higher level as resource material were looked at in a more casual way.

The reviewers all had physics and teaching backgrounds that varied from Middle School to graduate school. All had been involved in some way with the teachers and/or the curriculum at the Middle School level for many years. Many had presented papers at national and section meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and had served on various committees of that organization including The Committee on Pre-High School Physics. In addition, over 20 individuals, prompted by several talks by co-principal investigator (JLH), volunteered their experiences with texts, authors, and publishers. Although most were oral, some were written.



Dayana Montelongo - Jimena Damiano

Nutrition Facts Label: Read the Label Youth Outreach Campaign

Welcome to Read the Label, the “next generation” of FDA’s award-winning Spot the Block outreach campaign! Originally launched in 2007, this comprehensive program from the FDA has evolved into a nationwide grassroots initiative. Through this hands-on campaign, kids, families and community outreach leaders unite with the goal of using the Nutrition Fact Label as their everyday tool for making smart and healthful food choices.

The Read the Label Youth Outreach Campaign is an exciting initiative that challenges kids (ages 9 to 13) to look for and use the Nutrition Facts Label on food and beverage packages. The campaign includes fun, easy tips and targeted education to help make label reading a key component through which today’s young people are equipped to achieve a healthy childhood weight. With engaging content plus hands-on parent information and community outreach, kids and families across the U.S. can use the label to compare foods today and every day

Click aquì.

You are what you eat - even if you don't know what it is!

Food labelling to be made clearer and more relevant under new Commission proposal.

Labels should serve their purpose and clearly tell us what we want to know. Food labels are invaluable in informing our choice as consumers, covering everything from life-threatening conditions such as peanut allergies, to the more mundane, such as salt content or fat types.

Under a new Commission proposal, key information would have to be clearly displayed on the front of the package. Allergen labelling for peanuts, milk, mustard and fish would cover not only pre-packaged food but also food sold in restaurants, cafés, etc.

Clearer labelling helps us eat more healthily, as we can see exactly what we are getting. Under the new rules, information on energy, fat, carbohydrates, sugar and salt would have to declare the content per 100ml/g (or per portion of the product) and proportion of recommended daily allowances.

A proposed minimum print size of 3mm would mean that we need no longer strain to find the information we are looking for. Marketing slogans would no longer be allowed to detract from mandatory information.

Introducing the proposal, health commissioner Kyprianou explained "Food labels can have a huge influence on consumers' purchasing decisions. Confusing, overloaded or misleading labels can be more of a hindrance than a help to the consumer. Today's proposal aims to ensure that food labels carry the essential information in a clear and legible way, so that EU citizens are empowered to make balanced dietary choices".

Exttraido de http://www.englishspanishlink.com/parallel_texts_english_spanish/art_you_are_what_you_eat.htm

Art in the classroom

The Importance of Art in Child Development

By Grace Hwang Lynch

School curricula have shifted heavily toward common core subjects of reading and math, but what about the arts? Although some may regard art education as a luxury, simple creative activities are some of the building blocks of child development. Learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to the development of the next generation of children as they grow up.

Developmental Benefits of Art

Motor Skills: Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.

Language Development: For very young children, making art—or just talking about it—provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a “ball.” By elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork.

Decision Making: According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other parts of life. “If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom,” says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of numerous books about children’s art education.

Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet, which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists of cues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.

Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. “The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions,” says Kohl. “Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of thinking and making things better!”

Cultural Awareness: As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the media may also present mixed messages. “If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toy—the color, shape, texture of the hair,” says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s interpretation of reality.

Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.

Fuente: Clic aquí



COMENTARIO:

El texto es escrito por Graciela Hwang Lynch, y trata sobre los beneficios del arte en el desarrollo de los niños.
Siempre se ha dado mayor énfasis en las materias de lenguaje y matemática, dejando a las artes de lado. Mucho de eso se da por no saber lo importante que puede llegar a ser el arte para el desarrollo del niño.
Pienso que la importancia que le demos a la enseñanza del arte depende de todos los docentes, y lo que pueda aportar va a ser según cómo se enseñe.

QUESTIONS:

1- What are the benefits of art by Grace Hwang Lynch?
2- Art help the developer of the language. Why?
3- How old is better to learn art?
4- Do you think art is a good way to express? Why?

Bienvenidas !