Parental concerns that Minions given as toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals have been dropping the F-bomb raises an issue: how far – if at all – should we go to prevent children from exposure to “bad” language?
We want our children to be able to argue rationally.
Stefan Lins/flickr CC BY-NC
A UNICEF report says global progress on child survival and reducing poverty has left behind some of the world’s poorest children.
Children need to get involved in classroom decisions that affect them, rather than just answering questions when prompted to do so.
Thomas Mukoya /Reuters
Naseema Shaik, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
At its simplest, participation is about allowing children to get involved in making decisions that affect their own lives and their own learning experiences.
Makies was the first company to respond to the #ToyLikeMe social media campaign.
Image courtesy of MyMakie
Makies, the #toyslikeme campaign and the broader focus on disability in digital spaces show we are in the midst of a significant shift towards an inclusive world view of disability.
Many people are shocked by what children are willing to share about themselves online. Is it that they don’t understand privacy, or just have a different conception of it compared to adults?
A traditionalist view of childhood has created certain fears among adults regarding children and technology.
www.shutterstock.com
Fairy tales have happy endings. They may be dark and scary but the prince always finds Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood susses out the big bad wolf. Right? All too often many assume that fairy stories…
Sometimes the inhibitions of educators can stand in the way of kids’ creativity.
Mikael Wiman/Flickr
Many adults believe they are not artistic and feel nervous about visual art. They vividly recall the moment when a teacher or family member discouraged their efforts to creatively express their ideas through…
The No Gender December campaign suggests that the gender stereotyping of toys restricts children’s creativity and development.
Tracheotomy Bob
“I didn’t encourage my daughter to play with Barbie dolls and dress up in flouncy fairy costumes, but she just gravitated toward them.” When confronted with the idea that gendered marketing and stereotypes…
Not unlike the bear himself, the film Paddington has had a long and bumpy ride to the big screen. Paddington’s movie, like the character, unwittingly left a marmalade smeared paw print on the delicate…
Happy families - but only 6,000 of 92,000 children in care were adopted last year.
Shutterstock
National Adoption Week is upon us and we are again being asked to consider becoming adoptive parents to a child in care. In the past four years the week to recruit adopters has quadrupled, leading to a…
Evidence shows children are getting less unsupervised time outdoors.
Brian Yap (葉)/Flickr
Earlier this year, an American mother was arrested for allowing her nine year old daughter to play unsupervised in a park while she finished her shift at work. Even though this story got a lot of press…
Daily interactions require bargaining, be it for food, money or even making plans. These situations inevitably lead to a conflict of interest as both parties seek to maximise their gains. To deal with…
Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder of his wife Allison has helped put the spectre of domestic violence firmly back in the national spotlight. How prevalent is it?
AAP/Dan Peled
Once a hidden crime, domestic violence has in recent years emerged as a mainstream criminal justice issue in Australia. Cases such as Queensland man Gerard Baden-Clay’s murder of his wife Allison and the…
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary
Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Paediatrician at the Royal Childrens Hospital and Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist, University of Melbourne and MCRI, Murdoch Children's Research Institute