The global environmental crisis is overwhelming, but showing children how they can take care of their immediate environment can empower them to feel like they can make a difference.
The experience that babies get from eavesdropping on their mother’s conversations in utero helps their brain tune into the language that they will learn to speak once they are born.
Emily Nunnell/The Conversation CC-BY-ND
Using a sing song voice helps babies tell the difference between words like ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’.
Behaviours identified as early as kindergarten are clues about larger contexts that have lifelong consequences for individuals and society.
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A regular family ritual like a dinner and games night contributes to the rhythm and predictability of life and becomes part of a family’s unique DNA.
Don’t fret if your kids are starting to doubt Santa’s magic. Coming to disbelieve is not particularly distressing for them and most come to their own conclusions.
When your kids stop believing, it’s probably harder on you than on them.
Children in the Willows forest nature program in the Humber Valley in west Toronto are drawn to water and sticks, simple materials for exploring and investigating. Here the children explore water accumulated from spring rains.
(Louise Zimanyi)
When parents walk in the forest with their children and us and see how children are drawn to spiral snails, together we see how connections with the land are critical for the Earth’s future.
It can be hard to tell whether what’s in the box will encourage development or just be a waste of time.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
There’s a spectrum of quality when it comes to what kids can do with screen time. An expert in early childhood technology suggests picking tech activities that promote problem-solving and fun.
It’s important for kids to move and play.
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Research has started to identify the key factors in creating communities that promote good early childhood development.
Encouraging children to make and use a range of maps helps develop their spatial skills, great if they want to read an x-ray, design a building or put up flat-pack furniture later in life.
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It’s never too early for children to develop their spatial skills, vital if they want to one day design buildings, put up flat-pack furniture or cut a birthday cake. Here’s how you can help at home.
Conversations about gender and stereotypes can start at home, while playing in the sandpit.
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Taryn Morrissey, American University School of Public Affairs
Even though child care costs more than college tuition in many states, college affordability seems to get more attention. Here’s why that needs to change.
Childhood adversity doesn’t just affect our choices – according to new research, it also weakens the body’s fundamental ability to stay healthy in old age.
New research shows that both younger and older siblings uniquely contribute to each others’ empathy development.
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Empathy in children can be fostered. Researchers offer three strategies for parents and other caregivers to promote a climate of empathy in the home or classroom.
Clips of Peppa Pig on YouTube aren’t always what you expect them to be.
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More than 300 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute - and many children’s clips are unauthorised, sneaky or even disturbing. Being aware is the first step.
Learning a language in a classroom is best for early teenagers.
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Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary
Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE) and Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto