Children up to age five get a lot of cues from facial expressions. That makes teaching in a mask challenging, but teachers can learn from strategies developed by masked pediatric nurses.
Under international human rights law, scaling back the quality of the education provided to children and youth ought to be avoided.
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Anne Levesque, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
If returning to in-person instruction is truly impossible for public health reasons, policy makers must make large financial expenditures on quality and accessible distance education.
Given what is now known about the mortality rates of COVID-19, the ongoing disruptions to children’s care, education and health are no longer justified.
During warm summer months, playing outside allows children and parents the chance to marvel at the natural world.
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Playful activities that involve choice, active engagement and moments of delight are what children need this summer during the pandemic.
Both when planning family activities and choosing a child care provider, parents should be mindful of how much physical activity their children are getting.
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When young children are active, their brains and bodies develop the ABCs of “physical literacy,” a key developmental foundation. A new program from University of Winnipeg can help.
Parents can help build children’s self-esteem by eliciting stories from them that position the child as the hero.
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As child-care centres start to reopen after the coronavirus disruption, planning needs to include disabled children so as not to further exacerbate existing inequities.
The interruption to young children’s learning is happening precisely at a time when developmental gains matter most.
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Remote contact with families in the coronavirus emergency is critical, but learning on a screen is not how young children will gain the foundational and developmental skills they need.
Canada needs to find economically efficient ways of supporting child care programs while incentivizing quality.
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Canada could emerge from this pandemic with a better quality, expanded and more efficient child-care system nationwide while making an investment with returns in the future.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity for us to rethink and redesign how schools support children’s social connections and opportunities for informal play and recreation.
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Global experts in child development say recess will be critical for children’s well-being when schools reopen, so education authorities should see planning recess as a high priority.
Scotland is making strides in improving its population’s social and physical well-being — by taking children’s early learning and care outside.
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Scotland is undertaking a child-care initiative to double the number of fully funded child-care hours available to parents, and outdoor play is part of it.
Caution tape is pictured surrounding a children’s play structure in North Vancouver, B.C., March 23, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
One father was fined for rollerblading with kids in a parking lot, while other families hit the cottage. Families’ backyard or property status should not determine kids’ right to outdoor play.
Children may be struggling with feelings of abandonment and a loss of security in their lives.
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Grief encompasses our emotional responses to change and loss, and children’s grief might be expressed in what psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described as the five common stages of grief.
If you discuss ideal parts of cocoa to sugar, you’ve just discussed ratios.
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Improving a child’s sense of numbers, and their understanding of probability, fractions, ratios, shapes and patterns, can all be incorporated into daily life or with simple games.
A child in The Willows land-based program in the Humber Valley, Toronto, walks with his group alongside GabeKanang Ziibi (Humber River).
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P.L.A.Y.: An acronym to remind you why letting children play is a responsible and critical way to support children’s development through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Screen time can benefit children over age two if it’s the right kinds of programming.
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With parents trying to work from home while schools and daycare services are closed, some children may get more screen time than usual during COVID-19 social distancing.
Millions of US kids are suddenly being taught outside the classroom.
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Encouraging kids to complete their work can be tough for families managing full-time work and family obligations on a tight budget. And that’s true even when schools are operating normally.
The extent to which parents and educators encourage children to think mathematically in the years before they enter grade one are critically important for math foundations.
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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
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary