Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with childdevelopment

"Teacher James, bathroom please!"

bardic — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:19:35 -0800

How can I become a better physical education teacher for kindergarten students who don't speak English? I'm teaching kindergarten at a private school in South Korea. After lunch we have "Activity Time" where the kids break into groups for PE, music, art, and English practice. As the only male foreign teacher, I was made the PE coordinator. I'm actually having fun doing it, but I'd appreciate any constructive criticism as to how I'm doing things. Among the kids, I have separate groups of five, six, and seven year-olds, and I adjust my lesson plans accordingly (the seven year-olds require a lot less in the way of structure and modeling).

The kids come in for roughly 35 minute sessions. We're on the 5th floor of a building, and going outside is not a possibility. However, we have a "gym" with padded floors and walls and a decent amount of padded blocks, ramps, and miniature stairs to build neat little obstacle courses. We also have modular equipment to make small balance beams, hoops to crawl through, and plastic rings to hop to and fro from. I think I've come up with some pretty good activities, but I'm curious as to whether or not I'm over-thinking certain things. I usually set up an activity for about 20-25 minutes, and then let the kids have "free play" where they can pretty much do what they want. This means they'll run around screaming and turning themselves into a sweaty mess before their next activity session. My boss would probably like me to structure the whole activity period, but my co-workers actually would like the kids to get a little crazier with me so that their energy is siphoned off even more before the next class (the parents probably don't mind either). They seem to have more fun playing on their own anyways. Any child development folks who can tell me what I'm doing wrong (or hopefully, right?).

Thanks in advance!

What can my wife do with her Child Development Degree and Teaching Credential

low affect — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:03:05 -0800

What can my wife do with her Child Development Degree and Teaching Credential besides Substitute Teach? We're in Long Beach, southern California. There are no full-time teaching jobs opening up around here any time soon.

It seems like every thing that she looks into pays around $12/hour and has long hours. Substituting pays around $25 and she's home by 3pm. The only problem is that there's no school in the summer.

She's waitressing right now.

She's pretty stressed about August and September when there are 0 substituting jobs available.

In a couple years this will be moot because I'll be able to handle it myself.

You guys have any ideas?

Listen again! Why do people listen to music repeatedly?

xchmp — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:15:48 -0800

Why do people enjoy listening to the same music much more often than they enjoy watching films or reading stuff repeatedly? How come children usually grow out of watching favourite videos over and over, and having favourite stories they want read to them, but remain happy to repeatedly listen to music? Watching films or particular episodes of TV shows over and over again is dull. Reading a book over and over is also dull. I'm happy to watch a film I've like again, but only after a year or two has passed. The same thing with reading books. But most people listen to the same music much more often than that. Commercial radio stations are pretty much built around this concept and have playlists that put particular songs into high rotation.

I don't think this is an issue with the duration of these things. I'm happy to listen to the same albums again without the same kind of gap between listenings as with other media. And I'm not happy reading a short-story or magazine article on anything like as regular a basis. I suspect this holds true with most people. Part of the reason people find commercials - even clever and amusings ones - annoying is their repetitiveness.

Children often have videos that they'll watch over and over again without getting bored, or particular stories they like to have read to them. The same kind of behaviour in adults would be considered obsessive. But they don't grow out of liking to hear the same songs repeatedly. Why does our tolerance for repeated exposure to film and stories change as we get older, but not our tolerance for songs?

Is there a neurological reason? Can it be explained by some interesting yet unverifiable evolutionary psychology narrative? What gives?

Writing without reading?

5MeoCMP — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:34:13 -0800

Can anyone suggest why my daughter can write just fine, but apparently can't read? My 4.5 year old daughter loves to write letters to her friends, as in 2-3 pages of 4-year-old scrawl (where sometimes the letters are all on top of each other, or turn corners to fit on the page, and so on). The spelling is entirely phonetic, and the grammar is all as spoken, of course, but it's legible to most people who've read kids writing before.

The think is, she doesn't read. She knows her letters, and can sound out 3-letter words with time, but just doesn't "get it" when presented with even 2 4-letter words on paper. If asked what they say, she'll often run away, curl up, or turn away and pretend not to be able to hear you.

In other ways, she's a normal kid. Curious, musical, likes to dance. A bit clumsy, occasionally shy and occasionally gregarious.

I always thought that kids learned to read before they learned to write. Any hints on what might be going on here? Note: I'm don't want to change her; but I am wondering if we should be prepared for anything.

Why do kids walk into people?

sweetkid — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:54:21 -0800

Why don't kids ever look where they're going? (this question is not anti kid). I've noticed quite often that kids don't look where they're going. I live in New York, and will often see kids just barrel through a crowd of people coming the opposite way, without moving to let people pass or really doing anything to acknowledge that there are obstacles to their forward momentum. They just don't do that street shuffle that we all know so well. They'll also point to things in stores without acknowledging other people's presence, possibly thwacking passersby in the shoulders or nose, until their parents remind them that there are people around and they should watch out.

I know that clearly little kids, say under five, do this often, and that's understandable because their whole frame of vision is on a different plane, and they're younger, etc. What confuses me is the older kids, say 8-10. I'm 29, and I feel like I remember being that age and having a general sense of people around me and personal space, etc. I could be wrong, though, I may have been just like this.

My question is--why do the non toddler kids do this? Do they really not notice or just not care? Is it social conditioning or something about their development? Do they do this with other kids? At what age do they stop doing this?

I'm just curious if there is some reason for this, I'm not trying to pick on kids. I have no kids myself. It occasionally annoys me, but mostly just confuses me--like, "Dude, you're ten and I'm pretty short. How do you not see you're walking right into me?"

Child development advice?

mullingitover — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:33:38 -0800

How can I influence the lives of my young nephew and niece in a positive way without being near them? My sister is a little crazy (but I love her). She has two children, Griffyn (age 4) and Phenyx (age >1). She lives on the other side of the country and I never get to see my wee relatives. I'm looking for ideas to help me have a profound and beneficial impact on their young lives, though I can't be with them in person. She has completely different (and imho silly, but I won't push this) ideas about religion, she being a semi-practicing Seventh-Day Adventist and I being a semi-practicing Buddhist.

I'd like to spark their interests in music, art, literature, the sciences, mathematics, and help them to be critical thinkers about religion, politics, and philosophy. Given their age, I have some time to plan this. However, I would like to get a head start in areas where starting young is truly beneficial (i.e. learning other languages, music, and perhaps math?)

What are the best ways to do this?

Who puts the 'oot' in 'aboot'?

docgonzo — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:11:29 -0800

How do accents work? I've always been fascinated by the forces that define and maintain accents in human populations ever since I noticed that kids at my school on Vancouver Island from Washington State sounded significantly different from those from BC.

I think the observation holds: There is a distinct Toronna accent -- and southern Ontario/ rural Ontario accent -- noticeably distinct from our brothers and sisters just down the 401 from Buffalo and upper New York State. And, of course, in the UK there is a huge number of accents.

But these sharp distinctions despite proximity don't seem, to me, to make total sense.

My question: Why do these accents persist? Is a child's accent determined solely by its parents or does mass culture play a significant part? Is there a physiological aspect to accents or is it all neurological or cultural? Will mass culture and immigration tend to homogenise accents or will they keep on? Thanks!