Time to Read

Mark-My-Time is the kind of simple, brilliant product you’ll wish you’d thought of first. A small timer mounted atop a brightly-colored, durable plastic bookmark can be set to count either up or down, helping kids monitor their reading times in a fun way. The timer can record up to 100 hours of reading before it is reset. An additional feature, a 60-second countdown/up clock, is useful for fluency exercises. The current edition of Mark-My-Time also includes small reading lights mounted above the timer for reading on road trips or in bed.

These bookmarks are great tools for readers who need a bit of encouragement to stick with it for a few more minutes. It can be intensely gratifying for students to realize how much time they’ve spent reading over the course of a few days or weeks.

Mark-My-Time is fairly easy to use, but students will likely benefit from a grown-up’s help and direction during their first few uses before they get the hang of it.

Some children may find the timer distracting and limit their focus to the numerical display rather than the page, so Mark-My-Time may not be ideal for everyone. As always, The Yellin Center strongly advocates a highly-individualized and research-supported approach to managing children's learning profiles.

Mark-My-Time

Neuroscience & The Classroom

Dr. Yellin is a featured faculty member in an exciting new initiative from Annenberg Learner, a program "to advance excellent teaching in American schools through the development and distribution of multimedia resources for teaching and learning." Annenberg Learner is one of many projects of the Annenberg Foundation, whose mission is to assist nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. and the world, with a focus on improved communication and education.

The course in which Dr. Yellin is featured is Neuroscience & the Classroom: Making Connections, designed to help K-12 teachers learn more about the field of Mind, Brain, and Education, and to thereby become better able to understand the continually growing body of scientific information about how brains work and how students learn.

Among the other speakers featured in this series are Kurt Fischer, Director for the Mind, Brain, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Matthew H. Schneps,  director of the Laboratory for Visual Learning at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who has been previously featured in this blog; Dr. Todd Rose, a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he teaches a course on educational neuroscience, as well as a research scientist at CAST (the Center for Applied Special Technology), Dr. Antonio Damasio, who directs the University of Southern California Brain and Creativity Institute, and numerous others.

The course materials are available for free as streaming video, with downloadable written materials. The materials can also be purchased from Annenberg Learner in other formats, along with printed course material.

Watch an interview with Dr. Yellin from the series about creating a common language shared by neuroscientists and educators (depending on your browser, you may need to page down on the linked page to the appropriate link).

KidRex Lets Kids Roam The Internet Safely

KidRex is a useful search tool for parents and teachers worried about letting children run loose online.

Users can type any search criteria into the field on the appealing homepage, and the resulting pages will each be screened by Google SafeSearch for adult content before they are displayed. Sites geared towards children are emphasized in searches; for example, a search for “Africa” turned up several pages by PBS Kids first before listing denser results like Wikipedia farther down.

Set KidRex as your kids’ homepage to allow children to explore their online world in safety.

Brain Structure and Function in ADHD

Recent findings presented at a November meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and reported in the Wall Street Journal revealed that children with diagnosed attention difficulties showed functional differences in a key part of the brain associated with important aspects of mental controls. The study looked at 19 children with attention difficulties, and a control group of 23, and conducted functional MRI scans to look at how their brains functioned when engaged in a memory task.

The fMRI scans revealed that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain that coordinates mental activity, functioned differently in children with attention difficulties.

Another recent study, from researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center (associated with the NYU School of Medicine, where Dr. Yellin is on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics), indicated that adults who were diagnosed with attention problems during their childhood have physically different brain structures, including decreased cortical thickness and gray matter volumes.

When considered together along with other studies indicating structural differences in areas such as the caudate nucleus (which plays an important role in memory and learning), a body of knowledge about differences in brain structures and functions in individuals who struggle with attention is beginning to emerge.

Gratitude and Kindness

This week's New York Times Science section surveys research on how expressing gratitude -- by doing such things as keeping a journal of things you have appreciated, or by doing something nice for someone else -- can have a beneficial impact on how people view themselves and others.

It reminds us of an ad we have seen on TV recently in which someone observes a stranger doing a good deed -- from opening a door for someone to helping a neighbor rake leaves. In each instance, the observer goes on to do his or her own good deed, which is observed by someone else, who is then moved to do a kindness, and so on. It's corny, but now we know that this kind of "paying it forward" is actually supported by research.

Christine Carter, Ph.D a sociologist, and director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Parents program (part of the Greater Good Science Center which "studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society") notes that fostering gratitude in teens is particularly difficult, because this age group is moving to separate from their parents, a process that doesn't translate into appreciating their parents -- or anyone else. She suggests that for teens, parents focus on fostering kindness rather than specifically urging gratitude. She also urges parents to allow for sarcasm and humor when teens express themselves, since the concept of gratitude still gets through.

So, as we sit down to celebrate with family and friends tomorrow, we will try to honor the spirit of Thanksgiving and hope that you and your family have a happy and thankful day!

Thanksgiving Children's Book Recommendations

On our list of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving are some terrific children’s books. They’ll be sure to set the mood for your celebrations this year, as you and your family take time to reflect on all the reasons you have to be grateful.

Yellin Center Recommended Thanksgiving Books

Fancy Nancy: Our Thanksgiving Banquet by Jane O’Connor

(ages 4 and up, and older kids can read this on their own)
Fancy Nancy helps her family prepare for a fantastic Thanksgiving meal, with all her usual flair. Comes with stickers!

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano
(preschool - 3rd grade)
A terrified turkey attempts to disguise himself to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner in this silly story, complete with a happy ending.

The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
(ages 4 and up)
This classic chronicles the struggles of the pilgrims during their first year at Plymouth Colony, their friendship with Native Americans like Squanto, and the first, three-day long Thanksgiving celebration.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
(ages 4 and up)
 In this zany rewritten version of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, children on a school field trip to a farm are troubled to learn about the impending fate of the turkeys they meet there. This funny story, full of Pilkey’s trademark humor, is sure to please both kids and parents.

Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House #27) by Mary Pope Osborne
(ages 6 and up to read on their own)
Jack and Annie travel back to the first Thanskgiving Day in 1621, where they learn about life in Plymouth.

Little Critter: Just So Thankful by Mercer Mayer
(ages 3 and up)
Although Little Critter is initially jealous of the kid down the street who seems to have everything, he learns that there is much to be thankful for in this charming book

Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl, Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy, and Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times, by Kate Waters
(ages 4 and up; students in grades 4 and up can read it on their own)  
Through a series of photographs taken in a recreated colony, Waters teaches about the lives of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.

The Yellin family's Thanksgiving tradition includes an early start to the day, enjoying breakfast with family overlooking the route of the famed Macy's parade in Manhattan. This year, the younger children in the clan will be able to read a new book by Melissa Sweet, Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade, which tells the story of the parade and the man who began the tradition in the 1920s (ages 4 and up).

Study: Fast-Paced Cartoons May Slow Children’s Executive Functioning

Few parents would argue that watching television is a beneficial activity for their kids, but many assume it is a harmless way to keep children engaged for relatively brief periods of time.

A recent study led by Professor Angeline Lillard and Jennifer Peterson of the University of Virginia, and reported in the journal Pediatrics, found that certain kinds of television viewing by young children may not be so benign and may, in fact, have a significant negative impact on children.

The study examined 60 four year olds, mostly white and middle or upper-middle class in background, and found that their executive functioning – their ability to maintain attention, control behavior, and solve problems – was severely compromised after just nine minutes of watching a fast-paced cartoon (in this case, the popular Sponge-Bob Squarepants). Other groups of children spent nine minutes watching Caillou, a realistic cartoon that moves at a slower pace, or drawing without watching television at all.

Psychologists administered assessments immediately after the nine-minute interval, testing to see how well the children solved problems, followed rules, remembered what they had been told, and were able to delay gratification. The drawing and Caillou groups performed similarly, while the Sponge-Bob group lagged far behind.

The authors note that their study raises important implications about the learning and behavior of young children. They caution parents that what children watch may affect their life-long executive functioning. However, it should be noted that the study investigated only the immediate effects of fast-paced television shows and did not probe long-term results, although the authors did reference the findings of earlier studies which indicate that the impact of television watching may have some longer-term impact.

Professor Lillard has created a Q & A site that offers guidance for parents based upon the findings of her study.


Photo used under Creative Commons by Phil Campbell