Comfort In the Fear of Halloween

I came across the article, "This Halloween, Banish The Boo For Anxious Children" recently and it came to my attention in an interesting way. Most people are excited for the fall season, carving pumpkins, cute sweaters, and hot chocolate! Growing up I always looked forward to this time of the year because it meant time inside spent with friends and family. Halloween is just the beginning of this wonderful season, but something I never thought about was it could bring genuine fear. Yes, Halloween is correlated with scary things, but I always felt it was the type of scary that happens for fun. This article speaks about different techniques of how to avoid the anxiety produced in some children by this holiday. 

I feel this article speaks of very effective methods, especially because it resonates with what I believe is so beautiful about this holiday and season. Time spent together with people you care about. It talks about having children spend time with others, " 1. Host a Halloween Party: Avoid complicated trick or treating for your socially anxious child. Have a special, small party at your home that you can control and scale down the massive neighborhood spectacle.

4. The Buddy System: Encourage your children to invite a favorite friend to join the trick or treating. By being proactive, the social anxiety can be avoided."

Another tip that I thought was effective was planning. Making sure your kid feels that the night will be a good one, that they have a sense of security. "2. Write a Social Story: Anxious tweens and teens can benefit from an easy-to-understand social story that maps out the holiday and allows for pre-planning.

3. Create a Time-Based Schedule: With your child, plot out the evening starting with getting dressed up and ending with counting candy at the kitchen table. Schedule to the rescue!" The more I read the different actions you can take to help your kid the more I agreed because at first I wouldn't think much of the fear part, because of so many good experiences, but then I realized that these are good possibilities of why I enjoyed the holiday so much. Each Halloween was predictable for me, I would go with friends, go to Halloween parties, get ready with friends and come home and eat candy. It was familiar, routine, and comfortable. Im not saying that if I didn't have those experiences I would have been crippled with fear of the holiday, but they may have contributed in my good experiences. With that noted, these things could definitely help someone else who doesn't have as much fun during this time of the year.   

Article: http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/worrier-warrior/201410/halloween-banish-the-boo-anxious-children

E-books and Kids

Technology has become a dominant part of modern society. We use it to communicate and to advance in the world we live in. I came across this article about technology and how it affects children's abilities in reading. I found it very interesting because it made me realize how technology affects most parts of our lives. Right now i am typing on my iPod which i will then upload onto the internet. I see my grades online, i type assignments using a computer, I communicate with my parents and friends through my cellphone, and i even spend my free time on the internet. Modern day society is saturated with technology. 

As useful as technology could be, can it really take the role of books in a child's development in their ability to read? "But a handful of new studies suggest that reading to a child from an electronic device undercuts the dynamic that drives language development." The question i come to ask is now that we are coming up with all of this new technology how quickly should we integrate it into our lives and how we learn?  If it's resulting badly should we continue? The article also states, "And there isn’t any data, really, on e-books." Without really knowing the effects of e-books should we really teach our kids with them? I personally am a fan of pen to paper and reading physical books, but I also see that technology and electronics have helped us advance greatly in this world. "There’s a lot of interaction when you’re reading a book with your child,' Dr. High said. 'You’re turning pages, pointing at pictures, talking about the story. Those things are lost somewhat when you’re using an e-book.' In a 2013 study, researchers found that children ages 3 to 5 whose parents read to them from an electronic book had lower reading comprehension than children whose parents used traditional books. Part of the reason, they said, was that parents and children using an electronic device spent more time focusing on the device itself than on the story (a conclusion shared by at least two other studies)." The article talks about how kids need the interaction and the physical turning of the page to grasp the concept of reading and understanding of what they're doing. "A study by the University of Wisconsin in 2013 found that 2-year-olds learned words faster with an interactive app as opposed to one that required no action." This also confirms that toddlers need the interaction to learn the words and how to read better. Physical books cannot compare to tapping a screen and listening to sound in a sense that the book has one purpose, to be read, versus the e-book that provides a lot of extra things in addition to the actual reading part; we are still figuring out whether or not that is detrimental for a toddler who is learning how to read. 

We don't want our kids to have the lower hand in education, we want them to excel and fulfill their full potential. So much of our lives are already on devices, should we add reading and learning onto the list; especially at such a young age where the kids are more concerned with the device than the actual reading? With these studies coming out and turning the red light on for e-books and reading for toddlers, should we continue to integrate it into our kids learning process?

Article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/us/is-e-reading-to-your-toddler-story-time-or-simply-screen-time.html