Education of Children

Deborah Brauser Maternal depression during an offspring’s childhood is significantly associated with risky health behaviors during adolescence, new research suggests. A study of almost 3000 mother-adolescent pairs showed significantly more «delinquent behaviors», including smoking, violence, and alcohol and illicit drug use, in offspring of women who suffered from depression when their children were 6 to 10 years of age. Interestingly, there were no significant associations between maternal depressive symptoms during a child’s adolescence and subsequent delinquent behaviors. «We expected that adolescents who had mothers who were depressed…would be most likely to be engaging in risky health behaviors since those children may be missing both the supervision and support that a parent can offer during an emotional time» , principal investigator Ian Colman, PhD, Canada Research Chair in mental health epidemiology and associate professor at the University of Ottawa, told Medscape Medical Ne...

Kids need to do some chores. All of us had to when we were kids ourselves. Some people disagree, but doing some chores that are appropriate to a child’s age and abilities can even help with building self confidence. Sharing the work, make it fun, laugh through it, kids will feel really good about the accomplishment when it’s done. These are learning skills that raise their self esteem and will serve your children well in the years ahead. In other words, it is a necessary part of instilling independence and responsibility within them. Doing chores means kids become empowered and capable of doing other things. An important point: Don’t re-do their work! If they think the dishwasher is full, then let them set it going. Eventually, they will figure out how to get all the dishes in, because that’s easier than doing two loads on one Saturday afternoon. Eventually, they will get tired of handwashing the dishes that come out with debris on them. They need the consequences of their actions to ...

A video has been made to convey the experience of living with autism . The video highlights the sensory overload experienced by many autistic people during everyday activities. Understand autism, the person and what to do. The short film, entitled 'Can you make it to the end? ', was released by The National Autistic Society to coincide with World Autism Awareness Day, April 2nd. Mostly shot in first person, i t was made to highlight the sensory overload that can affect people with autism, as part of the society’s Too Much Information campaign. It follows a report by the group which found around half of all autistic people - of which there are  700,000 in the UK -  and their families sometimes don’t leave the house because they worry about how people will react.  The video – best watched with headphones and on full screen - shows an autistic boy, played by 10-year-old Alexander Marshall, walking into a shopping centre with his mother. While the trip starts normally,...