Parenting Children's Talents

Personalize Your Unique Talent

Performance Anxiety: How Improving Balance Can Relieve Children's Anxiety

When children come to me because they are having problems performing in school, sports or the arts, their anxiety is often very visible.  Anxiety is the distress or uneasiness in someone's mind caused by a fear of danger or misfortune.  Sometimes the anxiety can be specific to the problem they face.  On the other hand, some children have high anxiety or uneasiness as a trait that shows up in many parts of their lives.

To address children's performance problems, I often use perceptual motor development activities that improve integrated mind and body functions such as balance and midline awareness.  While these methods are geared toward creating stronger coordination between the mind and body, I notice that they can reduce the stress and anxiety children experience.

Using Deadlines To Motivate Children

As parents, we have all witnessed our children getting very motivated to practice, complete a task or project when the deadline was immediately upon them.  While watching children wait until the last minute to get something done can drive parents crazy, the following summarizes a recent study that explains why approaching deadlines are a part of our natural motivation system.  After reading the following summary, you should think of ways you can use deadlines at home to get children to be more motivated and appreciate what they have.  Also, please post your comments about how you use deadlines to motivate your children.

Making the most of it: Study reveals motivating factor of deadlines

From EurekaAert, January 12, 2009

It is common knowledge that when something becomes scarce, its value goes up. This concept does not just apply to material goods—time can be an extremely valuable commodity, especially when it is in short supply. According to a new study, thinking that we have a limited amount of time remaining to participate in an activity makes us appreciate the activity that much more and motivates us to make the most of it.

Psychiatrist Examines Effects Of Video Game Play On Children

Parents often ask me what type and duration of video game play is appropriate for children compared to the time they spend on school work, talents and hobbies.  So, I have posted a summary from Medical News Today about a new book regarding the effects of video game play on children by psychiatrist Dr. Kourosh Dini.

From Medical News Today, January 13, 2009

Since the advent of faster game consoles, more realistic artwork and longer game play, two things have occurred in the video game market: it has grown into a record $1.7 billion industry, and the heated debate among the media, parents' groups, law makers, and game companies, over what effect videos games have on children - has gotten even hotter.

A new book, Video Game Play and Addiction: A Guide for Parents (iUniverse) aims to clarify both sides of the controversy, while offering the definitive assessment of video games' impact on children, including on their physical and emotional health, and educational and social development.

Ballerina: A Documentary That Is a Jewel To Help Dancers Learn

The dance documentary called Ballerina can be a jewel to help dancers learn about other dancers and themselves.  Many of my counseling clients benefit greatly from learning about the journey that other dancers experience.  One of the most important mental aspects of training and sacrificing is knowing you are experiencing the same highs and lows as others before you and around you.  This documentary can be inspirational and help dancers remember that they are not alone in their journey, but are a part of a unique group.

Documentary "Ballerina" Opens Tomorrow

From Meryl Cates at Dancer Blog
January 15, 2009

 After an appearance at the Dance On Camera festival, "Ballerina" will be opening at a limited number of movie theaters tomorrow, January 16th.  The film, shown alongside a number of dance-related movies, documentaries, and features, will now stand on its own as an intimate look into the lives of five Russian ballerinas.

For the ballet aficionados who are interested in the in-depth journey of a dancer, or for the ballet admirer who lusts after the glamour of the stage, the film intends to satisfy with their unique stories and experience...if nothing else, the dancing will be worth the watch.

Directed by Bertrand Norman, he sought to tell the story of the ballerinas at the Kirov, and the mystique of their lives behind the Maryinsky theater stage.  Following Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Alina Somova, and Evgenia Obraztsova through different points of their career, we see the complexity of everyday human emotions paralleled with their work and passion as a ballerina.

The 80-minute documentary takes on a mission that could easily become trite (the Russian ballerina has certainly been the focus of many films before), but aims to introduce something new with their personal stories and journeys. 

Education professor dispels myths about gifted children

From PhysOrg, January 13, 2009

Though not often recognized as "special needs" students, gifted children require just as much attention and educational resources to thrive in school as do other students whose physical, behavioral, emotional or learning needs require special accommodations. So says a Florida State University professor who has studied gifted students for years.

Kimberly Oliver: Used Her Interpersonal Talents To Become a Role Model

The 2006 National Teacher of the Year, Kimberly Oliver, showed deep compassion for educating children who live in poor, under-served communities. 

As she told the NY Times, “Raising student achievement for disadvantaged students is an issue that is special to me,” said Oliver, who teaches at a school with a diverse student population where poverty and/or language barriers are prevalent.  “A quality teacher can outweigh the effects of race, poverty, and language barriers.  Our most disadvantaged students deserve our most accomplished teachers.”

Oliver’s natural talents lead her to work in the interpersonal performance environment of education.  However, in order to be a good teacher, Oliver had to also develop the ability to self-reflect on her own values and passions.  Self-reflection comes from exploring our intrapersonal world of beliefs and vision.  Only through exploring herself could she understand others and become a model for what is possible in education.  

She is a good example of how a natural drive to work with others (interpersonal environment) may also require people to develop the capacity to first understand themselves (intrapersonal environment).
 

Memory Improved 20% by Nature Walk

New study finds that short-term memory is improved 20% by walking in nature, or even just by looking at an image of a natural scene.

From PsyBlog

I'm sitting in front of the computer and I've been working too hard for too long without a break. My brain feels like it's filling with wet cardboard. In fact what I'm doing isn't writing any more, it's just typing. I go to the kitchen, stand there for a moment, can't remember what I've come in for, feel foolish, then eat a biscuit.

It doesn't help.

Time for a walk. But where to? Perhaps into town to pick up some supplies, or maybe the other way, towards the park and the river?

Most of us are aware that a quick walk around the block does wonders for the mind. But what a new study reveals is that if you want to come back with your brain power enhanced, the scenery en route really matters.

Fiona Apple: Sharing Her Inner World Through the Technical Precision of Music

After singer, songwriter Fiona Apple released her debut album called Tidal in 1996 to critical acclaim, the public was introduced to lyrics that dealt with the conflict between pain and joy.  As a child, her teachers criticized her for being anti-social but what she was actually exhibiting was a deep introspection resulting from a young woman trying to make sense of tragedies such a rape and her parents' divorce.

Apple’s talent to question and reflect on her inner feelings propelled her to first perform in an intrapersonal environment to make sense of herself.  Apple said, “I think I’m actually an optimist, but it takes me a long time to get there, because I dramatize everything, and I don’t like that about myself.”  Her self-reflection enabled her to question the drama in her life and eventually share it with others through music. 

While she started her artistic trajectory journeying inside her own mind, she had to learn how to perform in the technical environment of crafting great lyrics and music.  Apple is a good example of someone who started with talents that motivated her to make sense of herself (intrapersonal environment), but then had to develop the musical expertise (technical environment) to use her introspection to create Grammy award winning music.

Preventing Teenage Depression: Recognizing Children's Successes in All Areas

Here is an interesting article about research regarding how recognizing children's early successes may prevent teenage depression.

Recognizing Children's Successes in All Areas May Prevent Teenage Depression
University of Missoui researcher finds link between early education failure and teenage depression

January 09, 2009, infoZine

Students’ successes in the first grade can affect more than their future report cards. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers found links among students’ weak academic performance in the first grade, self-perceptions in the sixth grade, and depression symptoms in the seventh grade.

“We found that students in the first grade who struggled academically with core subjects, including reading and math, later displayed negative self-perceptions and symptoms of depression in sixth and seventh grade, respectively,” said Keith Herman, associate professor of education, school and counseling psychology in the MU College of Education. “Often, children with poor academic skills believe they have less influence on important outcomes in their life.  Poor academic skills can influence how children view themselves as students and as social beings.”

In the study, MU researchers examined the behaviors of 474 boys and girls in the first grade and re-examined the students when they entered middle school. Herman found that students who struggled academically with core subjects, such as reading and math, in the first grade later showed risk factors for negative self-beliefs and depressive symptoms as they entered sixth and seventh grade. Herman suggests that because differences in children’s learning will continue to exist even if all students are given effective instruction and support, parents and teachers should acknowledge student’s skills in other areas.

“One of the main ways children can get others to like them in school is by being good students. Children with poor academic skills may believe that they have one less method for influencing important social outcomes, which could lead to negative consequences later in life. Children’s individual differences will always exist in basic academic skills, so it is necessary to explore and emphasize other assets in students, especially those with lower academic skill relative to their peers,” Herman said. “Along with reading and math, teachers and parents should honor skills in other areas, such as interpersonal skills, non-core academic areas, athletics and music.”

The researchers also found the effect of academic proficiency on self-perceptions was significantly stronger for girls. Girls who did not advance academically believed that they had less control of important outcomes, a risk factor for symptoms of depression.

The study, “Low Academic Competence in First Grade as a Risk Factor for Depressive Cognitions and Symptoms in Middle School,” was recently published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology.  You can read the research study report by downloading it here: Download Study of early positive reinforcement.