The Pica Perspective

Instant recess to become the norm in the workplace. Great idea. Maybe they'll stop eliminating recess from schools. http://tinyurl.com/2arl8x4

Nintendo Wii Gets the AHA Thumbs-up

Want to share this article by Michael O'Riordan with you and get your thoughts. Does a video game deserve an endorsement from the American Heart Association?

Dallas, TX - Parents are no longer able to play the exercise card when it comes to video games, not with the latest endorsement from the American Heart Association (AHA). The video-game maker Nintendo is now allowed to put the AHA "heart check" logo on all Wii virtual exercise and active game systems, making a more difficult case for parents asking kids to put away the console and hop on their bikes for exercise.

The partnership between Nintendo and the AHA, which might appear strange given the obesity epidemic in the US, was announced Monday. More than 70% of Americans are completely sedentary, according to the AHA, so this latest move is designed to make exercise more accessible and fun.

The AHA heart logo, which will appear on the Nintendo Wii system, as well as video games Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort, is part of a nationwide program to let consumers know that the organization considers the system and games healthy choices. Normally, however, the heart-check seal of approval is seen on food packaging, such as Cheerios, where it shows consumers that it meets criteria for saturated fat and cholesterol.

As part of the partnership, Nintendo is donating $1.5 million to the AHA.

In an interview with ABC news, AHA president Dr Clyde Yancy (Baylor University, Houston, TX) said that Nintendo does have its share of sedentary games, but he gives the company credit for pioneering physically active gaming. "We can ignore the audience that is engaged with gaming—a huge audience—or we can find different ways of engaging that audience," Yancy said.

There are critics, however, with some questioning whether the system deserves the AHA thumbs-up and specifically questioning just how much exercise kids are going to get from these games. Dr Janet Fulton (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA) told ABC news the evidence is inconclusive regarding the health benefits, particularly since "real sports" burn more calories than the video-game versions. Others questioned the endorsement of a commercial product, but Yancy told ABC news the AHA logo is not for sale and that his greater concern is not engaging the millions of inactive people in the US.

Since it came on the market in 2006, Nintendo has sold nearly 30 million Wii consoles. Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort are also top-selling games for the company, both finishing in the top five of video-game sales in 2009.

What impact does stress have on the brain and learning? Plenty! For info & advice from the experts, listen at http://tinyurl.com/ydjgbmq !

More bad news about TV

New research shows that the side effects of television viewing in toddlerhood are showing up in grade school. Here's an excerpt from an article in this week's School Library Journal:

Photo: Flickr by Rocketeer.

Children exposed to television between the ages of two and four appear to have more problems in school and poorer health behaviors when they reach the fourth grade, says Linda S. Pagani of Université de Montréal in Canada. She and colleagues studied 1,314 children between  the ages of 29 months and 53 months and asked parents to report their weekly hours of TV watching.

Then when the children reached the age of 10, parents and teachers were also asked to report on children’s academic and health behaviors, as well as their body mass index (BMI). Here’s what they found—each additional hour of television in early childhood resulted in a 7 percent decrease in classroom engagement, a 6 percent decrease in math achievement, and a 13 percent decrease in time spent doing weekend physical activity.

“With respect to indicators of sedentary habits in the fourth grade, every additional hour of exposure in 29 months corresponded to a 10 percent unit increase in video game use,” the study says.

At the same time, for each additional hour of TV watching in early childhood, research showed 9 percent higher scores for consumption of soft drinks and 10 percent higher scores for consumption of snacks, as well as a 5 percent increase in BMI.

TV-watching toddlers also showed 10 percent increase in classmate victimization at the fourth grade.

“The long-term risks associated with higher levels of early exposure may chart developmental pathways toward unhealthy dispositions in adolescence,” Pagani and her colleagues stated. “A population-level understanding of such risks remains essential for promoting child development.”

Farewell to Stanley Greenspan

Dr. Stanley Greenspan, pioneer of the "Floor Time" method for teaching children with autism and other developmental disorders, and who documented the developmental milestones of early childhood, has died at age 68.

According to the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders, which offers training in the Floor Time technique, Greenspan was "the world's foremost authority on clinical work with infants and young children with developmental and emotional problems. His work continues to guide parents, professionals and researchers all over the world."

Dr. Greenspan authored numerous books, including Great Kids: Helping Your Baby and Child Develop the Ten Essential Qualities for a Healthy, Happy Life, upon which I based my interview with him for Body, Mind and Child. I'm honored to have had the chance to speak with him. To listen to his thoughts on genuine versus phony self-esteem, click here.

Developing Genuine Versus Phony Self-Esteem in Children
Stanley Greenspan M.D. with host Rae Pica

Dr. Greenspan says that genuine self-esteem is one of the ten essential qualities necessary for a healthy, happy life. Is it possible to “give” your child self-esteem? The answer may come as a surprise. Learn the difference between genuine, versus phony, self-esteem and when and how you should praise your child.

Why do teachers do what they know is developmentally inappropriate? Does it matter? Listen to Lilian Katz @ http://tinyurl.com/ydjgbmq !

Core standards update

The following is from Ed Miller of the Alliance for Childhood:

Rachel Demma, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Governors Association, says that the final version of the K-12 Common Core Standards will be released on Wednesday, May 26. We have no idea at this point what kinds of changes are being made to the draft version of the standards that was issued on March 10, and we don't know how many people ended up urging the NGA and the Council of Chief State School Officers to withdraw the K-3 standards and start over, because those two organizations are not telling.

 

I attended the "Listening and Learning About Early Learning" meeting in Washington on April 23 that was organized by Jacqueline Jones and Joan Lombardi (the first of a series of four such meetings held in different cities) and made a short statement about the Core Standards on behalf of the Alliance for Childhood.  The statement is attached.

 

Among the featured speakers that day was Gail Connelly, Executive Director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and her remarks were noteworthy for their blunt critique of the current overemphasis on standardized tests and their spirited defense of play. Here are some excerpts:

...It is insufficient to present a narrow curriculum that is easily measured by standardized test scores. Applying a single measure like test scores to a complicated enterprise like educating children paints a one-dimensional picture--a flat, shallow, and inaccurate snapshot when what we need is a three-dimensional portrait of the whole child. We can and should do a better job of capturing how students learn and grow: socially, emotionally, and academically....

 

We know that learning begins well before kindergarten and play is an integral part of the development. It is central to how children solve problems, develop relationships, learn the give and take of healthy interactions, develop language, and collaborate. NAESP recently teamed up with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Playworks, and the Gallup organization to study recess. Here's the opening statement from that report, titled The State of Play: "Class size. Standardized testing. The three Rs. When most people talk about how to improve education, they tend to focus only on what happens in the classroom. But the most unexpected opportunity to boost learning lies outside the classroom: on the playground at recess."

 

Exactly! Active children are more confident about their ability to learn and more creative in their problem-solving. Play helps children establish and nurture relationships, resolve conflict, think independently, express themselves creatively, and make good decisions--among many other benefits that bolster learning.

 

And yet play is a rapidly vanishing part of the school day.... Ironically, the evidence says that eliminating recess to strengthen learning is likely to yield exactly the opposite outcome. Unfortunately, the situation is not much better in kindergarten, which once was the all-important space that integrated play and learning.

 

The vision of prekindergarten through grade three alignment must begin with the recognition that early learning does not stop at the kindergarten school door--and play is the perfect example of how we must bring back developmentally appropriate learning experiences and carry them well into the third grade....

Ed

And this year's TOADY Award goes to...

Sorry I've been so woefully neglectful of my duties as a blogger lately! The move from NH to VA a week ago Sunday was, to say the least, overwhelming and, unfortunately, I've been sick for most of the time I've been in my new home. But I'm on the upswing now and trying to get back in the game!Here's the news from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood...

The people have spoken. Inspired by Nickelodeon's blatant disregard for children's well-being, you overwhelmingly chose AddictingGames.com as this year's winner of CCFC's TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year.   With an astounding 64% of the vote, AddictingGames.com easily outpaced its TOADY rivals:  The Little Tykes Young Explorer (18%), the BARBIE DOLL'D UP NAILS Digital Nail Printer (8%), the EyeClops Mini Projector (5%) and the Halo United Nations Space Command Turret (5%). 

Nickelodeon's decision to exploit its reputation as a family-friendly company by linking to the games directly from its popular websites for young children earned AddictingGames.com the award for worst of the worst.  TOADY voters were aghast that Nick allows children such easy access to the horrific content on AddictingGames.com, including the Perry the Sneak series, where gamers take the role of a peeping Tom trying to catch revealing glimpses of naked women showering--and successful voyeurs are rewarded by getting in bed with their prey; Stick Dude Killing Arena, the object of which is to "Train to Kill Until You Die"; and Kitty Cannon, where players can "make Fluffy bloody" by shooting a kitten out of a cannon onto a row of metal spikes.  The fact that the games are free, making them accessible to any child with Internet access, was another reason voters frequently gave for why AddictingGames.com got their TOADY vote.

Since December, more than 4,000 parents have written to Nickelodeon to demand that the children's media empire remove the links to AddictingGames.com from Nick.com, NickJr.com and Neopets.com.  But Nickelodeon refuses to grant parents even this simple courtesy, suggesting that keeping children's eyes glued to advertiser-supported screens by providing edgy content is much more important to Nick than honoring parents' trust.  (One advertiser for Perry the Sneak 2 is Lunchables, Kraft's popular brand of packaged lunches for young children.) If you haven't done so already, you can demand that Nickelodeon stop promoting AddictingGames.com on its websites for young children by clicking here.

So congratulations, Nickelodeon.  We know you've won a few Emmys and Peabody Awards over the years.  We hope you saved some room on your mantel for the 2010 TOADY!

Thanks so much to all of you who participated in the TOADY process by voting, campaigning for the worst toy of the year, and for letting others know about the Award.  Many of you were also kind enough to let us know the rationale for your vote.  To see why CCFC members voted the way they did please visit http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/whyyouvotedtoady2010.html.

This was the one I voted for. I have zero tolerance for abuse to animals, and the last thing we need is to make the practice acceptable to young children!

Why are kids burned out by 3rd grade? The reasons are many & diverse. To understand these stressors, tune in @ http://tinyurl.com/ydjgbmq .