This Blog was provided by Sparkler: Play for Parenting; Sparkler Blog. By Donna Housman, Ed.D Dr. Donna Housman, Ed.D is the founder and CEO of Housman Institute, which conducts research on emotional intelligence in young children and develops high-quality programs to train early childhood educators. Dr. Housman has over thirty-five years of experience as a […]
One of the goals for Help Me Grow is to ensure that every child is ready for Kindergarten on their first day. The school year is fast approaching and that means many new families are preparing for their children’s first day of school, but what exactly should a brand new Kindergartener know? Well, Help Me […]
Separation of anxiety is a normal part of childhood, at some point all kids experience some form of separation anxiety. Here is what parents can typically expect. Infants As early as 4 months your baby may experience separation anxiety, however typically infants will begin to show signs of separation anxiety around 9 months when […]
Tell us a little about yourself and what you do in the field. I am a licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at UConn, with a joint appointment in Psychiatry at UConn’s School of Medicine. My primary roles are in research and teaching at both the undergraduate and […]
Of course playing is fun for kids, but it’s also essential for learning about the world and themselves; kids develop their social-emotional, cognitive, language and physical skills. Play helps kids develop social skills, cooperation, sharing and turn taking as well as empathy and building emotional connections with their peers. Play also helps children […]
For more than 100 years, researchers have been asking: What happens to student learning during the summer months? Researchers have found evidence of what educators call “summer slide,” “summer setback,” or “summer learning loss,” especially for children from low-income families (source). These statistics are not destiny! Summer can be a time of growth, curiosity, […]
Warm weather is here and with it comes beaches and pools! With that, here are some water safety tip to help keep you and your little one’s safe this summer. Finding a visible swimsuit Some swimsuits are more visible than others, so before you go out and enjoy the warm weather be sure […]
Making mistakes is a natural, albeit frustrating part of learning and teaching our children how to deal with making mistakes can set them up for success later on in life. When our children make mistakes it may not seem like a big deal to us; having their tower of blocks fall, not being able to […]
Many things can cause your child stress: a change in routine, having a new caregiver, starting or changing daycares/schools, a new sibling, or even our own stress can trigger our children. We can’t prevent our children from getting stressed, but what we can do is help manage it. When stress becomes an everyday occurrence, […]
Every kid has their bad days, but when the good days are becoming few and far between families can feel frustrated and unsure of what to do. Some challenging behaviors can look like: tantrums, hitting, biting, throwing or breaking things; but as adults we have to remember that littles don’t know how to manage their […]
