Our brave new world?

Mar 26, 2025 | ILT Blog

 

Parents these days seem to be faced with many more challenges than were offered in the past.  It isn’t possible any more to bring your children up the way your parents raised you.  There has simply been too much change too quickly, with technology literally transforming our homes and our lives.  Everything seems to happen much, much faster than it did in Grandma’s day, thanks to the phenomenon of ‘electric speed’ (a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan).  This started with the growth of global mass media and is still accelerating wildly. 

For adults, this is an exciting time to be living through but we need to be aware of its impact on our children’s lives.  Children are not adults.  They still have to develop through years during which they acquire the skills needed to live in the social and educational world.  They have to learn to focus their attention, defer gratification, acquire self-control, emotional balance, social awareness and empathy, academic skills and a set of good morals.  This side of human development can’t occur at a rapid pace; it happens in ‘slow time’.  Children of today need the same time-consuming, old-fashioned parenting that has resulted in healthy-minds-in-a-healthy-body since the origins of mankind. 

There have been many social changes in the past decades as well. Technology means that we have far more contact with other cultures but this might mean that today’s children have less contact with their own cultural history.   Not only this, but today’s lifestyle sees fewer extended family groups, many single-parent homes, a majority of working mothers feeling pressurised on all sides, less stable marriages and the never-ending warnings concerning junk food, electronic babysitters, too much screen time, technobrats, small homes with no access to gardens in which to play; danger on the streets; the demands of consumerism, peer pressure and more.  And there are no definitive answers for all of these.  The old certainties enjoyed by our parents and theirs have disappeared.  Parenting today simply isn’t easy!

The physical side of child-rearing is more simple.  Small beings have the same needs as they always have: good, nourishing food, plenty of exercise and play and sufficient sleep.  It is the emotional and social support that demands time, attention, communication and love from caregivers.  It may be these aspects of children’s development that are most threatened by the side effects of rapid technological and social change.  

We see these side effects reflected in children’s attitudes and behaviours.  Too many show increasing distractibility, impulsivity and self-obsession.  Too many seem to be unable to learn effortlessly, to enjoy life and to thrive socially.  This points to the difficult truth that even though it’s more difficult now than it ever was before, good parenting is more essential than ever.

Don’t be drawn into the paralysis caused by the rapid changes, uncertainty of what is the best practice and guilt because of your situation.  The social media becomes a tool to help gather information so that you can concentrate of providing a secure, healthy environment in which your child can grow.  Use technology to ‘get wise’ and plan how you are going to ensure that your family is able to cope with modern life without losing touch of their humanity.

 Content of this post is based on Sue Palmer’s book entitled ‘Toxic Childhood’, published by Orion Books.

Image supplied by Freepik

 

 

 

Learning difficulties? How we can rewire the brain

Learning difficulties? How we can rewire the brain

Mar 19, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

The brain has gazillions (is that a word?) of neurons – that we call ‘wires’ – and these neurons need to communicate with each other so that we can function.  This means that there are trigazillion (my new word) connections in the brain.  It is rather remarkable that most of us manage to form these neurons and their connections without faults but we need to remember that there are many things that can go wrong.

Thanks to research, we’ve had confirmation that things suspected through observation and experience are facts.  We now know that by carefully watching how a child moves and what a child needs to do to meet an expectation from school or his home, we can get an idea of where in the brain the problem lies.  Then, by giving the child’s brain a chance to repair itself, we can bring about positive changes.

This isn’t up-to-date news.  Way back in 1996, a writer in an edition of Newsweek focusing on Your Child’s Brain wrote “…. There is new evidence that certain kinds of intervention can reach even the older brain and like a microscopic screwdriver rewire broken circuits.”  This was about the time that I was researching ways of helping children – giving rise to ILT in the year 2000.  You can imagine my excitement!

So today let’s have a look at an example of how we apply neurodevelopmental insights to solve a child’s learning problem.

 An important reflex movement

It’s significant that many children with learning difficulties have no Headrighting Reflex (HRR).  This reflex shows when the angle of the body in relation to the ground shifts – in other words, the body tilts to either side, backwards or forwards.  The reflex automatically adjusts the head to remain in a nearly vertical position.  In a less well coordinated child, the head does not remain or immediately return to the vertical position but stays in line with the body. In other words, the child’s head moves in line with his spine.

If the head rights itself, there is very little shift in the background compared to when the head tilts in line with the spine.  (Try this yourself by swaying to each side, alternately keeping your head still in a vertical position and allowing it to align with the spine.)   Such a child will find himself in a constant state of visual strain because one of the reasons for this reflex is to stablise visual images on the retina of the eye.   There is little wonder that children who don’t have this reflex may have reading problems.

Giving a child the HRR

 This is where a knowledge of neurodevelopment can help.  We need to give children a HRR if they haven’t developed one themselves.  How do we do this?

 Different parts of our bodies are controlled by different nerves but it is wise to remember that nothing stands alone.  No function of the brain operates in isolation.  For example, when your vestibular system (in your inner ear) is stressed (perhaps by movement), you get seasick. You feel this in your tummy and it happens because of the intimate interconnectedness of different nerves.  The vagus, one of the ten cranial nerves, is responsible for causing your stomach to revolt against the movement registered by an overwhelmed vestibular system.

The HRR is influenced by another cranial nerve that controls the trapezoid muscle.  This muscle controls the movements of the head and neck.  If a child hasn’t developed the HRR, it is likely that there is a poor connection between the trapezoid muscle and the cranial nerve that controls it.  Our job would be to connect this muscle and we use a seemingly simple movement activity to do so.

 The original movement came from Carl Delacato, who worked for many years with learning disabled children.  He found that having children lie on the floor and moving their arms, legs and head in a way that resembled the movement of a ghecko or lizard, caused significant and positive changes in the brain.

The Flip Flop movement

The benefits of the Flip Flops are many.  Information goes into both sides of the brain as the muscles move equally on both sides.  At the same time the brain gets sensory information from the weight of the body moving across the surface on which the child is lying.  This is very important because during later development the brain is constantly having to coordinate information received from the two brain hemispheres to allow for stereophonic hearing, posture and vision.  So with our Flip Flops, we are not only stimulating the cranial nerve to connect to the trapezoid muscle but also influencing vision, hearing and balance.  Through this, information is communicated to many other brain areas, especially to the cerebellum, the midbrain and the thalamus.  The thalamus is an area of the brain that acts as a gate-keeper – either allowing sensory information to pass through to higher brain (cortical) areas or not.  If it fails to allow certain information through, the important messages will not arrive at the proper destination. 

So in short, by giving a child a  (seemingly) simple activity, we are effecting profound changes in brain function.   We can’t control what comes out of the brain but we certainly can control what goes in.  This helps the brain receive the information it needs to correct faulty wiring.

Other reflex movements are significant too

Giving the child a head-righting reflex is good but we need to test for later developing movements as well.  Once we’ve made connections in the lower brain regions, we have to persevere to encourage connections needed for more sophisticated functions. 

When you bring about better neurological organization, you are addressing basic problems in the various areas of the brain.  This enables the child to function independently and with improved abilities in many different spheres of life.  Such children seem to ‘get it together’ and with this, their self-esteem and confidence soars.

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Pollution may harm children’s learning and memory

Pollution may harm children’s learning and memory

Mar 12, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

 

A new study from the University of Southern California, involving 8,500 children from across the USA, has revealed that a form of air pollution, largely the product of agricultural emissions, is linked to poor learning and memory performance in 9 and 10 year-olds.

Ammonium nitrate Is the specific component of fine particle air pollution (PM2.5).  It, is also implicated in Alzheimer’s and dementia risk in adults, suggesting that PM2.5 may cause harm to brain function across the lifespan. Ammonium nitrate forms when ammonia gas and nitric acid, produced by agricultural activities and fossil fuel combustion, respectively, react in the atmosphere.

PM2.5: A danger to the lungs

PM2.5, a key indicator of air quality, is a mixture of dust, soot, organic compounds and metals that come in a range of particle sizes less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. PM2.5 can travel deep into the lungs, where these particles can pass into the bloodstream, and bypass the blood-brain barrier, causing serious health problems.

Fossil fuel combustion is one of the largest sources of PM2.5, especially in urban areas, but sources like wildfires, agriculture, marine aerosols and chemical reactions are also important.

In 2020, an earlier study did not find a relationship between PM2.5 as a whole, and its potential impact on cognition in children. For this study, however, they used special statistical techniques to investigate 15 chemical components in PM2.5 and their sources. That’s when ammonium nitrate—which is usually a result of agricultural and farming operations—in the air appeared as a prime suspect.  The most robust finding was that ammonium nitrate particles were linked to poorer learning and memory.

 More information: Kirthana Sukumaran et al, Associations between Fine Particulate Matter Components, Their Sources, and Cognitive Outcomes in Children Ages 9–10 Years Old from the United States, Environmental Health Perspectives (2024). DOI: 10.1289/EHP14418

Journal information: Environmental Health Perspectives 

 

Provided by Leigh Hopper, University of Southern California 

Image provided by Freepik

 

School reluctance or refusal – what’s the difference?

School reluctance or refusal – what’s the difference?

Mar 5, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

 

Rachel Leslie, Annette Brömdal, Cris Townley and Glenys Oberg, writing for The Conversation, explain the difference between school reluctance and school refusal and give tips to help children cope.

School relucatance

Most children will show reluctance to attend school on occasion. This might be due to a stressful event, such as a test or a spat with a friend and is temporary. This is called ‘school reluctance’ and might be accompanied by complaints of a tummy ache, headache or clinginess. In response, parents can help by validating the child’s feelings, like saying ‘I can see you are worried about having to write the test today’.  When the child endures the stressful event, parents can reinforce motivation and confidence by expressing admiration for the child showing courage and ability.

School refusal

In other cases, when a child feels overwhelmed by stressors that make attending school threatening or impossible, they may show ‘school refusal’.  This is clearly more serious and may be indicated by the following:

  • spending significant portions of the school day in the office or sick bay
  • extreme difficulty in getting ready in the morning, even with basic tasks such as dressing or making breakfast
  • physical symptomssuch as nausea or dizziness that worsen on school days, but may also be evident on weekends
  • persistent absences from school, even with encouragement and support
  • extreme emotional reactions—crying, anger or complete withdrawal—when school is mentioned.

School refusal is closely associated with social anxiety, separation anxiety and school anxiety. This anxiety can become overwhelming and trigger a child’s need to avoid the environment that is causing them emotional distress.  This causes stress in families and can have negative impacts on a child’s academic progress, social skills and general well-being.

Supporting the child

If your child is refusing or can’t go to school, they need empathy and support. You can try the following:

  • seek professional help.A psychologist may help uncover and address the root causes of their distress
  • work with the school.Talk to teachers and staff about accommodations such as flexible schedules or sensory breaks, and how else they may offer inclusive, affirming and supportive learning environments
  • think outside the box.This can include prioritizing well-being over attendance. Consider a break from schooling or alternative forms of education, which may suit your family better
  • seek support from other families.You are not alone—there are many other families who share this experience.

 

Provided by The Conversation 

Image provided by Freepik

Helping your child learn to try and try again

Helping your child learn to try and try again

Feb 26, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

We’re all taught as children that ‘failure is a rehearsal for success’ and how important it is to not be discouraged if we initially find some goals difficult to achieve.  As adults, we know the value of perseverance and admire those who have grit and determination.  But how do we pass this on to our children?

Here are some tips from Dr Angela Mattke, a paediatrician at the Mayo Clinic Children’s Centre, aimed at helping children learn to try and try again:

  • Make sure your child knows that the process of learning a skill can be as important as the skill itself, and that failure isn’t something to be feared or avoided.
  • Help your child see failure as a natural byproduct of learning and experimenting with new things.
  • Acknowledge when a situation stinks. Let your child know that it’s OK to be disappointed or upset.
  • Encourage your child to think about how to deal with the loss or how to get better.
  • Share stories about times that you failed and what you learned from the experiences.
  • Let your child see you try new things, even if it’s something you’re not good at.

 

Image supplied by Freepik.

 

 

 

Is your pre-schooler being identified as ‘ADHD’?

Is your pre-schooler being identified as ‘ADHD’?

Feb 19, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

 

It’s come to my attention that quite a few very young boys are being described as ‘ADHD’ or hyperactive.  They seem to be regarded as being overly ‘busy’, mainly by their preschool teachers.  Are we forgetting that most young children are highly active, energetic and generally spend much time ‘on the move’?   My long years of experience have shown that highly active young boys generally settle down as they grow, perform well at school and fail to develop any attention or other learning related problems. 

So why are teachers sometimes labelling youngsters incorrectly?  Perhaps we need to consider how they come to this decision and consider what other aspects may be contributing to the children’s inattentive behaviours.

 A child who fails to concentrate in one situation is in danger of being seen as a child who can’t concentrate in any situation. If a child doesn’t sit still he is in danger of being called hyperactive. His parents might be panicked into believing hyperactivity and poor concentration are permanent conditions which will need specialist treatment, including medication.

 Highly mobile youngsters may show a disinclination to sit down and engage in table tasks.  Their preference will be for outdoor play, usually very physical.  Or others may seem to dislike concentrating on teaching materials, rejecting colouring-in, crafts, puzzles and so on.  They prefer any number of other games or activities that are enjoyed at home.    Boys in particular need to be physically engaged and take much longer to adapt to more sedentary tasks.  They may not want to concentrate on the teaching events, listen to stories sitting quietly in a circle, or follow the teacher’s instructions.

Check his concentration

You can check whether your child can concentrate by giving him something to do which he enjoys doing, and which takes concentration.  If your child can pay attention to the activity for at least five minutes you will know he can concentrate (and sit still).  It’s important to emphasise that if someone can concentrate in one situation, then the problem is not an inability to concentrate.  If your child’s attention wanders before the five minutes have passed, maybe he does need your help.  The nature of the help will depend on your assessment of the situation so let’s consider some relevant points.

  1. Have realistic expectations.  Some children seem to be able to concentrate better than others.  If you compare one child to others, you may be unrealistic in terms of what he can and can’t do.  Instead, compare what your child is doing this week with what he was doing last week; how he behaved when he went to bed last night; how he played with other children at school compared with how he plays with them at home. When you focus on your individual child and notice changes in his behaviour, it helps avoid becoming trapped into thinking that your child has a problem simply because he’s different from others.
  1. Avoid using checklists.  Checklists can convince you that your child has a serious problem because they can be so all inclusive that parents or teachers will find something on the list that applies to that child.  They make you feel they are describing unusual behavior but often they are only describing things that every child will do sometimes.  Checklists for ADHD can include the following questions:
  • Does your child forget instructions?
  • Does your child have a short temper?
  • Does your child fidget?
  • Does your child constantly ask questions?
  • Does your child leave his bedroom untidy?
  • Does your child produce messy work?

Doesn’t this look like a list of the stages that all children go through and outgrow?

  1. Does your child know how to pay attention?  Some children will seem to pay attention automatically.  However, every child learns differently and for some, the ability to attend doesn’t come naturally. They need help in learning to concentrate and the good news is that concentration can be taught. For children to learn concentration, they must be given responsibility, must feel that their contribution to family life matters and must have the chance gradually to develop the skills everyone needs in order to be able to function successfully.
  1. Does your child only pay attention when it suits him?  The reason for this may be because what he should be doing is: too difficult, too boring, too tedious or not clearly understood.  The child will simply try to get out of something he doesn’t want to do or feels incapable of doing.  This avoidance behavior needs investigating and a good place to start is to find out whether or not he understands how to learn or how to approach the task given.  If children are not expected to learn to do things at home, they may struggle to learn at school.  Setting the dining table is a good example of an age-appropriate task that can be used to teach a young child to learn.  It’s a simple everyday activity but it needs a system.  While busy, your child will have to keep thinking until the job is done.   Having chores to do at home are good learning opportunities that have unexpected spin-offs!

What to do?

If reports from school concern you, don’t ignore them but don’t overreact either.  First do your own assessment of the situation and then, if need be, find a helping professional that will look holistically at the situation.   While most of the younger boys suspected of having ‘ADHD’ will not need intervention, some might well benefit from help.  Unusual behaviours can have many different causes – which is why ILT practitioners are taught to consider all possibilities.  The website www.ilt.co.za contains more information and sources of help.