This article was originally written by Sharon Aschaiek, of the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Are there any amongst us who feel that they’ve always managed to discipline their children correctly? Do you insist that your particular approach is the right one? Is there anything new to learn about this age-old subject?
As it turns out, there is, says parenting and child development researcher Melis Yavuz-Müren.
A post-doctoral psychology fellow at U of T Mississauga’s Laboratory for Social-Emotional development and Intervention Lab, Yavuz-Müren is lead author of the new study, “Parental Discipline, Child Inhibitory Control and Prosocial Behaviors: The Indirect Relations via Child Sympathy” (January 2022, Journal of Child and Family Studies).
For her study, Yavuz-Müren turned to previously completed lab research—questionnaires of 301 parents of boys and girls ages four, six and eight on their discipline methods, and their child’s prosocial behaviours and levels of sympathy and temperament, or inhibitory control (ability to suppress automatic reactions). It’s the first study to examine the impact of four different parental discipline practices on kids of three different ages in early/middle childhood.
From this data, she sought to glean insights on the efficacy of four disciplinary techniques. Power assertion: I’m in charge, and if you misbehave, I will shout or spank you. Love withdrawal makes receiving love contingent on behaving appropriately. There was also disappointment—showing displeasure with a child’s inappropriate behaviour. And finally, other-oriented induction, explaining or reasoning to link a child’s behaviour to another’s distress.
Among the main findings was that other-oriented induction was related to promoting prosocial behaviour in children of all three ages. This technique works because it elucidates the impact of the child’s behaviour on the outcomes and emotions of others, which helps trigger a sympathetic reaction.
“In other-oriented induction, parents try to give their child an understanding of the feelings of the other person impacted by their behaviour. For example, “Johnny is crying, and the reason is you hit him,'” Yavuz-Müren says. “It is a constructive approach for getting a child to show more sympathy, which helps promote prosocial behaviour.”
Showing disappointment in “bad” behaviour was found to have an equally effective result, but only with kids aged 6 and 8. Yavuz-Müren says this is because four-year-olds aren’t cognitively ready to understand the message being conveyed by a disapproving parent. Power assertion and love withdrawal were found to be useless disciplinary tactics for prompting sympathy and prosocial behaviour.
“These negative practices may achieve what parents want at that moment, because the child is fearful and so will do what you want, but in the long run, it leads to more negative outcomes, because a child can feel resentful of their parent and become less willing to listen,” she says.
Another nugget to emerge from this study is that, across all the age groups, kids with better control over their temperaments displayed more positive social behaviours and higher sympathy, but the effect was somewhat less pronounced in eight year olds. The study notes this may be because an eight-year-old’s inhibitory control is more developed, and so less influential on their behaviour. It’s an insight Yavuz-Müren says can help parents be more thoughtful in their disciplining practices.
“Discipline is something we all have to do with children, and children need to learn from us. It can be done in a constructive way versus a negative way,” she says. “We should aim to socialize our children as kind individuals and embed positive values to create a more positive society.”
What’s good for your tummy may be good for your mind.
New research shows that people with a more robust balance of bacteria in their gut are more likely to perform well on tests of standard thinking skills including attention, flexibility, self-control and memory.
A Mediterranean diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and lean protein, and low in processed foods, plus regular physical activity, is known to be good for the brain. The reason may be that such a diet, combined with physical activity, improve the quality of bacteria in the gut which then are able to optimise brain functions.
And while a healthy gut driving an efficient brain is obviously important for children who are learning, it is also important for adults.
A new study analysed the bacteria in the guts of nearly 600 participants, all aged in their fifties. Those with a diverse population of gut bacteria tended to do better on six standard tests of thinking skills and memory (cognition). Several specific kinds of bacteria—Barnesiella, the Lachnospiraceae FCS020 group and Sutterella—appeared to affect performance on mental tests.
But the researchers said they must dig deeper to understand how and why. They know that the overall community (in the gut) is related to a lot, but are still not sure which specific members or characteristics of the community may be most relevant for brain functions.
The findings were published Feb. 8 in JAMA Network Open. They’re the latest in a recent series of examining the role of gut bacteria in health and disease. The researchers do write that more research is needed to understand its implications and to better understand the link between gut and brain function and dysfunction.
In the meantime, although taking probiotic supplements to help stock our guts with good bacteria may be beneficial, we should keep in mind that we ultimately need a whole community of bacteria to provide the diversity that may be needed. To this end, eating more plant-based fibre (fruit and vegetables) is sensible – for healthy gut and brain functioning in all members of the family.
Adapted from Lina Begdache, a clinical nutritionist who writes for The Conversation.
Sugary foods are everywhere – particularly during childhood when sweet treats seem to be a part of life. Parents often stress about their children’s sugar intake, but exactly how much is too much, and what can be done about it?
Our brains are hungry. They need a continuous source of energy and nutrients to fuel growth, learning and development because they cannot store energy. Glucose—a simple sugar that forms the basis of most carbohydrate-rich food (bread, rice, potatoes, pasta)—is the primary source of energy for the brain. However, that doesn’t mean extra consumption of sugar is good for the developing brain. In fact, too much sugar can actually be detrimental to the normal growth of the brain.
Preliminary results from research indicate that consumption of sugary food is associated with mental distress—such as anxiety and depression—and disrupted sleep.
Sources of sugar in kids’ diet
Processed foods, such as donuts, cooldrinks and sweetened cereals, often contain added sugars. Unfortunately, these foods tend to be easily accessible to children and teenagers—whether it be after sports games or at birthday parties.
Chemically processed foods are those that have been altered by adding components not naturally found in them. These foods often contain added sugars, preservatives, salts and trans fats—all aimed at increasing taste, texture or shelf life.
As a result, processed foods have a lower nutritional value than whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Excess sugar puts the brain in overdrive
Because glucose is the primary source of energy to the brain, too much sugar can put it into an overdrive mode. When the brain is overstimulated, it can lead to hyperactivity and mood swings. However, these behavioural changes are only the short-term consequences. Some evidence suggests that this brain hyperactivity in adolescents is linked to cognitive deficits in adulthood.
Sugar also has an addictive effect because it stimulates neurons in the brain’s reward system, known as the limbic system. When activated, the limbic system generates high emotions such as pleasure, which leads to a desire for more sugar.
In addition, within the limbic system there is a tiny structure called the amygdala, which processes emotional information. Overactivation of the amygdala is associated with exaggerated emotions such as fear and anxiety.
Research suggests that there is a strong relationship between high sugar consumption, altered behaviour and poor emotional regulation. Although sugar intake may boost mood momentarily, chronic sugar consumption has been linked with increased risk of mental health problems.
Studies in lab animals also suggest that high consumption of sugar hinders learning and memory. Interestingly, daily intake of sugar-sweetened beverages during teenage years is associated with worsening of performance on a learning and memory task during adulthood. The researchers of that study suggest that this impairment could be due to alterations in gut bacteria.
Considering the mounting body of evidence, the seemingly irresistible sweetness of sugar can translate into a bitter outcome for the developing brain.
Over the past few months, concern has been raised regarding the effects of teachers and learners having to wear masks throughout the school day. Some research studies have been done. There are reports that masks may hinder children’s ability to recognise faces and read emotions correctly without facial expressions. In addition, verbal communication, often needing visual observation of a speaker’s face, may be affected. But, according to an article appearing on February 2022 in MedicalXpress, experts are divided on the long-term effects on children’s development. The article follows (author unknown):
Learning language
The first fear concerns the learning of language, which takes place in the first years of life. Children learn to speak through social interactions, and in particular look at the mouths of adults in order to dissect syllables.
This path being blocked, it seems logical to suppose a harmful effect.
“You do look at faces when you’re learning to talk,” Diane Paul, of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) told AFP. “But it’s not the only way.”
Children also learn by listening to the voices and following the gestures and eye movements of those around them. Paul notes that those with visual impairment also learn to speak well—and that masks are not worn permanently, for example at home.
“At least at this time, there aren’t studies that have directly assessed the long term impact of speech and language development when young children interact with adults who wear masks,” says the expert.
“But there are studies that demonstrate that children can tune into these different communication cues and gestures when an adult’s mouth isn’t visible.”
A 2021 study demonstrated that infants were able to recognize unique words through a mask, just as well as without. But according to another, conducted in France, masks can interfere with learning to read among children with learning difficulties.
In general, research remains rare on the subject. But, says Paul, “I really do not see any cause for alarm.”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “the limited available data indicate no clear evidence that masking impairs emotional or language development in children.”
The agency recommends masking in public for those aged two and up, while the World Health Organization suggests the age of five.
Social and emotional development
But among psychiatrists, the story is a little different.
“More important is the emotional side,” says Manfred Spitzer, who’s also a specialist in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Ulm in Germany. He notes that the first thing lost with a mask is the sight of a smile.
“In educational settings, there is a lot of implicit feedback back and forth between teacher and child,” he told AFP.
“If you impair this ongoing communication, you will certainly interfere with successful teaching.”
Fears also relate to the ability to form social ties. Numerous studies have shown that masks make it more difficult to identify faces and emotions, including—or even more—among the youngest.
But conclusions about the consequences differ.
A study of children aged seven to 13, published in the journal PLOS One, confirmed that emotions (fear, sadness, anger) were less well identified when a person wore a mask—but with similar results compared to wearing sunglasses.
It concluded that “masks are unlikely to dramatically impair children’s social interactions in their everyday lives.”
Yet other work, published in Frontiers in Psychology, has shown that performance in identifying the emotions of masked people dropped significantly between ages three and five, results that “suggest that we live in a time that may potentially affect the development of social and emotional reasoning,” the authors said.
Carol Vidal, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, said that she’s concerned at a societal level, though parents shouldn’t panic.
Vidal is part of a group of medics and scholars called “Urgency of normal” calling for the lifting of compulsory masking at school, where it’s hard to maintain the stringent use of masks anyway.
“I just think they’re not necessary at this point in the pandemic, knowing what we know about the risks for kids in terms of COVID, and knowing that we all have access to vaccinations, and that if we’re concerned about our health we can wear N95s (high-caliber masks),” she tells AFP.
It boils down to balancing risks and benefits, she stresses. The downsides of masks “might not be dramatic in the sense that you might not have effects right away, but I think we have to be careful,” said Vidal.
‘Breaks’ during the school day are more than an opportunity for children to fuel up with a snack. This time offers opportunities that can impact positively on a child’s learning as well as their social and emotional development.
Firstly, the physical activity and social interactions that children engage in during these times help lower stress levels, which may rise during class times. Relieving stress helps to regulate their nervous systems which in turn allows them to pay better attention and engage with learning events once back in class.
When under stress, children are more prone to behave reactively (fight and flight responses) so find it difficult to pay attention, follow instructions, solve problems or incorporate new information into existing knowledge. A calm child is better able to use the brain’s executive functions to regulate behaviour and emotions so perform better in school and feel better about themselves.
William Massey, writing for The Conversation, says that his research shows that children get a large proportion of their outdoor and movement time during school breaks. Their activities – running and chasing, swinging, playing games – helps to restore children’s access to higher-level brain functions. They also use this time to form meaningful relationships and practice social skills which are important for social and emotional development.
So regular breaks during the school day help children reduce stress, form friendships and get their brains more ready to learn. They are definitely more than just a time to consume those sandwiches – and should never be denied a child.
Recently, a paediatrician wrote a reply to a query about the significance of lead to a child’s health. In brief, the response was that protecting children from exposure to lead is important to lifelong good health. Even low levels of lead in the blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention and academic achievement.
The most important step that parents, pediatricians and others can take is to prevent lead exposure before it occurs. Here are some simple steps to reduce lead exposure in your home:
Talk to your local health department about testing paint and dust in your home for lead if you live in a home built before 1978.
Make sure children are removed from areas of home renovation activities until the area is completed. Common home renovation activities like sanding, cutting and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint. These can be harmful to adults and children.
Renovation activities should be performed by certified renovators who are trained to follow lead-safe work practices.
If you see paint chips or dust in windowsills or on floors because of peeling paint, clean these areas regularly with a wet mop.
Wipe your feet on mats before entering the home, especially if you work in occupations where lead is used. Removing your shoes when you are entering the home is a good practice to control lead.
Your pediatrician can screen your child for lead exposure risk factors. Based on risk factors identified, they may recommend a blood test to measure the level of lead in your child’s blood. Usually, there are no obvious signs or symptoms if a child is exposed to lead. A blood test is an easy way to find out.
Until 2012, children were identified as having a blood lead level of concern if the test result was 10 or more micrograms per deciliter of lead in blood. Prior to 2012, the blood lead test results for children with levels below 10 may or may not have been reported to parents.
Experts now know that there is no safe lead level. The current reference level set by the Centre of Disease Control in the US is 3.5 micrograms per deciliter of lead in blood for children.
What has not changed is the need to find the source of lead in children with all elevated blood lead levels so that the exposure can be stopped. Parents should talk with their pediatrician about possible sources that could lead to high blood lead levels.
