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Founded in 1974 by
Dr. Kerby T. Alvy, the Center for the
Improvement of Child Caring (CICC) has
grown to be one of the nation's largest and most
productive nonprofit parenting and parenting
education organizations. For more information about
our many programs, activities, products and services,
go to our website,
www.ciccparenting.org, or call (800) 325-2422.
(If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, and
you would like to be added to our mailing list, please
click "Enter your e-mail address" at the bottom of the
right hand column.)
| Research-Based Guidelines: How Parents Can Maximize Children's Cognitive Abilities |
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In their highly practical chapter in Volumn 5 of The
Handbook of
Parenting, professors Wendy C. Williams of the
Department of Human Development at Cornell
University and Robert J. Sternberg of the Center for
the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and
Expertise at Yale University provide parents with Ten
Lessons for Maximizing Their Children's Cognitive
Abilities.
The lessons are based on rigorous empirical research
from a wide range of disciplines regarding what is
known to help or hinder a child's cognitive
development. Drs. Williams and Sternberg have
distilled the research evidence into practical lessons,
or guidelines that parents can apply immediately.
Their chapter in the Handbook is succinctly
organized. They list the ten lessons (as below).
Then they describe and discuss each lesson, first
by providing guidance on what parents should
not do in attempting to put the lesson into
practice and then guidance on what they should do.
Then Drs. Williams and Sternberg discuss the
supportive research and implications of each lesson,
rounding out a rather nice discussion and
exemplification of each of these basic lessons.
Ten Lessons for Parents Maximizing their Children's
Cognitive Abilities
- Lesson 1: Recognize what can and
cannot be changed in your children.
- Lesson 2: Aim to meaningfully challenge
your children, not bore them and not overwhelm then.
- Lesson 3: Teach children that the main
limitation on what they can do is what they tell
themselves they can't do.
- Lesson 4: Remember that it is more
important that children learn what questions to ask,
and how to ask them, than that they learn what the
answers to questions are.
- Lesson 5: Help children find what really
excites them, remembering that it may not be what
really excites you or what you wish would really
excite them.
- Lesson 6: Encourage children to take
sensible
intellectual risks.
- Lesson 7: Teach children to take
responsibilitiy
for themselves - both for their successes and for
their failures.
- Lesson 8: Teach children how to delay
gratification - to be able to wait for rewards.
- Lesson 9: Teach children to put
themselves in another's place.
- Lesson 10: Remember that it is not the
amount of money you spend on your child that
matters, but rather the quality of your interactions
with your child and the nature of your child's
experiences.
Volumn 5 of the Handbook of Parenting, where
this chapter can be found, also contains chapters
about parenting and family, school and community
partnerships, about promoting children's peer
development, and about parenting and children's
prosocial and moral development.
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| The School Success from the Start Seminar and the Kindergarten Survival Handbook |
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The one-day School Success from the Start seminar
is designed to provide parents of young children with
authoritative information and guidance to enable
them to best prepare their children for success in
kindergarten.
It explains what schools will expect from their
chidlren, and from them. Then it highlights, in
general, how they can be most effective in terms of
parenting approaches and styles, and it emphasizes
the importance of communicating positively with their
children.
The seminar then gets down to the nitty-gritty - the
specific things that parents can do at home to assist
their chidlren in developing the skills and attitutdes
that are needed for kindergarten success. They are
taught now to help their young children:
- Learn to use their senses
- Develop speaking and listening skills
- Learn the alphabet, colors and numbers
- Learn creative thinking, reasoning and math skills
- Gain awareness of words and word sounds
- Learn how to use books and tell stories
- Build physical movement skills
The seminar leader employs a variety of instructional
methods, including lecturing, discussion,
self-reflection experiences, checklists and
self-assessment surveys, skill-building exercises that
incorporate "hands-on" activities, and role-playing.
Each participant receives a seminar guide and the Kindergarten
Survival Handbook, by Dr. Allana Elovson. A
good
deal of what is taught in this seminar is based on this
extraordinarily practical and widely used Handbook.
The seminar was designed by Dr. Reg Clark and his
associates, in consultation with CICC's Executive
Director, Dr. Kerby T. Alvy.
A professional leader or leaders can be sent to your
school, community or workplace to conduct this
seminar in either English or Spanish. The cost
depends on the number of parents who will be
attending.
If interested, call Dr. Alvy, at (800) 325-2422
(Pacific Standard Time) or email him.
Indicate where you would like the seminar
delivered
and how many parents you expect to attend.
Click here for a free
report on the
effectiveness of this seminar.
Click here to
obtain The Kindergarten Survival Handbook.
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| EducatedParenting.com |
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To further honor and educate parents, Dr. Kerby T.
Alvy, the founder and executive director of the
Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, now has
his own web blog,
EducatedParenting.com.
There, Dr. Alvy is sharing his over 30 years of
experiences and knowledge in the fields of effective
parenting and parenting education. Through
bi-weekly posts or messages, he is addressing a wide
range of topics and issues that are of importance to
parents and to professionals that work with parents
and children.
Included are information and viewpoints on the latest
research on parenting and child development,
commentary on current events and government
actions, resources to assist parents in being as
effective and peaceful as possible in raising the next
generation, and the teaching of specific parenting
skills.
Your opinions and ideas are valued on
EducatedParenting.com. You can share them
and Dr. Alvy will respond.
You can also sign-up to be alerted to the issues that
are being addressed, so that you won't miss
important discussions.
Enjoy, Learn, Interact - go to
Educated
Parenting.com.
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Parenting
for Education:
Part One |
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This edition of Effective Parenting is part of
a series that brings attention to one of the
most important roles that parents play in the
lives and futures of their children, the role of
facilitators and supporters of their children's
educational development.
Ideally, the contours and content of their facilitation
and support should change as their children progress
through the phases of their growth, from infancy and
the preschool years through adolescence. Just as
children's capabilities change over time, so too
should the type of support and assistance parents
can provide.
These editions of the newsletter will be based on
what research has to say about what parents can do
to be the best facilitators and supporters. They will
also place the spotlight on programs and resources
that can be used in communities to educate and help
parents in carrying out this role in this crucial facet
of their children's development.
At the most basic level, the role involves facilitating
a child's cognitive or intellectual development, i.e.,
the development of the underlying competencies,
attitudes, skills and strategies that are needed in
order to learn and master the content and subjects
that are taught in schools.
The role also involves the in-home facilitation of the
very specific attitudes and skills that are needed to
achieve in all of the educational settings that
children are exposed to, beginning with kindergarten.
How to facilitate their educational growth in the later
years, where homework is so important, and how
best position oneself regarding this home-based
activity is also of great import. Equally as important
in this day and age is how to utilize the educational
superhighway, the Internet, to maximize a child's
formal educational experiences, and to prepare
children for entry and acceptance into the final and
most challenging educational context, college.
This issue of Effective Parenting indicates
some of the practical things that all parents can do
to maximize their children's cognitive abilities. It also
spotlights a seminar that can be brought to any
community to teach parents how best to prepare
their children for success in kindergarten.
Subsequent issues in this special series will report on
an excellent program for involving parents in their
children's education and in offering guidance on how
they can be educational coaches for their children
and youth. It will also show how both parents and
children can make excellent use of the Internet to
enhance education, and to prepare for and apply to
college.
Do enjoy and make good use of these resources!
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