Category Archives: Brain Development

Brain Development, child development, Disney, Reading, Reading; Brain Development, Television

Why we like Disney Books

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18
Jul

Watching television dulls babies’ brains. In 2009, France’s broadcasting authority banned the airing of all television, including advertising, aimed at babies and toddlers. They warned: “Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration, as […]

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Brain Development, Disney, Learning, Reading, Reading; Brain Development

A Book is More than the Sum Total of its Pages

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14
Jul

  Books are often seen as ‘old fashioned’ and parents are tempted to replace them with seemingly more modern stimulation, such as television, DVDs, video games, computers, and battery-operated toys with moving parts and flashing lights… The difference between reading and these ‘new and improved’ types of stimulation, is that reading (and story-telling) will always be the number one activity that […]

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Boost your child's Brain; Speech Development, Brain Development, Disney, Language, Learning, learning tools, Reading; Brain Development

Why it’s Better to Read and Repeat

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11
Jul

  As parents, we assume that children get bored with reading the same book over and over, but contrary to this popular belief, children actually thrive on the predictability of such repetition. Predictability is one of the most fundamental emotional and intellectual needs of a child and reading is the easiest way for a parent […]

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Brain Development, development, Exercise, Learning, Mathematical Development

How physical exercise increases maths scores!

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06
Nov

We’ve all heard, somewhere along the line, that exercise is good for us. Every parent would agree, in theory, that children should be encouraged to be physically active. Yet, few make it a family priority. Here is a study that should provide us with the necessary motivation to get moving! A group of 171 children, […]

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Brain Development, Choosing the right toy; Age-appropriate Toys, development, Music, The Practica Program

Games for Practica Parents

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06
Nov

Parents of young babies: Dear Practica Parents, You will notice, as you read through the monthly sections of the Practica Parents’ Guide, that we often refer to your baby’s “midline” and what you can expect in terms of him crossing that midline. (The midline is the imaginary line that divides the body into right and […]

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Brain Development, child development, Developing Confidence in your Child; Benefits of One-on-One Interaction; Boost your Child's Brain; Brain Development; Effective Parenting; How children learn, development, educational toys, Learning, learning tools, The Practica Program

Games for Practica Parents

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06
Nov

For Practica Parents with 2 to 7 year old children: Do you routinely ask questions like “Can you name this colour?” or “How many ducks do you see?” when you’re around your child? If the answer is yes, you may be slipping into the role of a test administrator instead of having fun as a […]

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Boost your child's Brain; Speech Development, Brain Development, child development, Effective Communication, How children learn, Language Development, Teaching Communication Skills

10 tips to boost speech & language development

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Children are talking less. In fact, research in the UK points to a disturbing trend where half of all five-year-olds entering primary school are very far behind on their speech milestones. “Up to 300,000 [children] are struggling to string a sentence together or [aren’t able] to understand simple instructions by the age of five,” says […]

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Brain Development, child development, How children learn, Learning, learning tools, Memory

How To Improve Your Child’s Memory

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14
Jul

How To Improve Your Child’s Memory Do you remember a time when that complicated maths problem in 8th grade suddenly made sense? It was as if the clouds parted and the understanding ‘dawned on you’, changing the way you viewed maths from then on? Or is there another moment when a sudden realisation left you […]

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Brain Development, Develop Concentration, Following instruction; child development, How children learn, How to teach a Child to Concentrate, learning tools, Life Skills, Self Esteem

Concentration – your child’s mental workout!

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30
Jun

Concentration – your child’s mental workout! Downloadables: Practica Programme Hand-out Concentration Span    Parents often phone into the Practica Programme Advisory Service asking why concentration is not listed as a ‘skill’ in the Parent’s Guide. This is because most parents want to help grow their children’s ability to concentrate. We agree that it is very important […]

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Body Awareness, Brain Development, Food, Obesity, Toddlers and Eating, Unhealthy Diet

Unhealthy food is like a drug

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26
May

A 2010 study conducted in the USA has finally found a link between eating unhealthy ‘cafeteria-type’ food and drug addictive behaviour. The study, which was conducted on rats, found that obesity goes hand-in-hand with a breakdown in the circuits of the brain that control pleasure responses – the very same changes that are seen when rats are given […]

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Brain Development, child development, Choosing the right toy; Age-appropriate Toys, educational toys, learning tools

What makes educational games really valuable?

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14
May

What makes educational games really valuable? When little Johnny’s mother points to a picture and states that the elephant is ‘big’ and the mouse is ‘small’ it doesn’t mean much to the little guy. Later, as the two of them are packing toys away, he tries to fit his big inflatable beach ball into the […]

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Brain Development, Language Development, Learning, Loving Communication, Television

Making the Most of Television

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In our last post we told the truth about the effect that television has on your young child (under 3 years) – if you missed it, go HERE. In this post, we want to equip parents with the tools they need to make the most of television when it comes to their older toddlers and children. We […]

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Brain Development, Language Development, Learning, Loving Communication, Television

Television – The Great Thief

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29
Oct

  I have been rather afraid of writing this post, because it is without a doubt going to be rather difficult for many parents to swallow. The important thing, however, is to tell the truth (no matter how ugly), because our philosophy at Practically Speaking is that “when we know better, we do better”. So, stick […]

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Brain Development, Learning, Love, School Readiness

The Brain-Heart Connection

Posted on by admin
12
Oct

In last week’s post we discussed School Readiness (if you missed the post go here), and today we are delving a bit deeper into the practical steps you can take to ensure your child is as school-ready as possible. Firstly, it is interesting to understand the physical make-up of your child’s brain. According to Mike Bruton […]

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