My Geek Baby

Babble has an interesting post about parenting coaches; people hired to help kids learn everything from potty training to riding a bike but I wonder if this is taking away from the role of the um, well, parent? Granted, I would hire a lactation consultant if needed, and the idea of someone giving me reliable tips to get baby to sleep after a restless week of no sleep but some of these coaches sound like paid parents. Isn’t there something to be said for the first-time parents who get through the brutal phases of childhood with both them and their kids learning a lot about what NOT to do as well as what works? I understand that many parents need childcare and nannies who may help potty train their child but paying someone to help the kid ride a bike? I wonder in this scenario: where is the parent when the kid is taking the training wheels off? What if the kid falls off the bike and skins his knee after the bike teacher leaves? Shouldn’t you want the kid to look to YOU to help them through this? What’s next? A bedtime story reading, boogie-monster removal service, “Ghostbusters for tots?”

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded $30 million to four research centers to study what some call the “fourth grade slump” where a split divides students who excel at reading with those who struggle. The term–attributed to the late Jeanne S. Chall, a professor and educational psychologist at Harvard University’s graduate school of education–is used to describe the grade where reading goes beyond basic decoding into more fluency of texts and comprehension of the written word, according to a recent article on edweek.org.

Solving reading difficulties early is critical to help struggling students catch up to their classmates, but unfortunately many never do. Research centers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida State University, University of Houston, and the Baltimore-based Kennedy Krieger Institute, will participate in the studies of children with learning disabilities and reading comprehension issues. Although each center will have a unique look at the issues, all intend to develop solutions that can be used in the classroom setting.

University of Colorado at Boulder
Researchers to ID and characterize reading disabilities and ADHD. A twin and sibling study will follow students from elementary school through high school, looking at the role of genetics and the environment.

Florida State University
Researchers to compare approaches for defining, classifying, and preventing learning disabilities affecting decoding, reading comprehension, spelling, and written composition. They will also analyze the response-to-intervention (RTI) approach.

Kennedy Krieger Institute
Researchers to study the neurobiology and behavior of children with reading disabilities, and the effect of disabilities such as ADHD on reading.

University of Houston
Researchers to develop interventions to prevent learning disabilities in young studenets and to remediate such disabilities in older students, while investigating the neurobiology of learning disabilities and how the brain’s response changes with intervention.

SOURCE: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Dear parents:

Are you waiting for your grade-schooler to get back to you about Friday’s pizza dinner or college freshman to get return your e-mail message about holiday plans? Find that they are unresponsive, even though their schools and your house, car and boat all have Internet access? Could be, according to a recent News.com article, that kids with cell phones and Blackberry’s are WAY more likely to respond to text messages than e-mail.

The solution? Start learning that annoying, shortened version of communication, not matter how much it pains u 2 write wds that aren’t spelled out correctly and are misspelled to save space. TTFN.