early childhood Tag

Posts tagged 'early childhood'

The Art of Being: Teach & Inspire by Living Authentically

Living authentically - grandmother and granddaughter on a nature walk

Three years ago, someone asked me, “If you could teach anything, what would it be?”

Honestly, the question caught me off guard. I didn’t have an answer. It’s such a big question that it’s been stuck in my head ever since.

You see, I’ve been a teacher for 38 years. My whole career has been teaching special education and focusing on emotional intelligence. I’ve always loved helping people find their strengths and use them to navigate life with happiness, health and success.

But in all those years, I never stopped to ask myself, “What would I teach if I could choose anything?” I didn’t think I needed to. I was just Ronit, the teacher, doing what I do best.

That question changed things for me and took me through a process of discovery. It made me think about life, about what I’ve learned, and what I really want to give to the world. Maybe by sharing the process of my discovery about the art of being, I can help you think about your own answers too.

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The Art of Relationships

I have been working with children, families and in the education space for over 38 years, and written many articles on many topics related to education, personal development, relationships, families, empowerment, leadership and parenting. This blog alone has over 1,400 original articles that I have written over the years.

During those years, I have been asked many questions about my philosophy and in this series, I wish to bring to you my philosophy about different topics in an interview format. Questions and Answers and today’s topic is “Art of relationship” as I see it.

This post is part 1 of 1 in the series Interviews with Ronit

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Parenting Autistic Children: Catch 22

The previous post in this series told the story of my first encounter with autism at a special school where I did work experience for 6 months. Today, I would like to introduce the problems families face when they notice something wrong in their child’s development. As you will see, the way the system works puts them in a Catch 22 situation.

Bringing a child into the world is a very exciting event in every family’s history. Noticing that something is wrong with a child is not easy to experience. As I’ve said before, mothers of autistic children were blamed in the past for the situation by the claim they did not connect with their child during the first weeks after birth.

Most of those moms sighed in relief when the results of an experiment confirmed that autistic babies were different from “normal” babies.

In the first stage of the research, every mom was given recordings of her baby crying and asked to guess the reason for the crying. Most moms of “normal” babies guessed correctly, while moms of autistic babies didn’t. So, those who advocated for the “let’s blame the mothers” said, “OK, then. That’s our proof”.

But the experiment continued.

This post is part 4 of 4 in the series Autism

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Raising Babies: Demand Feeding and Emotional Eating

Many new mothers consider demand feeding “the right way to feed my baby”. Every new parent considers the various choices: breastfeeding vs. giving the baby formula, feeding every 3 hours, maybe 4, vs. feeding on demand, waking the baby to feed vs. letting him or her wake up when hungry, giving water vs. not giving water, using a nipple shield vs. not using one, using a dummy (pacifier) vs. not using one, and many others.

These are serious decisions when you have your first baby and the more you ask around, the more confused you become. My oldest daughter recently gave birth to my first granddaughter (she is GORGEOUS). Watching her, I have discovered a relationship between breastfeeding on demand and emotional eating. It was amazing to notice things I never thought of when I had to make a decision how to feed my own daughter when she was born.

The stories I have from the last six weeks, since my granddaughter’s birth, can spread over hundreds of posts about raising babies. Today, I want to discuss one of them, which is demand feeding.

This post is part 7 of 7 in the series Raising Babies

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The Power of Bilingualism

My introduction to learning languages and bilingualism happened 24 years ago, when we moved to Texas, USA, and our daughter started to learn English. As a Special Education teacher, I knew she would be fine, but as a mother, I was scared, because at the age of 4, with the language of a 10 year old, I was afraid she would be left behind.

She wasn’t!

Since then, I have been working with inspiring people who specialize in language acquisition and with many children of migrants around the world. I have learned that parents and teachers play an important role in supporting language development. If they understand the challenges and consider the myths around language, they can help kids with healthy language acquisition.

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Does Classroom Technology Improve Academic Achievement?

Technology, including classroom technology, is a very important part of our life in this day and age. When I had my first computer at the age of 24, my kids were born in a house with a computer that everyone could access whenever they needed. Today, we all have our own laptop and mobile phone (which is technically another computer).

Do you think that this technology improves their academic achievement?

I have been wondering for a long time whether the introduction of more classroom technology translates to higher academic success.

Recently, I saw some research done by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), whose mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. OECD ran an international study on the impact of introducing computers into the classroom on academic achievement and their conclusions were alarming.

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Language Acquisition: Do Young children Need a Second Language?

For years, people have been researching the acquisition of languages. One aspect mentioned in some of this research is the distinction between Primary (“mother tongue”) and Secondary language. I believe this distinction is essential for maximizing the power of learning another language.

Primary and secondary languages are stored in different places in the brain and through a different process. First, second and third primary languages are learned by creating patterns from a load of seemingly random information, while secondary languages are learned by using the primary languages as reference and building a “translation net” to map the secondary language back to them.

Experts still argue about the critical age for forming primary languages, but they all estimate it to end between the ages of 7 and 12. This leaves the early childhood educators to deal with this important channel of education in the most critical age – the early years.

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Attachment Theory: Attachment Styles in Relationships and Marriages

So far, we’ve covered how attachment styles affect babies and individuals, but what about attachment styles in relationships and marriages?

Have you ever heard the theory that we pick partners who are similar to our parents? I have wondered about this over the years. My life partner, Gal is similar to my dad in some ways and totally different in many other ways. He is also similar to my mom in some ways and totally different to her in many other ways. I find it hard to either confirm or deny the theory.

While it is hard to decide if this theory works based on personal attributes, attachment theory claims that in some strange way we relate and attach to our partners and in a way that matches the attachment style that was created between us and our caregivers in those first years of our lives.

This post is part 6 of 6 in the series Attachment Theory

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Attachment Theory: Secure and Insecure Attachment in Teenagers

Babies’ relationships with their parents in the first years of life has a significant impact on their future relationship. As babies, the attachment they have to their parents will become a blue print of their attitude towards themselves and others. During that period, they create a “navigating map” and use it until they become teenagers. In teen years, which are considered to be between 11 to 25, teens renew this map and the relationship between them and their parents becomes even more important for their future relationship.

For parents, this is the perfect opportunity to fix any problems in the relationship. For example, amending insecure attachment or making an already slightly secure attachment more secure. This is our second and the last one.

Like in early childhood, a secure attachment in teenagers is characterized by the ability to seek comfort from a meaningful figure when they are going through difficulties. It is also measured by how fast and how easily they are comforted and able to get them back on track, enjoying life and being available to absorb new experiences.

This post is part 5 of 6 in the series Attachment Theory

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Attachment Theory: Four Attachment Styles

In the first chapter on attachment theory, I explained the four characteristic of attachment: safe haven, separation distress, secure proximity maintenance and safe base. Based on how well the caregiver meets each characteristic, the baby and his/her caregiver will form a different attachment style.

In a famous experient titled the “Stranger situation” psychologists Mary Aninsworth (expanding on work done by Bowlby) observed children between the age of 12 to 18 months. She was interested in their response at being left alone and then reunited with their mothers. The results led her to 3 major attachment styles. In 1986, researches Main and Solomon added a forth attachment style. A number of studies since then have confirmed that the attachment style that developed in a child’s early years of life will determine their future relationships and connections with other human beings for years to come.

The four attachment styles are: secure, ambivalent, avoidant and disorganized.

This post is part 2 of 6 in the series Attachment Theory

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The Art of Being: Teach & Inspire by Living Authentically

Parenting Autistic Children: Catch 22

Raising Babies: Demand Feeding and Emotional Eating

The Power of Bilingualism

Does Classroom Technology Improve Academic Achievement?

Attachment Theory: Attachment Styles in Relationships and Marriages

Attachment Theory: Secure and Insecure Attachment in Teenagers

Attachment Theory: Four Attachment Styles

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