Dad: YOU Can Keep Your Teen From Smoking

Everyone says establish your relationship with the kids when they're little if you want to have an easier time managing them when they're older, right?

Well here's a new study from England's Cardiff University School of Medicine that documents an example.

According to this three year study, it was their father's influence (or lack thereof), more than any other factor, that tipped the scales toward smoking or non-smoking for teenagers.

Communicative Fathers Help Reduce Teenage Smoking...

Dad Is Primarily Responsible For Child's Confidence Building Exploratory Behavior

Here's a new study from the University of Montreal that examines 'activation theory' as a complement to the well known 'attachment theory'.

Activation theory examines parental influence on a child's exploratory behavior and defines an optimally stimulated child as one that is exploratory yet respective of rules.  According to the theory, optimally stimulated children are more self confident.

The author of the study suggests that fathers are largely responsible for activating a child's exploratory behavior while mothers are usually greater contributors to a child's feeling of attachment and that both of these phenomenon complement one another in a well developed child.

New Study: Negative Short Term Video Game Effect on Children

New study out last month about the short term effects of video games on children's writing, reading and learning skills.

The study examined a group of 6-9 year-olds both before, and then 4-months after, receiving a video game device and three age appropriate games.

According to the author of the study which appeared in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science,

"boys who received the video-game system at the beginning of the study had significantly lower reading and writing scores four months later compared with the boys [who did not]. Although there were no differences in parent-reported behavioral problems between the two groups of kids, the boys who received the video-game system immediately had greater teacher-reported learning problems."

Balance Important For Your Child's Mental Health

Yes it's true.... sillyDaddy fractured his toe recently while running from the children on top of the couches in the family room....

While my balance may be in question, eM and I have encouraged the kids' balancing skills to build their coordination, strength and esteem - and all our friends just thought we were careless parents.

We've let them climb and move through their home, let them problem solve about how to get around or over obstacles and even allowed them to stumble occasionally in our safe, child proofed environment.

So far they've come through in much better shape than I have.

I reached back into my sillyDaddy archive to find this article that made an impression on me from early last year.  Published in Research and Developmental Disabilities journal, the study found that "all [children] with balance problems do exhibit symptoms of anxiety, pointing to a link between the two conditions."

According to the research, children in the study, five to seven year olds with an anxiety diagnosis, went through a 12-week sensory-motor intervention in which, "the children use equipment to experience their environment and move in space."  Their balance improved, anxiety was reduced to normal levels and their self-esteem increased.

Improve Balance, Relieve Childhood Anxiety

Quality Fathering Boosts Your Child's IQ

While I was posting about the research released last week concerning girls and math ability, I was reminded of another article in the sillyDaddy archive.

The research (pasted below) released at the end of 2008 found that an involved dad boosts a child's IQ in a significant way!

The author, a psychologist at the University of Newcastle (where they also happen to make a lovely brown ale....bada bing) writes, "This is not half a point, this is a few points of IQ, on average."

The research was based on surveys of more than 10,000 children completed over more than 50 years and was published in the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior.

 Time with dad is time well spent
   by Ewen Callaway

When picking out that perfect Father's Day gift next year, sons and daughters might want to look to their own accomplishments before deciding between a gaudy polyester tie or splurging on a new set of golf clubs.

The more effort a father invests in his children, the smarter they are as kids and more successful as adults, new research shows. And highly educated fathers make even more of a difference than less educated dads, all things being equal.

You Are The Main Factor That Influence's Your Child's Pursuit Of A Tech Career!

Interesting study results out of Michigan State earlier this week about factors that lead children to pursue science or technology careers.

Key findings from this study, which followed 6000 students from middle school to college, include:

1. The main contributor to a child's decision to pursue science/tech is parental influence.
2. Success in math classes turns out to be more significant a factor than success in science classes.
3. Sons are encouraged to pursue math classes more than daughters, which reinforces my previous call for all dad's to encourage their girl geeks.

Parents Still Major Influence on Child’s Decision to Pursue Science Careers

Snow Carvings

Before we lose all of this glorious snow, be sure to carve a few runs for the kids!

And while you're designing your fortress, keep vitamin D production in mind.

An Approach To Managing Behavior

This piece from the sillyDaddy archive was written by a pediatrician and published in the opinion pages of the NY Times last year.

The author describes the approach as respectful of a child's "intellectual and emotional privacy" and writes,  "I’m not telling you to like your teacher; I’m telling you to treat her with courtesy. I’m not telling you that you can’t hate Tommy; I’m telling you that you can’t hit Tommy. Your feelings are your own private business; your behavior is public."

Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic

By PERRI KLASS, M.D.
Published: January 12, 2009
NY Times

For years, I took care of a very rude child. When he was 3, I called him rambunctious — and I talked to his mother about “setting limits.” At 4, I called him “demanding.” At 5, he was still screaming at his mother if she didn’t do what he wanted, he still swatted me whenever I tried to examine him, and his mother asked me worriedly if I thought he was ready for kindergarten.

Fight The Female-Teacher-Effect!

Dads, work now to counteract the newly documented female-teacher-effect so that your geek girl can flourish.

A University of Chicago study released today (pasted below), follows other research released earlier this month that found little gender difference in math ability.

The author of the earlier Villanova study says,  "Girls are likely to perform as well as boys when they are encouraged to succeed."

If you're able to successfully counterbalance the math-challenged sisterhood teaching her, then you're also going to need these 5 tips for raising your girl geek.

Believing Stereotype Undermines Girls' Math Performance: Elementary School Women Teachers Transfer Their Fear of Doing Math to Girls, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2010) — Female elementary school teachers who are anxious about math pass on to female students the stereotype that boys, not girls, are good at math. Girls who endorse this belief then do worse at math, research at the University of Chicago shows.

Communication and Discipline

J & D are really good kids.  And eM and I recognize that a lot of that comes from them.  But we do however give ourselves credit for planning the ways in which we communicate with them and discipline them.

So it's probably no surprise that we're fans of the show Super Nanny.  I found an article on the show's official site that really captured our current communication/discipline processes and gave us a few new ideas.

Introduce The Kids To Classical Music With These High Energy Baroque Tunes!

sillyDaddy loves him some Baroque!

J and D throw a nightly dance party in the living room and they love to bust out moves to either classic rock, childrens' tunes or, you guessed it, fast paced Baroque.

Early Baroque Hottie

In sillyDaddy's humble opinion the Baroque and Classical are two of the most enjoyable of all the musical periods.  Sure, they all have good stuff to offer but generally I find the Renaissance/Medieval periods and earlier to be a bit too druid; the Romantic and later - a bit too schmaltzy.

Listening to baroque even produces a documented mood enhancing benefit.  Granted, you have to occasionally suffer a little harpsichord but hey, it's all good.

Tip: choose "allegro" movements which have lots of energy if you want your kids to dig it.

Don't know where to start?  sillyDaddy can help...

Do Your Children Push The Boundaries? It May Be A Sign Of Future Leadership Abilities

Your last nerve.

Kids plucking your last nerve?

Considering the "I have to run down to the 7-11 for cigarettes" ploy, never to return, even though you don't smoke?

Well check out this article published today in ScienceDaily - your little envelope pusher may be the future leader of the free world!

***