It is the season of commencement speeches again. From high school auditoriums to college athletic fields, graduates are exhorted to “be all that you can be,” “let what you love be what you do,” “be somebody,” “serve somebody,” and, of course, “change the world.” Last weekend, as I watched my own students march in their caps and gowns, I couldn’t help...
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Do you ever feel that technology has become too much of a part of your child’s life—or your own? How do you decide, as a parent, what and when is simply too much? Fred Rogers Center research psychologists and parents Michael Robb and Junlei Li ponder Fred’s lessons and grapple with the question of how to set boundaries and model...
Read MoreHave you ever studied the label on a tube of toothpaste? A good number of years ago, out of sheer boredom, I picked up the tube while supervising my daughters as they brushed their teeth for the proverbial and interminable “two minutes.” The label reads: “Active ingredient: sodium fluoride.” Its function: cavity prevention. And just below that was a list of...
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“What would Mister Rogers do?” I asked myself, over and over again, as I stared ineptly at a classroom full of unruly eighth graders barely paying attention to anything I was teaching. It was 2003, and the fact I had just received my doctorate in child psychology merely accentuated the irony. It was also the year Fred Rogers passed away. Having...
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Yvonne Atkinson knows toddlers. She understands where they’re at developmentally, how to cultivate their listening skills, and when they just need some unstructured playtime. When Kidsburgh asked Pittsburgh families to identify five exceptional early childhood educators, Atkinson—programs manager at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh—came out on top. No surprise, given her 45 years of experience as a beloved teacher. Fred Rogers...
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“Early career” is not a phrase you’d readily apply to an educator whose work has brought him to locales as diverse as Chicago, Florida, and New Zealand, and who’s authored one book, with another one in the works. But Brian Puerling, the director of education technology at Chicago’s Catherine Cook School, has done all of the above. At age 32,...
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It seems every week, there’s another story about the benefits of early education or how investing in high-quality early childhood programs pays off. And President Obama’s recent 2016 budget proposal included a 10-year, $75 billion universal preschool request. But as a recent story in Education Week explained, there’s no real consensus on what a regular day in a kindergarten classroom should...
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What’s the most cost-effective way to prepare toddlers for school? Turns out it might involve texting parents. A new study by Stanford researchers confirms what early studies were showing: Texting parents early childhood learning tips and reminders boosts preschoolers’ literacy skills. And it costs approximately $1 per family. Research has repeatedly found that kindergartners from low-income families are already behind their...
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James Alex Bonus and Alanna Peebles have spent hours watching and analyzing children’s TV shows. Graduate students in communication science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Bonus and Peebles are interested in how children ages 3 to 5 understand narrative. “When we make these shows for kids, there’s a lot of mental obstacles for them that we might not recognize,” Bonus said. Research...
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With the holidays approaching, I’m thinking primarily about two things: (1) how grateful I am for all the wonderful people in my life, and (2) what in the world I am going to do with my children while they are home from school. In warm weather, the second question is easier to answer because we can spend a lot of...
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