Tidbits: Parents Reaction

Courtesy Michael Thompson: Several experiments have concluded that parent's reactions to their children are often gender-skewed. These experiments noted that parents comforted a crying girl sooner and longer than boys. Parents often overlook the strength of girls and the vulnerabilities of boys.
Abuse statistics confirm that boys are at a great risk of being abused than girls.

In my professional development, our RtI Consultant filled us in on new research that concluded that the faster a parent responded to their child with language such as "Oh, you swatted your toy!" or " I hear you are starting to get hungry." was directly linked to if a child was on time or late hitting developmental milestones in language.

Tidbits: Bali Tradition and Maternity Leave

We all know that attachment is an important part of infancy. In Bali tradition, babies are not allowed to touch the ground for the first 100 days of life. They are carried by or sleeping with an adult at all times. At 100 days, a little ceremony is preformed and the baby's feet are allowed to touch the ground for the first time.

There are some people who believe human babies need a "4th Trimester" to finish developing as they are the only mammal so helpless when born. This 4th trimester happens outside of the womb for the first 12 weeks of life while a baby continues to develop and desires sometimes constant human touch.

Did you know in Norway maternity and paternity leave is MANDATORY! In many European countries, mothers get paid the first year of their child's life so they can stay home. In America, our maternity and paternity policies are shitty. Maybe if we spent some more time allowing parents to bond with their children in those early months of life, we wouldn't be spending millions and millions trying to fix them as soon as they get to school. I'm just saying.

Tidbits: 3 Important Brain Differences

I have heard lots of the research out there on the differences that boys and girls learn but this I think Michael Thompson sums it up nicely.


1. Boys see the world differently. Some research indicates that at 1 day old, boys would prefer to look at mechanical objects while girls wanted to look at faces. This research is controversial but has been somewhat confirmed by the research at 1 year of age when boys would much rather watch movies about cars and girls want to see movies about people. I’m kind of confused why one year olds are watching movies at all, but I’m no researcher. Boys and girls also have a different thickness of retinas and the cones and rods are distributed differently which some believe is the reason boys and girls prefer different colors.

2. Boys don’t hear as well. Infant girls actually hear better at birth, especially in the range of human voices. Some research suggests this is why boys are slower to pick up language. I refuse this let this be an excuse to Monkey’s recent selective hearing.

3. Boys learn language slower and don’t use it as effectively as girls. Any married woman could have told you this. I think for me, this is the most important one as this lack of language rears its ugly head in the form of tantrums when our boys get frustrated with their inability to communicate with us. Research at Yale suggests that men and women actual learn language using different parts of their brain.