Findings from two studies may be significant in child development circles. Benedict Carey writing for the New York Times (November 13, 2007) highlighted two studies that may cause rethinking in the child development research community. The first study, which is receiving much air time--even mentioned on ABC Evening News on November 13, involves young children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Carey reported that the National Institute of Mental Health performed a study using brain scans on children with ADHD. One finding from the study was that the children with ADHD showed a delay in brain development and not a brain defect. Moreover, this brain developmental delay is outgrown in many children. The questions remains as to how to deal with children with ADHD prior to their brain maturing.
The second study involves children displaying other bad behaviors in kindergarten. It has been a common belief that children who exhibit poor behavior in kindergarten will not do as well academically as their peer in elementary school. However, Carey indicated that "an international team of researchers analyzed measures of social and intellectual development from over 16,000 children and found that disruptive or antisocial behaviors in kindergarten did not correlate with academic results at the end of elementary school. " I've heard folklore from older teachers who indicate that children we now label children early as trouble makers and doomed to academic failure when such children only lack social skills and given time will be fine. This study makes me think that perhaps those teachers are correct.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment