A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
By Jora Broerse, Victoria University; Cameron Van der Smee, Federation University Australia, and Jaimie-Lee Maple, Victoria University International evidence suggests children have poorer movement skills as a result of COVID-related lockdowns that reduced physical activity at school, socially and in the community. In parts of Australia, learning from home replaced face-to-face classroom teaching for months [...]
By Margaret Kristin Merga, Edith Cowan University Parents at a loss to find activities for their children during COVID lockdowns can encourage them to escape into a book. New research shows how reading books can help young people escape from their sources of stress, find role models in characters and develop empathy. Recent media reports have [...]
Mairin Hennebry-Leung, University of Tasmania People learn a second language for many reasons, including work, to better understand the world, an interest in the culture of the language itself, and love. Learning a language has many benefits. For children, it can improve literacy, maths and science skills. It can enhance social skills and empathy, and [...]
Imagine a school where the motto is “Here Everyone Gets Smart’. Not just some students. All students. Imagine a school where every student knows their learning strengths & also knows how to use them to enhance other areas of learning. Imagine a school where every teacher knows their own learning strengths & knows how to [...]
Many young people have trouble settling themselves & focusing. Some of these kids will have diagnoses of attention deficit & hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD), others not. Either way, knowing their learning strengths will help them. These kids have energy to burn. They turn the volume up to eleven & keep it [...]
With gifted young people there are two aims: - To help them to make the most of their main learning strength; and - To help them to use that learning strength to increase their performance in other areas. Young people & children who have been identified as especially gifted benefit greatly from knowing their learning [...]
Louis-Philippe Beland, Carleton University The effects of mobiles phones and other technology at school is a hotly debated topic in many countries. Some advocate for a complete ban to limit distractions, while others suggest using technology as a teaching tool. Kids in public South Australian primary schools started the school year without being allowed to [...]
Kathryn MacCallum, University of Canterbury We know COVID-19 and its associated changes to our work and learning habits caused a marked increase in the use of technology. More surprising, perhaps, is the impact these lockdowns have had on children’s and young people’s self-reported enjoyment of books and the overall positive impact this has made on [...]
When anxiety effects kids, some become ‘chatty & scatty’ while others become ‘broody & moody.’ Generally the ‘chatty & scatty’ kids become distractible & lose concentration, the ‘broody & moody’ kids become sullen, avoidant & lose motivation. They can become hypervigilant & see threats where they are none. I have written extensively about the treatment [...]
When you have momentum, you can fly through things. When it goes missing, everything feels like an uphill slog. It is at those times that we tend to put things off until later and sometimes try to forget about them entirely. To stop procrastinating, we need to kickstart our momentum. Before doing that we need [...]
