Be the voice for children 🤍

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a psychiatric disorder that primarily affects children and adolescents. It is characterized by a persistent pattern of disobedient, argumentative, and defiant behavior towards authority figures, such as parents, teachers, and other adults. This behavior goes beyond the normal range of oppositional and defiant behavior typically seen in children. In this last academic year (2022-2023) I worked in my kindergarten classroom with an ODD student. We experienced a wide variety of challenges but on the other hand a lot more moments of learning, understanding, growth, and love. I grew as a professional. I grew as a person.  I had to take time for me to learn and read about ODD to help and support this student and the rest of the group. Luckily, I count on a professional staff of multiple disciplines that was very supportive every day. All our efforts resulted in a student who completed the kindergarten grade with great progress and learning. It was no...

Sensory stimulation connects the use of the senses of visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), tactile (touching), gustatory (tasting), and olfactory (smelling). The use of the senses has been demonstrated that promote and encourage learning, brain development, and growth during the early years. The lack of sensory stimulation can be detrimental to the development of babies and young children. This damage persists during adulthood. There are a lot of activities that stimulate the senses creating brain connections that are discussed and recommended in this blog post. Sensory stimulation and sensory play demand to be done constantly as the child develops and grows to obtain the best benefit in the short and long term. What is sensory stimulation? Sensory stimulation is the input one person receives when one or more of the senses are influenced, activated, or as the concept itself, stimulated. Sensory stimulation theory states that effective learning appears when the senses are stimulated...

This whole year of virtual teaching will be remembered as the most challenging time (or close to that) for educators and administrators. Also, for students and families facing equal challenges. Those challenges resulted in learning a lot from ourselves and others. The coronavirus pandemic brought us learning and moments of reflection in all aspects that involve our lives. Even more, we need to be clear that virtual teaching and remote learning will remain with us. There were a lot of positive experiences in that! I hope that for each educator involved in virtual teaching, the experience had become as strengthening and empowering as it was for me. From here on, I am not the same teacher... I grew professionally, I got inspired, and I engaged better and more profoundly with my students and their families. That is something I'm going to continue practicing and being aware of. As a kindergarten teacher, I had beautiful and unforgettable moments with all students. I also understood each...

Nutrition is an essential component in brain development, especially during pregnancy and during the early years, which is the time of most rapid brain formation and development of cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional skills. But it is also important throughout the lifespan. However, deficiencies in nutrition during pregnancy and early years may produce damage to these skills and development affecting school productivity and adulthood. Nutrition deficiencies also depend on factors, like experiences and input from the environment, the timing of nutrient deprivation, the degree of nutrient deficiency, and the possibility of recovery. Brain formation and development in early stages About 22 days after conception, the neural plate and neural tube begin to form, which later becomes the brain and spinal cord. Adequate nutrition including nutrients like folic acid, copper, and vitamin A is crucial in this formation and development. Approximately seven weeks later, cell division creates ne...

In my last post Encouraging creative activities for young children , I discussed how creativity benefits child development, growth, and learning. I shared some tips for parents and caregivers to encourage arts for children in-home activities, including exposure to materials and art supplies and the encouragement for children to arts respecting their muse and vision. I also recommended some suggestions for how to approach a quality conversation avoiding pressure, fomenting appreciation, and respect for other people's works and art expressions, and lastly, when children gain that appreciation and respect, I suggested encouraging their interest in arts by planning a visit to a museum, an art school, gallery, or a studio to see different art exhibitions. In this post, I want to concentrate on useful tips to introduce children to drawing, painting, and photography. In my experience, these forms of art are very interesting for children and they love to practice them. There are other area...

Children enjoy yoga! Teaching yoga to children can have positive outcomes in wellness, emotions, stress, concentration, memory, flexibility, and discipline, among others. During this challenging time of the coronavirus pandemic, yoga can benefit children’s well-being and mental stability.