Amby Baby Beds/Hammocks

By Safe Kids
Dec. 7, 2009 

This past Nov. 8, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of about 24,000 Amby Baby Motion Beds/Hammocks.

Consumers should immediately stop using the Amby Baby motion beds/hammocks and find an alternative, safe sleeping environment for their baby.

The side-to-side shifting or tilting of the hammock can cause the infant to roll and become entrapped or wedged against the hammock’s fabric and/or mattress pad, resulting in a suffocation hazard.

The CPSC is aware of two infant suffocation deaths in the hammock. Those deaths involved a 4-month-old girl in Lawrenceville, Ga. and a 5-month-old boy from Gresham, Ore.

The Amby Baby motion beds/hammocks were sold at Ambybaby.com and other Internet retailers from January of 2003 to October of 2009 for about $250.

For more information, including how to contact Amby Baby USA for a free repair kit, read the CPSC recall notice or visit the Amby Baby Web site. 

Source: Safekids

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

In Tough Money Times

By MV Parents
Dec. 9, 2009

The current economy is in rough shape; prices are up, salaries are down, and layoffs are common. And parenting is expensive.

So how do you make sure you have enough money to support your family? Use some of the tips below to help you maintain your financial footing in tough times.

Don’t buy (and encourage others not to buy for you) a lot of new clothes or toys for your babies or very young children, as they will be outgrown in a matter of months.

Many people are willing to donate old baby clothes and toys to friends or acquaintances, and you can also find a large number of these items at places like thrift stores or garage sales.

Maximize your available time, energy, and skills by trading services with friends or family for such needs as childcare, meal preparation, or house cleaning.

This is also a great way to build a network of caring adults and a close-knit community.

Take advantage of places like consignment and second-hand stores. If your child needs sports equipment, toys, or certain articles of clothing, you may be able to get a really good deal if you shop around for used items.

Some schools offer prepackaged school supply kits at a discounted price, and often use the proceeds to fund classroom activities and other needs. Many congregations, food pantries, and local service groups also collect school supplies to donate or sell at affordable prices.

Find out if your community has programs like this, and take advantage of them if possible.

During an economic downturn, families may find that they struggle with their finances. But through careful planning and prioritized spending, many families have been able to not only make it, but thrive through these tough economic times.

Don’t forget to stay positive, even if it gets difficult—by making smart financial decisions, you’ll also be teaching your child the necessary skills that he or she will need in the future.

Source: MV Parents

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Having a Pet Rat

By Adair Lara
Dec. 3, 2009

Grandparents are like grandchildren. Sometimes we do things even when we know better.

For example, there I was at Western Feed, a pet shop in Santa Rosa, Calif., on an errand with my mother-in-law (surprising my husband with a canary) when I saw the glass tank marked “female rats.”

As it happened, I had bought a colorful animal cage at a garage sale that morning (along with an empty bird cage), and it was sitting right in the trunk of my car.

So I bought a furry black-and-white rat, and the backlash started immediately: As the man at the register put my new pet in a cardboard box, he muttered, “I hate rodents.”

I had not, let me say, asked his opinion or brought up the merits of rats as pets in any way.

My mother-in law was dubious too: “A rat?”

“For the grandkids.”

“Where will it live?” she asked.

It was a fair question. My granddaughters, Maggie, 4 and Ryan, 6, with divorced parents and two sets of grandparents, have bedrooms in four different houses — two in San Francisco; another 25 miles north in Fairfax; and a fourth an hour-and-a-half east in Davis.

The rat would have to get a little rodent-size suitcase, lunchbox, and car seat to travel around with them.

But I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about how excited Ryan was about the tadpole in her kindergarten classroom and how much better a rat of her own would be than a tadpole in a school.

So I brought the rat home. Later, my daughter Morgan, Maggie and Ryan’s mother came by with the girls, and I showed her the rat.

She gave me that same look she gives the girls when she is trying to be patient. “Okay,” she said, “but tells them it’s your rat.”

 

Rat Love

My new pet was a big hit! The girls took turns holding the rat, putting it in their pockets (try that with a tadpole) and asking questions about it.

Ryan, wearing her new bathing suit although there was no pool in sight, asked me why I bought it. After I explained, she said, “What does impulsive mean?”

They named the rat Sara; because they name everything Sara (we took the precaution of naming my husband’s new canary Jack before the girls could call it Sara, too).

They particularly liked the black-and-white cloth igloo that had come in the cage I bought at the garage sale. They took off the cage top, stretched out on the floor, and breathed on Sara.

And when Morgan drove off with the girls, there was Sara in her bright plastic cage sitting between Maggie and Ryan in the backseat of the Subaru.

What a sport Morgan is to take Sara home, I thought, especially as there is already a cat named Wolfe at her house….

 

A Short Stay

An hour later, Morgan came to her senses. She called on her cell to ask me to meet her halfway between her house and ours (we live 20 miles apart). “I’m wondering if you would mind keeping Sara at your house,” she said.

So I took Sara back. Now, I would keep a pony in my playroom if the girls wanted me to. An elephant.

But Sara produced a musty smell in the bathroom in which I hid her from my husband. She ate that little black-and-white fabric igloo in the cage — which, by the way, turned out to have been made for hamsters, and was much too small for a rat. So I had to move her to a larger plastic box.

]And, of course, the girls only come by here occasionally, while the rat would have to hang her toothbrush next to ours full time.

I gave Sara away a few days later, but was left with the memory of having been an idiot. Again.

I do give my grandkids a lot of stuff. When Ryan was a baby, I met Morgan in the park one day after work. As I pulled toy after toy out of my backpack, a woman who’d been watching drawled, “Let me guess:

This is the grandmother, and it’s the first grandchild.” Recently, I helped Morgan move and found myself having to haul away all the space-swallowing toys I’d given the girls, from a twice-life-size duck, to a drive-in Barbie car, to no fewer than four bikes.

I realized then how patient Morgan is with me, as I arrive with bags in hand, and then say, “Oh, and there’s something else out in the truck.”

I get the hit of delighting the kids with the present, and my daughter? She gets a giant stuffed duck.

Will I stop doing this? I should. I will.

I’ll try.

Source: Grandparents

Editor’s Note:  Adair Lara is the author of The Granny Diaries (Chronicle Books, 2007). An author, writing teacher, and a former San Francisco Chronicle columnist, she and her husband live in San Francisco, three blocks from the grandchildren.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Family Photos

By Beverly Beckham
Nov. 28, 2009

After I resurrected old slides from the cellar and scanned them (with a scanner I bought online for less than $100), I downloaded the photos to my computer. It was time-consuming but easy and so worth doing. There, on a 20-inch screen looking better than expected, was my past.

Not all of it, but a big chunk of it. My old house, my old neighborhood, my neighbors. My friends. My dog, Buttons. My Aunt Lorraine. And both my parents, so incredibly young.

My father bought a 35 millimeter slide camera in the summer of 1957 and for a year he and that camera were inseparable.

Eventually, he took it out just for occasions. Holidays and birthdays. School dances. Proms, graduations, my wedding. The birth of my son. My father chronicled decades.

He finally bought himself a big metal projection screen sometime in the 1960s but for most of my childhood, when he wanted to show his slides, he tacked a white sheet to the parlor wall.

Because this was a makeshift screen, the images wavered, the pictures were creased, and more often than not the flowered wallpaper showed through.

 

High-Tech Images

The photos on my computer screen do not waver. Some are flecked with dust and some are a little out of focus and most are a strange shade of orange, but they look better to me than they looked 50 years ago.

I study every one. I inspect the background — the trees my father planted, tiny in some pictures, huge in others, the white lattice trellis he built, the two weeping willows that a hurricane blew away, the rock garden my mother loved, the neighbors’ fences, the neighbors’ bare backyards.

It’s the neighborhood that pulls me back, the place I called home from the time I was 7 until I left to get married my house, street.  The life I lived and the life I left there.

I make a file and call it “neighborhood.” Easy to do, just click on the image and drag it into the file and there it is. And when I finish clicking and dragging, I have the option to add a song. So I do. And I have my first slideshow.

My father would be proud.

 

Onscreen Enchantment

I show my grandson, Adam, when he comes to visit. “Want to see what I did?” I ask and because he is 5, he doesn’t hesitate.

“That’s the house I lived in when I was just a little older than you,” I tell him. “And that’s my friend Elaine. And that’s my friend Rosemary. And that’s my dog, Buttons. And all those people?

Those are my neighbors who came over to see me and take pictures the night of my senior prom.”

It is a short slideshow, just two minutes, and when it is finished Adam says, “I love it, Mimi” and asks if he can make a slideshow.

“Of course,” I say, because that’s what you say to your grandchildren. “What do you want it to be about? Your neighborhood? Mom? Or Dad? Or Charlotte? Or your friends? We can do anything you want.”

And he says, “I want to make a movie about Lucy and me.”

Lucy is his 6-year-old cousin and in the beginning it was just the two of them, Lucy and Adam, only ten months apart, always together, at my house, at their houses, in a playpen, in the living room, in a double stroller, inseparable.

I have hundreds of photos of Lucy and Adam on my computer. We look through them, and then Adam clicks on the ones he wants.

We make a file. We call it Lucy and Adam. He moves around the pictures until he has them in an order he likes. Then he deletes some. Then he chooses a Beatles song, “From Me to You.”

 

Lights, Camera, Action

We press play.

And there on the computer screen is Adam’s first movie.

It’s a long, long way from a sheet on a wall to this. And yet, though the technology is different, the images crisper, the process easier, the moment is the same.

My grandson and I are sitting side by side watching people we love on a screen. His mother returns to pick him up.

She sits with us. She smiles. My other daughter stops by with Lucy. Then my husband comes home. Then Lucy’s dad.

We add more chairs and play the movie again and again.

Source: Grandparents

 

Editor’s Note: Beverly Beckham is an award-winning columnist who writes for The Boston Globe. She has five grandchildren.

We would like to know what you think. dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Holiday Home Safety

By American Baby
Nov. 29, 2009

As you’re sprucing up your home this season, keep an eye out for these common holiday trip-ups, fire hazards, and other safety snafus.

Merry and Bright: Carefully inspect holiday light strings each year and discard any with frayed cords, cracked lamp holders, or loose connections. When replacing bulbs, unplug the light string and be sure to match voltage and wattage to the original bulb.

 

Lights Out: Always turn off holiday lights when you leave the house unattended or when going to bed.

 

Fresh Is Best: Try to purchase a freshly cut tree, as they are more resistant to ignition. Keep your Christmas tree watered and away from open candles.

 

Timing Is Everything: Use an outdoor timer certified by CSA International to switch lights on and off. Lights should be turned on after 7 p.m. to avoid the electricity rush hour.

 

Check for the Certification Mark: When purchasing light strings, extension cords, spotlights, electrical decorations, gas appliances, or carbon monoxide alarms, look for the certification mark of an accredited certification organization such as CSA International, UL, or ELT to ensure that the products comply with applicable standards for safety and performance.

 

One and Done: Never connect more than one extension cord together; instead use a single cord that is long enough to reach the outlet without stretching, but not so long that it can get easily tangled.

 

The Great Outdoors: When hanging outdoor lights, keep electrical connectors off the ground and away from metal rain gutters. Use insulated tape or plastic clips instead of metal nails or tacks to hold them in place.

 

Climbing Up: Using a ladder when you put up lights? Choose the correct ladder for the job and double check for a certification mark to ensure your portable ladder complies with applicable standards.

 

Keep the Gas Behind Glass: Do not use your gas fireplace if the glass panel is removed, cracked, or broken, and only allow a qualified service person to replace fireplace parts.

 

Sound the Alarm: Test your smoke alarms monthly to make sure they work, and be sure to install smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms on every level of your home — especially near sleeping areas.

 

Filter-Friendly Furnace: To help prevent CO hazards in your home, have a qualified heating contractor perform a yearly maintenance check of your furnace and venting system, and clean or replace your furnace filter frequently during the heating seasons.

 

Clean the Clutter: Do not store combustible materials such as gasoline, propane, paper, chemicals, paint, rags, and cleaning products near your gas furnace. Gasoline or propane cylinders should be stored outside the home.

 

 

Source: CSA International   Parents

 

Editor’s Note: The information on this Web site is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care.

You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your pediatrician or family doctor.

Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have regarding your or your child’s condition. Originally published on AmericanBaby.com, November 2005.

All content here, including advice from doctors and other health professionals, should be considered as opinion only. Always seek the direct advice of your own doctor in connection with any questions or issues you may have regarding your own health or the health of others.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Grade 3 Science

By Natalie Smith
November 19, 2009

There’s a lot to learn, from animal classification to weather patterns to the size of the atom

 

 

In third-grade science, grandchildren spend time designing and conducting experiments in their classrooms.

These investigations include multiple steps and go beyond the simple observations they carried out in earlier grades. In life science, third-graders learn about plants and animals and the structures that allow them to grow and survive.

They also learn about different groups of animals – such as mammals, reptiles, and amphibians – and where they are found. In earth science, children explore the properties of rocks, minerals, and soils, and learn the characteristics of different types of landforms –  mountains, valleys, and plains – and the geologic forces, including earthquakes, that affect them.

They also discover what causes Earth’s seasons. In physical science, students continue to learn about matter, and new terms, such as atom, are introduced. As they experiment, students practice measuring mass and volume using balance scales and graduated beakers.

They also study thermal energy, light, and force. In lessons throughout the year, students read and interpret simple graphs and tables.

 

Careers. Third-grade science textbooks introduce students to a variety of careers in science, including entomologists (who study insects); animal behaviorists; astronomers; and paleontologists (who study fossils and ancient life). As they learn, help science-minded grandchildren expand their imagination about the careers they might pursue and what they might do in those jobs.

 

• Peggy Christian and Barbara Hirsch Lember’s If You Find a Rock (Voyager, 2008) uses poetic text to celebrate rocks of many varieties. Your grandchildren’s understanding of these materials can help build a foundation for geology units to come.
• Third-grade science textbooks help students examine the life cycles of different animals. A book like Molly Aloian and Bobbie Kalman’s Insect Life Cycles (Crabtree, 2005) can illustrate these concepts for your grandchildren in an engaging way and help them build upon what they’ve already learned.

• Understanding the role oceans play in the water cycle is an important part of the third-grade science curriculum. For an animated look at the water cycle and how it works, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency online.

• Scientists often develop new technologies to solve problems or serve people’s needs. Charise Mericle Harper’s Imaginative Inventions (Little, Brown, 2001) will help grandchildren reflect on how a variety of inventions filled a want or need that people had.

 

Home Is Where the Hearts Are. Your grandchildren will probably study the human body in third grade, including the human heart. They might conduct experiments measuring their own heart rates at rest and after exercise. At home, have your grandchildren compare the heart rates of children (their own) with that of an adult (yours).

Before they start, ask them to make a hypothesis, or educated guess, about which heart rate should be faster. Then help them compare their results to their theory. (Typically, the smaller the organism, the faster the heart rate).
 
Which Way Does the Wind Blow?

Third-graders are likely to learn about weather sometime during the school year. One area they might study is wind, and its strength and direction. 

When you go for a walk with your grandchildren, point out compass settings to help the kids learn their directions, then ask them to try to identify which direction the wind is coming from.

 

Editor’s Note: Natalie Smith is an assistant editor at Scholastic News Edition 4 and a freelance writer based in New York City.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

 

Source: Grandparants

 

Loving Both Grandchildren

By Adair Lara
November 20, 2009

We all know the feeling when our first grandchild comes along. In fact, every new grandmother you talk to appears to be on the same drug: “Why didn’t anybody tell me it would feel like this?” A friend of mine thought the most miraculous moment of her life was when she awoke after laser surgery on her eyes and could see the acacia trees outside her bedroom window. “How wrong I was!” she told me. “Six months later, I became a grandmother and learned what the word miracle really meant.”

I got my first sight of my first grandchild, Ryan, now 6, in the labor room at the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, and thought, hmm. She was just a wet-haired little scrap of a thing. Any baby born that night up and down the hall of the maternity ward would have done as well.

That changed when I walked into my daughter Morgan’s kitchen a few days later, she handed Ryan to me, and I wiped a little drool from the baby’s mouth. The hot rush of feeling for her grew in me until I was once again, as I was with my own firstborn, not safe in a world where this child could come to harm.

Ryan, in her red glasses, sternly making everybody wear their own shoes (“Those are Mommy’s shoes, Bobbie!”), is so entirely herself that it is hard to believe that she was once not here, that only six years ago there was not a strict little personage climbing onto the back seat of my Mazda and scolding me for letting her eat lemon yogurt in the car, even as she demanded a spoon. I liked her so much I opened a stock account for her called “Miss Poopypants.”

 

Room for Two?

But what about the second grandchild? You are already a grandmother. It’s become old hat. And there is the first grandchild, still stealing your heart even as you reach for the warm wrapped bundle that is the newcomer. When Morgan had her second girl, Maggie, they quickly became a set, Ryan-and-Maggie. I rarely had Maggie alone — Ryan was always there to distract me. I loved Maggie but she was a minor player on my stage. The first-born still held the spotlight.

The same was true of my own children. Patrick was born 18 months after Morgan, and I took far fewer baby pictures of him. I was an experienced mom by then, and more casual. I didn’t feel as if I had to stay within earshot when he fussed before going to sleep. His sister still held my attention. She still does, in a way — especially now that she’s the one who so promptly, wonderfully, gave us grandkids.

And so I held baby Maggie with one hand, while I laughed at Ryan squirting peas out of her mouth at my husband, Bill. But here’s the thing: There comes a moment — perhaps you have experienced it — when the second-born says or does something, and again you fall, tumbling, irrevocably, in love. The heart catches up.

There’s one way I know to accelerate this process: Get the second grandchild alone, without the other one. I now take Maggie, just Maggie, on Fridays, while her sister is in school. She soaks it up, often making pointed, smug references to how Ryan isn’t there. And I form a separate love-struck relationship with someone who is not Maggie-and-Ryan, but Maggie.

Source: Grand Parents

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Grade 3 Math

By Dale Beltzner
November 14, 2009

Third-graders take big steps as they add, subtract, and multiply bigger numbers, and work with word problems

In third grade, your grandchildren’s math skills will grow, as will the size of the numbers they calculate. Third-graders begin working with numbers through the hundred-thousands place. They also learn how to estimate solutions to large problems, and how to round numbers up or down to the nearest 10, 100, or 1,000. Teachers  introduce multiplication this year, explaining it first as “repeated addition” (8 + 8 + 8 + 8). Students learn multiplication facts from 0 x 0 to 10 x 10, but teachers will not demand that they memorize these facts yet. Learning to solve word problems is an important skill for third-graders, as they explore various strategies, including making charts, drawing pictures, and breaking complex problems down into smaller, simpler parts. Students explore the metric system of measurement and begin to understand which units of measure best apply to certain problems. For example, what unit of length would be used to measure the distance between two cities? (Miles.) Toward the end of the year, expect your third-grade grandchildren to get a taste of working with simple fractions and decimals, most likely in problems involving money.

Calculators in Class. Since pocket calculators first came onto the scene in the 1970s, educators have debated their role in the math classroom. Most teachers agree that a calculator has little educational value before third grade. But starting in third grade, as students come to understand the processes of addition, subtraction, and multiplication, calculators can become useful tools for solving multipart word problems and for double-checking handworked calculations. Calculators cannot, and should not, replace the memorization of  basic facts, or the learning of fundamental procedures, but the tools can help students complete more math in less time.

• Denise Schmandt-besserat’s The History of Counting (HarperCollins, 1999) leads children through the marvelous and rich history of counting and numbers.
• Susan Lingo’s The Scholastic Success With Math Workbook – Grade 3 (Scholastic, 2002) offers engaging exercises that reinforce essential math skills. Keep it on hand for when grandchildren visit, so they can show off what they’ve learned in class.
• You already know that Hasbro’s classic board game Battleship is a lot of fun. But it’s also perfect for helping grandchildren develop skills they will need when they learn to coordinate points on a graph in future math classes.

Show Them Your Money. In third grade, children begin to make estimates, and make calculations using decimal points, often in problems about money. Help grandchildren practice by taking them to the convenience store. Before making any purchase, show the kids the bills and coins you have, and ask them to decide which you should give to the cashier and how much money you should get back.

50 Ways. In third grade, teachers ask students to come up with multiple methods to reach the same number. For example, they may be asked to think of five ways to add up numbers, all of them totaling 89. This game will help kids develop this skill: Give your grandchildren a page from an old calendar, ask them to cut out all the number squares, and challenge them to put numbers together in such a way that the sum of each group is 50. Then, shuffle the squares and challenge them to come up with more combinations.

Editor’s Note: Dale Beltzner has been a teacher, principal, and freelance educational writer for the past 30 years. He has worked in public and private schools in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Dale currently teaches fifth grade in Coopersburg, Pa., and serves as the district’s elementary math subject leader.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Source: Grandparants

 

Dinnertime Family Time

By Jim Burns
Nov. 14, 2009

I’m happy to announce that over the past few years, more and more families are making the intentional effort to have regular, family-mealtimes.  Here are eight reasons why doing so is a great idea:

 

Kids who live in families that eat dinner together regularly are less likely to be involved in at-risk behaviors.  According to the 2009 study done by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five to seven family dinners per week) children who eat dinner with their families infrequently (fewer than three per week) are twice as likely to use tobacco or marijuana and more than one and a half times likelier to have used alcohol.

 

Families who eat dinner together regularly are more likely to have stronger, happier family relationships.  As families struggle to find amounts of quantity and quality time together, family dinnertime provides the opportunity for both. Teens who frequently eat dinner with their family are likelier to say they have excellent relationships with their parents, and teens who have infrequent family dinners are likelier to say they have fair or poor relationships with their parents. When families hang out together and communicate, they grow strong and healthy.

 

Kids who live in families that eat dinner regularly together perform better in school. According to the latest research, compared to teens who have frequent family dinners, teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week are one and a half times likelier to report getting mostly C’s or lower grades in school.
 
Families who eat dinner regularly develop a stronger family identity.  Eating together serves to build a family identity.  Additionally, this family “routine” provides a sense of stability and security that provides kids with a positive environment where they can grow into healthy adults.

 

Families who eat dinner together regularly can keep in touch with each others’ lives.  Everyone – kids and parents alike – can keep up-to-date during your family dinnertime on what is going on with school, jobs, family life, and friends.

 

A regular family dinnertime provides natural opportunities for planning and problem solving.  Scheduling family meeting times to discuss planning, needs and problem solving can be difficult.  A regular family mealtime can offer a natural solution to the challenge.

 

Eating dinner regularly fosters learning.  When families who eat dinner together engage in a variety of conversation topics, learning is encouraged.  Kids who are exposed to regular family discussion times learn a broader vocabulary.

 

Kids are likely to receive better nutrition when eating dinner regularly with their families.  A simple, but true rule applies: when kids eat with their families, they eat better.  A family dinnertime means kids are more likely to eat a nutritionally balanced meal, lower in sugar and fat content, than if they prepare or purchase meals on their own.

 

The benefits of regular family meals don’t require a large amount of time. Some might shy away from regular family dinners due to the busy pace of life and the concern for the amount of time a family meal requires. But, the latest research shows that the average family meal lasts just 35 minutes. That’s not a lot of time to invest in order to see great some great benefits to your family!

 

Source: Home Word

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Children Who Are Gifted

By Apple 4 the Teacher
November 6, 2009

 
The challenge of identifying gifted children and providing them with appropriate educational services is particularly complex when they are recent immigrants to the United States. Linguistic and cultural backgrounds, economic and attitudinal factors, sociocultural peer-group expectations, cross-cultural stress, and intergenerational conflict may all influence efforts to recognize and provide appropriate learning opportunities. Although immigrant groups are culturally diverse, they share some unique challenges when interfacing with the setting.

 

CHALLENGES

Linguistic. The process of second language acquisition is long, complex, and developmental. Therefore, attempting to determine a child’s intellectual potential by using English-based assessment instruments can lead to erroneous conclusions. In addition, assessment in English is more likely to reflect knowledge of English and interpretation of grammatical structure than general intellectual potential.

 

• Cultural. Traditional customs and sex-role behaviors are likely to differ greatly from those encountered in the U.S. (Sheehy, 1986; Goffin, 1988). Cultural differences in learning styles, listening behaviors (Trueba, 1983), and response patterns (Harris, 1988; Cohen, 1988) often underlie misinterpreted messages.

 

• Economic. Recent immigrants may be economically poor; parents may be supporting households both here and in their native country (National Coalition of Advocates for Students, 1988). Families may be large; older school age children may need to work after school or miss school to earn money.

 

• “Hidden” factors such as illegal immigrant status, limited knowledge about accessing social and health care services, neglect of basic health needs (Clark, 1988, October), and physical and psychological problems caused by the political environment in the native country (National Coalition of Advocates for Students, 1988) may also impede educational progress.

 

• Attitudinal. Immigrants may demonstrate a very positive attitude towards schools and learning. However, they may experience feelings of guilt for family members who had to remain behind, or who were hurt or killed in their native country. A gifted child’s heightened awareness may increase vulnerability when such circumstances exist.

 

• When a parent or relative is an illegal immigrant the child may fear authority figures (Gratz & Pulley, 1984; Portes, McLeod & Parker, 1978; Vasquez, 1988), thereby preventing them from forming close relationships with teachers and other potentially helpful adults.
• Sociocultural and Peer Expectations. Racial or ethnic conflict, concern for personal safety, or conflicting peer expectations may cause tension and interfere with or redirect the child’s natural curiosity and innate love of learning.

 

• Cross-Cultural. Cross-cultural challenges are confusing and may delay the development of a child’s sense of self-identity. Continuing crosscultural stress is often difficult for immigrants to articulate.

 

• Intergenerational. Immigrant children often serve as “interpreters” for the family, and as the children become Americanized they may begin to resent this responsibility, subsequently seen by elders as disassociating with tradition. Resultant coping strategies have a negative effect on self-concept and family relationships (Harris, 1988).

 

• School System. A student may have little, sporadic, or possibly no schooling prior to arriving in the U. S. Wei (1983) reported the frequency of wrong dates of birth in school records, a face saving scheme to hide facts about lack of schooling (Center for Educational Research and Innovation, 1987; Vuong, 1988).

Crowded classrooms, staff opposition to special programs, and use of standardized tests may preclude entrance of recent immigrant children into gifted programs. Steinberg and Halsted (National Coalition of Advocates for Students, 1988) reported that immigrant children have often been tracked into English as a Second Language programs, then steered towards vocational courses.

Misplacement may occur if gifted students with disabilities are classified solely in terms of their disabilities (Poplin & Wright, 1983), a problem not confined to immigrants. Parents of immigrant children may distrust any “special” classes, including classes for gifted and talented (Wei, 1983).

A disproportionate number of immigrants have been referred for psychological services (Sugai and Maheady, 1988) when their behavior was misinterpreted and labeled as adjustment or achievement problems (Trueba, 1983).

 

STRATEGIES

Linguistic

• Provide enrichment activities to students perceived “not ready” for gifted programs.
• Institute independent or small group research projects using native language references and resources.
• Help staff members become aware of different language structures.

 

Cultural

• Explain the concept of gifted programs to parents in their native language.
• Talk to parents in their native language to learn about aspects of giftedness valued by their culture.
• Develop program services that are culturally sensitive and responsive.

 

Economic

• Consider aspirations of the immigrant group; pay attention to variables such as the parents’ occupation and education.
• Work only from facts, assume nothing about the economic status or educational background of the family.

 

Attitudinal

• Transmit a sense of self-reliance; use a biographical approach concentrating on positive aspects of problem-solving, task commitment, and decision making.
• Encourage student involvement in publications or community programs.
• Encourage journal writing and writing of stories and poems.
• Provide opportunities for a peer support counseling group.

 

Sociocultural and Peer Group Expectations

• Use narratives, role playing, and bibliotherapy to model conflict resolution.
• Identify conflicting expectations, determine the causes, and provide intervention.

 

Cross-Cultural

• Increase motivation for children to identify themselves as candidates for gifted programs by referring to the gifted program as an opportunity for students to work harder and learn more.
• Use care in selecting staff responsible for identification. If possible, select staff members who are familiar with the child’s culture, country, or region.

 

Intergenerational

• Use nonverbal expressive arts to involve the family.
• Use intra/intercultural peer referral as a source of identification.
• Involve outreach workers for parents and other family members.
• Use media services in the native language. These services are usually available through local agencies.

 

School System

• Identify or place students according to educational background and potential.
• Interpret the child’s behavior in the context of the child’s experiences (Ramirez, 1988).
• Use extracurricular activities as part of the identification process; incorporate successful activities and areas of interest into learning goals.
• Ensure that the screening and selection committee has knowledge of creative production or performance in the respective culture. Include representative community members on selection committees. Avoid using standard identification instruments.
• Assess from the perspective of individual learning styles.
• Place the child in a minimal stress, “culturally congruent” (Trueba, 1983, p.412) environment and observe for a period of time.
• Periodically, discuss attitudes and possible biases with teachers. Hold informal sessions to air problems and exchange ideas.
• Use a developmental rather than a crisis-oriented model.

Both society and individuals benefit when a linguistically and culturally diverse population is tapped for talent potential. Problem areas must be defined in the light of specific cultures and culture differences. Attention must be directed to problem-specific techniques to ensure correct placement and opportunities for appropriately differentiated learning experiences that are culturally sensitive.

Article References

Source:  Apple 4 the Teacher
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

« Previous Page — Next Page »