I work with children with learning difficulties and I can tell you it’s fun and challenging at the same time but is so rewarding.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people communicate and interact with the world. One in 100 people is on the autism spectrum.
Autism is not an illness
Being autistic does not mean you have an illness or disease. It means your brain works differently from other people.
It’s something you’re born with or first appears when you’re very young.
If you’re autistic, you’re autistic your whole life.
Some autistic people have average or above-average intelligence.
Some autistic people have a learning disability. This means they may find it hard to look after themselves and need help with daily life.
Please note, this post it’s just a short version of it, the ASD is a very broad subject.
My absence from the blog is very well explained and comes with a surprise. My children’s book Happy Hippo and Kind Goose is available on kindle edition on Amazon.co.uk. Soon paperback will be available. If you want your children, grandchildren to have a great laugh and learn about friendship, kindness, happiness, then order a copy now.
Some families still live in unimaginable ways. Even though we are in the year 2021 The family I am talking today is formed of a widowed Mom and 4 little kids. They live in a high rate of poverty, don’t have their own house (living with a mom’s sister) and their income is low as Mom is not working because she has to take care of the children.
Sometimes the good fairy sends some money or food. But they need a little house to call it theirs otherwise they have no stability and the fear that tomorrow will end up on the streets. The authorities can’t help or do want to. They practically do not care. In Romania, in the rural area, the poverty rate is 34%.
Now, let’s think of their near future, what are they going to be, can they answer the question ”what do you want to be when you grow up”? They can’t answer for sure!
They might think from where and when the next meal will come or if tomorrow their aunt will kick them out, which is a huge probability. I am trying to help and give them a future and HOPE. If you wanna be part of it, please donate whatever you can or share with other people. Do you want more pictures or info? Get in touch with me.
Are you a busy parent, or do you love your job, or both?
Well, when a baby comes into your life, how do you organise yourself to be a Mom/Dad and still working?
I think is really challenging, as in UK for example, you only are entitle to 1 year of maternity leave. I am trying to walk in these parents shoes, the ones that bring their 8 months old baby to the nursery so they can go to work and gain more money. I will NEVER be able to leave my baby in a childcare setting, pay over £10,000 a year for the day care and at the end of the day spend 1 hour with my baby, before they fell asleep, sounds like a nightmare!
I am aware of the babies development, especially in the early years, the parents needs to be part of their growing, exploring and enjoying every minute!
Do you want them to say first Mom/Dad or their Key worker’s name from the nursery?
I know is so important and vital to have a good salary so you can pay for food, rent, and so on. But can you still survive at least one year not going back to work?!. Just do some calculations and see if you can do it, as I know some parents can do it, but chose not to.
The Government should help parents and to be aware that babies needs to be with their parents at least 24 months, change the law!
Every country has families living in poverty. With this global pandemic, I know a lot of parents have lost their jobs, and it’s really hard to find a new job.
When a child is born, they do not choose their families dependending on their social status, how many money they have in their bank account. God will take care of that child.
I know children who has to work instead of going to school, when actually only the education can save you from poverty.
Some children drop off the school to work, or they get married (early marriage). I know hundreds of girls between the age of 12 and 18 and they already have children, and a partner, they became mature before their time. In a village, is a girl and she is 13, she gave birth to her son last year, the kid has a father and they live together in a tiny room, the community, parents, family they all are aware of this situation, but they normalize it and say nothing about it. Now, how many chances has that child to go to school, and have a job? I think the child most likely will copy the parents behavior, and will take them like a role model.
When the kid will start school in that village, the teacher will give him no changes of higher education, probably will avoid going to his desk and look into his work, ask if we understood the lesson, and so on. The parents, do not have themselves education, so what happens to the child? He will fall into the poverty cycle. Believe me, I am talking the true, true cases, I have seen them with my eyes.
Poverty is all around the globe, some children have no food with days, no access to education, or a bright future.
These children needs people who cares about them, not people who cares about their pockets. Try to help a poor family, and do not judge them.
I wanted to write about this topic for a long time, and finally here is it.
Parents are all different, their parenting styles are not the same, not even between 2 parents of the same child. Now, having a baby in the 21st century is like they were born in the same time with a well known phone, you know which one I am talking about, you most probably have it in your hand, pocket, bag…
Now let’s talk about our topic
Young brains needs a lot of external stimulation to develop, particular from birth to age 3 (critical period). In this period is better for your child to stay away from devices, keep them engaged with books, talk to them, do indoor or outdoor activities like baking or a trip to the forest. Some parents choose for their child to be in a nursery, kindergarten, in this way children stays away from phone, iPad, tablets, etc. But when kids spent the most of the time at home, some parents introduce to their kids the devices voluntary or involuntary. Now, I am not blaming anyone, there are positives and negatives in all things from this earth.
I was born in 1995, so I did not know that phone exists until I was probably 8 or 9 (2003), that’s when I had my first phone, can you imagine how proud and happy, excited I was? even though that was an old NOKIA, and the only thing I can do was to play that snake game, do you know what I am talking about?
Now, why I was happy about it, well probably because of that game or just the feeling of having that device, or that I could of call my friends, it was something new and exciting. The TV was always there in our room, so I remember watching cartoons quite a lot and sometimes I fought with my brother because he wanted a different channel. Boys and girls didn’t had the same interests, not at that time 🙂
So imagine now, after 2010, the children are amazed of devices, especially that it can offer them a lot of diversity. Of course they will fall in love with mommy’s, daddy’s phone or that tablet, iPad you leave it on the couch…
At work I see babies (15 months old) taking a toy that might look like a phone and hold it to they ears are says ”hello”, so what are we talking about, a child aged 15 months and thinks he is talking on the phone, well our children copies everything we do and say. He most probably seen Mom, dad holding that device at their ear.
INTRODUCINF CHILDREN TO ELECTRONICS
I am not against this, but we have to keep in mind 2 things – the age of the child and the time the child is exposed to the device!
If we give a 2 year old the phone, iPad in their hands or put it in front of them to watch cartoons, or to listen to music, so we can do our job… well I am against, and I will tell ypu why, first the child’s age and then you gave that child no external stimulation, no social interaction. What if we invite someone to keep an eye on our child?
If the child is 8 years old and we slowly introduce him/her to the device let them watch, discover, play songs, cartoons for not longer than 1 hour a day, why? Well, because we are in the 21st century and the technology is what we live in. The child might find interests, passion in technology an this a good opportunity to grow up with and later to be a software developer, IT manager, etc. We need people in this areas as in this world is what we feed our self with. Can you imagine life without internet, phones, computers, and other devices? In hospital, schools they need technology.
Supervise your kid activity while using the devices, make sure you do not let them have full access to things you don’t wanna the child look to. It’s so easy to have access to a lot of disturbing content these days, and always remember that online world is not always safe, there are many paedophiles behind the screen.
I have seen a lot of children on Instagram posting ”challenges” that require to meet and have a date and God knows what happens after that ”date”. And the parents has also an Instagram account to, hello do you follow your child activity? Do it now, before is too late, no offence!
My advice is to have in mind the age, purpose, health benefits, time, before introducing kids to devices!
LET KIDS BE KIDS AND THEN SLOWLY LET THEM DISCOVER THEIR PASSION, INTERESTS!
When comes to songs for kids we have to be so careful, listen to song yourself before letting the kid access it.
In these days there are millions of songs just to a click distance. But have you ever looked deeply into the author of that song and what the lyrics says exactly?
Here is the list of some of the songs I will accept for children to listen
It can affect children from birth and left unchecked and unchallenged, can impact negatively on every aspect of a child’s life.
Usually, poor children are located in hard to reach villages, isolated, but not only. In these villages, communities people follow traditions, they copy each others even if it’s bad or good. Sometimes no one is going to these villages to make a difference, and the children grow up and have no future.
I used to live like a disadvantaged kid some years of my life, what was the reason? well, an alcoholic dad and unemployment of both of my parents. I do not condemn them, but I try to understand their actions.
There are a number of reasons why a family may be disadvantaged, and therefore, vulnerable.
Unemployment
Single parent
Low income
Substance abuse…
What are the effects on a child living in poverty?
A child may suffer from:
A poor diet or neglect
Low educational achievement: no school trips, no books, uniform packed lunch, healthy snack
Lack of positive interactions with parents
They might be unable to understand their own emotions and those of others
Poor/dirty clothes, shoes.
The child may have low self esteem
Tensions/fights between parents at home.
The child may experience some types of abuse from parents or family.
There is so much to write and say about this subject. It’s really sad to see children exposed to harm, abuse. Today we gonna focus on children without parental care.
Children without parental care are exposed to many risks, neglect, all types of abuse, and also large numbers of children end up in institutional care.
In 2008, in Central and Eastern Europe some 1.3 million children lived in public care; just under half of these lived in large-scale residential care facilities or boarding schools (UNICEF, At home or in a home, 2011). In the Middle East and Africa, over 300,000 children are estimated to live in residential care (UNICEF 2009 Progress for children).
There are many reasons why children are left without parents:
Natural death
The parents went to work abroad
They can’t afford raising them
Divorce, sickness
Abuse of drugs, alcohol
Can you think of other reasons, comment below!
Few days ago I’ve seen a documentary about children without parental care in China. They’ve estimated that over 60 million of children have no parents!
A child said ”Everyone has a Mom and Dad, but I do not, at the end of every semester when the school asks for our parents feedback, I do not have anyone to wright the comments, as my grandparents can’t write or read. I often feel envious when I see children with their parents on the street”.
Are these kids condemned to a life without parental love, harm, neglect, exploitation, sadness and so on?
I think we all should do something for them, to be there physically or by supporting the people which are ready to change a life!
Depression does not only affect adults. Children and teenagers can get depressed too, same like adults, the important thing is to understand and to be aware of that.
I can say about myself that when I was 14 years old I felt really depressed for about a year, there was some changes in my life I had to embrace. I did not knew that was depression but I can identify it now by the symptoms I experienced.
Here are some examples of depression I also experienced
Signs of depression in teenagers
sadness, or a low mood that does not go away
being irritable or grumpy all the time
not being interested in things they used to enjoy
feeling tired and exhausted a lot of the time
refusing to eat, shower themselves or clean their room
Aggressive
Refusing to go to school; look at the changes in performances at school
Sometimes is tricky for parents to identify the signs of depression, but if you see any changes in your child just talk with and find the right help, is important for kids to have someone on their side. Like I had no one to help me, even though there was my teachers, social worker, some friends, but I still felt alone and discouraged. Dad became an alcoholic and my Mamma left the home, and I started the High School with no support from parents, God, is so hard and depressive. But you, yes you the one who reads this post you can help a child by showing support.
Let’s talk about young children, it’s hard to hear for them words like ( I am angry, upset, sad, you know, words that describes feelings). But you can see changes in their behaviour, in this way they telling you that something might be wrong and they are feeling depressed.
Signs of depression for 3-5 years old
They might not be interested in the activities
They might have problems sleeping
irritable ;social withdrawal
decreased appetite
If you’re a believer in God, you know that praying is weapon we can use all the time! Pray for your child and know that every person can go through depression, but God is there to help and He knows our problems!
Physical development is an important area of child development that includes children’s physical growth.
Physical activity is vital from birth and develops not only the body, but minds and emotions too.
P.D. involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food (eyfs).
The department of Health says, children should have at least 3 hours of physical activity, spread out over a day. This doesn’t mean three hours of planned activities, as every movement a child makes, is included, and they move a lot.
Physical Play allows children to understand why being physical and moving around is good for health.
P.P. can help children develop confidence, social interaction with their peers, friendship, control and balance, and also allows children to discover their own bodies ( sweating, redness, fast heart beat, fast breathing, tiredness).
For babies (children under 2) physical activity consists of playing and rolling, they can reach the objects, pull. hold, push.These experiences help use muscles and develop motor skills.
How to introduce P.D to children?
Gross Motor Activities – Talk about the fun of skipping, jumping, climbing, running, rolling. These will help the child to be active during the day. Obesity is a main problem in our days, so keep ypur child involved and active in different activities which promote Physical health.
Fine Motor Activities Give the child opportunity to enjoy these activities; cutting, drawing, holding, pressing, twisting, threading.
CRINAMORPHO 