Parent Express for 10-Jan-2006

Welcome to Parent Express, the PCI e-zine! Here you will find updates on the Parent Coaching Institute, along with ideas and practical tips for the parenting journey.

Parent Express is being sent to you because you have attended one of my workshops or you or a colleague has indicated an interest in our research-based information.

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I invite you to tune into my new radio show, Parent Appreciation Radio. It airs every Saturday at 11a.m. (pacific time) on 1150AM. Out-of-town folks can listen live on the web at www.1150KKNW.com. The show features PCI coaches and other guests discussing issues of importance to today’s parents. Moms and Dads call in and receive practical tips and lots of understanding from an appreciative perspective. Parents tell their stories and what has worked for them, so that all our listeners can benefit. We need to hear the real stories by real moms and dads more often. With the media-drenched negativity that we all live under such stories bring us hope, inspiration, and creative energy.

We are now taking applications for Spring Quarter 2006, to begin phone classes in March. Receive your course materials early and start your training year at a leisurely rate. If you are a forward-thinking professional with an undergraduate degree and a deep calling to work with parents, welcome home. We seek the “best of the best” for our acclaimed distance-learning Parent Coach Certification Training Program™. Please click here for more information.

As a PCI Certified Parent Coach™ you'll have the opportunity to create a parent coaching practice, working with moms and dads who want to take their parenting to the next level. Call Anne Juhlian, our Director of Admissions, for more information: 425-753-8822 or email: anne@thepci.com.

You are going to be amazed at what a PCI Parent Coach can do for you and your family!

PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification Training Program™ — a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University.

Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.

To find a PCI Parent Coach in your area, please click here, or call 425-401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Parent Coach selected especially for you.

Moms and Dads, tune in every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. on 1150 AM for true understanding, authentic affirmation, and real-world solutions to parenting challenges while sharing laughter and conversation. We want to hear your stories too! So call us on Saturday! In the Seattle area, call 425-373-5527. Out of town, call 888-298-5569. Listen to us on the web: www.1150kknw.com

Upcoming topics and guests:

Attention Span: A Fundamental Human Requirement

by Gloria DeGaetano

“May I have your attention?” With that request made daily in thousands of classrooms, teachers make an important assumption: Attention must be given from within the child. The ability to mentally focus, attend, and sustain concentration is an internal process within the human brain-mind. Because it’s an internal ability the human attention span has to be protected, nudged, and nurtured along in childhood and adolescence. The right ingredients from the external world will ensure the attention’s span development. The wrong ingredients can hinder its development, and even extinguish it. The wrong ingredients are too many hours in front of a flat, 2-D screen surface. In her now classic contribution to understanding media’s impact on brain development, Dr. Jane Healy writes in Endangered Minds , “A ‘good’ brain for learning develops strong and widespread neural highways that can quickly and efficiently assign different aspects of a task to the most efficient system…Such efficiency is developed only by active practice in thinking and learning which, in turn, builds increasingly stronger connections. A growing suspicion among brain researchers is that excessive television viewing may affect the development of these kinds of connections. It may also induce habits of using the wrong systems for various types of learning.” Today, more researchers are coming to believe that extensive exposure to television and video games may promote development of brain systems that scan and shift attention at the expense of those that focus attention. Dimitri A. Christakis at the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital conducted a study on the relationship between screen technologies and ADD/ADHD, Christakis’ research clearly demonstrated that young children face a 10% increase in the risk of having attention problems at the age of 7 for every hour of daily television that they watch. He said that the fast-paced images of TV programming may over stimulate and permanently "rewire" the developing brain. ( Dimitri Christakis, et. al., “Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children,” Pediatrics , vol. 113, n. 4, April 4, 2004. http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2004/ADHD-TV-Ped4apr04.htm)

The extreme fragile nature of the developing brain seems lost to many parents. Like clay or wet cement, young brains are readily molded by the input they are given. The wrong input at crucial times of development sets up the child for a lifetime of misery—like being confined to a prison, his or her brain cannot break out of the “mold” that has been set. Four-five hours of screen time, the national average, doesn’t allow children the correct experiences to fully develop attention capacities. And at the same time, that much cumulative time in watching quickly-changing images over stimulates certain brain centers at the expense of under developing crucial parts of the brain that are needed to sustain attention. It’s a downward spiral from there. If we hyperactive low brain centers, they eventually “take charge.” Instead of the thinking cortex being the CEO of the brain’s workings, the reptile function of impetuous reactions runs the show. To understand how too much screen time is the basic wrong ingredient for growing an attention span, there are three important considerations.

Read more.

Gloria DeGaetano’s article, The Impact of Media Violence on Developing Minds and Hearts, appears in the newly released book, Childhood Lost: How American Culture is Failing Our Kids, edited by Sharna Olfman, Praeger Press, 2005.

Ten essays by today’s best-known child experts present a searing look at the results of accepted social norms, ending with a call to action for readers to join forces to tackle this growing crisis. Some of the issues discussed include:

• The consequences of children’s sexual awareness at younger and younger ages
• What happens when TV and computers replace family time
• Factors contributing to the obesity epidemic of our children

The book would be a fine addition to any parent resource center or professional library.

Workshop, Re-Directing Media-Driven Kids, by Gloria DeGaetano, Friday, Feb. 3, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Bellevue, WA. For parents and for professionals working with families. . If you are sick and tired about media’s negative influences on the children and teens you love, then this workshop is for you! Based on Gloria’s extensive research, participants receive practical tools and strategies that work and can be easily implemented at home or in classroom. No need to let our kids become corporate clones or media drones. Using Gloria’s proven brain-compatible techniques, participants learn sure-fire ways to ignite children’s full potential and avoid potential and predictable pit-falls of a media culture. Participants receive a free copy of Parenting Well in a Media Age, along with another one of Gloria's books or curriculum manuals of their choice. Cost: $109.00. Registrations accepted now by calling 425-401-1519. Purchase Orders may be faxed to: 425-401-1572. Space Limited.

To engage Gloria DeGaetano for a keynote or workshop, contact her at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447.

Workshop, Appreciation in Action, Using Gratitude as a Catalyst for Positive Change, with interfaith minister Jamal Rahman, Friday, March 3, 8:30 a.m. to noon in Bellevue. Jamal will energize and excite you with his insights and understandings of the power of appreciation. A popular speaker, author, and nationally recognized leader, Jamal conveys the essence of core values for true success, optimal workplace performance and for staying peaceful and centered on our chosen path. Learn a vocabulary of hope to use with your colleagues, spouses, or children. Enjoy Jamal’s humor, wit, and dedication to making this world a better place by helping us to show up as our best selves. Jamal’s latest book, The Fragrance of Faith, will be available for purchase. Cost: $79.95 This is a popular workshop so registrations are accepted now by calling 425-401-1519. Purchase Orders may be faxed to: 425-401-1572. Space Limited.

Reading TV Use these four simple techniques to develop important mental skills for school success—right in the middle of couch-comfort! 1. Make predictions. Children of all ages love guessing games. Their brains are primed for the mental activity needed to figure out possible answers. So before watching a movie, or as you look through a TV guide, ask: “What do you think this will be about?” 2. Help children concentrate and sustain attention. Helping children pay closer attention while viewing TV builds concentration skills needed for classroom learning. Encourage “selective attention” and then watch how your child starts to cue you when something important is about to happen! 3. Retell the story. The simple question, “What’s it about?” is an extremely reliable way to help with many thinking skills, including sequencing events and recalling details. 4. Discuss moods and emotions. point out how a TV character might feel at different times. Then you link actions with feelings by asking your child such questions as “When s/he was upset, what did s/he do?”