#Development of Children

[schoolseducation]

The Drawback of Comparing Children With Others: The Importance of Individual Growth

We will explore the detrimental effects of comparing children with others and why schools, including the best CBSE schools and top primary schools in India, encourage individual progress and development over competition.

[muffinlance]

Consider: Post-canon Zuko wakes up in the body of his childhood self, the morning of That War Meeting. Would he still speak against the plans, knowing his fate? What do you think he would do differently the second time around?

"Turned away at the doors, Zuzu?"

"Shut up, Azula," her brother sulked. But sulked weirdly, after staring at her too long and too wide-eyed, not like she'd surprised him but--

But like he hadn't expected her to be there. At all.

He turned away. ...He turned back. "Hey, Lala? Do you think you could help me practice that one set?"

He didn't meet her eyes.

She narrowed hers. "Which set?"

"The one I'm bad at."

She scoffed. Pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against. "That's all of them, Dum-Dum."

He didn't shout or stomp or yell about the nickname. His lips twitched.

"It's okay," he said. "If you're afraid you won't be a better teacher that my instructor..."

It was the most obvious manipulation ever.

Perhaps if he proved an adequate firebending student, she'd work on his courtly survival skills next. Honestly, it was good that not even Uncle Gets-Cousins-Killed had been fool enough to take Zuko into that war meeting. She could only imagine how terribly that could have gone.

"Keep up," she said, and turned her steps towards the training grounds.

He did. There, and during the katas she ran him through.

Azula kept her eyes narrowed.

"Hey," he asked, "do you know how to bend lightning yet?"

As if he could have missed it, if she'd been able to get more than sparks. "I will soon," she said.

"You will," he agreed, and flowed through his next set. The one she'd only just mastered.

Father didn't notice how weird Zuzu was being. Uncle never noticed anything. Zuko ate dinner and asked a servant for seconds and didn't stutter or flinch or lose his appetite when father asked, coolly, what he'd done with his day. Azula's shoulders tensed, because one mention of how she'd squandered her own training time teaching him--

"Azula hogged the training grounds. For hours," Zuzu scowled, exactly like a petulant thirteen year old.

Exactly like he hadn't been acting all day.

By the time Father was looking her way, Azula had her usual smirk in place. "I'm sure there would be room for both of us," she said, "you're not afraid of a little friendly fire, are you, brother?"

Zuko sulked. And ate his seconds, like he was enjoying each bite. There was something in his eyes, like a joke no one else was getting.

---

Father died that night. A heart attack. There were the faintest of burns to either side of the treacherous organ; the royal physician hypothesized that he'd grabbed at his chest, fingers burning hot in his final moments; so hot they'd only exacerbated the problem.

The royal physician would never have been brought any victims of lighting strikes. Those that occurred in the capital did not generally require a doctor in the aftermath.

Zuzu ate a hearty breakfast.

He didn't order seconds. Azula gave him points, at least, for not being tacky.

---

The sages named Iroh as regent.

They named Zuko as Fire Lord.

"No," the tiny Fire Lord in his perfectly miniaturized Fire Lord robes said, sitting at the head of his war council. "We're not doing that. And I'll be reviewing all recent battle plans, as well. What's this I hear about a division of new recruits being deployed to the front?"

He did not mention how he'd heard of the 41st Division. No one asked.

"Prince Iroh, surely--" one of the generals tried to appeal.

The young Fire Lord's regent was looking as startled as the rest of them, for a moment. Then he sipped his tea, and smiled.

"Your Fire Lord is correct, of course. A change in our leadership--a change the other nations may mistakenly view as weakness--will necessitate a change in our strategy."

"Now," said their lord, "what, exactly, is our overall objective in this war?"

War, the new Fire Lord decreed, was not an end unto itself.

---

The new Fire Lord continued to have time, to pretend to be trained by her. Azula watched him. Adjusted her footwork. Did not tolerate, and was not offered, any commentary on who was teaching who.

"What did you do with my brother?" she asked, as they flowed from one set to the next. As her hands, poised to throw fire, just so happened to be pointed his way.

He missed a step. It didn't look like an act.

"I'm, uh. Right here?"

She didn't bother to dignify that.

He didn't bother to look worried about her hands, one movement off from a true attack.

He looked around, then grabbed her sleeve, and tugged her further from any walls that may hide ears. The royal family's private training grounds were wonderfully large, and wonderfully open.

"It's me," he said. "It's still me. Just. More of me? Longer of me?"

She narrowed her eyes. A familiar expression, by this point. "Explain."

"...I found the Avatar," he said. "And this is definitely his fault, but--but I guess it started at a war meeting, when I was thirteen."

Azula listened. It was a very Dum-Dum story.

[reasonsforhope]

"Colombia’s congress has voted to change a law that allowed minors to get married with parental consent.

The proposal would make the minimum age for marriage 18, and seeks to protect the rights and development opportunities for minors. It still must be signed into law by President Gustavo Petro.

Currently, the country’s civil code allows person as young as 14 years old to get married with parental consent.

The initial proposal to reform the law – presented in 2023 – used the slogan “they’re girls, not wives” and aimed to prevent young girls from being forced to marry, to be subject to different forms of violence and to miss out on education and development opportunities.

“Minors are not sexual objects, they’re girls,” congresswoman Clara López Obregón said in a statement after the proposal was greenlit.

Child marriage remains a widespread practice worldwide and affects around 12 million girls per year, according to the UN’s agency for children, UNICEF.

But there’s been a global drop in child marriages over the past few years, according to the agency’s statistics. “Ten years ago, one in four young women aged 20 to 24 was married as a child. Today that number has fallen to one in five,” UNICEF said.

In Latin America, poverty is the main factor leading to minors getting married, according to UNICEF."

[dracomysthical]

NELLE NELLE NELLE NELLE NELLE

i support women’s rights and women’s wrongs

the beautiful and horrendous and morally questionable NELLE belongs to @cupcakeshakesnake and i am eternally grateful they have created upper management farmer which continues to bless my day

badly cropped images under the cut so there’s like. some semblance of order

[bumblebeeappletree]

Soooo I went and watched some video compilations of teachers saying kids can’t read or spell. And it feels obvious that these are the iPad babies who’re finally getting older. You know, the iPad babies who didn’t develop their fine motor skills to actually hold a pencil. Because all they know is tapping on an iPad.

Parents you need to realize you are your children’s first educator. You read picture books to them. You sing ABC’s with them. You do not give them a screen to watch that will shorten their attention span no matter how much you think it will help you.

Because it will not help your kids in the long run. It’s already harming them. Take them to the library. Get together with your neighbors for play dates. Your family members. Find people to babysit. Find events to take your kids to like an arts and crafts festival.

And give your kid a flip phone when they reach middle school if they absolutely need a phone. Talk shop about iPhones when they’re in high school. If the school provides your kids with an iPad or a Chromebook, set boundaries that the device is for school only.

It can be hard, especially when you’re a first time parent. There’s a reason why they say “it takes a village to raise a child.” Build connections to your community, and you’ll be able to raise your child to the best they could possibly be.

[incognitopolls]

"Co-sleeping" here means parent(s) sleeping in the same bed as their young kid(s) as a regular practice (not just occasionally, like if the kid has a nightmare).

This is asking about mental/emotional development, this is not asking about the physical risks associated with co-sleeping with infants.

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Speech Development

Several stages of development have been distinguished in the first year, when the child develops the skills necessary to produce a successful first word.

FIRST 2 MONTHS

Apart from the cry patterns associated with hunger, pain, and discomfort, the first 2 months of life display a wide range of primitive vocal sounds reflecting the baby’s biological state and activities – as in the ‘vegetative’ noises heard while eating and excreting.

Some of the most basic features of speech, such as the ability to control air flow and produce rhythmic utterance, are being established at this time.

BETWEEN 6 & 8 WEEKS

There emerge the sounds generally known as cooing, produced when the baby is in a settled state.

Cooing sounds do not grow out of crying; rather, they develop alongside it, gradually becoming more frequent and varied.

They are quieter, lowerpitched, and more musical, typically consisting of a short vowel-like sound, often nasal in quality, and usually preceded by a consonant-like sound made towards the back of the mouth.

Strings of cooing noises soon emerge, and the sounds become more varied, as the baby begins to develop a greater measure of control over the muscles of the vocal organs – especially over tongue and lip movements and associated vocal-fold vibration.

BETWEEN 3 & 4 MONTHS

Cooing sounds begin to die away, to be replaced by sounds which are much more definite and controlled, often repeated, and produced with wide pitch glides.

It is a period commonly called vocal play, because the baby seems to take great pleasure in producing these noises, especially those made with the lips.

But it is perhaps more accurate to call it a time of vocal practice or experimentation.

AROUND 6 MONTHS

Vocal play gives way to babbling – a period of syllable sequences and repetitions which can last most of the second half of the first year.

To begin with, the consonant-like sounds are very repetitive:

Example: "babababa"

But at around 9 months, the babbling moves away from these fixed patterns.

The consonants and vowels change from one syllable to the next, producing such forms as [adu] and [maba], and there is a wider range of sounds, anticipating the sounds of the accent of English to be learned.

The utterances do not have any meaning, though they often resemble adult words – and of course adults love to ‘hear’ such words (especially mummy and daddy) in the baby’s vocalizations.

But babbling does not gradually shade into speech; indeed, many children continue to babble for several months after they have begun to talk.

Babbling is perhaps best summarized as a final step in the period of preparation for speech.

The child, in effect, ‘gets its act together’; but it has yet to learn what the act is for – that sounds are there to enable meaning to be communicated in a controlled way.

With the production of the ‘first word’, this final step is taken.

NOTE

However, the first word is not the first feature of adult language to be acquired.

From as early as 6 months, there is evidence that the child is picking up features of the melody and rhythm of the adult language.

Certainly by 9 months, strings of syllables are often being pronounced in conversation-like ways which adults interpret as communicative:

‘He/ she’s trying to tell us something’ is a common reaction to a piece of ‘scribble-talk’, and such speech-act functions as questioning, commanding, and greeting are ascribed to babbled utterances.

The melody and rhythm of often-used phrases, such as "all gone", are also likely to be heard long before the vowels and consonants are clearly articulated.

It is these prosodic features which are the first signs of real language production in children.

Prosody - the linguistic use of pitch, loudness, tempo, and rhythm; the study of versification

Source ⚜ Notes & References More: Children ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ Childhood Bilingualism

[dukeofthomas]

"Are the Robins child soldiers" It depends. If the story is super serious and into exploring complex morality and grounded from reality's standards, then yes. If the story is lighthearted, made for children, fluff, etc., then no. If it's somewhere in the middle, it might depend.

If an author wants to write a story seriously delving into the fucked up-ness of children fighting criminals, they can, and if you don't like it, you can read something else.

If an author wants to write a fun story about villains and heroes featuring Robin in a world where that's not an issue, they can, and if you don't like it, you can read something else.

If an author wants to write a serious story but not apply IRL-logic to Robin, they can, and if you don't like it, you can read something else.

[independent-fics]

Countdown to LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION Season 3 ↳ Alec Hardison Appreciation -> A Favorite Quote

S01EP01 The Too Many Rembrandts Job

Bonus Moment:

[grandquest]

Orla 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[jackklinemybeloved]

I could write an essay on Ame’s witchiness and gender… the way she was abandoned for causing too much chaos and should “know better” at age five, how her natural self is something she should be afraid of and keep in check, the difference in personality between a seven year old Ame who doesn’t have to perform gender for anyone vs. an adult Ame who is trying to fill a role in the community and as a result is much more subdued and maternal when talking to the people of Toma, making an effort to “be kind” because any expression of rage was seen as dangerous, “she’s not a girl; she’s a witch!”, her knowing that she is different from her maternal mentor and feeling like she is failing at her responsibilities, her instincts and ways of thinking constantly being put into question by those around her, particularly Suvi who had never felt uncomfortable in the role she was born to fill.

(deep breath)

her veiled explanation of the coven of elders to Keen being “a council of women who recently decided whether I should remain a part of it” (even as she’s obfuscating she emphasizes being an outsider in a group of women), her feeling like an outsider in the binary world of humans vs. spirits (which Eioghorain this episode says is not as clear a binary as humans make it out to be), how often she is accused of being too brash, too impulsive, too much, too foolish, and you should not be this way.

anyway. I have a lot of feelings on this aspect of Ame’s character. for reasons.

[schoolseducation]

Holistic Development of Children Through a Positive Social Environment

There isn’t any doubt that the holistic development of a child is important for a well-rounded persona, and this is possible when it’s focused on nurturing and developing the kid as a whole. It goes beyond teaching the stipulated syllabus so that they successfully score high marks. Apart from studies, it pays special attention to the significance of social and emotional competencies. 

[theroofcat]

You know for all that the Fenton's are seen by the fandom as A+ parents, I really don't think anyone has really put any though into WHY they are like that.

Because its VERY clear that Butch bitchman has parent issues, if the Fenton's ACTUALLY acted based on their trauma with how they lost Vlad then they would be almost OBSESSIVE with how safe they are in the lab. They lost their best friend to a lab accident that nearly killed him and unknown chemicals/elements, you're telling me that wouldn't fundamentally scar 20 somethings actively prosuing beings that they see as dangerous? You're telling me they wouldn't look at the destruction of the lab and suddenly ask themselves how could this have happened? How could've they prevented this?

And if you REALLY like the Angst of the Fentons, imagine what it would do to them to realize the ONE time, ONE TIME, they didn't double and triple check the safety of their portal it cost them their son's life.

Anyway I really think it would've been more interesting if the Fentons were obsessed with lab safety and the inherent tragedy of their lives related to that.

Regulations are written in blood and the Fentons have learned this lesson twice over.

[princessofghosts-posts]

Another post on the OG Little Three trio and their angst potential because I can and their relationship (and what we could have had) hurts so good.

Each one of them have something that the other didn't or want:

Thalia run away from her mother and was on the streets for years,she never got to see CHB because she died first. Her father turned into a tree and then she came back and got to know that her psycho mother was dead,while Zeus was never there for her. The only good thing she had was Annabeth and even there the relationship was stained with Luke and everything else. She was completely alone before joining the Hunters. Nico and Percy still had someone in their life that was supporting of them and was there for them. Hades and Poseidon joined the war because they cared. Thalia never had that.

Percy had to take the prophecy because he didn't want Nico to be the one to do it,and Thalia got out of it with joining the Hunters. That's a really big weight to have,and while preparing for the final battle,he wondered many times if he was going to survive or not. Nico and Thalia didn't had that weight,they helped him in the war but in the end it was Percy against his fate: either he was going to succeed and save the Olympus,or dying trying and have Kronos win. All of this at 16,not even a legal adult yet,and still trying to hold everyone together during it. Nico and Thalia never had to worry about this.

Nico was accepted by the others and spent most of his time alone because of the negative view people have of him. While Percy and Thalia eventually found their place and friends at CHB and the Hunters,Nico didn't have any of that in a very long time. It took years for him to finally have a place to belong to. And even after that he was still worried that no one was going to accept the real him. Percy and Thalia never had to worry about that,since they were welcomed,pretty fast,in the place they now call home. Nico didn't,and had to walk on eggshells for a very long time before he could relax about it.

Each one of them want something the other have: Thalia a dad that care about her,like Hades and Poseidon do for her cousins; Nico a place to belong to,like his cousins found theirs; and Percy just want to be free of all of this weight and not having the fate of the world in his hands,like his cousins that are free and can do what they want.

They probably are focused so much on the bright side of the things the others have,that they completely forget they all suffered for some other things: Percy and Nico relationships with Poseidon and Hades are strained (especially Nico and Hades); Thalia and Nico aren't so free to live how they want like Percy think; Percy was mistreated by the campers after his claiming and Thalia wasn't comfortable with the Hunters's mentality.

But they would never think about those things because they focus so much on the things they will never have. They are bitter towards each other because they can't have something it was never there,but the other have,and can only hope that someday everything will change. For Nico it did,but Thalia and Percy....it's still a long way down.

The parallelism here is crazy,it's also similar to the Nico and Hazel one that I already talked about in one of my old post. Their canon relationship is so complex that I wish Rick had explored more of it because there is so much bittersweetness and hurt and trauma that I might cry.

[johnnyshrine]

★ 115 // “Murder is okay! :D”

[unionizedwizard]

so. many people have already pointed that koana is sort of like an ARR alphinaud remix and while it is not untrue, i think this analysis is only superficially correct. because the salient point of koana's character is that he feels shame and resentment towards his roots & origins and therefore overcompensates with sharlayan weabooism (well-intentioned, but still unsuitable). he comes off as really weird and stuck up, in the beginning especially, where it's like. "what the fuck is this guy's problem" in a way that's rather similar to the average player's reaction to ARR alphinaud.

BUT!

the thing with ARR alphinaud is that he was the Quintessential Sharlayan, both on account of his upbringing and family tree, and of his personal interests and achievements. he was (and still is) secure in his origins and cultural identity. koana's case is different, because he clearly loathes tradition and turali cultural practices in a way that comes across (and fundamentally is) really weird and destructive, which comes to bite him in the ass on many occasions during the rite of succession (and understandably so).

it all starts to make sense when you learn about his backstory though. while we know that wuk lamat doesn't remember anything of her own childhood, having been adopted by gulool ja ja as a toddler, koana was adopted at a much older age. he remembers his early years, and that's what fuels his entire vision for the future of tural. as he tells it, he was born to one of the most traditionalist hhetsarro tribes in tural, and abandoned (accidentally(?) left behind) during one of their yearly migrations, only surviving thanks to a pelupelu merchant who rescued and took him in before employing him in his tuliyollal shop. an obviously incredibly traumatic event that would shape everything about his future mindset: he's closed off and withdrawn to the extreme, highly analytical, values self-sufficiency and independence and technical innovations above all else, because that's how he survived to begin with. because his nomadic, highly traditional, presumably (from what we've seen of the one hhetsarro tribe we've met so far) tight-knit, spiritual and social tribe rejected and abandoned him. it would make sense that he'd rationalize this unfathomable violence by leaning hard into the opposite, and letting his own pain and resentment color his entire vision, turning his own feelings into a more general mindset of shame, resentful inadequacy, and complete rejection of anything "traditional"

i think sharlayan was a good choice for him because it's pretty much, indeed, the opposite atmosphere: in sharlayan culture, family ties are a lot less emphasized, while the kind of ties that colleagues, peers, teachers and students develop are considered as very important (see pretty much every sidequest and margrat's custom deliveries and all). all these relationships based on a common work and aspirations rather than origins would indeed agree with koana's character better, and his analytical skills, vision and intelligence are pretty much the most valued traits to them.

which is why it was actually such a stroke of genius to have thancred and urianger specifically support him. of course, both of them had a character development arc that echoed with koana's issues: learning how to express himself more openly and acknowledge his feelings, all that, meaning they were uniquely able to help him. but when you look more closely, they can also relate to him on a more personal level: thancred was "adopted" by louisoix as an orphaned lominsan street urchin, probably at a similar age as koana when he was adopted by gulool ja ja; and urianger's parents notably "abandoned" him to the point he was mostly tagging along at moenbryda's house and, later, at the leveilleur estate, as louisoix's disciple and honorary uncle to the twins (also worth noting that urianger and koana share the same flavor of autism).

so the rite of succession was a much-needed window into his own biases and (literal) coping mechanisms, and must have been quite difficult to deal with considering pretty much all the feats involved interacting with and strengthening tight-knit smaller communities with strong traditions and family ties. luckily, partly thanks to thancred and urianger (but not only! he did the work himself), he was clear-minded enough to realize his own failings, and well-intentioned enough to step down - because he did not want power for its own sake, unlike zoraal ja; he wanted to protect the turali people from a potential invasion by leaning hard into foreign technological advances, therefore mimicking his own personal journey and adapting his own tried-and-true methods of survival: anticipating the hardships, being as independent and self-sufficient as possible, and choosing isolationism.

and finally i want to point out that the new techniques and technologies he imported from sharlayan are all (safe, fast and reliable) modes of transportation: aetherytes, dirigibles (including the alpaca carriage adaptation), and trains. interesting choice, moreso considering that while aetherytes are the #1 sharlayan specialty, they have neither dirigibles nor trains; which takes on a whole new layer of meaning when you remember that his original tribe was nomadic and that he specifically was left behind, stranded in the desert, during one of their traditional migrations............

in this regard he truly IS green g'raha, considering that g'raha was, similarly, raised in a traditional seeker manner before being sent to sharlayan for his own (and the tribe's) safety; of course the difference is that g'raha embraced his heritage by locking himself in the crystal tower by the end of ARR, since the G tribe was tasked with guarding the remaining allagan ruins and weapons, to make sure their power would not be misused by yet another imperialist military force (he locked himself in the tower to reinforce its defenses and make sure the garlean empire would not access it to conquer eorzea)

thank you for your time 👍