The annual education monitoring report from the United Nation’s education agency, UNESCO, has revealed that 264 million young people do not have access to primary or secondary school. The report suggests that this figure could in fact be even higher, estimating an undercount of 250 million in household surveys across developing countries and the likelihood of another 100 million outside the reach of official statistics, including those living as illegal immigrants in wealthier countries. This…
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The subject of gender stereotypes is being much debated. A new six-year study has found that children are convinced by gender stereotypes by the age of ten. Examples include such beliefs as boys should be brave and adventurous, and girls should be beautiful and protected. The global study gathered data on 10- to 14-year-olds in 15 different countries of varying degrees of wealth and development from across the world, interviewing 450 adolescents and their parents….
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A child’s early experience has a profound influence on their future development. UNICEF has published a report entitled ‘Early Moments Matter for Every Child’, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of children’s first 1,000 days of life for brain development. Its findings suggest that amongst 85 million children under five, the 32 countries taking part in the study do not offer what it calls the three ‘critical policies’ to support children’s early brain…
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It seem that the kids’ magazine market is in a healthy position, with the latest children’s brands frequently being realised in print. Examples include Minecraft, Play-Doh, Frozen (Egmont) and Peppa Pig (Redan), all of which provide themed content, puzzles, colouring and cover gifts. Publishing houses such as Immediate Media and Redan Publishing are continuing to enjoy resilient sales, despite the growth of online media. Year on year growth has been recorded for titles including Girl…
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Teaching young children social skills is seen as important to their future wellbeing. A Canadian study has found that moral lessons in stories have the biggest impact on pre-schoolers when the characters are human, rather than animals. This research was carried out by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, with 96 children aged four to six. Children were randomly assigned to read one of three books: a prosocial…
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Children often find it difficult to speak about their most difficult experiences, and child therapists frequently employ play and art techniques to allow children to share and make sense of traumatic events. Antennas is a cartoon alien, created by psychologist Julia Borbolla, to encourage children in Mexico to share traumatic experiences. The cartoon is voiced by trained psychologists but the voices are distorted to sound childlike. Antennas acts as though it does not know anything…
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FK&Y’s Anna Livingstone discusses the challenge posed by ‘dying’ languages, witnessed on her recent travels in South America Data from the UN in 2009 showed that there are 270 million people in 90 countries who identify as indigenous, making up 5% of the global population and 15% of the world’s poor. While travelling in South America for the last 5 months, I came across many diverse cultures and the indigenous languages that accompanied them. While…
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There is often concern that children’s ability to read is declining as their use of tablets and other digital devices increases. Latest research from Neilson shows that while the children’s book market was up +2% in 2016, the downward trend of parents reading to their children less and less continues. In 2016 there was a noticeable drop in parents reading to pre-schoolers, and a drop in children from age 5 reading to themselves. Family Kids…
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Th1rteen R3asons Why is a young adult novel written by Jay Asher (2007) about a teenage girl who commits suicide. The novel was adapted into a 13-episode Netflix original series titled 13 Reasons Why and has received wide-ranging criticism. The show follows 17 year old Clay Jenson (Dylan Minnette) as he listens to seven double sided cassette tapes recorded by 17 year old Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) before she took her life. The tapes detail…
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An invisible flying dolphin who lives on a star. A tiny, completely white figure, who lives in the light of lamps. An invisible 160-year-old business man. These are all examples of children’s imaginary friends. Children’s use of fantasy is an important developmental stage, and they are often encouraged to engage with it in a variety of ways. Children’s story books, TV shows, films, and imaginative play can all draw on fantasy, giving children a high…
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