Parenting Understood

In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Ashleigh Collins, Dean of Academic Programs at Relay Graduate School Education. Dr. Collins discusses how to form a positive relationship with your child's teacher where you act as partners in scaffolding your child. She speaks to the special importance of keeping lines of communication open between parents and teachers, and provides ideas as to how to do this. Further, Dr. Collins speaks about the benefit of establishing connections with other parents and caregivers in your child's class. In addition, we discuss the state of education and teaching as related to the pandemic.

To learn more about Dr. Collins please visit her website and her Linkedin profile. 

In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by Dr. Anna D. Johnson, a Provost Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University. We speak in depth this week about Anna's work and research with the Tulsa Pre-Kindergarten Program in Tulsa, Oklahoma (TULSA SEED) designed to follow children the year before they entered prekindergarten. Children just completed their third grade year. The study is designed to understand how Pre-k experiences when children are three and then four years old shape educational learning, developmental and health trajectories through elementary school. The breadth of the study using multi system, multi reporter, multi source data has allowed for the examination of mechanisms that may be responsible for associations between these early Pre-k experiences and later outcomes, which we discuss. We also speak about important findings related to teacher's experiences and how those experiences are reflected in their classroom practices. Findings indicate the need to better support teachers. We also discuss how the Tulsa's universal PreK programs result in their being used by a majority of families, and being of high quality, and the implications of this for child development and larger public policy.

To learn more about Dr. Anna D. Johnson, please visit her website: https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014TwO9AAK/anna-johnsonn

Also please visit The Child Development and Policy Lab twitter:

https://www.cdsplab.org/ and follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/cdsplab

Today’s episode is a solo episode with Dr. Erin O’Connor, Ed.D. Erin goes over the various options when thinking about helping young children learn to use the toilet. She also shares information from her personal and research experiences around toilet learning. Further, Erin talks a bit about her transition to being Chief of Education at Cooper.

To learn more about Cooper please visit @your_cooper on instagram and sign up for more information at https://www.yourcooper.com/

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Rebecca Etkin about pediatric anxiety and other mood-related problems. Dr. Etkin is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Yale Child Study Center Anxiety & Mood Disorders Program. Dr. Etkin received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University and her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from SUNY Buffalo. She specializes in conducting research and treatment with children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. In this episode, we discuss when parents should be concerned about their child’s anxiety, why parents should use evidence-based interventions, the history of anxiety treatment in pediatrics, and her work specifically in the SPACE program.

For more information on the Sleep Game mentioned in today's episode please visit Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDQwDeKgGqg

In this episode of Pino and Parenting, we are pleased to chat with Britt Hawthorne. Britt

is a Black bi-racial momma, teacher, NYT bestselling author, and anti-bias and antiracist facilitator. Britt partners with caregivers, educators, and families to raise the next generation of antiracist children. In this episode, we discuss how we can be co-conspirators to actively work towards justice, the impact of white supremacy, and how colorblindness is harmful. This episode is full of practical tips for parents and educators in raising the next generation of antiracist children.

To learn more about Britt Hawthorne you can visit her website at britthawthorne.com where you can sign up for her weekly newsletter full of practical tips. You can find her book at any local book store or at your nearest library. 

In this second part of Episode 50, we reflect on our exciting and educational first year of Parenting Understood. Last week, for the first part of episode 50, we aired our interview with Dr. Elnsary as we believe that her research on the importance of parental mindset defines much of what our first year has been about. In this second half, we review several of the episodes we think speak to how knowledge and experiences help us all as parents in developing a mindset based on our own and our children’s growth. In particular, we speak some about sleep, self-regulation and pre-school. But before we delve into those topics we do a quick catch-up with one another and take a breath as we head into our next 50 episodes and expand our new Youtube channel and Twitter presence @ParentingCast.

We are excited to have Dr. Mei Elansary join us for our 50th episode of Parenting Understood. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Elansary about her and colleagues’ work on parental mindset and how that impacts child development in the first year of life. Further, Dr. Elansary discusses how her and colleagues’ research indicates that the effects of parental mindset on infant brain activity varies as a function of maternal stress, and the implications of these findings. More specifically, we speak about how this research might inform interventions and parenting practices. Dr Elansary also talks about how her work has been informed by and informs her own parenting. 

Dr Elansary is a pediatric specialist at Boston Medical Center. She received her medical degree from Yale University, her Masters in Philosophy from Oxford University and her undergraduate degree from The University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Elansary is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a practicing pediatrician as well as researcher. 

To learn more about Dr Elansary and her work: https://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/profile/mei-elansary/ and https://twitter.com/meielansary

To learn more about the research we address in this episode: 

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/01/turns-out-smarter-kids-are-made-not-born/

We are thrilled to be re-airing our episode with Dr. Eric Dearing, who discusses the development of mathematical thinking and the role of the environment in children’s development of understanding of mathematical concepts. We discuss methods to bring math into everyday interactions with children, and research on the topic. We also talk about how knowledge of developmental research can inform parenting decisions and techniques.

Dr. Eric Dearing is a Professor of Applied Psychology in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Dr. Dearing’s work focuses on the consequences of young children’s lives outside of school on their performance in school and their overall well-being. As a member of the DREME Network, he is partnering with community organizations to better understand how families, early childhood educators, and other family-facing professionals can best support early math learning for children facing social or economic disadvantages.

For more information on Dr. Dearing, DREME, and the book, The Gardner and the Carpenter, referenced in this episode, please see below:

Gopnik, A. (2016). The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the new science of child development tells us about the relationship between parents and children. 

Development and Research in Early Math Education | (stanford.edu)

Eric Dearing - Lynch School of Education and Human Development - Boston College (bc.edu)

Today we are thrilled to be re-visiting an episode in which Dr. Carolyn Strom joined us to talk about the neuroscience behind reading and literacy. As Dr. Strom notes, when we look at the brain science around reading, we're not wired for reading in the same way that we're wired for spoken language. Therefore, as we discuss, in order to learn to read, we have to help our kids wire their brains by teaching them the basics of the letters and sounds. And as Dr. Strom details there is a very specific way to teach that is aligned with what we know about how the brain organizes complex information. Dr. Strom further details evidence-based instructional methods to support reading. We also discuss the role of sound recognition in relation to dyslexia.  

Dr. Strom is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Literacy at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Her work is focused on bridging the divide between scientific research and instructional practices. Currently, she is leading an initiative with early childhood educators and families called 'Cortex in the Classroom.’ This work focuses on the practical application of reading research and on the development of new instructional media for supporting early reading. Dr. Strom graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, has a Master’s degree from USC in Reading Education and a PhD from NYU.

To learn more about Dr. Strom and her research please visit:

https://carolynstrom.com/  https://twitter.com/carolyn_strom